What materials did ancient Egyptians use to preserve the dead, and how can their composition still be investigated thousands of years later? An interdisciplinary team at Marburg University has combined modern natural product analysis with Egyptology and the history of pharmacy to investigate these questions.
The Cat's Head Nebula shows its ghostly insides and sinister red eye in rival views from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.
Just in time for Halloween, we have new, ghostly views of the Cat's Eye Nebula haunting the outer reaches of the cosmos.
Experts say symptoms such as dark circles under the eyes, grey skin, cracked lips and hair loss can be a warning sign – but there are other factors too TikTok is rife with influencers warning of “ferritin face”, a term they use to describe the pallor, dark circles, dry skin, and hair loss claimed to indicate low iron stores. But is this based on fact or fiction, and when is it time to head to the GP? Continue reading...
For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise For a very long time, I dreamed of being cured. I was born in 1981. I learned to walk early enough, but I stumbled and fell more easily than other children. My parents began to worry that something was wrong, that my muscles were weaker than they should be. Eventually, at the age of three, I was diagnosed with a form of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). In the 1980s, the precise mechanics were not yet understood, but the condition was known to be hereditary, probably linked to a recessive gene. It was also known to be progressive. As I aged, my muscles would not keep pace. At eight, I began to use a wheelchair for longer distances. By the time I was 18, I rarely walked outdoors any more. It is hard to be young and to know that you are growing weaker rather than stronger. I had all the same aspirations that my nondisabled friends did, but I lived in fear of the future in a way they did not. I spent a lot of time thinking about what my life would have been like if I didn’t have SMA. The images in my head were of something like a double: myself, only rid of this one deficit, imprecisely defined, but encoded somewhere in my body. Continue reading...
In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK’s intelligence service, MI5 , warned that AI had the potential to ‘change the stakes’ on existing and even new bioweapons. To find out why, and how, Ian Sample speaks to Dr Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He explains what has governments so worried and what measures could be put in place to reduce the risks Continue reading...
In his annual speech on threats to the nation, Sir Ken McCallum, the head of the UK’s intelligence service, MI5 , warned that AI had the potential to ‘change the stakes’ on existing and even new bioweapons. To find out why, and how, Ian Sample speaks to Dr Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He explains what has governments so worried and what measures could be put in place to reduce the risks Could AI ‘change the stakes’ in the development of bioweapons? Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod Continue reading...
The footage shows a female humpback whale staying close to the dead calf as it lies motionless on the seafloor, touching it with its head and fin.
