For some patients the risk of death within five years is as low as 0.2%, according to large-scale researchWomen diagnosed with early breast cancer are 66% less likely to die from the disease than they were 20 years ago, and most can expect to become “long-term survivors”, according to the largest study of its kind.Research from the University of Oxford reveals that the risk of death within five years of diagnosis was 14.4% for women diagnosed between 1993 and 1999. Continue reading...
A plastics treaty is on the cards – and it could join the rescue of the ozone layer as a landmark success in environmental diplomacyPlastic production has soared some 30-fold since it came into widespread use in the 1960s. We now churn out about 430m tonnes a year, easily outweighing the combined mass of all 8 billion people alive. Left unabated, it continues to accelerate: plastic consumption is due to nearly double by 2050.Now there is a chance that this huge growth will stop, even go into reverse. This month in Paris, the world’s governments agreed to draft a new treaty to control plastics. The UN says it could cut production by a massive 80% by 2040.Geoffrey Lean is a specialist environment correspondent and author Continue reading...
As the long-awaited UK inquiry kicks off, it’s the people in power who should be under the spotlight, not the experts who did their best to advise themAs the Covid inquiry kicks off oral hearings today, we will once again debate what exactly happened in 2020 and 2021, and who is ultimately responsible for the decisions made. The government has already started to close in on scientists and point the finger at them for the poor response in the early stages of the pandemic. The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said it was a mistake to “empower scientists” and the BMJ pointed to the former health secretary Matt Hancock making “science the fall guy” in the blame game over what went wrong.But it’s vital that the inquiry separates out what were scientific questions, that independent advisers and academics could provide data and input on, and what were leadership decisions. Policy measures such as closing gyms or schools or play parks, or the introduction of mandatory face coverings, were conveyed as “scientific” decisions, but they weren’t. Scientists could present the probable risks and benefits of certain policy options, but the final decision didn’t lie with them. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#6C5VV)
Survey also finds one in seven say violence is fair response to alleged conspiracies such as ‘15-minute cities’The UK is home to millions more conspiracy theorists than most people realise, with almost a quarter of the population believing Covid-19 was probably or definitely a hoax, polling has revealed.About a third of the population are convinced that the cost of living crisis is a government plot to control the public, and similar numbers think “15-minute cities” – an attempt to increase walking in neighbourhoods – are a government surveillance ruse, and that the “great replacement theory” – the idea that white people are being replaced by non-white immigrants – is happening. Continue reading...
Kairan Quazi, the youngest graduate Santa Clara University’s history, will start at Starlink division in JulyKairan Quazi is years away from legally being able to watch an R-rated movie at the theater by himself or buy a drink at the bar, but he’s about to get a college degree and start a job at SpaceX.Other than that, the 14-year-old insists he’s had a fairly normal academic journey. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay, with D on (#6C5VJ)
Madeleine Finlay speaks to Doug Weir from the Conflict and Environment Observatory about why the collapse of the Kakhovka dam is likely to be so damaging for biodiversity, access to clean water and levels of pollution. He explains why the environment has become such a central part of the narrative and considers what this increased focus could mean for Ukraine’s eventual recoveryClips: PBS, ABC NewsRead more Guardian reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war here Continue reading...
Minister says technology to collect energy and beam it to Earth could help boost UK’s energy securityUK universities and tech companies are to receive £4.3m in government funding to develop space-based solar power.The technology, which collects energy from the sun using satellite-mounted panels and beams it to Earth, had huge potential to boost the UK’s energy security, the UK’s energy security secretary, Grant Shapps, said. Continue reading...
US researchers discover reduction of signalling in part of the brain could have significant impact on cardiovascular systemLight to moderate alcohol consumption may lower the risk of heart disease because it leads to long-term reductions in stress signalling in the brain, new research claims.But cardiologists warn the cardiac benefits do not mean we should ignore other dangers of alcohol. Continue reading...
Companies around the world are developing lab-grown alternatives to leather, silk and even diamonds, but there are questions about their sustainability claimsDeveloping cleaner sources for raw materials is essential to reducing fashion’s (alarming) contribution to global heating.With this in mind, start-ups and scientists are racing to recreate diamonds, silk and leather in laboratories. Continue reading...
