Thermal bath complex is latest discovery among ruins of Italian city destroyed by Vesuvius eruption in AD79
A large and sophisticated thermal bath complex that was believed to have been used by its owner to woo well-heeled guests has been discovered among the ruins of ancient Pompeii.
The baths were found during excavations of a home on Via di Nola in Regio IX, a wealthy district of the city before it was destroyed by the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Continue reading...Scientists say frog’s journey shows difficulty of spotting insects or fungi spread by global plant trade
A tiny tree frog hitchhiking in a bunch of roses to Sheffield from Colombia has inspired a study into invasive species reaching the UK’s shores.
Dr Silviu Petrovan, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s zoology department and a senior author of a paper published today in the journal BioScience, had his interest piqued when he was asked to identify a live frog found in roses in a florist’s shop in Sheffield.
Continue reading...International research also reveals conscientious or agreeable children are likely to receive preferential treatment
As Philip Larkin once noted, your mum and dad have a lasting effect on you. Now, researchers have revealed which siblings in a family are more likely to be favoured: it is bad news for sons.
Researchers have found daughters, older children and those who are more conscientious or agreeable are likely to receive preferential treatment.
Continue reading...Experts say mental health treatment is key to tackling rise in UK, rather than simply reclassifying drug as class A
It was once viewed as a fringe club drug whose use as a horse tranquilliser gave it a “dirty” reputation. But with illegal ketamine use reaching record levels, the Home Office announced last week that it was considering reclassifying it as a class A drug in response to a dramatic increase in use among young people.
An estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 reported ketamine use in the year ending March 2023 in England and Wales, the largest number on record, according to Home Office data. Behind the headline figures, there is also evidence of a troubling culture shift, with an increasing number of people taking the drug, which has dissociative, anaesthetic and psychedelic effects, at home rather than in an occasional party setting. This heightens the risk of dependency, experts say, which can lead to devastating health consequences.
Continue reading...Technology secretary Peter Kyle has the task of making Britain a leading player in the AI revolution, but says economic growth will not come at the cost of online safety
With the NHS still struggling, a prisons crisis still teetering and Britain’s borrowing costs soaring, there are few easy jobs going in Keir Starmer’s cabinet at present.
But even in such difficult times, the task of convincing Silicon Valley’s finest to help make Britain a leader in the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution – all while one leading tech boss uses the Labour government as a regular punching bag and others ostentatiously move closer to Donald Trump – is among the most challenging.
Continue reading...Linguistics professor says London dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects have traversed the globe
The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.
No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex.
Continue reading...Genetic analysis of Roman soldier or gladiator buried in York reveals 25% of his ancestry came from Scandinavia
People with Scandinavian ancestry were in Britain long before the Anglo-Saxons or the Vikings turned up, researchers have found after studying the genetics of an ancient Roman buried in York.
The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons brought an influx of Scandinavians to ancient Britain in the fifth century, with the first major Viking raid – which targeted the monastery at Lindisfarne – occurring in AD793.
Continue reading...These nocturnal events are more spectacular from dark country sky, but they can still be seen from a light-polluted city – and for many, no telescope is needed
Each night an annual parade of constellations passes above our heads but there are always exciting, less frequent events to look out for in the sky. The year 2025 is no exception. The night sky is more spectacular from a dark country sky, but you can see these events even if, like many others, you live in a light-polluted city. For most events you do not need a telescope or binoculars.
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Continue reading...Particles recorded by scientists at the Chilean research station, the Profesor Julio Escudero Base, as recently as Sunday
Smoke from bushfires in south-eastern Australia has been detected over Antarctica for the first time since the 2019-20 black summer fires.
Scientists detected the smoke particles at the Profesor Julio Escudero Base, a Chilean research station on King George Island, at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula.
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Continue reading...Researchers say drugs may be able to increase lifespan by extending health and thus shortening the rate of ageing
Not for nothing are dogs called man’s best friend: they are good for their owners’ mental and physical health, and some studies have shown that if you’re looking for a date and want to seem more attractive, it might be time to get a canine companion.
So what would it be like if dogs could live for ever – and what if that secret could help their owners live longer, healthier lives too?
