Proteins in blood could provide early cancer warning ‘by more than seven years’
Proteins in the blood could warn people of cancer more than seven years before it is diagnosed, according to research. Scientists at the University of Oxford studied blood samples from more than 44,000 people in the UK Biobank, including over…
Cash incentives may help men lose weight, research finds
Financial incentives of up to £400 alongside text messages could encourage men living with obesity to lose weight, research has found. The research, known as Game of Stones and presented at the European Congress of Obesity, involved a year-long trial…
Graffiti-covered door from French revolutionary wars found in Kent
A scratched wooden door found by chance at the top of a medieval turret has been revealed to be an “astonishing” graffiti-covered relic from the French revolutionary wars, including an carving that could be a fantasy of Napoleon Bonaparte being…
Plantwatch: Britain’s volunteer naturalists provide vital knowledge
Britain has a long tradition of volunteer naturalists dating back 250 years to the Rev Gilbert White in Selborne, Hampshire, best known for his classic book The Natural History of Selborne (1789). In recent times, Rosemary Parslow has detailed the…
Great Ormond Street hoping to license gene therapy for ‘bubble baby’ syndrome
When Great Ormond Street hospital (Gosh) published the results of its gene therapy trial for “bubble baby” syndrome it was hailed as a medical breakthrough. The treatment had a more than 95% success rate for treating the life-threatening disorder in…
Backstabbing, bluffing and playing dead: has AI learned to deceive? – podcast
As AI systems have grown in sophistication, so has their capacity for deception, according to a new analysis from researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr Peter Park, an AI existential safety researcher at MIT and author of the…
Weight loss drug could reduce heart attack risk by 20%, study finds
A weight loss injection could reduce the risk of heart attacks and benefit the cardiovascular health of millions of adults across the UK, in what could be the largest medical breakthrough since statins, according to a study. It found that…
Health expert Tim Spector criticised for remarks on year-round use of sunscreen
The health expert Prof Tim Spector has come under fire from fellow scientists after he suggested people should stop using factor 50 sunscreen all year round. Spector cited a recent mouse study that suggests vitamin D levels may be an…
Sleep does not help brain wash out toxins, study suggests
The restorative effect of a good night’s rest is widely recognised and the popular scientific explanation has been that the brain washes out toxins during sleep. However, new findings suggest this theory, which has become a dominant view in neuroscience,…
Rise of drug-resistant superbugs could make Covid pandemic look ‘minor’, expert warns
The Covid-19 pandemic will “look minor” compared with what humanity faces from the growing number of superbugs resistant to current drugs, Prof Dame Sally Davies, England’s former chief medical officer, has warned. Davies, who is now the UK’s special envoy…