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All-party group including peers backs campaign by victims’ group, saying Cape ‘knowingly put people in danger’MPs and peers have written to one of the biggest manufacturers of asbestos, calling on it to make a £10m donation towards mesothelioma research “for knowingly putting people in danger”.In a letter to Altrad, parent company of Cape, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on occupational safety and health says that documents released after a long-running court battle show that Cape historically “provided misleading reassurance about the dangers of asbestos”. Continue reading...

Ingeniously simple lab experiment led by Prof Clare Burrage recognised by Blavatnik awardsDark energy is the enigma at the heart of modern physics: the universe is supposed to be awash with the stuff, but it has never been seen and its nature is unknown.When faced with a mystery of such epic proportions, simply eliminating certain options is considered a success. This week such an advance, using an ingeniously simple desktop experiment, was recognised by the prestigious Blavatnik award for young scientists. Continue reading...

From haunted dolls to horror films, there is a big appetite right now for fear-as-fun. Are we all just practising for what 2023 throws at us?A friend gleefully informed me that you can buy haunted dolls – “vessels” for unquiet spirits – on eBay. Rebekkah Sexual Spirit (“her vessel is missing an arm … she says she does not care”) has been snapped up, but you can get Maggie (“NOT A TOY”; “a vast mass of dark energy”; “can make you feel very unwell” – all of which sounds like me on an average Tuesday) for £225. You know the kind: horror movie trope dolls with smooth porcelain faces and blank eyes – absolutely terrifying. The first one startled me so much I twitched, accidentally clicked “buy” and had to carefully navigate backwards to save myself. Then I went back and looked at more.Why? They gave me that prickly, uncomfortable feeling: nasty but compelling. I’m not a thrill-seeker (except the thrill of racing the bin out as the lorry rounds the corner), but I’ve become quite enamoured of creepy recently. I spent a while freaking myself out studying the eerie images produced by the AI tool Midjourney when prompted to create photos of “people”. At a quick glance, nothing seems amiss; look closer and these preternaturally shiny wraiths smile with mouths crammed with perfect teeth, there are far too many long, tapered fingers everywhere and one digital changeling seems to have an extra collarbone. Argh! Continue reading...

By making their nutritious bread taste like normal white loaves, scientists aim to help disadvantagedIt’s creamy-white in colour with a deep brown crust. It has a mild floury taste but with a moreish salty tang. It crisps up nicely in a toaster, and it’s the perfect accompaniment to butter, jam or hummus.This is bread – but not as you know it. Scientists at the University of Reading are finding ways to make British diets far more nutritious and sustainable by stealth, replacing the soya flour, and some of the wheat, with broad beans – also known as faba or fava beans. Continue reading...

The success of mRNA-based drugs in combating coronavirus is inspiring scientists to create similar vaccines for melanoma and other tumoursIn December 2022, the US biotech firm Moderna, a company that emerged from relative obscurity to become a household name during the pandemic, published the results of a clinical trial that sent ripples through the world of cancer research.Conducted in partnership with the pharma company MSD, it demonstrated that a messenger RNA (mRNA) cancer vaccine, used in combination with immunotherapy, could offer significant benefit to patients with advanced melanoma who had received surgery to remove their tumours. After a year’s worth of treatment, the phase IIb trial found that the combination reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 44%. Continue reading...

In 10 years, a quarter of the British population will be over 65. Yet it’s not lifespan but healthspan we should be trying to improveOver the past 180 years, lives in England have gone through a remarkable transformation. Men and women today are, on average, living twice as long as they did in 1841 with life expectancy increasing from 40.2 years to 78.6 years for males, and from 42.3 years to 82.6 years for females. The change is also reflected in many other parts of the world and has been achieved through vaccinations that protect against childhood illnesses, vastly improved sanitation, and a host of other factors.But how long is that rise likely to continue? What will lifespans be like by the end of the century? More and more men and women are likely to live to ripe ages, say scientists. One prediction suggests the global population of centenarians will have reached almost 4 million by 2050 – from just 95,000 in 1990. Some scientists have even suggested that some lifespans could reach 150 years. Continue reading...