Your first assignmentUPDATE: Read the solution hereHello cadets!A robber is on the loose. Today’s puzzle is to locate them. In the robber’s favour, they can run faster than any police officer, but in the force’s favour, it has at its disposal an infinite number of officers. Continue reading...
The latest research shows delayed gratification is not always a guarantee of wellbeing – carefully planned moments of pleasure can be hugely beneficialWe may live in a largely secular society, but the Protestant work ethic is still alive and strong. The “lazy” and “entitled” millennials, we have been told, are workshy and self-indulgent. They spend too much and save too little – behaviour that is not only harming their future prospects, but those of the world economy.We should have the grit of our elders, apparently – who weren’t scared to suffer some hardship with the promise of a better life ahead. Except they too are coming under criticism for enjoying the life that they struggled to earn. According to the UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, it is time for the over-50s to put away their golf clubs and start contributing to the economy again. Continue reading...
This constellation has one of the most attractive globular star clusters and should be visible all monthFor those in the northern hemisphere, June is the perfect time to track down the constellation of Hercules, the son of Zeus and the hero of Roman mythology. It sits high in the southern sky at this time of year and can be readily identified by the central four stars that make up a keystone shape.The chart shows the view looking south at midnight on 13 June, although the constellation will be readily visible all month. The constellation has no really bright stars but is home to one of the most attractive globular star clusters in the northern hemisphere. The Great Star Cluster in Hercules is catalogued as M13. It is just visible to the naked eye but only to those who live in truly rural conditions devoid of light pollution. Continue reading...
When Justin and Rachel Yerbury met, they had no idea that he would become a world-leading scientist – studying a disease that would lead to his own tragic decline
An effective treatment for a whole raft of diseases, from irritable bowel syndrome to arthritis and even Alzheimer’s, comes from the most unlikely of sources – human poo. James Kinross explains the role gut biomes play in our healthAs a nation, we British are obsessed with our gut function, largely because it has never been unhealthier. I spend large parts of my working day talking to patients about their bowel habits, and many of them want to talk about little else. There is also a deeper, more fundamental fascination with the digestive system; the colon is a national source of comedy that has kept us going through every crisis since the beginning of time.“Shit” is a crucial and ubiquitous word that serves as a noun, a verb and an adjective, propping up the entire English language. This wondrous word is both a profanity and a term used to denote an item of high quality, and it is liberally sprinkled into the daily chatter of our lives. Continue reading...
The supplement has gained popularity but physicians and dietitians caution long-term effects are unclearWhen Savannah Crosby started posting videos on TikTok about using berberine, a dietary supplement, for weight loss, she had about 500 followers.About two months later, Crosby now has more than 21,000. Continue reading...
I coped with kids and a busy career, so why was I suddenly overwhelmed?Have you found out about your windows of tolerance yet: those moments when you feel fully capable of handling any stress life throws at you? Our tolerance shrinks and expands to suit our needs, but these “windows of tolerance” are a funny thing for women, as I have just discovered, because they unexpectedly disappear when we hit midlife. Sometimes they’re just tiny cracks in the glass and yet you feel you can’t tolerate any stress ever again. It’s a contrary conundrum, as you’d expect life experience and maturity would increase your ability to cope, wouldn’t you?However, for an army of midlife women the turmoil of this life stage often inexplicably whips away our ability to deal with difficult situations overnight, from the simplest family problems to the biggest career dilemmas. Any amount of stress seems to overwhelm us. I know this not just because I am a woman in my 50s and I’ve been through it, but because I have interviewed many women over the past four years in my role as co-host of the Postcards from Midlife podcast and author of What’s Wrong With me? 101 Things Midlife Women Need to Know. Continue reading...
The former football enforcer and pundit is a changed man since learning of a girl’s harrowing torment caused by a genetic disorder“I’m struggling right now,” Graeme Souness says quietly, his eyes swimming while he tries to hold back the tears as he thinks of Isla Grist, a 14-year-old girl from Inverness, and the stoicism she shows amid almost unbearable suffering. Isla has epidermolysis bullosa (EB), a rare genetic disorder which blisters half the skin covering her body. It does the same damage beneath the skin, tearing and ulcerating the insides of Isla so that there is never any respite from her pain.I tell Souness that, before we began talking, I had been shown a few photographs of Isla’s legs. This was not done in a sensationalist or prurient way, but to help me understand what EB does to children such as Isla. Souness’s gaze glistens with distress when I say these images of devastation show skin that looks as if it has been burned. Continue reading...
