AI experts say state needs to help create British version or risk national security and declining competitivenessThe UK needs to support the creation of a British version of ChatGPT, MPs were told on Wednesday, or the country will further lose the ability to determine its own fate.Speaking to the Commons science and technology committee, Adrian Joseph, BT’s chief data and artificial intelligence officer, said the government needed to have a national investment in “large language models”, the AI that underpins services such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat and Google’s Bard. Continue reading...

Analysis says hundreds of animals are contaminated with dangerous compounds linked to cancer and other health problemsHundreds of animal species across the globe from ticks to whales have blood contaminated with toxic PFAS, a new analysis of previous peer-reviewed research shows.Though the analysis does not aim to reveal how the exposure to PFAS affects wildlife, anecdotal evidence in some of the previous studies show the chemicals are likely sickening animals. Continue reading...

Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett reflects on her life-changing role in Tár (1m25s), food writer Bee Wilson investigates the real impact of energy drinks on consumers (21m38s), and David Robson on what a ground-breaking study says about our power to shape our future selves (48m09s) Continue reading...

Years as a therapist have taught me that silence ruins relationships. So forget the cards and the roses and celebrate each otherI popped into my local newsagent last week to pick up a copy of the Guardian newspaper and, as I stood in the queue, I realised I was standing next to a rack of Valentine’s Day cards.I began to browse and was struck by how many of the cards were humorous. Some were just silly – “dim sum-body say it’s Valentine’s Day?”, or there was one with a couple in the bathroom – “Roses are red, violets are blue, you shave your legs while I do a poo!” But to my...

The development of an ‘artificial pancreas’ could revolutionise the daily lives of people living with type 1 diabetes. Now the technology could be made available to more than 100,000 people in the UK on the NHSMore than 100,000 people with type 1 diabetes in England will be offered an “artificial pancreas”, in a revolutionary new treatment for managing the condition.The so-called closed-loop system uses an algorithm to determine the amount of insulin that should be administered to the user and reads blood sugar levels to keep them steady. For thousands of people in the UK, living with...

As we approach the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ian Sample talks to physicist Prof John Ellis, and Arctic governance expert Svein Vigeland Rottem, about how the world of science has had to adaptClip: BBC NewsIn the Arctic, in space, and at international research centres such as CERN, scientists have collaborated with colleagues from around the world to push the boundaries of human knowledge. Since the invasion of Ukraine last February some of that work has come under threat, as Russia’s ongoing role in scientific projects and institutes has come under scrutiny. Continue...

Electricity is involved in every aspect of life. But could the new science of bioelectricity help cure diseases and ‘upgrade’ humans?I was back at the checkpoint. The traffic moved as normal. Bored-looking soldiers waved through civilians on foot, dusty cars and rickety trucks full of livestock and produce.Then the Humvee in front of the gate blew up. Out of the eye-searing blast, I made out the figure of a man running at me, full-speed. He was wearing an explosive vest. I shot him. Continue reading...

Kisspeptin found to bolster sexual responses by increasing brain activity linked to arousal and attractionPeople with a low sex drive could benefit from injections of a hormone called kisspeptin, according to clinical trials that found the shots can boost sexual responses.The trials are the first to show the hormone can increase activity in brain regions linked to arousal and attraction in men and women who are distressed by their low libidos. Continue reading...

Scientists suggest a patient’s own cells could eventually be grown in the lab and used to repair injuries caused by stroke or traumaBlobs of human brain tissue have been transplanted into the brains of rats in work that could pave the way for new treatments for devastating brain injuries.The groundbreaking study showed that the “human brain organoids” – sesame seed-sized balls of neurons – were able to integrate into the rat brain, linking up with their blood supplies and communicating with the rat neurons. Continue reading...

As rich people plough money into ventilation to protect themselves, those with long Covid are treated as an embarrassmentYou could see Covid-19 as an empathy test. Who was prepared to suffer disruption and inconvenience for the sake of others, and who was not? The answer was often surprising. I can think, for instance, of five prominent environmentalists who denounced lockdowns, vaccines and even masks as intolerable intrusions on our liberties, while proposing no meaningful measures to prevent transmission of the virus. Four of them became active spreaders of disinformation.If environmentalism...