Second man to walk on the moon says he and Anca Faur are ‘as excited as eloping teenagers’Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has announced that he got married to his long-term partner on his 93rd birthday.The retired astronaut celebrated his birthday on Friday and said on Twitter that he “tied the knot” with Dr Anca Faur, 63, in a small ceremony in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

The UK is full of extremely rude-sounding towns and villages. But what’s it like to live in them? Some locals can’t wait to change the names, while others embrace the quirk – even selling signpost souvenirsOn the road to Twatt, a message arrives from a resident there. Am I making the pilgrimage up through Scotland to this hamlet on the island of Orkney only to admire its notorious, unwittingly rude road sign? If so, don’t bother. “Our council was so frustrated by that sign being stolen, they have now not replaced it,” says Judith Glue, who runs a gift shop selling pictures of the old Twatt sign to tourists who might otherwise leave the region disappointed. Grateful for her warning, I thank Glue and read over a list I’ve made of those other dwelling places in the UK that through some quirk of linguistic evolution have found themselves with fantastic, filthy-sounding names. At Cock Bridge, in Aberdeenshire, they have the same trouble as in Twatt. “Our sign is constantly being pinched,” says Geva Blackett, a councillor for the region. “People have been taking them away as mementoes. Why do they do it?”It’s an early lesson from my road trip around these towns, villages, parishes, hamlets and farms, many of which are irresistible to Insta-tourists and sign thieves – always phone ahead. One autumn day, I drive for over an hour to visit an Ass Hill in Dorset, just to find it’s an unremarkable and uninhabited lane between hedgerows. The village of Shitterton, about 20 miles away, is much more interesting. Residents here are quite accustomed to hobby-horse types like me wandering through to have a nose around and ask questions. Most are proud, even defiant about this startling name of theirs, which derives from the fact that about 1,000 years ago the site was an open sewer. Continue reading...

My friend Dr Morris Nitsun, who has died aged 79, was a consultant psychologist, psychotherapist and group analyst who worked in the NHS for 50 years. He was also a gifted artist.Born in Worcester, a small, remote town in the Western Cape, South Africa, Morris was the youngest of three children of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants. His father, Joseph Nitsun, was a businessman who had lost family in the Holocaust, and his mother, Bessie (nee Joffie), a housewife, had escaped the frozen wastes of Siberia, where her family lived as political exiles. Continue reading...

The fallout from the pandemic-fuelled mental health epidemic on the people tasked with helping the rest of us is widespread, and growing“The clients that get under your skin are the ones that you can see your life mirrored in,” says Melbourne-based psychologist Lucy*. Given she had worked mostly in the trauma space over the span of her 20-year career – and had never experienced trauma herself – that didn’t come up a lot. “Listening to them was difficult, but it never felt like something that was happening in my life.”That all changed with the pandemic. Suddenly, “my life was the same as my clients”. They mirrored Lucy’s exhaustion, uncertainty, fear. “I didn’t want to talk about it any more and yet I had to go in every hour and talk through different versions of the same experience.” Continue reading...

Study measured glyphosate in urine and found high levels associated with signs of oxidative stressNew research by top US government scientists has found that people exposed to the widely used weedkilling chemical glyphosate have biomarkers in their urine linked to the development of cancer and other diseases.The study, published last week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA. Continue reading...