We’ve come a long way since buying tickets for public hangings but our blood lust is never far below the surfaceLast week, I went to Gloucestershire to watch the annual cheese rolling, an event at which people hurl themselves down a very steep hill after a wheel of double gloucester. This silly-sounding tradition began perhaps 600 years ago – a sort of Alton Towers for the 15th century – and now tends to be described in news reports as “quirky”, “quintessentially English”, or a day for “cheese lovers”. I went along expecting the atmosphere of a village fete: stalls, cheese themes, and half-interested spectators wandering about. I couldn’t have been more wrong.What greeted us instead was a baying mob spread across six fields, a worked-up football crowd dropped into the Cotswolds. Grass all around was churned into mud, and before each race there was a full-throated chant you could hear three hamlets away. Nearest the action was a desperate struggle between neighbours to get closer still: perhaps 200 people had swarmed the steep woods on either side, clinging to branches, tramping through nettles, determinedly pushing past each other for a better view. What were they there to see? You realised straight away. They were there to see broken legs and arms. Continue reading...
The role of industrial farming in wrecking the climate and biodiversity has been given woefully limited attentionWhy wasn’t the science followed during Covid-19 (Editorial)? For the same reason we aren’t following the science to tackle the existential crises we are facing – short-term economic and political considerations. We are literally destroying our home, yet industrial farming – a leading driver of both climate and biodiversity crises – is being ignored.We’ve had flailing attempts to address these challenges, with a timid attempt at reforming farming subsidies, a disowned national food strategy, and trade agreements that are willing to sell out our own farmers for low-welfare, climate-wrecking imports. At international summits, the role of industrial farming in the climate crisis has been given woefully limited attention. Continue reading...
Changes in our lifestyles, from diet to washing habits, and in the world surrounding us, may explain why so many are strugglingThe Met Office offers a daily pollen guide, in tones not unlike the storm warning of the shipping forecast: poetic for those not affected, alarming if you are facing a force 8. Saturday’s reads: “The grass pollen risk is on the rise, as more grasses come into flower. Nettle, dock and plantain pollen also airborne. Fungal spores: Cladosporium at increasing risk.”As someone who grew up sneezing and wheezing through the early summer (and who remembers the Russian roulette of fruitcake-eating with a nut allergy in the years before EpiPens), I have mixed feelings about that information. Continue reading...
Vaccine plans devised during Covid crisis have been systematically dismantled by ministers, says former head of vaccine taskforceMinisters have “systematically dismantled” critical vaccine plans drawn up during the Covid crisis and left the country recklessly exposed to another pandemic, one of the most senior figures shaping Britain’s scientific response to the virus has warned.In a damning verdict that comes just days before the official Covid inquiry starts publicly examining Britain’s preparedness for pandemics, Dr Clive Dix, the former chairman of the UK’s vaccine taskforce, said the abandonment of schemes developed during Covid now left Britain “fraught with danger”. Continue reading...
Experts in UFO lore suggest the assertions should be taken with a grain of salt and demand to see evidence of the non-human craftsSome prominent experts have expressed growing skepticism over whether the US is harboring UFOs, as the government whistleblower who made the extraordinary claims has gone on to suggest the US had also recovered alien bodies.David Grusch, a former intelligence official who led analysis of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defense agency, caused headlines around the world with his assertion that the US had been collecting non-human craft for “decades”. Continue reading...
Scientists call for major clinical trial after lifespans of mice extended by boosting levels of micronutrientScientists have called for a major clinical trial of a substance added to many energy drinks after studies in animals showed that supplementation may slow the ageing process and promote healthier lives.Researchers found that levels of the micronutrient taurine fell substantially with age, but that topping them up to more youthful levels boosted the health of mice and monkeys and even extended the lifespans of mice. Continue reading...
