26 articles from SATURDAY 15.4.2023

Botanist Stefano Mancuso: ‘You can anaesthetise all plants. This is extremely fascinating’

An advocate of plant intelligence, the Italian author discusses the complex ways in which plants communicate, whether they are conscious, and what his findings mean for vegansBorn in Calabria in 1965, Stefano Mancuso is a pioneer in the plant neurobiology movement, which seeks to understand “how plants perceive their circumstances and respond to environmental input in an integrated fashion”....

DNA traces of ancient viruses may help fight cancer, study finds

Infections of ancestors lying dormant in DNA can be activated to help immune system attack tumoursRemnants of ancient viruses passed down over thousands or even millions of years in human DNA could help fight cancer, a study has found.Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute were studying lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths globally, to understand why some patients respond...

Is ice-cream good for you? Scientists divided on claims about health benefits

Suggestions in the US that eating the dessert can be beneficial have been greeted by a ripple of scepticism from British expertsDelicious, sweet and full of saturated fat, the concept of ice-cream as a health food is as ridiculous as it is compelling.But in what will be welcome news for many as Britain basks in warmer weather this week, an American public health historian has revealed how numerous...

‘It’s tough for parents’: should young children have their own phone?

Debate bubbles over how to navigate setting limits as UK study shows fifth of three- and four-year-olds have a deviceOne in five UK children aged three and four have mobile phone, study findsHow old is old enough to have your own mobile phone? For once, your children may be right that everyone else is getting them younger than you think.New research from Ofcom has found that a fifth of three- and...

Ancient DNA reveals the multiethnic structure of Mongolia's first nomadic empire

The Xiongnu, contemporaries of Rome and Egypt, built their nomadic empire on the Mongolian steppe 2,000 years ago, emerging as Imperial China's greatest rival and even inspiring the construction of China's Great Wall. In a new study, researchers find that the Xiongnu were a multiethnic empire, with high genetic diversity found across the empire and even within individual extended elite families....

2022 Tongan volcanic explosion was largest natural explosion in over a century, new study finds

The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study. The 15-megaton volcanic explosion from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, one of the largest natural explosions in more than a century, generated a mega-tsunami with waves up to 45-meters high (148 feet) along the coast of Tonga's Tofua Island and waves up to 17 meters (56...

Tastes differ -- even among North Atlantic killer whales

Killer whales (also known as orcas) are intelligent predators. While it's known that killer whales in the Pacific Northwest exploit widely different food types, even within the same region, we know much less about the feeding habits of those found throughout the North Atlantic. Thanks to a new technique, it is now possible to quantify the proportion of different prey that killer whales in the...