George Freeman urges country to act as global lead for space regulation, insurance and financeThe UK's role in the next generation of interplanetary exploration should be that of a space watchdog" leading on regulation, insurance and finance, a former science minister has said, in an effort to rein in a situation he compared to the wild west.George Freeman, the MP for Mid Norfolk who was minister for science, research, technology and innovation under Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, said the need for standards was pressing. Continue reading...
Pairing of moon with brightest star in constellation of Virgo will be easily visible from southern hemisphereThe full moon will meet the blue giant star Spica on 12 April, making for a pleasing pairing in the evening sky. Although officially the moon only becomes full in the early hours of the following day, it will be indistinguishable from full to the naked eye, with more than 99% of its visible surface illuminated.The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at 2200 BST on 12 April 2025. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo, the virgin, and the 16th brightest star in the whole night sky with a mass fully 11.43 times larger than the sun's and a radius of almost 7.5 times that of our star. As befits such a giant, it emits roughly 20,500 times more light as the sun. Continue reading...
UK's 800m research body backs project that might unlock radical therapies to extend human lifespansThe curious case of the queen bee has long had scientists pondering whether the head of the hive harbours the secret to a long and healthy life.While queen bees and workers have nearly identical DNA, the queens enjoy what might be regarded as royal privileges. They are larger, fertile throughout life and survive for years compared with workers, who last a few months at best. Continue reading...
Children taking ADHD drugs showed small increases in blood pressure and pulse rates but risk-benefit ratio is reassuring'The benefits of taking drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outweigh the impact of increases in blood pressure and heart rate, according to a new study.An international team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Southampton found the majority of children taking ADHD medication experienced small increases in blood pressure and pulse rates, but that the drugs had overall small effects". They said the study's findings highlighted the need for careful monitoring". Continue reading...
Considering everyone is a protagonist in their own narrative brought clarity for Will StorrFor nearly 20 years, I've been researching and writing about the human brain as a storyteller. My work has unalterably changed the way I see the human world in general, and myself in particular. It has helped me understand everything from political hatred and religions to cults to the nature of identity and suicidal thought. It has even made sense of my own lifelong struggle with making friends.Our evolution into Homo narrans, the storytelling animal, is the secret of our success. Like other animals, humans exist in a realm of survival in which we seek sustenance, safety and procreation. But, uniquely, we also live in a second realm, a story world that's made out of the collective imagination. The human brain has evolved to remix reality and turn it into a narrative. We are made to feel like the underdog heroes of our own lives, surrounded by allies and enemies, pursuing meaningful goals and striving towards imagined happy endings. We have a voice in our head that authors a constantly unfolding autobiography of who we are and what we're doing. We experience, and remember, the events of our lives in three-act episodes of crisis, struggle, resolution. We think in stories, we talk in stories, we believe in stories, we are stories. Continue reading...
This inner critic isn't you, it's just a voice that has been given far too much authorityThe question I am struggling with intrusive and increasingly critical self-talk around my appearance. So much so that some days I struggle to look in the mirror. I've recently had a baby and assumed that my long history of feeling ugly, lesser and fundamentally inadequate would be surpassed by being a mother and having an external concern other than myself but, if anything, it's worse.It has become so bad I have convinced myself that my partner will find someone else despite him being lovely, reassuring and committed. I know this cognitively, but emotionally I feel deeply flawed as a woman and ugly in the world. I judge myself constantly when I'm around other women. Continue reading...
Prof David Liu is among the winners of 2025's Oscars of science', with honours also going to researchers for landmark work on multiple sclerosis, particle physics and skinny jabs'For the past five years, David Liu - a professor at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a biomedical research facility in Massachusetts - has marked Thanksgiving by handing over his entire annual salary, after taking care of taxes, to the staff and students in his laboratory.It started as the pandemic broke and Liu heard that students who wanted to cycle instead of taking public transport could not afford bicycles. Given how hard they worked and how little they were paid, Liu stepped in. He couldn't unilaterally raise their incomes, so emailed them Amazon eGift cards. This ran into problems too, however. Everyone thought they were being scammed," he recalls. And so he switched to writing cheques. Continue reading...