Ministers looking for an easy answer are pinning their hopes on appetite suppressants like Wegovy. But it’s not as simple as thatIt’s over three years now since a visibly chastened Boris Johnson emerged from his near-fatal brush with Covid to declare that he had seen the light.He had, he said candidly, been “way overweight” when he got the virus and only now did he understand how vulnerable that had made him; so now he stood before us a changed man. There would be no more scoffing at Jamie Oliver, no more chuntering about nanny statism; instead, he promised not just a ban on junk food advertising or (yet another) national obesity strategy, but what looked positively like a national crusade, led by a prime minister who’d had his own battles with cheese and chorizo and wasn’t going to judge anyone else for raiding the fridge late at night. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6C3ZG)
Models analysing a player’s broader contribution to team success show the clear winner, says Ian GrahamThe rivalry between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo has riveted football pundits and primary schoolchildren alike, fuelling endless debates over who is the greatest player of modern times – or ever.The forwards are almost neck and neck on goals scored, Ballon d’Or and Golden Shoe awards, but according to Dr Ian Graham, the outgoing director of research at Liverpool FC, a deeper look at the data reveals a clearcut winner. Continue reading...
Scientists find people with symptoms of insomnia have 16% increased risk of developing conditionScientists in the US have found people with one or more self-reported symptoms of insomnia have a 16% increased risk of developing the serious medical condition, compared with those without symptoms.They said the link was stronger in participants under 50, where those with five to eight symptoms had nearly four times the risk of having a stroke. Continue reading...
Scientists say world is burning through ‘carbon budget’ that can be emitted while staying below 1.5CGreenhouse gas emissions have reached an all-time high, threatening to push the world into “unprecedented” levels of global heating, scientists have warned.The world is rapidly running out of “carbon budget”, the amount of carbon dioxide that can be poured into the atmosphere if we are to stay within the vital threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, according to a study published in the journal Earth System Science Data on Thursday. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample with Prof David Spergel, p on (#6C3RB)
Last week, Nasa held the first public meeting of a panel established to investigate sightings of UFOs. It came just before a whistleblower former intelligence official told the Debrief that the US government had ‘intact and partially intact’ craft of non-human origin. Ian Sample talks to Prof David Spergel, the independent chair of Nasa’s panel, about why this is happening now, what they hope to find and why there is so much stigma attached to this fieldClips: News Nation, Nasa, 8 News Now, CBS New York, CNBC, CNN, To the Stars Academy of Arts and ScienceRead Adam Gabbatt’s reporting on the latest UFO claims here. Continue reading...
UK data watchdog says science of monitoring brain and nervous system is expanding fast but holds ‘real danger’ of discriminationMind-reading technologies pose a “real danger” of discrimination and bias, the Information Commissioner’s Office has warned, as it develops specific guidance for companies working in the sci-fi field of neurodata.The use of technology to monitor information coming directly from the brain and nervous system “will become widespread over the next decade”, the ICO said, as it moves from a highly regulated medical advancement to a more general purpose technology. It is already being explored for potential applications in personal wellbeing, sport and marketing, and even for workplace monitoring. Continue reading...
Some patients’ health-related life quality scores worse than those of people with stage 4 lung cancerMany people with long Covid have a lower health-related quality of life than people with some advanced cancers, research suggests.Fatigue is the symptom with the greatest impact on the daily lives of long Covid patients, according to a study led by researchers at University College London (UCL) and the University of Exeter. They found that many were seriously ill and had fatigue scores worse than or similar to people with cancer-related anaemia or severe kidney disease. Continue reading...
Reptile had been in captivity for 16 years when zookeepers discovered eggs, journal reportsScientists have recorded the first known case of a “virgin birth” in a female crocodile that had no contact with males for about 16 years.The reptile was able to produce a fully formed foetus that was 99.9% genetically identical to her. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6C3DA)
AI-based analysis suggests the north starts at Watford Gap, where avocado wraps give way to sausage rolls, and includes BirminghamThe precise location of the north-south of England divide is a fraught question that has been debated for centuries, drawing on factors ranging from economic prosperity and political views to the pronunciation of the word “scone”. Now, scientists have entered the fray, proposing an objective, machine learning-based analysis of the distribution of Pret a Manger and Greggs shops across England.The AI-based approach places the critical dividing line at which avocado wraps give way to sausage rolls close to the M1 Watford Gap services and concludes that Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester, which often fall into a disputed grey area, should be considered “northern”. Continue reading...
