New Scientist Australian Edition 25-Jun-22

Tour The science of biodiversity: Costa Rica Join journalist Gaia Vince on an amazing expedition to explore Costa Rica’s incredible cloud forests, volcanic zones and marine reserves. Local guides will immerse you in the country’s splendour, teach you about sustainability and demonstrate why Costa Rica is officially at the top of the Happy Planet Index. Starts on 29 November 2022, 12 days for £5249. newscientist.com/tours Online events The evolution of childhood Compared with our primate relatives, humans have uniquely long childhoods. What are the evolutionary pressures that made us this way? How did the social role of fathers come about? And what have we evolved to use all this childhood for? Join Brenna Hassett as she takes a deep dive into these questions and more. Watch at 6pm BST/1pm EST…

Tour The science of biodiversity: Costa Rica Join journalist Gaia Vince on an amazing expedition to explore Costa Rica’s incredible cloud forests, volcanic zones and marine reserves. Local guides will immerse you in the country’s splendour, teach you about sustainability and demonstrate why Costa Rica is officially at the top of the Happy Planet Index. Starts on 29 November 2022, 12 days for £5249. newscientist.com/tours Online events The evolution of childhood Compared with our primate relatives, humans have uniquely long childhoods. What are the evolutionary pressures that made us this way? How did the social role of fathers come about? And what have we evolved to use all this childhood for? Join Brenna Hassett as she takes a deep dive into these questions and more. Watch at 6pm BST/1pm EST on 7 July or on demand. newscientist.com/events Psychedelics…

THE first cancer treatments were brutal: in 3000 BC, Ancient Egyptians started removing breast tumours by burning them off with a tool they called a “fire drill”. Even when chemotherapy arrived in the 1940s, it was essentially poison that attacked cancer cells and the body alike, resulting in terrible side effects. Fortunately, we are now entering an era of “precision medicine” in which cancer treatments can be tailor-made for individuals so they get the best responses with the fewest side effects. One approach being tested involves the use of “personalised vaccines”. We tend to think of vaccines as a means to prevent disease, like covid-19, but they can also be used therapeutically. Personalised vaccines are made on a custom basis and train an individual’s immune system to recognise unique markers on their…

THE first cancer treatments were brutal: in 3000 BC, Ancient Egyptians started removing breast tumours by burning them off with a tool they called a “fire drill”. Even when chemotherapy arrived in the 1940s, it was essentially poison that attacked cancer cells and the body alike, resulting in terrible side effects. Fortunately, we are now entering an era of “precision medicine” in which cancer treatments can be tailor-made for individuals so they get the best responses with the fewest side effects. One approach being tested involves the use of “personalised vaccines”. We tend to think of vaccines as a means to prevent disease, like covid-19, but they can also be used therapeutically. Personalised vaccines are made on a custom basis and train an individual’s immune system to recognise unique markers…

MILLIONS of Europeans have been sweltering in an extreme and unusually early heatwave that has heaped pressure on energy systems, farmers and forests. Temperature records have been broken around the continent, particularly in western and central regions of Europe. France reached 40°C on 16 June – the earliest point in the year that this temperature has been reached since records began – and its southern seaside city of Biarritz hit an all-time high of 42.9°C. French authorities have banned some outdoor events due to the intense heat. The episode has echoes of June 2019 when a similar heatwave was found to have been made at least five times more likely because of climate change. The temperature in Beznau, Switzerland, reached 36.9°C on 19 June, equalling the country’s record for the month. It was a…

IT STARTED innocuously, with some tweeted photos of livestock amid bucolic-looking Cumbrian countryside and an account of how many birds lived there. Within hours, a full-blown Twitter spat was under way between farmer James Rebanks, who posted the photos, and environmentalist George Monbiot. Academics, ecologists and others piled in to cite scientific papers to argue whether grazing land with sheep and cattle is better for biodiversity or if it is best to hand grasslands back to nature. The case exemplifies a fierce debate over the future of the UK’s farmland, and how to feed people while solving the biodiversity and climate crises. Agriculture occupies about 70 per cent of the country’s land today, and farmers receive about £2.4 billion in government subsidies a year. Their land has been identified as an essential…