Continue reading...Delicate 650-year-old pages to be preserved are some of the island’s most important historical texts
Work has begun to conserve and digitise one of the oldest paper documents still in existence on the island of Ireland.
The ecclesiastical register, which dates back to the medieval period, is about 650 years old. It belonged to the former archbishop of Armagh Milo Sweteman.
Continue reading...Review of 116 clinical trials finds less than 30 minutes a day, five days a week only results in minor reductions
People who want to lose meaningful amounts of weight through exercise may need to devote more than two-and-a-half hours a week to aerobic training such as running, walking or cycling, researchers say.
The finding emerged from a review of 116 published clinical trials that explored the impact of physical exercise on weight loss, waist size and body fat. In total, the trials reported data for nearly 7,000 adults who were overweight or obese, meaning their body mass index (BMI) was more than 25.
Continue reading...England maintained good maths scores and improved in science, coming ninth and fifth among 70 countries
English pupils have made a strong showing in the latest round of prestigious international tests, maintaining their scores in maths and improving in science, a subject in which they rose to fifth in the league tables.
They were among students from 70 countries who participated in the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (Timss), which takes place every four years, providing education policymakers with international comparisons.
Continue reading...Device inflates before eating and contracts afterwards, simulating the effects of having a meal, say scientists
From weight loss jabs to vibrating pills, the obesity crisis has spawned myriad innovations to help people shed pounds.
Now scientists have overhauled the humble gastric balloon – producing a device that both inflates and deflates to keep it effective for longer.
Continue reading...After wowing the court of Versailles over 200 years ago, the jet-black beast is back in the spotlight at the Science Museum
King Louis XV’s rhinoceros was the star of the court of Versailles. Fed on a diet of bread, its tough hide was regularly massaged with oil. But it proved not an easy pet to keep and unfortunately killed two people who entered its enclosure.
Now, the magnificent beast, since stuffed and preserved, has left Paris for the first time since it arrived in 1770, travelling to London to take up a temporary place under the spotlight at the Science Museum in London.
Continue reading...Two satellites in Proba-3 mission expected to be launched on Wednesday in India and will work in tandem to study sun’s corona
Final preparations have begun for a landmark space mission that will use satellites flying in close formation to create artificial solar eclipses high above the Earth.
The Proba-3 mission is the European Space Agency’s first attempt at precise formation flying in orbit and calls for two spacecraft to loop around the planet in an arrangement that never deviates by more than a millimetre, about the thickness of a human fingernail.
Continue reading...A ‘covalent organic framework’ can be used to capture carbon to store it or convert it for industrial use
An innocuous yellow powder, created in a lab, could be a new way to combat the climate crisis by absorbing carbon from the air.
Just half a pound of the stuff may remove as much carbon dioxide as a tree can, according to early tests. Once the carbon is absorbed by the powder, it can be released into safe storage or be used in industrial processes, like carbonizing drinks.
Continue reading...Researchers say fossilised marks were apparently made in same place within days of each other about 1.5m years ago
About 1.5m years ago a big-toothed cousin of prehistoric humans walked quickly along a lakeside in Kenya, footprints marking the muddy ground. But they were not our only distant relative on the scene: treading the same ground was the early human Homo erectus.
Researchers say an analysis of fossilised footprints discovered in deposits of the Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, suggest the marks were made by two different species on the human family tree who were in the same place within hours or days of each other.
Continue reading...Results of trial of benralizumab injection could be ‘gamechanger’ for millions of people around the world
Doctors are hailing a new way to treat serious asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease attacks that marks the first breakthrough for 50 years and could be a “gamechanger” for patients.
A trial found offering patients an injection was more effective than the current care of steroid tablets, and cuts the need for further treatment by 30%.
Continue reading...Structures thousands of times narrower than a human hair suggest future uses for nanobot technology
Australian researchers have created building blocks out of DNA to construct a series of nano-scale objects and shapes, from a rod and a square to an infinitesimally small dinosaur.
The approach turns DNA into a modular material for building nanostructures – thousands of times narrower than a human hair. Developed by researchers from the University of Sydney Nano Institute and published in the journal Science Robotics, it suggests exciting possibilities for future use of nanobot technology.
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