Shadows of trees falling across bluebells on the forest floor

It's bluebell season:

Urban living may be causing big changes to our oestrogen levels Some gut bacteria recycle discarded sex hormones, like oestrogens, back into the body. The level of these bacteria seems to be higher in industrialised societies, which could have big implications for...

Now a study has found more of these sex-hormone-recycling bacteria in the guts of people in industrialised societies - suggesting but not proving that urban living can alter sex hormone levels, potentially with profound effects

www.newscientist.com/article/2522...

A lot of the sex hormones in your blood are there because of the bacteria in your gut 🧪

That's because the 'get rid of this' sign added to excess oestrogens and testosterone happens to be a sugar molecule that's a tasty snack for some bacteria. When they cut it off, the hormones can be reabsorbed

In this comment piece I quote @timsearchinger.bsky.social and mention his recent research:

bsky.app/profile/tims...

A key solution to climate change isn't happening – and that's good Removing CO2 from the atmosphere by capturing the carbon from burning biomass is supposed to save the planet, but it looks like the flagship project will never happen

Somehow a nonexistent technology became the 'official' solution to global warming. It's good it's not happening because it would be ridiculously expensive and catastrophic for biodiversity. Oh, and it wouldn’t even work either

www.newscientist.com/article/2522...

A woman with three different autoimmune diseases has been successfully treated with the genetically modified immune cells known as CAR T cells 🧪

The number of people with autoimmune diseases being treated this way is growing rapidly

www.newscientist.com/article/2522...

Multicellularity in each of us gradually fails as our cells mutate 🧬, become more diverse - and more selfish 🧪

That, to me, is the key message of Beyond Inheritance by @roxannekhamsi.bsky.social

It's also, I'd argue, why the quest to 'defeat' ageing is futile

www.newscientist.com/article/2522...

“Is it one of the greatest scientific books? Yes, in terms of sales and impact,” says Fara. “But it can’t really be called ‘great’ when it overtly promotes an ethical position antithetical to science’s values and presents a false image of how research is conducted.”

A look back at The Double Helix by @mjflepage.bsky.social, w/ quotes from @matthewcobb.bsky.social, Patricia Fara, me.

Hold yr tomatoes! As Michael suggests, the book is more complex than it seems. I do a deep dive into its writing, with all the drafts and corresp, in my forthcoming biog.

Why The Double Helix is such an extraordinary but infuriating book James Watson’s The Double Helix is probably one of the greatest science books of all time – but Michael Le Page finds he can’t recommend that anyone actually reads it

We're doing a series on the greatest science books of all time, and I was assigned The Double Helix by James Watson

For all its flaws, @matthewcobb.bsky.social, Patricia Fara and @nccomfort.bsky.social think it is indeed one of the greatest

www.newscientist.com/article/2519...

Food shock is inevitable due to the Iran war – and it could get bad Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero...

“We are in a bit of a perfect storm, and there isn’t any easy way out of this,” says @timgbenton.bsky.social “Even if everything was solved tomorrow, it will take some time, as we’ve found with post-covid reconstruction”

www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

A Global Food Crisis Is Coming - And We Need to Prepare YouTube video by The World, The Universe And Us

We welcome the brilliant @profpaulbehrens.bsky.social to the studio for analysis of the coming food shock. Joined too by also brilliant @mjflepage.bsky.social
m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wxo...

15% of all gas/oil are used for growing, processing, transporting and storing food. In other words…

“…you are eating fossils fuels. This means any sudden spike in oil prices hits food prices, too. In fact, if the Iran war drags on, this could become the worst food shock in the modern era.”

The Iran war is exposing the huge risks in our food system No matter where you get your food from, a good chunk of your diet is ultimately reliant on fossil fuels. We already need to change this to tackle climate change, but the Iran war and resulting oil sho...

My leader on how our food supply relies heavily on fossil fuels, which means the war on Iran will lead to soaring prices

We need to decouple farming from fossil fuels, to reduce emissions from farming as well as to make us less vulnerable to food shocks

www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

Food shock is inevitable due to the Iran war – and it could get bad Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero...

Chatted with @mjflepage.bsky.social at New Scientist :
“There’s a lot of potential for this to spin out of control ...If we have major climate events, it could definitely spiral into something much more severe.” www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

It means a lot more co2 in the atmosphere for no good reason, imo

Food shock is inevitable due to the Iran war – and it could get bad — New Scientist Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero...

If you have Apple News+, you can read this here: apple.news/AgwKoAPU0SX2...

“There’s a lot of potential for this to spin out of control and lead to a just as severe, if not a worse, crisis [as in the 1970s],” says @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social

“If we have major climate events, it could definitely spiral into something much more severe.”