The bankruptcy of genealogy company 23andMe has resulted in a fire sale of millions of people's genetic information - and there's no shortage of eager buyers with questionable motivesEver thought of having your genome sequenced? Me neither. But it seems that at least 15 million souls have gone in for it and are delighted to know that they have Viking ancestry, or discombobulated to find that they have siblings of whom they were hitherto unaware. The corporate vehicle that enabled these revelations is called 23andMe, which describes itself as a genetics-led consumer healthcare and biotechnology company empowering a healthier future".Back in the day, 23andMe was one of those vaunted unicorns" (privately held startups valued at more than $1bn), but is now facing harder times. Its share price had fallen precipitately following a data breach in October 2023 that harvested the profile and ethnicity data of 6.9 million users - including name, profile photo, birth year, location, family surnames, grandparents' birthplaces, ethnicity estimates and mitochondrial DNA - and there have been internal disagreements between its board and the CEO and co-founder, Anne Wojcicki. So on 24 March it filed for so-called Chapter 11 proceedings in a US bankruptcy court in Missouri.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
US political scientists' book argues aggressive Covid policies such as mask mandates were in some cases misguidedWere conservatives right to question Covid lockdowns? Were the liberals who defended them less grounded in science than they believed? And did liberal dismissiveness of the other side come at a cost that Americans will continue to pay for many years?A new book by two political scientists argues yes to all three questions, making the case that the aggressive policies that the US and other countries adopted to fight Covid - including school shutdowns, business closures, mask mandates and social distancing - were in some cases misguided and in many cases deserved more rigorous public debate. Continue reading...
Revolutionary scanner to be fired into Earth orbit this month to measure effects of deforestationScientists are about to take part in a revolutionary mission aimed at creating detailed 3D maps of the world's remotest, densest and darkest tropical forests - from outer space. The feat will be achieved using a special radar scanner that has been fitted to a probe, named Biomass, that will be fired into the Earth's orbit later this month.For the next five years, the 1.25-tonne spacecraft will sweep over the tropical rainforests of Africa, Asia and South America and peer through their dense 40m-high canopies to study the vegetation that lies beneath. The data collected by Biomass will then be used to create unique 3D maps of forests normally hidden from human sight. Continue reading...
Pharma firms are developing drugs that avoid the brain's opioid receptors to minimise the risks of dependence and overdoses, but not all experts are convincedIn January, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first new type of painkiller in more than two decades. The decision roused excitement across the healthcare sector for a key reason: the drug, which is called suzetrigine and sold under the brand name Journavx, is not an opioid.Opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine are still used to treat severe pain in the UK and US. But they come with an obvious downside: the risk of addiction. Continue reading...
We're moving toward a society where genetic information is a part of everyday life - and we don't want it in the wrong handsWith a heavy heart, I clicked on my 23andMe account on a recent morning, confirming that I wanted to delete my data. The genetic testing company filed for bankruptcy late last month and the California attorney general and others have recommended that users delete their data lest it be acquired by less scrupulous companies as the company is stripped for parts during bankruptcy proceedings.I was one of the company's earliest customers and had used their service to genotype not just myself but my entire extended family. I even got my kids' babysitter a kit.Dalton Conley is Henry Putnam university professor of sociology at Princeton University and author of The Social Genome: The New Science of Nature and Nurture Continue reading...
While the act may help some, it can harm others, says Amanda Ann GregoryWhile I deeply respect the work of Fred Luskin and Robert Enright, psychologists should be careful not to suggest that forgiveness is beneficial for everyone (Leave the hurt behind! How to let go of a grudge, 26 March). It isn't. There is no one-size-fits-all solution in mental health. While forgiveness may helpsome, it can harm others.Trauma survivors are often encouraged to forgive their abusers, with the promise that it will aid their healing. However, there's no evidence to support the idea that forgiveness improves trauma recovery. Mandatory forgiveness can, in fact, impede healing and is a major reason many survivors avoid seeking help. Instead of promoting forgiveness as a moralistic ideal, we should encourage individuals tofind what truly works for them.
Nests on Amsterdam canals provide archive of plastic waste and show how the material is really here to stay'One day in 1996, someone ate a McDonald's McChicken burger in Amsterdam.Perhaps it was a quick bite after work? A leisurely stroll down the canals? A family outing? These details are lost to time, but others are hard to erase completely. Continue reading...
