Scientists have found a safer way to hunt for the next pandemic virus
Coronaviruses with their telltale spike proteins. Jezper/Shutterstock.com The world is full of animal viruses, and we’re pretty sure that one of them will cause the next pandemic. To prevent pandemics, we need to predict which of the vast number of animal viruses are most likely to infect humans. A new study, published in Nature, sets […]
Prostate cancer overdiagnosis risk sharply rises after age 70 – new research
A PSA test can help detect prostate cancer. Saiful52/ Shutterstock Over the past decade, millions of men without symptoms of prostate cancer have voluntarily undergone a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in the UK to find out if they might have prostate cancer. While research has shown that PSA screening in men aged 50-69 years can […]
What sitting all day does to the body
Shutterstock For decades, one of the most prominent public health messages has been that smoking kills. But another everyday habit, far less dramatic and far more socially acceptable, may also be damaging our health: prolonged sitting. Many people now spend up to ten hours a day seated at desks, in meetings or in front of […]
UK Biobank records listed for sale in China: why open data might be the answer
PeopleImages/Shutterstock.com The chief executive of the UK Biobank, one of the world’s largest biomedical databases, recently wrote to over 500,000 participants telling them that some of their data had been made available for sale online through a Chinese website. This wasn’t a data breach or hack, but rather researchers who had legitimately accessed the data […]
Does menopause cause a ‘collagen cliff’? What you need to know
Fibroblast, collagen and elastin fibres. Olga Zinkevych/Shutterstock Collagen has become a staple of skincare advertising and social media wellness trends. But it is not just a buzzword. It is the most abundant protein in the body and helps support structures throughout the body, including skin and bone. For women, collagen loss can become especially noticeable […]
A new Welsh electoral landscape puts Plaid Cymru within reach of power
Plaid Cymru’s electoral hopes for May’s Senedd election are high. Polls suggest the party is competing with Reform UK to emerge as the largest group in the next Welsh parliament, putting it, for the first time, within reach of leading a government in Wales. This marks a striking shift in Plaid’s electoral fortunes. At the […]
Romeo and Juliet: a ‘Sliding Doors’ production that plays with time to explore what might have been
Structurally, Romeo and Juliet is almost a Shakespearean comedy. The Bard’s comic plays tend to turn the world upside down and then neatly restore the social order, usually by means of marriage. The world of Romeo and Juliet is turned upside down when two adolescents from warring families fall in love, and the world is […]
Asha Bhosle: the bad sister whose singing opened up a world of queer possibility for me
Asha Bhosle, the last surviving singing legend of the golden era of Hindi cinema, has died at 92. She debuted in the industry shortly after Indian independence in the late 1940s and is now widely considered the best-known singer in India, with more than 12,000 songs to her name. Over the course of a long […]
Dawn Chorus Day: a composer on the musical styles of birdsong
International Dawn Chorus Day (May 3 for 2026) is a great time to hear the UK’s birds at their most vocal. While we can enjoy the variety and beauty of birdsong, for the birds themselves it serves more practical purposes – to attract a mate and establish and defend a breeding territory. Birds can produce […]
King Charles embarks on state visit to the US – can he repair the special relationship?
King Charles’s four-day state visit to the US is going ahead as planned, after a shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner raised doubts about security. The royal trip, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of American independence, is the first since 2007, when the late Queen Elizabeth II was hosted by President George W. […]