Are biofuels a good idea? Only if you're a farmer or shipping company The rush to grow more biofuels continues, despite the fact they increase CO2 emissions rather than lower them, raise food prices and devastate nature. It has to stop, says Michael Le Page

There is away to limit food price rises - to stop turning so much food 🌽 into biofuels

But governments are doing the opposite - increasing biofuel production to limit fuel price rises. This won't have much impact on fuel prices but will hike food prices a lot

www.newscientist.com/article/2499...

Food shock is inevitable due to the Iran war – and it could get bad Even if the conflict in the Middle East ends today, higher fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices will lead to a food shock in the coming months. There is no easy way out, but accelerating the net-zero...

The war on Iran is going to trigger a food shock because of higher prices/shortages of fertilisers, pesticides and fuels 🧪

If the war drags on for months - and/or climate disasters hit, too - global food prices could hit their highest levels ever in real terms

www.newscientist.com/article/2521...

Are biofuels a good idea? Only if you're a farmer or shipping company The rush to grow more biofuels continues, despite the fact they increase CO2 emissions rather than lower them, raise food prices and devastate nature. It has to stop, says Michael Le Page

There is away to limit food price rises - to stop turning so much food 🌽 into biofuels. But governments are doing the opposite - increasing biofuel production to limit fuel price rises.

This won't have much impact on fuel prices but will hike food prices a lot

www.newscientist.com/article/2499...

Gilead refuses to sell groundbreaking HIV prevention drug to MSF Blocking humanitarian organizations from accessing a medical breakthrough puts vulnerable people across the world in danger.

Today, MSF is going public with something we've been fighting behind closed doors for months: Gilead will not sell us their new HIV drug, lenacapavir.

The sticking point isn't even price, they just refuse to sell.

Open letter linked + explainer 🧵1/

www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gilea...

Was not expecting to hear Pata pata by Miriam Makeba during Hail Mary, but very happy to

Highly recommend the film btw

Just watched Mercy. A half-way decent plot would have involved Pratt getting zapped because the AI hallucinated all the evidence against his character. Instead we get this absolute bilge about an AI getting all emotional.

Who sponsored this nonsense?

Are humans degenerating genetically and getting dumber as a result? Are we evolving to be more stupid? Humans have a relatively high genetic mutation rate, which has been thought to be driving down our physical and mental fitness – but columnist Michael Le Page finds ...

Are we humans accumulating mutations 🧬 because the wonders of modern medicine mean far more of us survive? And is this having a big impact on our 'fitness' and even our intelligence? 🧪

When I took a look at the latest research I was surprised by what I found:

www.newscientist.com/article/2520...

Why clones aren't really clones – and what that means for cloning A 20-year study has shown that, like photocopying photocopies, cloning doesn't produce perfect copies – and the reason could be that the cloning process itself produces lots of mutations

Turns out cloning clones eventually fails, just like photocopying photocopies. Which means clones
aren't really clones - they're not genetically identical 🧪

Teruhiko Wakayama thinks the cloning process induces lots of mutations 🧬 tho he hasn't proved it yet

www.newscientist.com/article/2520...

Honoured to have been made a life member of @absw.bsky.social at the AGM last night

And congrats to @alexobrienuk.bsky.social @sarahemilywild.bsky.social @pauladepoju.bsky.social

Why clones aren't really clones – and what that means for cloning A 20-year study has shown that, like photocopying photocopies, cloning doesn't produce perfect copies – and the reason could be that the cloning process itself produces lots of mutations

Turns out cloning clones eventually fails, just like photocopying photocopies. Which means clones
aren't really clones - they're not genetically identical 🧪

Teruhiko Wakayama thinks the cloning process induces lots of mutations 🧬 tho he hasn't proved it yet

www.newscientist.com/article/2520...

Are humans degenerating genetically and getting dumber as a result? Are we evolving to be more stupid? Humans have a relatively high genetic mutation rate, which has been thought to be driving down our physical and mental fitness – but columnist Michael Le Page finds ...

Are we humans accumulating mutations 🧬 because the wonders of modern medicine mean far more of us survive? And is this having a big impact on our 'fitness' and even our intelligence? 🧪

When I took a look at the latest research I was surprised by what I found:

www.newscientist.com/article/2520...

Cancer-causing chemical found to be leaking from gas cookers One in 10 homes tested in the UK, Italy and the Netherlands have dangerous levels of benzene because of slow leaks from gas hobs and ovens

We already knew induction hobs beat gas cooking in terms of carbon emissions, air pollution, fire risk and the odds of blowing up your entire home 🧪

Now we can add "don't release cancer-causing chemicals into the air in your home" to the list of advantages

www.newscientist.com/article/2520...