Analysts say Xi has consolidated power so successfully that he is in effect the Communist party. With no opposition, it doesn’t matter if he makes mistakesJust a few months ago, the thought of questioning the strength of Xi Jinping’s leadership was inconceivable. He had just secured his third term, conducted a brutal purge of factional rivals and ensured he and his beliefs were inextricably and existentially tied with the Chinese Communist party. The zero-Covid policy – despite some societal grumblings – had been enshrined as the best and only way out of the pandemic.But zero Covid was already growing unpopular in China in the latter half of 2022. It was playing havoc with people’s lives with increasing lockdowns and quarantines, and a string of tragedies had been linked to the policy’s enforcement. Then in early December, after protests in major Chinese cities and rising cases of Omicron, the government suddenly ended the policy. Travel restrictions, quarantines, mandatory tests and other restrictions were drastically scaled back or dropped altogether. Continue reading...

Colony of about 500 birds seen in remote region where they face existential threat due to global heatingA newly discovered emperor penguin colony has been seen, using satellite images of one the most remote and inaccessible regions of Antarctica.The colony, home to about 500 birds, makes a total of 66 known emperor penguin colonies around the coastline of Antarctica, half of which were discovered by space satellites. The climate crisis is posing an existential threat to these colonies, as sea ice is rapidly melting. Continue reading...

UK trial across three countries finds that giving patients chemotherapy before surgery was more effectiveGiving bowel cancer patients chemotherapy before surgery cuts the risk of it coming back by 28%, according to the results of a trial experts are hailing as “fantastic”.As many as one in three patients diagnosed with the disease see it return after surgery, a figure described as “far too high” by cancer specialists who have spent years searching for new treatment strategies. In the UK, someone dies from bowel cancer every 30 minutes. Continue reading...

Research suggests if trend continues, view of Orion’s belt will disappear due to glow from artificial lighting“There is no light in earth or heaven / But the cold light of stars,” wrote the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.But for myriad writers and artists, that source of inspiration could be fading as research has revealed light pollution is rapidly reducing the number of stars visible to the naked eye. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests locations with 250 visible stars at present will have just 100 visible stars in 18 years. Continue reading...

Patients in England, Scotland and Wales missed out on starting blood pressure-lowering drugs, British Heart Foundation saysThousands of people are at risk of avoidable heart attacks and strokes, experts have warned, after nearly 500,000 people in England, Scotland and Wales missed out on starting blood pressure-lowering drugs during the pandemic.Researchers said that thousands of people could suffer a preventable cardiovascular event because they did not start taking vital medications known to stave off deadly heart and circulatory diseases amid the Covid related disruption to healthcare. Continue reading...

Re-engineered bacteria able to target drug-resistant infections in mice, research findsGenetically modified bacteria could be used to treat intractable lung infections, according to research aiming to combat the threat of antibiotic resistance.The research, in mice, showed that a re-engineered bacteria could be used to target drug-resistant infections and make them susceptible to antibiotics that would otherwise be ineffective. Continue reading...

Oak and beech 15th-century vessel is being returned to Welsh city where it was found in riverside mud in 2002The final pieces of what has been compared to a huge, heavy – but also very delicate – 3D medieval puzzle are being returned to the Welsh city where they were found in riverside mud two decades ago.Now experts can look forward to putting back together the 2,500 or so pieces of timber and finding a long-term home for the amazing object they will form – a 15th-century sailing ship. Continue reading...

British multinational to spend huge sums on schemes that do not bring genuine carbon reductions, analysis shows

Scientists have predicted the return of the El Niño climate phenomenon later this year. Its arrival will result in even higher global temperatures and supercharged extreme weather events. Ian Sample speaks to environment editor Damian Carrington about what we can expect from El Niño and whether we’re preparedAccording to early forecasts, the El Niño climate phenomenon will return this year, as the unusual three-year run of its cooler counterpart – known as La Niña – comes to an end. While the natural oscillation driven by ocean temperatures and winds in the Pacific naturally switches between El Niño and La Niña, scientists have warned that the arrival of El Niño will exacerbate the catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. Ian Sample speaks to environment editor Damian Carrington about the El Niño and La Niña systems, what happens if El Niño pushes global temperature rises above 1.5C of warming, and if we’re prepared for even more extreme weather eventsClips: DW News, BBC News Continue reading...

