Science | The Guardian

It could have been a gift from a runaway enslaved person. Maybe it wasn'tThe oral history of Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad tomato could easily fit on an index card, with room to spare. As the story goes, a Black man entered Ohio from bordering Kentucky. No details about when he made this journey are available, but it may have been during slavery or well after emancipation. His travels took him to Ripley, a town that slavery's proponents characterized as infested with that most odious species: abolitionists. While there, he gave tomato seeds he'd been carrying to a white woman. Years later, her great-nephew, Francis Parker, began sharing the seeds for what had become Aunt Lou's tomato" with fellow gardening enthusiasts. Passed from person to person, the seed spread in the small corner of Kentucky and south-west Ohio connected by the Ohio River, a region known for Underground Railroad stops from which runaway enslaved people were secretly ferried to free states.At some point, the Kentucky tomato guru Gary Millwood proposed a revision of the plant's name to fellow seed keepers who knew of the variety. Millwood, who was white, suggested adding the Underground Railroad" part to reflect the anti-slavery activity in the plant's apparent home ground, and to acknowledge how enslaved people helped build the nation's agricultural wealth in captivity. Despite centuries of forced farming that transitioned into sharecropping and other exploitative labor systems, few plants bear the names of the Black Americans who stewarded flora and fauna in fields and provisioning grounds. Black workers tilled the land, but white Americans have typically gotten credit for importing, breeding and cultivating crops that became critical to the US diet and economy. Millwood's move cemented the pinkish beefsteak tomato's place in history as one of the few vegetable varieties whose name references, however obliquely, slavery or Black contributions to what we grow and eat. Continue reading...

New clues from an ancient plague are pushing us to rethink where Britons were really' from - and the answer is complicatedTwo weeks ago, Pooja Swali from the Crick Institute announced the discovery of Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, in the dental pulp of three people who died about 4,000 years ago - two in Somerset and the other in Cumbria. This finding is astonishing in its own right because it pushes back the earliest evidence of plague in England by several millennia. But the discovery may also help to solve one of our greatest prehistoric mysteries: why did the people who introduced farming to the British Isles suddenly vanish shortly after they built Stonehenge some five millennia ago?Before last month's announcement, the oldest evidence of plague in Britain came from a 1,500-year-old skeleton interred at an Anglo-Saxon burial site near Cambridge. That victim died during the plague of Justinian, which spread throughout the eastern Roman empire and beyond in the middle of the sixth century. While scientists have identified plague DNA in human remains across Europe and Asia dating to between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago, until last week, we couldn't be sure that this prehistoric pandemic reached these isles. It's now clear that it did. Continue reading...

Look west to see distinctive trio in twilight of the northern hemisphere's longest dayIt is the solstice this week. On Wednesday 21 June, the sun will be at its highest position in the northern skies, giving the northern hemisphere its longest day of the year.What better way to celebrate than to look for the beautiful thin crescent moon meeting the bright jewel of Venus - with the added bonus of Mars. The chart shows the view looking west at 10pm BST on 21 June. Few stars will be visible in the twilight but Venus will be absolutely unmistakable. Next to it will be a thin crescent moon with just 12% of its visible surface illuminated by the sun. The rest of the disc will be faintly visible as a result of sunlight reflected off Earth and on to the moon's surface. Continue reading...

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New technology raises hopes and ethical dilemmas. Society will have to work out what it thinksScience often moves faster than moral thought progresses, leaving the public disoriented and exposing the limits of legislators' imagination. Many people will be struggling to make sense of the astonishing breakthroughs presented at this week's International Society for Stem Cell Research's (ISSCR) annual meeting in Boston. The work by Prof Magdalena ernicka-Goetz, of Cambridge University and the California Institute of Technology, creating human embryo-like models from stem cells, without the need for eggs or sperm, raises questions about life itself. There seems an element of playing God in growing a tiny human-ish beating heart in a lab, however scientifically desirable is Jitesh Neupane's work at Cambridge's Gurdon Institute.Persuading stem cells to develop until clumps of them resemble an embryo or an embryonic organ in conditions that mimic the womb is currently an unregulated process in the UK, though transferring these into a woman's womb is prohibited. However, given the similarities that these stem cell models have with human embryos, they offer enormous potential to unlock the secrets of early pregnancy and give an insight into what leads to miscarriages or birth defects. Without clear guidelines to promote responsible research and maintain public confidence in it, though, scientists only have their conscience - and the fear of losing their reputation - to guide them. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scientists used stem cells to create the structures, which were unable to develop into a foetusScientists have created a model human embryo with a heartbeat and traces of blood in an advance that offers an extraordinary window into the first weeks of life.The synthetic structure, created from human stem cells without the need for eggs, sperm or fertilisation, replicated some of the cells and structures that would typically appear in the third and fourth week of pregnancy. But it was specifically designed to lack the tissues that go on to form the placenta and yolk sac in a natural embryo, meaning that it did not have the theoretical potential of developing into a foetus. Continue reading...