As LRIs put pressure on health services, a Spanish-led study examines what role exposure to air pollution may playThe Covid crisis highlighted gaps in our understanding of the role that air pollution plays in infections.A flurry of studies carried out during and after the crisis allowed a UK government advisory group to conclude that long-term exposure to air pollution may contribute to worse coronavirus symptoms. The group offered examples that included a study of more than 3 million people in Denmark that showed air pollution added to the risk of death or hospital admission with severe Covid, especially in the least well off. Continue reading...
by Written by Helen Gordon and read by Sasha Frost. P on (#6WD0J)
Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an English market town in 2021, scientists raced to find as much out as they couldBy Helen Gordon. Read by Sasha Frost Continue reading...
Phrases used to smooth over tense social situations have meanings beyond the sum of their parts, study suggestsBonobos use a combination of calls to encourage peace with their partner during mating rituals, research suggests.The discovery is part of a study that suggests our close evolutionary cousins can string together vocalisations to produce phrases with meanings that go beyond the sum of their parts - something often considered unique to human language. Continue reading...
Maintaining seed diversity and abundance is essential - and requires constant work. It's time for Congress to return to the seed businessFrom 1862 until 1923, US senators and members of Congress provided vast numbers of seeds to constituents. At its peak, the congressional seed distribution program delivered over 60m seed packets directly to farmers and market gardeners every year, helping introduce new varieties of everything from wheat and corn to oats, soybeans, flowers and vegetables. A century later, far fewer Americans till the soil for a living, but seeds remain central to our lives.To understand the importance of seeds, try to imagine a morning without them. It would begin naked on a bare mattress, with no cozy sheets or pajamas, and there would be no fluffy towel to wrap up in after your shower. All of those things come from the seeds of the cotton plant. Stumbling wet into the kitchen, you would find no coffee, and no toast or bagel to go with it. There would be no eggs, no bacon, no cereal, no milk. All of those staples come from seeds or from livestock raised on seed crops. And if you thought you might console yourself with a chocolate bar, you can forget it. Cocoa powder, and the cocoa butter that makes it melt in your mouth, are both derived from seeds. Continue reading...
Archaeologists say catastrophic military event' took place at site where 129 bodies have been found so farAs construction crews churned up dirt to renovate a football pitch in Vienna last October, they happened upon an unprecedented find: a heap of intertwined skeletal remains in a mass grave dating to the first-century Roman empire, most likely the bodies of warriors killed in a battle involving Germanic tribes.This week, after archaeological analysis, experts at the Vienna Museum gave a first public presentation of the grave - linked to a catastrophic event in a military context" and evidence of the first known fighting in that region. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay, with Patrick Barkha on (#6WC4W)
Invertebrates don't get the attention lavished on cute pets or apex predators, but these unsung heroes are some of the most impressive and resilient creatures on the planet. So when the Guardian opened its poll to find the world's finest invertebrate, readers got in touch in their droves. A dazzling array of nominations have flown in for insects, arachnids, snails, crustaceans, corals and many more obscure creatures. Patrick Barkham tells Madeleine Finlay why these tiny creatures deserve more recognition, and three readers, Sandy, Nina and Russell, make the case for their favourites.Invertebrate of the year 2025: vote for your favouriteSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
I've become addicted to the show. But as a scientist I wonder: how many couples actually stay together?It has finally happened. After a decade of avoiding the show, my wife and I decided that we would try out the new season of Married at First Sight. We consume quite a bit of reality TV, so it's not that we avoided it precisely, but something about the idea of watching people struggle to build a healthy relationship amid a storm of cameras and manufactured drama just never drew us in. At least until we watched Married at First Sight and realised it was actually kind of fun.Relationship drama makes for addictive viewing. But after watching most of a season of weird marriages", screaming matches and couch quizzes accompanied by deep and meaningful music, one part of the show has struck me as really weird. Everyone keeps referring to the saga as an experiment". From the narrator to the experts who counsel the hapless couples on their relationship dramas, the entire show seems to be calling the experience a social experiment for which we don't know the outcome.How many couples stay together until the end of filming?How many couples stay together after filming is completed?How many couples are still together and is it fewer than we'd expect? Continue reading...
by Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent on (#6WC13)
Survey finds vast majority of doctors are concerned at impact of health inequalities on their patientsDoctors have reported a rise in the number of patients with Victorian diseases such as scabies, as the Royal College of Physicians urged the government to do more to fight poverty.The survey of 882 doctors found 89% were concerned about the impact of health inequalities on their patients, while 72% had seen more patients in the past three months with illnesses related to poor-quality housing, air pollution and access to transport. Continue reading...