An agoraphobic downloads an app that promises to turn his life around – but things begin to get sinister when it takes over his social interactionsThis disturbingly real-looking artificial intelligence sci-fi was made a couple of years ago on what looks like a budget of small change tipped out of the film-makers’ coin jars. It’s getting a release now presumably on account of AI anxiety creeping up the league table of things that keep people awake at night. Like the Nosedive episode of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, the premise here is that in an apparently-near future people wear contact lenses that feed them information about the world. (Actually, the film is an extended version of a short made by its directors Daniel Lazo and Eran May-Raz back in 2012.)Andrew Riddell plays Patrick, who like everyone else wears dazzling blue contact lenses that fill the air around him with holograms. Patrick is an agoraphobic who hasn’t left his apartment for over a month; he spends his time playing computer games, going hammer and tongs with 3D zombies. Saviour comes in the form of an app, Refresh, that promises to turn Patrick’s life around. And it delivers, starting with a spring clean of his apartment. The app turns dull chores into computer games; picking laundry off the floor becomes a basketball game – slam dunk the shirt into the basket, and so get a little dopamine hit. Refresh chooses Patrick a new wardrobe of clothes (ordered to arrive by drone in 30 minutes). Things begin to get sinister when it feeds him lines to speak in social interactions, like making small talk with a barber. Continue reading...
Metre-long piece of timber was found in trench dug for workshop at property in Boxford, BerkshireIt could easily have gone on to the bonfire or into the skip. But Derek Fawcett decided to take a closer look at the blackened, waterlogged piece of wood found at the bottom of a trench dug for foundations for a new workshop.It turned out to be the oldest carved piece of wood to be discovered in Britain, dating back more than 6,000 years. The markings on the wood were made by the people of the late Mesolithic era, 2,000 years before Stonehenge was built and 4,500 years before the Romans came to Britain. Continue reading...
Behaviour predates humans by tens of millions of years but evolutionary purpose is less clear, scientists sayEvolutionary biologists have traced the origins of masturbation to ancient primates that predate the first humans by tens of millions of years.The findings emerged from what scientists believe is the largest dataset ever compiled on the activity, and confirm that humans arose on a branch of the tree of life replete with self-pleasuring predecessors. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Deputy political editor on (#6C334)
Less regulation of weight-loss drug would make Wegovy accessible to more peopleMinisters are launching a £40m pilot scheme to trial wider access to the controversial slimming jab Wegovy, to examine how people could receive the drug outside hospitals.Under current advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence drugs regulator, Wegovy is only given via specialist weight management services, usually based in hospitals. Continue reading...
Whistleblower former intelligence official says government possesses ‘intact and partially intact’ craft of non-human originThe US has been urged to disclose evidence of UFOs after a whistleblower former intelligence official said the government has possession of “intact and partially intact” alien vehicles.The former intelligence official David Grusch, who led analysis of unexplained anomalous phenomena (UAP) within a US Department of Defense agency, has alleged that the US has craft of non-human origin. Continue reading...
Three studies add weight to growing evidence that physical activity can help patients who have the diseaseWalking for 30 minutes a day and practising yoga can help reduce fatigue in cancer patients and cut the risk of the disease spreading, coming back or resulting in death, research suggests.Globally, more than 18 million people develop cancer every year. It is well known that being inactive raises your risk of various forms of the disease. Continue reading...
Ambition doesn’t exist outside cultural forces that shape it. Could we reframe it for the collective good?In the first few months of the pandemic, when my physical and mental health seemed to be deteriorating faster than I could patchwork fixes for them, I wrote in my journal. “I feel emptied out, like when I shake a tote and gum wrappers and two nickels and half-finished chapstick fall out,” I scrawled in sloppy cursive I can barely make out now. “I am my own life’s leftovers.”While the circumstances of a deadly pandemic exacerbated it, the feeling that I had nothing left to give had trailed me for awhile, showing up as I worked from the bathroom floor when my body felt as if it was giving way, or when I spent too much time awake at night, wondering what felt worth it any more. Continue reading...
