22 articles from SUNDAY 4.9.2022

‘Ticking away in the back of my mind’: what does it mean to know the risk embedded in your DNA?

Scheme aims to help Australia become the first country to offer preventive genetic testing through public healthcare. Is that knowledge power?Get our free news app, morning email briefing or daily news podcastMortality has always been on Perry Jones’ mind, much more so than your average 20-something. She’s dealt with a number of challenging health conditions since her teens, so when her mother...

Why scientists – and Chris Hemsworth – want to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger

The Tasmanian tiger was declared extinct in the 1980s, but now a team of scientists from the US and Australia want to bring it back to life – launching an ambitious multimillion-dollar project, with the backing of investors and celebrities like Chris Hemsworth. However, some in the scientific community question whether this project is worthwhile and scientifically possible.The Guardian Australia...

Britain’s multilingual children: ‘We speak whatever language gets the job done’

In modern Britain, millions of kids grow up learning two languages or more – and experts believe fluidity in language has some surprising advantagesFor many three-year-olds growing up in the UK, it’s challenging enough to learn and master one language, usually English. Yet there’s another rising demographic of young children who are acquiring and absorbing vocabulary from multiple languages...

Are you a busybody, a hunter or a dancer? A new book about curiosity reveals all

Twin academics Perry Zurn and Dani S Bassett fought to forge idiosyncratic paths through academia – then put that knowledge to use in a seven-year study of how we learnIn the early 17th century, there was a room in a house in Copenhagen bursting with hundreds of objects: bones and shells and taxidermised birds, not to mention weapons and rocks and a stuffed polar bear cub hanging from the...

Miracle ‘farm dust’ pill could prevent childhood allergies

Treatments based on barnyard material and unprocessed milk may be developed by 2027An international team of scientists is working on a “farm dust” treatment to stop children developing allergies as research reveals the protective benefits of being brought up on a farm can last into adulthood.The study has found evidence that children brought up on family farms have greater protection into...