Is Iran Trump’s Suez crisis, or just a passing thunderstorm? Britain’s standing in the world was never the same after its assault on Egypt in 1956. Now the US risks repeating history in the Middle East

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Great analysis from @patrickwintour.bsky.social

World’s oldest tortoise caught in viral crypto death scam Fake X account posing as his vet sparked global false reports of Jonathan’s death while soliciting crypto donations

Brilliant stuff from Helena Horton 🤠

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Does going to the moon still matter? – podcast Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, the Atlantic journalist Ross Andersen, and Jan Wörner, a former director general of the European Space Agency

More than 50 years after Apollo, what would it mean to return to the moon?
Great insights from Jan Woerner, former DG at @esa.int and @rossandersen.bsky.social from @theatlantic.com
Kudos @madifinlay.bsky.social
And @elliebury.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

Please drive carefully: scientists plan to transport volatile antimatter for first time Cern researchers are testing traps capable of moving antimatter, which explodes into energy as soon as it comes into contact with regular matter

We knew @cern.bsky.social was planning a test run with antimatter on a truck:
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
And it worked!
Fun chat with Dr Christian Smorra on Science Weekly:
www.theguardian.com/science/audi...
Kudos @madifinlay.bsky.social, Ellie Sans, and Exec prod @elliebury.bsky.social 🧪

What’s behind the injectable peptide craze? – podcast Madeleine Finlay hears from journalist Adrienne Matei and from Dr Anna Barnard, an associate professor at Imperial College London who researches peptides

What's behind the craze for injectable peptides?
Great Science Weekly ep from @madifinlay.bsky.social with Adrienne Matei and Dr Anna Barnard 🧪@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
Exec prod @elliebury.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

What sets human consciousness apart from AI? – podcast Ian Sample speaks to author and journalist Michael Pollan about his new book A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

The ultimate FOMO: do some people have a richer conscious experience than you? Fascinating and funny chat with Michael Pollan, author of A World Appears, on Science Weekly 🧪.
@elliebury.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

What is 'Now'? Podcast Episode · Where The Wild Thoughts Are · 16 February · 54m

LOVED interviewing @jomarchant.bsky.social about the fascinating science of the present moment. The concept of Now, the topic of her new book, raises so many deep questions in physics, neuroscience, philosophy, you name it 🧪🤘
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

HUGE congrats to @jomarchant.bsky.social on her sublime new book In Search of Now! This is where the rubber hits the road. You’ll never ponder the present in the same way again⏱️

A Scottish tea mystery: green shoots – episode one Podcast Episode · Science Weekly · 28/10/2025 · 22m

Absolutely BRILLIANT three part mini-series by @nicolaksdavis.bsky.social on a Scottish tea mystery. Cracking story! 🧪
Production by @madifinlay.bsky.social
Exec prof @elliebury.bsky.social
First ep here:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

Great article from @iansample.bsky.social. Starts with info on the significant harms to oral health from smoking and moves on to give nuanced assessment of the more limited evidence on vaping. If all coverage was like this then a majority of Brits would not think that vaping was as bad as smoking.

Fact-checking Trump’s autism announcement

The Guardian's Science Weekly podcast is great, it's up there with More or Less for the best media science output.

This latest on paracetamol, vaccines & #autism is superb. Madeleine Finlay, Ian Sample @iansample.bsky.social , & their production crew 👏👏👏

open.spotify.com/episode/5LRh...

Fraud, AI slop and huge profits: is science publishing broken? Podcast Episode · Science Weekly · 02/10/2025 · 18m

Thanks @iansample.bsky.social at @theguardian.com podcast for chatting #ScientificPublishing.

This pod follows from The Strain on Scientific Publishing & reports of publisher profit margins rivalling Google etc...

Paper: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Pod: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/s...

If you'd like to read more on this, see @iansample.bsky.social 's article.

Article: www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Paper: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Remembering primatologist Jane Goodall – podcast The renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has died aged 91. She will be remembered for her observations that revolutionised our understanding of chimpanzees, as well as her tireless environmental advoca...

The wonderful, brilliant Jane Goodall.

