Cannes 2013: Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian) - first look review

Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric get personal, medical and a bit abysmal in Arnaud Desplechin's drama about some real-life post-war mid-west therapy sessions"I could talk about my dreams all day," says Benicio Del Toro's wounded-soul soldier near the end of the Cannes competition's wackiest, crappiest contender yet. It's a line that's meant to show just how far our Jimmy has come from the

The Observer's 20 photographs of the week

The best news and culture images from around the world over the past seven daysJim Powell

Meteor crashes into moon's surface causing flash – video

A Nasa telescope captures the moment a 40kg (88lb) rock crashes into the moon's surface on Friday

From fact to fantasie: discovering the real Schumann

Robert Schumann's tragic life has long coloured our view of his music. But as pianist Jonathan Biss concludes a year long series of concerts, he finds a composer betrayed by his biographyFor most of the century and a half since Schumann's death, aged 46, his last, unhappy years, spent in the Endenich asylum, have been shrouded in mystery. Clara Schumann, encouraged by a group of close associa

Things get curiouser and curiouser at the Turner Contemporary

From Da Vinci to a stuffed walrus to glass models of underwater worlds, a rich selection of objects is about to go display at the Turner Contemporary, as curator Brian Dillon explainsConsider this curious item of furniture, which belongs to the Geffrye Museum in London and appears at Turner Contemporary, Margate, as part of _Curiosity: Art and the Pleasures of Knowing_. The object in question

New US manual for diagnosing mental disorders published

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5, has divided medical opinionThe field of mental health will face its greatest upset in years on Saturday with the publication of the long-awaited and deeply-controversial US manual for diagnosing mental disorders.Early drafts of the book, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Me

Spacewatch: Solar maximum

There is no greater influence on the Earth and its space environment than that of our local star, the Sun. The level of solar activity, as indicated most clearly by the number of sunspots, ebbs and flows over an average cycle of 11 years as does the frequency of solar flares. Such energetic outbursts can blast the Earth with X-rays and UV and drive solar material earthwards to produce aurorae an

Zombie climate sceptic theories survive only in newspapers and on TV | Graham Readfearn

Study finds overwhelming scientific consensus that humans have caused global warming, but media still hasn't caught upHere's the news from 1991 – a vanishingly small number of peer-reviewed studies in science journals argue that humans aren't the cause of global warming.Here's the news from 2013 – since 1991, less than two per cent of all peer-reviewed studies say climate change is caused

Children transcribe ancient texts in citizen science project

Schoolchildren, pensioners and office workers are helping scholars at Oxford University to transcribe 2,000-year-old papyri

Nasa's OSIRIS-REx to determine chance of asteroid colliding with Earth

Nasa's OSIRIS-REx will visit a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and return with samples that may hold clues to the origins of the solar system and perhaps life itself

Obama's Arctic strategy sets off a climate time bomb | Nafeez Ahmed

US National Strategy for the Arctic Region prioritises corporate 'economic opportunities' at the expense of everyone elseOne week ago, the Obama administration launched its National Strategy for the Arctic Region, outlining the government's strategic priorities over the next 10 years. The release of the strategy came about a week after the Office of Science and Technology Policy within the Ex

Book reviews roundup: Perilous Question, Big Brother and The Serpent's Promise

What the critics thought of Perilous Question by Antonia Fraser, Big Brother by Lionel Shriver and The Serpent's Promise by Steve JonesDavid Aaronovitch in the Times got very excited over the Great Reform Bill of 1832, on reading Antonia Fraser's "simply splendid new book", _Perilous Question_: "Fraser creates a gorgeous series of portraits of the landed aristocrats who constituted reform Whi

The week in wildlife – in pictures

Hungry sharks, frogs keen to mate and a mischievous leopard are among the pick of this week's images from the natural world

Guardian Books podcast: Science, religion and the paranormal

Why, in the age of Richard Dawkins's God Delusion, has one of our leading writers on genetics devoted himself to a book investigating the Bible's scientific credentials? And what explanations can science offer for people who had limbs amputated under the influence of 19th-century mesmerists?We investigate these and other issues with Steve Jones, the geneticist and science writer, whose latest

Royal Society Young People's Book Prize shortlist announced | @GrrlScientist

Finally, what I know you've all been waiting for: the six shortlisted young people's science books have been selected and are now in the mail to hundreds of children across the UK who will select the winner of the 2013 Royal Society's Young People's Book Prize!Are you a scientist who was inspired by a children's book to pursue your passion? As a member of this year's panel of judges, I fre

Global warming has not stalled, insists world's best-known climate scientist

Prof James Hansen warns public not to be fooled by 'diversionary tactic' from deniersSuggestions that global warming has stalled are a "diversionary tactic" from "deniers" who want the public to be confused over climate change, according to the world's best-known climate scientist. Prof James Hansen, who first alerted the world to climate change in 1988, said on Friday: "It is not true that t

Challenge, don't worship, the chiefs and high priestesses of science | Alice Bell