Early results show promise in trial involving injection of lab-grown inhibitory neurons into brainThe first two epilepsy patients to receive an experimental stem cell therapy experienced an almost complete reduction in seizures a year after treatment, early trial results show.The therapy involves a single brain injection of lab-grown neurons that are designed to dampen electrical activity with the aim of stopping seizures. It is too early to confirm whether the approach is effective but the initial results, presented at the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s annual meeting in Boston last week, are viewed as extremely encouraging. Continue reading...

A profoundly poignant novel about family ties and grief, a collection of topical and urgent essays celebrating all things arboreal – and a compelling study of consciousnessUna Mannion

Many of us feel the anxiety of living in a time of ‘polycrisis’, but taking a long view will help you copeOne February night in a London hospital, my perception of time shrunk to the span of a moment. Around 24 hours after my wife went into labour, we were rushed into emergency surgery. Our baby had acquired an infection. As I held my wife’s hand in the sterile silence of the operating theatre, it felt like nothing else in the world existed. Our recent past of slow, stable expectation faded away and the future became impossible to see with any fidelity – all that was left was now.We were lucky; the threat receded, and after five nights of recovery and antibiotics, we stepped out of the timeless maternity ward and back into the world, carrying our daughter, Grace. Gradually, our future as a new family settled into view. Continue reading...

European space probe will capture images that will provide insights about what the universe is made ofIn just a few weeks, a remarkable European probe will be blasted into space in a bid to explore the dark side of the cosmos.The €1bn (£850m) Euclid mission will investigate the universe’s two most baffling components: dark energy and dark matter. The former is the name given to a mysterious force that was shown – in 1998 – to be accelerating the expansion of the universe, while the latter is a form of matter thought to pervade the cosmos, provide the universe with 80% of its mass, and act as a cosmic glue that holds galaxies together. Continue reading...

To get to the heart of what drives Russia’s leader, look not to Freud but theories of dehumanisation and violencePeter Pomerantsev courageously draws attention to the relevance of psychoanalysis if we wish to understand what might be called the “Putin phenomenon”, but Freud’s “death instinct” explains little (“What lies behind Russia’s acts of extreme violence? Freudian analysis offers an answer”, Comment).The Putin phenomenon is an example of what David Astor, former editor of the Observer, called “the scourge”, that is, a perverse morality that imposes on those who subscribe to it the moral or religious duty to clean up society and liquidate those who pollute it. In Nazi Germany, the Jews and others were singled out as the chief agents of corruption, while for Putin they are “neo-nazis” and those who espouse the decadent values of the west. He and his supporters see themselves as embarked on a moral crusade. Continue reading...

Recent claims by an ex-US intelligence agency whistleblower about alien spacecraft landings have been met with scepticism by scientists – not least over the galactic visitors’ driving skillsAnother day, another story about the US government hiding the fact that it has retrieved alien spacecraft. You can hear similar claims all the time from conspiracy theorists in certain corners of the internet. Yet what made this particular account international news was that the person talking had apparently been in a position to know.American David Grusch served 14 years in the US air force. He is a decorated veteran from the Afghanistan conflict, who went on to serve in the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. In these positions, he sat on the US Department of Defense’s unidentified aerial phenomena taskforce from 2020 to 2022. Continue reading...

Ministers may prefer cheap rhetoric to the reality of hard decisions – but these hearings show the cost of the choices they makeWas the Johnson government unprepared for Covid because it was distracted by Brexit? Was the virus itself caused by a lab leak? Did lockdowns do more harm than good? Are face masks a conspiracy? If the 2020s are indivisible from the pandemic, Covid offers endlessly fertile territory for the decade’s culture wars. They look irrational written down – what does remoaning have to do with face masks? – yet somehow we understand the faultlines, and how they connect, at a gut level.Yet the public inquiry into the government’s handling of Covid, which opened on Tuesday in a neutral-looking building near Paddington, west London, with only the most sober-minded spectators still attending by Thursday – and without even a desultory anti-vax protest outside to liven anything up – kept insisting on one inconvenient, unarguable point. Governing isn’t about binary arguments in primary colours. The discourse may drown out reality but it can’t make it go away, and there bad decisions still cost lives and good ones still need homework.Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnistOn Wednesday 5 July, join Zoe Williams and a panel of leading thinkers for a livestreamed discussion on the ideas that can make our economies fairer. Book tickets here Continue reading...