Association found between higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids from seafood and reduced risk of kidney problemsEating at least two portions of oily fish such as mackerel, sardines or herrings a week is linked to a lower risk of chronic kidney disease and a slower decline in the organ’s function, research suggests.Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects about 700 million people worldwide. It can lead to kidney failure and death, so there is an urgent need to identify factors that could prevent its onset and progression. Continue reading...

Investigation into Verra carbon standard finds most are ‘phantom credits’ and may worsen global heating

Switch to flour made from legumes would make loaves healthier and more sustainable, says professorBritain should switch to eating bread made with broad beans, researchers have said, because it would be more sustainable and easily deliver key nutrients.Using flour made from broad beans – also known as faba or fava beans – could represent one of the biggest changes to UK food in a generation, according to scientists at the University of Reading. Continue reading...

Study suggests children who were in the womb during Superstorm Sandy are more likely to have behavior disordersWhen Superstorm Sandy hit in October 2012, Celia Sporer-Newman was about eight months pregnant and working full-time as a paramedic in Queens, New York.Sporer-Newman had worked through previous disasters, including Hurricane Irene the year before, but this felt different. She saw news reports that said Sandy was going to be worse than anything New Yorkers had seen before. Continue reading...

Plantwatch pays tribute to a water-resistant species whose uses range from flood defence to Hendrix’s Fender StratocasterWeeks of rain, more expected and many fields left flooded. But in the defence against flooding, the alder tree can play a vital role, helping to soak up big rainfalls and slowing down the flow of water.

Our national research on bushfires since 2003 means we know much more about how they behave – and Australians are safer for itIt has been 20 years to the day since bushfires burst out of the Brindabella Ranges and into the suburbs of our nation’s bush capital. Four lives were lost, many people were injured and more than 500 homes were destroyed.There had been big bushfires before, and there were bigger bushfires to come, but the tragic day in Canberra of 18 January 2003 marked a pivotal moment in Australian bushfire science. Continue reading...

The 2,000-year-old inscription is among the earliest examples of runic writingArchaeologists in Norway have found what they claim is the world’s oldest runestone, saying the inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing.The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. Continue reading...

We need a high booster uptake of Covid and flu vaccines, writes Dr Simon Williams; the fewer anti-vax messages the betterIt is wholly appropriate that Andrew Bridgen lost the Tory whip after comparing the use of Covid vaccines to the Holocaust (Report, 11 January). As well as being unethical and offensive, his comments are potentially harmful to public health and public trust in vaccines. It is well established that Covid vaccines are safe and effective, and that the vast benefits outweigh any small potential risks.Many of Mr Bridgen’s tweets on Covid vaccines, including the one that resulted in him losing the whip, cite spurious sources, including far-right libertarian blogs and discredited scientists infamous for espousing misinformation. It is concerning that such misinformation is being amplified by a sitting MP, and all parties should work together to ensure that such misinformation is not held, or spread, more widely by others. Continue reading...

Rosalind Franklin laboratory in Leamington Spa no longer to be part of laboratory network processing Covid testsEngland’s PCR testing network for Covid is to be scaled back due to a fall in demand, public health officials have said.The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said that the Rosalind Franklin laboratory in Leamington Spa – which at its peak was processing about 75,000 Covid PCR tests a day – will cease to operate as part of the processing network. Continue reading...

Practice may help regulate gut microbiome and lower risk of ill health, study of Buddhist monks findsIt is a practice favoured by Lena Dunham, Tom Hanks and Lady Gaga to boost their focus and bring about calmness in an often busy, distracted world.Now researchers have found evidence that frequent meditation over several years may help alter the human gut – boosting the body’s immune system and reducing the risk of anxiety, depression and heart disease. Continue reading...