Sent into apoplexy by whistling noses? Can’t bear the sound of people eating? You could be one of the many people affected by this potentially debilitating conditionAs a teenager, I remember being moved almost to tears by the sound of a family member chewing muesli. A friend eating dumplings once forced me to flee the room. The noises one former housemate makes when chomping popcorn mean I have declined their invitations to the cinema for nearly 20 years.I am not proud of myself for reacting like this – in fact, I am pretty embarrassed – but my responses feel unavoidable. It is probable...

Medical training is in demand, but hesitancy on body donation means students have little to work with, while an illicit trade in transplant organs flourishesScalpel in hand, Carl Mwangi, a first-year medical student at the University of Nairobi, slices through the brain tissue. “To figure out where the vessels are, you have to dig in deeper,” he says, excited to be dissecting a human brain for the first time. But if he wants to do more dissections, the aspiring neurosurgeon will have to secure one of only 10 places on the anatomy programme here.Only postgraduate students and those...

How cigarette smoke – something I’d always been repelled by – finally unlocked my headful of roiling emotions a month after my beloved father diedI have never been a smoker. Even from a very young age, I’ve been actively repelled by it. I confess I did eventually try a cigarette as a drunken student, largely due to peer pressure, and ended up with a scorched larynx and a mouth that tasted like a neglected car’s exhaust, which just reaffirmed my opinions on the matter.So it was quite surprising when, nearly two decades later, an encounter with secondhand cigarette smoke ended up easing...

Swimming-induced pulmonary oedema involves the accumulation of fluid in the lungs of swimmers without it having been inhaledA potentially life-threatening condition that can affect fit and healthy open-water swimmers causing them to “drown from the inside” may involve a buildup of fluid in the heart muscle, researchers have suggested.Swimming-induced pulmonary oedema – SIPE – is a form of immersion pulmonary oedema and involves the accumulation of fluid in the lungs of swimmers without it having been inhaled. The condition is thought to be a result of increased pressure on the body’s...

If global heating continues at current rate of 2.7C, losses will be greater with 68% of glaciers disappearingHalf the planet’s glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if humanity sticks to goals set out in the Paris climate agreement, according to research that finds the scale and impacts of glacial loss are greater than previously thought. At least half of that loss will happen in the next 30 years.Researchers found 49% of glaciers would disappear under the most optimistic scenario of 1.5C of warming. However, if global heating continued under the current scenario of 2.7C of warming, losses...

Rural communities facing the climate crisis, gender inequality and conflict may prosper through a project helping women cultivate fungi rather than cotton and cashewsAt the forest’s edge, a scientist is giving a lesson on the mushrooms that grow here in the damp ground around the trees of Toui-Kilibo reserve in Benin. Olyvia Fadeyi is a mycologist – she studies fungi – and is teaching the women from the village of Yaoui how best to harness the economic value of this strangest of crops. Mushrooms can be cultivated year round, in back gardens, on vertically stacked shelves, rather than...

It’s been a year of huge news on Earth, but how are things looking from up above? Plus: Waterloo Road returns. Here’s what to watch this evening Continue reading...

It’s a well-established therapeutic tool for allowing couples to make sense of each other, but now social media has given the idea of ‘love languages’ a real boostRecently, my boyfriend and I had a check-in. He told me that he felt as if I’d grown complacent when it came to physical affection. I bristled at the accusation, but clamped my mouth shut, mostly because he was right. Truthfully, it’s not the first time I’ve been given this relationship feedback.When it comes to physical touch, my factory setting is “awkward”. But I am truly excellent at small, thoughtful gestures...

It was a great year for a slight lifting of the veil on the final frontier – from redirecting an asteroid to a glimpse into creationThe year has been a blast in space exploration, from Nasa’s big step in returning to moon missions, to glimpses at the origins of the universe and hope that humanity could survive the doomsday scenario of an asteroid hurtling towards Earth.These are the events that shaped 2022 in space advances: Continue reading...

King Charles will meet with global leaders as part of an effort to protect nature.

Sea-ice measurements in Antarctica have registered a new minimum, breaking the record set only one year ago.

The Royal Society calls for the delivery of a UK-wide land-use framework to clear up confusion.

New research reveals dolphins struggle to communicate and work together as noise pollution increases.

A modified jumbo jet will fly out of Cornwall on a mission to send nine satellites to orbit.

A nurse says she is heartbroken that nothing can be done to save her house from coastal erosion.