England footballer turned BBC pundit (22m20s); sad, confused, deluded: Marina Hyde spares a thought for the friends of Boris Johnson at this difficult time (1m20s); and science writer David Robson on why delayed gratification may not be worth waiting for (9m45s) Continue reading...

Resulting varieties could find commercial success as an alternative to current decaf requiring artificial processesA Brazilian coffee research institute has started a decisive stage in a two-decade project to develop arabica coffee varieties that are naturally decaffeinated, a development the researchers think could have significant commercial potential.If successful, the resulting varieties could find a market niche in large consuming regions such as Europe and the US among consumers who would prefer them to current decaffeinated brands that are the result of chemical or industrial processes. Continue reading...

Object from mid-bronze age, in ‘extraordinary’ state of preservation, was found in grave in BavariaA bronze sword more than 3,000 years old , which is so well-preserved that it “almost still shines”, has been unearthed in southern Germany, officials say.The Bavarian state office for the preservation of historical monuments (BLfD) said the sword, which is believed to date back to the end of the 14th century BC — the middle of the bronze age — was found during excavations last week in Nördlingen, between Nuremberg and Stuttgart. Continue reading...

Biologist and environmentalist whose research into whale song brought about a new awareness of the animals’ plightRoger Payne, who has died of cancer aged 88, was a vital force in the struggle to “save the whale”. During the 20th century, an estimated 3 million great whales were hunted to furnish humans with oil, meat and rose fertiliser. Payne gave a voice to an animal that had hitherto been regarded as dumb – one with a deep register that was, as he described it, a sound as big as the ocean itself.When Payne released whale sounds in 1970 as a vinyl LP, Songs of the Humpback Whale, the album sold 125,000 copies and eventually reached multi-platinum sales. It was followed in 1979 by a flexi-disc of the sounds that was included with 10.5m copies of National Geographic magazine. The effect was akin to Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking book of 1962, Silent Spring. The sounds were strange and otherworldly: they seemed like a lament, a threnody for the animals’ plight. In fact they were a demonstration of another species’ culture: a voice, not a noise. Continue reading...

Jabs available beyond vaccine programme cutoff date after new cases, mostly among unvaccinated people, detectedHealth officials are extending vaccinations for mpox in London after recording a fresh spike in cases in the capital in recent weeks, mostly among unvaccinated people.The national mpox outbreak vaccination programme run by the UK Health Security Agency is due to close at the end of July, but shots will be made available in the capital beyond this date after the detection of 11 new cases, officials said. Continue reading...

A London sushi restaurant has asked customers not to wear fragrances – can smell spoil our enjoyment of food?Dress codes are not unusual in high-end eateries, but London’s Sushi Kanesaka restaurant has taken things one step further, asking guests to refrain from wearing perfume so as not to interfere with the sensory experience of other diners.Heavy fragrances, the restaurant suggests, could mask the “refreshing” ambient scent of vinegar, and of the fish itself. So should the approach of the £420-per-person restaurant be adopted more widely? Is perfume on a dinner date, while making you smell better, likely to make your food and drink taste worse? Continue reading...

Creature has been named Vectipelta barretti after Prof Paul Barrett of London’s Natural History MuseumFossilised remains from the Isle of Wight have been identified as a new dinosaur species that has been named after a palaeontologist at the London’s Natural History Museum.It belongs to a group of plant-eating dinosaurs known as ankylosaurs that was found in the 1980s on the island’s Wessex formation – a geological feature dating to between 145m and 66m years ago. Continue reading...