Positive effects were stronger among those reporting the lowest annual household income, says Finnish studyVisits to parks, community gardens and other urban green spaces may lower city dwellers’ use of drugs for anxiety, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, and asthma, research has found.Researchers in Finland found that visiting such areas three to four times a week cuts people’s chances of turning to drugs for mental health problems or high blood pressure by a third, and for asthma by about a quarter. Continue reading...

As the ninth series of ITV show Love Island kicked off yesterday, viewers may have noticed contestants’ perfectly straight, white teeth. But are there risks associated with achieving a flawless smile? Madeleine Finlay speaks to dentist Paul Woodhouse about some of the dangers of dental tourismIn a survey last year of over 1,000 dentists, the British Dental Association found that 94% of respondents had examined patients who had travelled abroad for dental treatments. For patients, this can be a cheaper way to achieve their ‘perfect smile’ and several previous Love Island contestants and social media influencers have shared videos of their own trips abroad to have veneers or crowns fitted. On TikTok, videos labelled with ‘turkey teeth’, named after one of the popular cosmetic dentistry destinations, have amassed more than 130m views. But there are also many well-documented cases of people being left with serious complications and significant follow-up costs to repair the damage done to their teeth.Dentist Paul Woodhouse tells Madeleine Finlay about the different kinds of cosmetic dentistry, how procedures can go wrong, and why patients considering going abroad need to know the risks Continue reading...

Research also finds unvaccinated Covid-infected women more likely to give birth prematurelyWomen are more likely to die in pregnancy if they catch Covid, according to researchers, who found the infection raised the risk of a swath of serious illnesses for mothers and their newborns.Reports throughout the pandemic have highlighted how pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the virus, with doctors urging women to take up the offer of Covid vaccination to reduce the risk to themselves and their children. Continue reading...

Scientists say phenomenon coupled with growing climate crisis likely to push global temperatures ‘off the chart’The return of the El Niño climate phenomenon later this year will cause global temperatures to rise “off the chart” and deliver unprecedented heatwaves, scientists have warned.Early forecasts suggest El Niño will return later in 2023, exacerbating extreme weather around the globe and making it “very likely” the world will exceed 1.5C of warming. The hottest year in recorded history, 2016, was driven by a major El Niño. Continue reading...

Demo during heavy storms at top of a Swiss mountain involved firing powerful laser pulses at thundercloudsScientists have steered lightning bolts with lasers for the first time in the field, according to a demonstration performed during heavy storms at the top of a Swiss mountain.The feat, which involved firing powerful laser pulses at thunderclouds over several months last year, paves the way for laser-based lightning protection systems at airports, launchpads and tall buildings. Continue reading...

The parasite-borne disease is classed as ‘neglected’ yet causes 12,000 deaths a year, mostly in Latin America. Can the world really wipe it out by 2030?The first time Elvira Idalia Hernández Cuevas heard of Chagas was when her then 18-year-old daughter tested positive.Hernández’s daughter, Idalia, had donated blood in her home town, near the city of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico. When her sample was screened, she was told she was a carrier of the neglected tropical disease. Continue reading...

Recent research suggests plants may be able to learn and communicate. This really put me off my baked potatoIf you were starting to polish your Veganuary halo, sorry, I have upsetting news, gleaned from a Radio 4 programme called Is Eating Plants Wrong?. Spoiler alert: maybe.Plants, it explained, “can sense the world around them, learn, remember and engage in complex communication with the species around them”. Research suggests that pea seedlings can learn to associate a sound with the light they need and choose to grow in a particular direction as a result. They can also eavesdrop on each other and protect themselves based on what they “hear”. Sagebrush plants communicate to each other the risk of being chomped by insects and trees share nutrients through what Prof Suzanne Simard pleasingly calls the “wood wide web”; they do so more with trees they are related to than with “strangers”. Continue reading...

How toddlers interact with dogs helps explain how humans came to domesticate animals, scientists sayThe human urge to lend a hand extends to animals from the earliest years of life, according to researchers who observed toddlers interacting with friendly dogs.Children as young as two years old went out of their way to help dogs get toys and tasty treats that were placed beyond their reach, despite never having met the animals before, scientists found. Continue reading...

Planetary pairing will be visible to naked eye from across the globeThe brilliantly bright planet Venus passes Saturn this week in a particularly close conjunction that is visible across the globe. On the evening of Sunday 22 January, shortly after sunset, the two planets will appear low in the western sky, bathed in twilight.The chart shows the view looking west-south-west from London at 17.30 GMT on 22 January. Saturn will appear to be 75 times fainter than Venus. This is because although Saturn’s diameter of about 120,000km is almost 10 times wider than Venus, it is about seven times further away from Earth. Continue reading...

Poyll Vaaish, Isle of Man: One field on the island is a throwback to the heyday of mixed farming, full of veg and weeds. The resulting biodiversity is astonishingOn the south coast of the Isle of Man there exists a field so impossibly teeming with birds that I don’t know where to begin. I was last there on Christmas Day – an odd day to go birding perhaps, but not here. The island’s annual Bird Race, a collective effort to find as many species as possible, runs between Christmas and the new year. In 2022 we set a record: 121 species, three of which were found in this field and nowhere else.So what’s this field got that makes it so popular for birds? Weeds, glorious weeds – which modern society tells us to hate. Aren’t they wildflowers too? The field is a throwback to 70 years ago, to the heyday of mixed farming, when every farm had an acre of vegetables – and lots of weeds. Continue reading...

At Cern and elsewhere, a reluctance to give Russian researchers authorship credit on new papers has led to stalemateIn normal times, the four large physics experiments using proton collisions at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland publish numerous scientific articles a year. But in March 2022, the number of new research papers by the LHC experiments fell to zero. The reason: a lack of agreement on how to list Russian and Belarusian scientists and institutes, if at all. The temporary compromise, in place up to now, is not to publish.Publications are the hard currency of research, used for exchange of information and evidence of individuals’ and funding agencies’ contributions. The four largest LHC experiments comprise collaborations of thousands of scientists and engineers, with articles typically credited to all members of the project. Continue reading...

How cigarette smoke – something I’d always been repelled by – finally unlocked my headful of roiling emotions a month after my beloved father diedI have never been a smoker. Even from a very young age, I’ve been actively repelled by it. I confess I did eventually try a cigarette as a drunken student, largely due to peer pressure, and ended up with a scorched larynx and a mouth that tasted like a neglected car’s exhaust, which just reaffirmed my opinions on the matter.So it was quite surprising when, nearly two decades later, an encounter with secondhand cigarette smoke ended up easing the intense grief I was experiencing. It was May 2020 and the pandemic was well under way. We were in the heaviest lockdown and I was racked with grief. My otherwise healthy 58-year-old father had contracted the virus in March, and succumbed to it in April. My mum and dad had been young parents – they were 20 when they had me, I’m 40 now. When he died, I couldn’t be with him, or help in any way. What updates were possible were relayed to me second- and third-hand from desperately overwhelmed medical staff. When his condition deteriorated beyond all hope of recovery, I had to say goodbye to my father via WhatsApp. From my kitchen. With 20 minutes’ notice. It was, undeniably, hellish. Continue reading...

Charity launched in name of Alice Wakeling funds breakthrough that could lead to less aggressive treatment and save more livesAlice Wakeling was three when a lump began to grow on her neck. Doctors were initially puzzled but, after six weeks of tests, consultants gave her parents, David and Sara, the devastating news. Alice had rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer that develops in muscle or fibrous tissue.For the next four years, Alice went through gruelling bouts of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. For a brief period, it looked as if she was free from her cancer. But it returned, and Alice died in October 2019. She was seven. Continue reading...

Concerns at mesothelioma death rate trigger study to detect exposure to now banned material used in school buildingsThe threat of asbestos-related cancer to female teachers is to be examined after possible signs of an elevated risk of fatal illness.Trade unions are to work with one of the country’s leading cancer experts on a study of the exposure women in their late-40s to mid-60s may have had to the material inside school buildings. It comes after researchers detected a possible increase in mesothelioma deaths among the group that could be statistically significant. Continue reading...

PestFix had assets of £18,000 and 16 staff but won contracts worth £344m after being put on government’s high-priority supplier listA pest control supplies firm has disclosed it made a profit of more than £9m for supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic after it was put into the government’s controversial VIP procurement lane.Crisp Websites, which trades as PestFix, had assets of just over £18,000 and 16 employees before the pandemic, but won contracts worth £344m. In its latest accounts, the firm says it “does not intend to return to the PPE market”. Continue reading...

Belgium suggests 21 drinks a week is safe for men, while Australia recommends no more than 10 for anyone. What goes into the decision making?Craft beer in Melbourne, pinot noir in Paris, mojitos in Havana –alcohol is part of nearly every culture around the world. As the evidence of harm has accumulated, the message from health authorities globally is that we need to drink less and even abstain entirely. But the advice on exactly how much less isn’t consistent. Why?As an addiction medicine specialist and public health physician at the University of Sydney, Prof Kate Conigrave is more aware than most about the damage caused by alcohol. She chaired the group who authored Australia’s latest guidelines on reducing the health risks of alcohol, which in 2020 recommended healthy adults drink no more than 10 standard drinks a week, and no more than four in a day. It’s a reduction from the 2009 guidelines which recommended no more than two drinks a day for men and women. Continue reading...

The latest claims by scientists that they are able to break the most common digital encryption system are far-fetchedSecurity in a digital world requires that our communications are safe from digital eavesdroppers. The way we do that is to encrypt our messages using mathematical tools. The most powerful of these use trapdoor functions – that is, ones that work easily in one direction (making encryption easy) but not in the other (making decryption difficult).Trapdoor functions utilise a property of multiplication – its asymmetry. It’s simple to multiply two numbers together, for example, 971 and 1,249, to get 1,212,779, but it’s quite hard to start with 1,212,779 and work out which two prime numbers (its factors) have to be multiplied to produce it. And the task becomes exponentially harder the bigger the original numbers are. Which is why, up to now, computer scientists believe that it’s impossible in practice for a conventional computer, no matter how powerful, to factorise any number that’s longer than 2,048 bits. Why so? Because it would take it 300tn years, or about 22,000 times longer than the age of the universe (to use just one of the popular analogies), for the machine to crack the problem. Continue reading...

Researchers spurred by injustice explain why 18th century Irish man famed for his exceptional height deserves burial he wantedThomas Muinzer recalls the day when, as a bored student in Belfast learning about property law, a few sentences about the 18th century “Irish Giant” Charles Byrne caught his eye.“I saw a footnote about a celebrity Irish giant from Northern Ireland whose remains were stolen on the way to his funeral – querying whether or not that was the theft of property, because it was a dead body,” he says. Continue reading...

Research suggests hormone replacement therapy may reduce risk of Alzheimer’s in some womenHormone replacement therapy may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease in millions of women at risk of developing the condition, research suggests.Dementia is one of the world’s biggest health threats. The number of people living with the condition worldwide is set to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, and experts have warned it presents a major and rapidly growing threat to future health and social care systems in every community, country and continent. Continue reading...

Aseem Malhotra’s ‘misguided’ views linking some Covid vaccines to excess heart disease deaths should not have aired, say expertsThe BBC has come under fire from scientists for interviewing a cardiologist who claimed certain Covid vaccines could be behind excess deaths from coronary artery disease.Experts have criticised Dr Aseem Malhotra’s appearance on the corporation’s news channel on Friday, accusing him of pushing “extreme fringe” views, which are “misguided”, “dangerous” and could mislead the public. Continue reading...