Narrow 11,000-metre shaft will reach the Earth’s crust to study internal structures as China seeks to explore new frontiersChina has begun digging its deepest borehole in an effort to study areas of the planet deep beneath the surface.The drilling of the borehole began on Tuesday in a desert in the Tarim basin in China’s north-western region of Xinjiang, according to the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency. With a planned depth of 11,100 metres, the narrow shaft will penetrate more than 10 continental strata and reach the cretaceous system in the Earth’s crust – a series of stratified rocks dating back 145m years. Continue reading...
by Sandra Laville Environment correspondent on (#6C2P5)
Leading scientists write to PM amid campaign against expansion of clean air zone in LondonWorld-leading air pollution scientists have called on Rishi Sunak to distance himself from Conservative colleagues who are dismissing the facts on the serious health risks of toxic air.In a letter, Prof Frank Kelly and 35 other prominent air pollution scientists call on the prime minister to tell his colleagues not to endorse “merchants of doubt” who “undermine the factual and truth foundations of life.” Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample with Rachel Clarke, produc on (#6C2NQ)
Ian Sample talks to Dr Rachel Clarke about her experience working in palliative care in the NHS and now with hospices in Ukraine. She tells him what dying can teach the living, what we can learn from the Covid pandemic, and reveals the anguish and defiance of trying to provide a dignified death in the midst of warClips: BBC, Al Jazeera Continue reading...
by Ian Sample Science editor and Linda Geddes on (#6C2G5)
Book based on May 2022 review ‘did lockdowns work?’ examines whether legally enforced interventions prevented deathsThe overwhelming majority of academic studies have one chance to make a splash. Once that moment has passed – which tends to be when the paper is published – the spotlight moves on in the relentless search for new material.But not all studies adhere to that trend. Some return time after time. And it must come as no surprise that this happens most with reports that tackle questions of global importance, or that reach controversial conclusions, or manage to achieve both at once. As the Covid inquiry opens, the value of lockdowns is about as important as questions can get. Continue reading...
by Andrew Gregory Health editor in Chicago on (#6C2CY)
Oncologists sound alarm over risk of healthcare systems buckling due to rising need for specific careThe world must urgently prepare for a global “tsunami” of millions of older cancer patients or risk healthcare systems being unable to cope, leading doctors have warned.With life expectancy increasing and a rapidly soaring population of older people, a looming increase in elderly patients with cancer was now a “serious public health concern”, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) said in a report. Cancer centres must prepare for “the silver oncologic tsunami”, the experts added. Continue reading...
Move into separate rooms can mark a new beginning as couple are well rested and happier, claims expertSleeping in separate rooms due to a snoring partner could improve people’s relationships rather than marking the end, a leading sleep scientist has said.Couples moving into separate rooms can enter the “beginning of a new relationship”, where they are well rested and, ideally, happier, according to Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford and director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. Continue reading...
Therapy slows multiple myeloma in patients who have stopped responding to other treatments, say researchersA revolutionary blood cancer treatment that genetically modifies patient cells to fight the disease cuts the risk of it progressing by 74%, a world-first clinical trial has found.The therapy, ciltacabtagene autoleucel, “significantly slows or stops progression” of multiple myeloma in patients who have stopped responding to other treatments, according to the study. The results were presented in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (Asco) annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference. Continue reading...
It has been said to kill E coli, reduce cholesterol, lower blood sugar and aid weight loss. But not all health experts are convinced of its powersFeeling peckish one day in 2017, Darshna Yagnik, an immunologist and lecturer in biomedical science at Middlesex University, took a punt on something that had been lurking at the back of the fridge. She soon regretted it and started feeling queasy. Desperate to avoid food poisoning, she racked her brains for something that might help – and remembered the bottle of apple cider vinegar (ACV) in the cupboard. She decided to glug a diluted shot. “Immediately, I felt like there was something going on, combating the bacteria,” she says. “My stomach was gurgling and after about 10 minutes it started feeling soothed. After about half an hour or an hour, I felt much better.”At that moment, she realised she was using her own body for research. “I was thinking: what is going on with this apple cider vinegar? This is possibly having an effect on E coli. Let me test it in the laboratory.” She went on to do “a multitude of experiments” throughout the pandemic, resulting in a 2021 paper demonstrating that ACV kills E coli and MRSA in petri dishes almost as effectively as common antibiotics. However, it is not clear how this would translate to the human body. Continue reading...
Moon and planet will climb into the sky in early hours of 10 June until dawn washes Saturn from viewThose awake in the early hours of 10 June can see the last-quarter moon close to the planet Saturn.The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at 3am BST. Having cleared the eastern horizon at about 2am, the planet and the moon will continue to climb into the sky until the dawn light washes Saturn from view about an hour and a half later. Continue reading...