If we don't recognise the politics of science, we will just get played by those who doAt the BSA Science Communication conference this week, I was invited to speak about science policy, under the title "All hail to the chief". Except, I think science involves way too much hailing already. I'm not about to start bowing to Sir Mark Walport, just because he's the government chief scientific advi

UK science is falling behind in the global race | Matthew Brown

With the government's spending review looming, the Royal Society of Chemistry is calling for an Olympic effort to persuade politicians to make a long-term commitment to creating growth and jobs through scienceWhen it comes to Olympic sport, the UK is a small nation making a big impact. Last year's games saw us finish third in the medals table, behind only the United States and China and ahead

King Richard III facial model goes on display in Leicester

Reconstruction based on skull of the king exhumed from under a car park will then go on a nationwide tourA facial reconstruction of King Richard III is going on display in Leicester's Guildhall, on the first stop of a nationwide tour.The model was commissioned by the Richard III Society and made by Professor Caroline Wilkinson and the forensic art team at the University of Dundee after arc

The west's hidden propaganda machine | Eliane Glaser

Overt public manipulation is disavowed in the west, unlike in North Korea, but citizens are still 'nudged' – increasingly by social mediaStrolling into the British Library, I was brought up short by a gigantic white-bearded man, pointing sternly in my direction. The iconic image of Uncle Sam, taken from a 1917 US army recruitment poster, was advertising its exhibition Propaganda: Power and Pe

Element of the week: radium | video | @GrrlScientist

What do watch hands, quackery and cancer share in common?This week's element is radium, which has the atomic symbol Ra and the number 88. Radium is a dense silvery-white alkali earth metal that rapidly oxidises to black when exposed to air. Radium is rare; only four isotopes of radium occur in the wild, and these are found in uranium ores. All isotopes are highly radioactive and the isotop

Just say no to impact factors

Scientists, funders and journal editors have thrown their weight behind the San Francisco Declaration on Research AssessmentCampaigners against the use of journal impact factors as a proxy for research excellence received a shot in the arm last night with the launch of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). With an impressive line-up of founding signatories, including ind

Brain-controlling magnets: how do they work? | Dean Burnett

Transcranial magnetic stimulation alters the activity of the brain without the need for an invasive physical procedure. But for such a ground-breaking and potentially alarming technique, it is not very well knownIf you were to tell people that the technology exists to manipulate the workings of people's brains, they may not believe you. That sort of thing is the stuff of cheap sci-fi B movies

Youngsters use dementia drugs to boost brain power, survey finds

Medicines used for Alzheimer's disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder taken by 1% of 14 to 18-year-oldsSome young people in Britain have used drugs for dementia and other conditions to boost their mental performance, a major survey suggests.Medicines normally prescribed for Alzheimer's disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were taken by 1% of 14 to 18-ye

IVF could be revolutionised by new technique, says clinic

Nottingham doctors say method could raise live birthrate by 50% by helping them choose best embryos to implantFertility specialists have developed a radical technique that can boost the chances of IVF couples having a healthy baby.Doctors in Nottingham who devised the procedure say it could raise live birthrates at their clinic to 78%, around three times the national average for IVF treatm

Letters: Boycott of Israel is a personal choice

In their letter (15 May), condemning Professor Hawking for not going to a conference in Israel, professors Michael Yudkin and Denis Noble state that the international code that governs the conduct of all scientists requires them to refrain from discrimination "based on such factors as ethnic origin, religion, citizenship, language, political or other opinion, sex, gender identity, sexual orienta

Kepler space telescope 'isn't down-and-out just yet' – Nasa

Scientists are exploring ways to keep the ailing planet-hunting Kepler telescope operationalThe Kepler space telescope, Nasa's iconic mission to find a new Earth outside our solar system, has a problem. A crucial component used to help it orient in space has stopped working and, with little chance of getting it fixed, it looks as though the satellite will have to retire from active duty.Ho

Mild electric shocks to brain may help students solve maths problems

Psychologists find students do puzzles 27% faster after non-invasive procedure than those who had no treatmentPeople who struggle with maths problems might fare better after a course of gentle electric shocks to the brain, scientists have claimed.Psychologists at Oxford University found that students scored higher on mental arithmetic tasks after a five-day course of brain stimulation.I

Legal highs flooding UK pose immense overdose risk, warns drugs tsar

Users face growing threat from 200-plus synthetic drugs in circulation across UK, says government's chief drugs adviserThe chief drugs adviser to the government has given his strongest warning yet on legal highs in Britain, saying there are now more than 200 synthetic psychoactive drugs being sold outside existing laws.Prof Les Iversen warned of the arrival of a new generation of compounds

Dinosaurs on film – fun, fiction and failures

Dr Dave Hone talks the good, the bad and the ugly of dinosaurs on the silver screen and pays tribute to Ray HarryhausenWith the "furore" of the next Jurassic Park film and the vexed question of whether or not some of the non-avian starts should be bedecked with feathers, I had planned on penning a piece about dinosaurs on film. With the sad passing of Ray Harryhausen recently, that more than