Global environment editor @jonathan-watts.bsky.social tells @iansample.bsky.social about Jane's revolutionary work, her tireless activism, and the powerful legacy she leaves us all.

www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

Putin’s quest for longevity – podcast At a recent ceremony for world leaders in Beijing, a hot mic picked up a surprising exchange between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about the possibility of living to 150. Putin suggested the secret mi...

Putin, Xi and the obsession with radical life extension. Fascinating chat with @prof-tregoning.bsky.social and @pjotrsauer.bsky.social 🧪
With @elliebury.bsky.social
And Tom Glasser
www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

I have stacks of questions about how the model’s working: how is the grammar intact, why are certain words repeated, are any lowest probability? But I like it.
AI threatens to reduce human experience by steering our choices to popular ones. This is feeble, silly pushback. Or token subversion?
🤖🧠🧪

Using least probable tokens, the answer was a hoot:

“A great city emerges through kaleidoscope sandwiches of perpetual thunder. It integrates gelatinous traffic systems of whispering algorithms. It preserves holographic fountains of magnetic jam and encourages staircases of wandering moons.”
🤖🧠🧪

The question I posed was: What features make a great city? The normal (most probable, single token) response highlighted the richness of a city’s culture, the diversity of its people and the strength of its public spaces.

Fair enough.

But a bit dull.

I asked ChatGPT to emulate Least Probable Token Selection across single, double and triplet tokens. Instead of building sentences from the most probable next token(s), it chooses them from the long tail of lowest probabilities.

The results are fun.
🤖🧠🧪

Accordion staircases of wandering moons

AI chatbots churn out answers by repeatedly predicting the next token, be that a word, subword or character. Building sentences from highly probable next tokens isn’t a bad way to extract consensus from language.
But it's boring.
So I had a word.
🤖🧠🧪

In case you missed it at the time - this is dark stuff.

Epilepsy, ecstasy and the nature of reality Podcast Episode · Where The Wild Thoughts Are · 08/09/2025 · 35m

Dostoevsky, bliss and the absence of prediction error between expectation and experience. Fascinating stuff from @jomarchant.bsky.social and Fabienne Picard at University Hospital Geneva 🧪

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...

Doctor uses Reform conference speech to link king’s cancer to Covid vaccine Aseem Malhotra claimed ‘eminent oncologist’ said jab was ‘significant factor in the cancer of members of royal family’

The Prof Angus Dalgleish mentioned in this story being the one who stood for Parliament in 2015 as a member of UKIP.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

RFK Jr and the chaos at the CDC - podcast Science editor Ian Sample hears from health reporter Melody Schreiber and former CDC director Mandy Cohen to find out what a week of chaos at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention could me...

We spoke to Dr Mandy Cohen, a former director of the CDC, and journalist @melodyschreiber.com about the absolute disaster unfolding at the CDC 🧪

www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

The deadly toll on journalists in the Gaza war With foreign media barred, Palestinians have reported alone, facing the ‘most deliberate effort to kill and silence’ them ever

The Guardian has today printed the names, and where possible, images, of all the media workers killed in Gaza, as part of an international day of action involving more than 150 media organisations.
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Huge congrats to @jomarchant.bsky.social on her new science podcast! 🧪

In the first three eps, the NYT bestselling author delves into plant cognition and potential hints of life elsewhere, and hears that there may be no laws of physics🤘

jomarchant.com/wildthoughts

youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Brook’s hoodlum hundred deserves to sit in its own brilliant square of light | Barney Ronay An England victory on the final day against India would probably nudge his 111 as the greatest at the Oval in the modern age

Such a ludicrously enjoyable piece from @barneyronay.bsky.social on yesterday at The Oval: www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/a...

How will the UK’s recognition of Palestine help those starving in Gaza? Podcast Episode · Today in Focus · 31/07/2025 · 28m

“The world is sitting back and watching a genocide being carried out.”

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

This made us laugh… and cry. If you felt it too, here’s one way to help two agencies in the bunker 👇

Today in Focus Daily News Podcast · Updated daily · Hosted by Michael Safi and Helen Pidd, Today in Focus brings you closer to Guardian journalism. Combining storytelling with insightful analysis and personal testim...

This is brilliant from @lukeharding1968.bsky.social and @helenpidd.bsky.social on Ukraine under intensifying drone attacks and autocracy vs democracy:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...