Addressing the problem will mean taking on some of the most powerful voices in the countryWould you believe that a fifth of the adult population of Britain have either taken part in anti-vax protests, or are prepared to do so? Or that about 4 million people have attended protests against the introduction of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)? What about the idea that The Light, an anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown newspaper, has about 3 million subscribers, and has at some point been distributed by nearly 4 million people?You’d be right to be sceptical. It’s unlikely that there are 4 million people with in-depth knowledge about CBDCs. The Light only has 13,000 followers on Facebook. And it seems obvious that millions of people have not taken part in Covid-denial demonstrations, especially as only 6.4% of the population have not received any vaccines. But new polling research released by King’s College London for a BBC series on conspiracy theories suggests otherwise. The findings are based on an online survey of more than 2,000 British adults, conducted by Savanta, a reputable polling company – although a full breakdown of the polling methods hasn’t been published.Owen Jones is a Guardian columnistDo 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...

Ian Sample speaks to the Guardian’s health editor, Andrew Gregory, and Dr Roy Herbst about the world’s biggest annual gathering of oncology professionals. Each year’s event features a mass of new research, and 2023 was no exception. What were the standout advances, and could they lead to permanent changes in the way we treat, think about and live with cancer?Read more of Andrew Gregory’s reporting here. Continue reading...

Advice that light activity in first 24-48 hours after injury can help recovery contradicts recent UK guidanceAthletes who have experienced a mild concussion should avoid total rest and resume light physical and mental activities to aid their recovery, according to a consensus statement issued by more than 100 international researchers and clinicians.The statement, which took more than five years to complete and was informed by 10 systematic reviews of concussion-related evidence, updates previous guidance to avoid all physical activity until symptoms are completely resolved. It contradicts recent UK guidance to avoid contact sport for 21 days after sustaining a concussion and avoid any form of training for 14 days. Continue reading...

Analysis: As the science outpaces the law, scientists should proceed cautiously and clear boundaries must be setSynthetic embryos sit at a unique juxtaposition: scientifically fascinating, ethically challenging and, for the most part, entirely unregulated by current legislation. The latest work by Prof Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz’s team brings these issues into stark relief and show that developments in this field are happening so quickly that the science is rapidly outpacing the law.The motivation for creating embryo models in the lab is relatively uncontroversial. For the avoidance of doubt, there are no plans to create lab-grown babies. The aim is to obtain unprecedented insights into a window of human development that until now has largely remained a “black box” because it falls beyond the legal limit up to which scientists can cultivate embryos in the lab, and before a pregnancy’s progress can be detected on a scan. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Breakthrough could aid research into genetic disorders but raises serious ethical and legal issues

Make people laugh, keep a praise file, deal with your inner critic – and avoid comparison-itis. Here is how to connect with colleagues and feel more positiveShould you expect to feel confident at work? Or is it normal to feel disillusioned and fed up at least some of the time? I mean, it is work. It is not your life. Amid all the noise and drama about quiet quitting, generational differences, hybrid working patterns, flexible hours, “the Great Resignation” and whatever latest workplace trend is in the headlines, there’s a temptation to believe that you need to love your work and feel very confident in it to be a fully functioning member of society. We tend to forget that most people neither love their work nor hate it. They just do it reasonably uneventfully, get paid and then go home. Sometimes that is the definition of professional confidence: getting the job done. But what if that’s not enough?According to the UK’s Jobs Confidence Index, “job search and progression confidence” rose slightly towards the end of last year, indicating that workers are broadly optimistic about (a) being able to get a job somewhere else if they want to, and (b) being promoted or achieving progression where they are. But the picture is mixed: we may supposedly have relative job stability but earnings are stagnant. In the last quarter of 2022, the UK saw the worst contraction in real earnings since the first quarter of 2009. No wonder a lot of people are not confident in their, er, confidence. How, then, to be just confident enough at work, without getting caught up in unrealistic expectations? Continue reading...

Last week, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said disposable vapes should be banned because of their popularity among children – with many parents now feeling they are fighting a losing battle

Tiliqua frangens is about 1,000 times greater in size than most skinks and walked the Earth about 50,000 years ago, alongside other extinct megafauna

University of Michigan researchers suggest findings may in future yield benefits for soldiers and healthcare workersThe sight of their dead comrades is enough to drive fruit flies to an early grave, according to researchers, who suspect the creatures keel over after developing the fly equivalent of depression.For a species that spends much of its life feasting on decayed matter, the insects appear to be particularly sensitive to their own dead. Witnessing an abundance of fruit fly carcasses speeds up the insects’ ageing process, scientists found, cutting their lives short by nearly 30%. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Covid inquiry’s counsel says evidence will demonstrate government devoted more resource to flu pandemic. This live blog is closed

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...

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...

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...

The solution to today’s crime-busting caperEarlier today I set you the following puzzle.Police chase 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...