Jacobite leader was unknowingly following the footprints' of megalosaurs after escaping to the Isle of Skye in 1746When Bonnie Prince Charlie fled the Scottish Highlands after defeat at the Battle of Culloden, his route may have crossed the fossilised footsteps of massive meat-eating dinosaurs, researchers say.Newly discovered impressions at Prince Charles's Point on the Isle of Skye, where the Young Pretender is said to have hunkered down in 1746, reveal that megalosaurs, the carnivorous ancestors of the T rex, and enormous plant-eating sauropods gathered at the site when it was a shallow freshwater lagoon. Continue reading...
An Australian study found that babies with early exposure to antibiotics had lower levels of antibodies against jabs in later infancyBabies who are treated with antibiotics as newborns have reduced immune responses to vaccines in later infancy, likely due to changes in the gut microbiome, new research suggests.The Australian study tracked 191 healthy babies from birth, finding that those who received antibiotics in the first few weeks of life had significantly lower levels of antibodies against multiple vaccines at seven and 15 months. Continue reading...
Older adults in Wales who had the jab were 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia that those not vaccinatedResearchers who tracked cases of dementia in Welsh adults have uncovered the strongest evidence yet that the shingles vaccination reduces the risk of developing the devastating brain disease.Health records of more than 280,000 older adults revealed that those who received a largely discontinued shingles vaccine called Zostavax were 20% less likely to be diagnosed with dementia over the next seven years than those who went without. Continue reading...
To prevent a catastrophic failure of the drugs modern medicine relies on, look to animal farming in middle-income countriesIf the antibiotics we use to treat infections ever stopped working, the consequences would be catastrophic. It is estimated that the use of antibiotics adds about 20 years of life expectancy for every person worldwide (on average). As the King's Fund put it, if we lose antibiotics, we would lose modern medicine as we know it". Doctors, public health experts and governments take the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) very seriously, yet the problem appears to be getting worse.A report from the National Audit Office in February finds that out of five domestic targets set in 2019 to tackle AMR, only one has been met - to reduce antibiotic use in food-producing animals. Others, such as the target to reduce drug-resistant infections in humans by 10%, haven't made much progress; in fact, these infections have actually increased by 13% since 2018.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, and the author of How Not to Die (Too Soon) Continue reading...
Research highlights link between low LDL cholesterol and reduced dementia risk, with statins offering additional protectionLowering your levels of bad cholesterol could reduce the risk of dementia by 26%, a study suggests.People with low levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in their blood have a lower overall risk of dementia, and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease specifically, according to research published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Continue reading...
Experts say previous economic models underestimated impact of global heating - as well as likely cascading supply chain disruptions'Economic models have systematically underestimated how global heating will affect people's wealth, according to a new study that finds 4C warming will make the average person 40% poorer - an almost four-fold increase on some estimates.The study by Australian scientists suggests average per person GDP across the globe will be reduced by 16% even if warming is kept to 2C above pre-industrial levels. This is a much greater reduction than previous estimates, which found the reduction would be 1.4%. Continue reading...
In his first news conference since returning home, Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore said he holds himself partly responsible for what went wrong on the space sprint-turned-marathon and - along with Suni Williams - said he would strap into Boeing's Starliner again. SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station following their bungled mission. The astronauts ended up spending 286 days in space - 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeing's first astronaut flight on June 5
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay, produced by Rachel on (#6WAEW)
While other diet fads come and go, the ultra low carbohydrate Keto diet seems to endure. But as scientists begin to understand how the diet works, more is also being discovered about its risks. To find out more, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Javier Gonzalez, professor in the department of health at the University of Bath, with a special interest in personal nutrition. He explains how the diet works, what it could be doing to our bodies and what could really be behind the weight loss people experience while on itSupport the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
Termination of at least 145 grants will decimate progress toward eliminating epidemic, scientists sayThe federal government has cancelled dozens of grants to study how to prevent new HIV infections and expand access to care, decimating progress toward eliminating the epidemic in the United States, scientists say.The National Institutes of Health (NIH) terminated at least 145 grants related to researching advancements in HIV care that had been awarded nearly $450m in federal funds. The cuts have been made in phases over the last month. Continue reading...
Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams' story markedly at odds with abandonment narrative painted by Trump and MuskIn the end, whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump liked to insist, astronauts Barry Butch" Wilmore and Sunita Williams were never stuck, nor stranded in space, and definitely not abandoned or marooned.The world heard on Monday, for the first time since their return to Earth two weeks ago, from the two Nasa astronauts whose 10-day flight to the international space station (ISS) last summer turned into a nine-month odyssey. And their story was markedly at odds with the narrative painted from the White House. Continue reading...
Members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine warned Americans of real danger in this moment'More than 1,900 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine signed an open letter warning Americans about the danger" of the Trump administration's attacks on science.The letter comes amid the administration's relentless assault on US scientific institutions which has included threats to private universities, federal grant cancelations and ideological funding reviews, mass government layoffs, resignations and censorship. Continue reading...
The answer to today's puzzleEarlier today I set you the following problem featuring Albert, Bernard and Cheryl, the protagonists in a viral puzzle from a decade ago. Here it is again with the solution.Cheryl's house number problem Continue reading...
Procedure for patients with thinking and memory problems could help medics decide which drugs are most suitableResearchers have developed a blood test for patients with thinking and memory problems to check if they have Alzheimer's and to see how far it has progressed.The team behind the work say the test could help medics decide which drugs would be most suitable for patients. For example, new drugs such as donanemab and lecanemab can help slow the progression of Alzheimer's, but only in people in the early stages of the disease. Continue reading...
Follow your instincts' has become a modern mantra. But what if they lead you astray?What should I do?" Whether openly stated or implicit, this is the question a new client usually raises in their first therapy session. People come to see me for many reasons: relationship problems, addiction and mental health difficulties, such as anxiety. Increasingly, I have found that beneath all of these disparate problems lies a common theme: indecision, the sense of feeling stuck, and lack of clarity as to the way forward.Making decisions is difficult. Anyone who has lain awake contemplating a romantic dilemma, or a sudden financial crisis, knows how hard it can be to choose a course of action. This is understandable, given that in any scenario we must contend with a myriad conflicting thoughts and emotions - painful recollections from the past, hopes for the future, and the expectations of family, friends, and co-workers. Continue reading...
Research shows that while women experience feelings of revulsion from a young age, men catch them up in later years. Maybe I should stop scraping the mould off the jam ...What disgusts you? I hope it's not inexpertly summarised research, because I have been intrigued by the recently reported finding that men get more disgusted as they age. Researchers at the Institute for Environmental Decisions in Zurich found that while young women generally experience more disgust than men", later in life the difference between the sexes narrows, and men and women will reach similar levels of disgust when they get older".I don't think anyone who has encountered young men's bedrooms either in person or through the @boyroom social media account (a festival of coverless, unwashed duvets, defrosted bags of Ikea meatballs left to fester and stockpiled used tissues) will be surprised to learn that male disgust doesn't kick in early. However, the theory is that as physical vulnerability increases with age, it makes survival sense for men to become warier of potential contaminants. For women, disgust stays stable - high in their fertile years (perhaps an evolutionary safeguard for potential pregnancies) and high post-menopause too, as they become more susceptible to disease. Continue reading...
Albert, Bernard and Cheryl returnTen years ago I published a maths olympiad question from Singapore on the Guardian website, and it changed my life.Cheryl's birthday problem' went viral. Its unexpected success led to the birth of this column in May 2015. And here we are, almost 250 puzzles later.May 15, May 16, May 19June 17, June 18July 14, July 16August 14, August 15, August 17 Continue reading...
The pinnacle of this celestial display will be the waxing crescent moon cruising past the Pleiades star clusterWe start April with a glorious tableau of planet, moon and stars. The chart shows the view looking west-south-west from London at 2030 BST on 1 April. The last of the twilight will still be visible in the west, but in the rest of the sky the night will be nearly fully gathered.The stars of the familiar constellations of Orion, the hunter, and Taurus, the bull, will be easy to spot, as will the brilliant beacon of Jupiter. The planet will be sitting between the horns of Taurus. The face of the bull is marked by the V-shaped collection of stars known as the Hyades, and its eye is denoted by Aldebaran. Continue reading...
Uncrewed Spectrum test rocket's failure seconds after blast-off said to have produced extensive data nonethelessA test rocket intended to kickstart satellite launches from Europe fell to the ground and exploded less than a minute after takeoff from Norway on Sunday, in what the German startup Isar Aerospace had described as an initial test.The Spectrum started smoking from its sides and crashed back to Earth in a powerful explosion just after its launch from from the Andoya spaceport in the Arctic. Images were broadcast live on YouTube. Continue reading...
An uncrewed test rocket intended to kickstart satellite launches from Europe fell to the ground and exploded less than a minute after takeoff from the Andoya spaceport in Norway. The German startup Isar Aerospace, which had warned the launch could end prematurely, said the test produced extensive data that its team could learn from
For one writer, tragedy led to comedy, the sudden loss of a colleague giving her the nudge she neededThere's nothing funny about your co-worker being assassinated. But it was the death of my beloved colleague and friend Hisham al-Hashimi that led me into the world of standup comedy. I knew it would trash my hard-won career in international security, but I didn't care any more.Hisham had run a workshop with me in Iraq six months prior to his death, and I'd taken everything so seriously, marching around the hotel yelling about how everything was going wrong. But Hisham always had a lightness in his step, a smile on his face. Every evening, he'd take me to a cafe, order me my favourite shisha and proceed to tell the most disgusting jokes. Continue reading...
A book about psychiatrist William Sargant's unethical treatments at a London hospital in the 1960s is all the more powerful for its vivid patient testimoniesA child of 14 is forced to walk on to a stage and strip to her underwear. Tiny and mute beneath the stacked rows of medical students, she is paraded for their benefit by a consultant psychiatrist some 44 years her senior. It is 1966 - the peak of Swinging 60s' hedonism, liberalism and youthful counterculture - but in a locked psychiatric ward in London's RoyalWaterloo hospital, unspeakable violations are being inflicted upon patients.The perpetrator-in-chief, William Sargant, is the subject of thriller writer Jon Stock's first nonfiction book, The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal. One of the most notorious figures in British psychiatry, Sargant initially wished to be a physician. He pivoted to psychiatry after one of his earliest pieces of research met with a humiliating reception at the Royal College of Physicians, causing him to suffer a nervous breakdown and spend time in a psychiatric hospital himself. At this time - the 1930s - effective psychiatric treatments were virtuallynon-existent. Serious mental illness usually led to lifelong incarceration in an asylum. But the therapeutic nihilism of psychiatry was shifting towards optimism. Psychiatrists began experimenting with so-called heroic" therapies, such as putting patients into insulin comas or givingthem electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to try to reset" their brains. Continue reading...
The common cooking ingredient has sparked fierce debate since the US health secretary urged people to avoid itIt's curious that something so bland could cause so much controversy. Most of us have a bottle of seed oil, normally called vegetable oil in the UK, in our kitchens - a nearly tasteless but very useful fat that has been a commonplace cooking ingredient for decades.And yet this previously unremarkable golden liquid has sparked online furore and vicious debate. Nutrition influencers on social media have described it as toxic", inflammatory", unnatural" and the root cause of the obesity epidemic. Continue reading...
The epidemiologist who advised on Ebola and Covid discusses the value of evidence in light of AI and social media, and how the notion of fact has long been divisiveAdam Kucharski is a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. As a mathematician and epidemiologist, he has advised multiple governments on outbreaks such as Ebola and Covid. In his new book Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty, he examines how we can appraise evidence in our search for the truth.What inspired you to investigate the concept of proof?
US academics, fearing persecution by their own government, are becoming ideological refugees. Europe, and Britain, must offer them sanctuaryAt international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with burner" phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. In other words, they are equipped with the same kind of kit that security-conscious people used to bring 15 years ago when travelling to China.So what's up? Well, these academics have a finger on the pulse of Trump's America, and are concerned about what might happen when they return home. They've read on Robert Reich's Substack about the French scientist who was prevented from entering the country because US Border Patrol agents had found messages from him in which he had expressed his personal opinion" to colleagues and friends about Trump's science policies.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian