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A child in Seattle, Washington, receives a chickenpox vaccine in 2019. The US, among other countries, offers a routine chickenpox vaccine to children, unlike countries such as the UK and Denmark

Should more countries vaccinate children against chickenpox?

5 April 2023

Some countries are concerned that vaccinating children could lead to a rise in severe chickenpox cases among older unvaccinated people. But a new study suggests that routinely immunising children could cut the number of people who die from the infection...

The UK is making five big bets in the hope of hitting net zero by 2050

31 March 2023

Details of how the UK government is planning to reach net zero by 2050 reveal that the five biggest policy areas include decarbonising power and ramping up heat pumps - but will these bets actually pay off?

Europe survived its winter energy crisis, but what happens next year?

28 March 2023

Apocalyptic predictions about energy shortages in the past six months have failed to materialise, but with Russia's war in Ukraine ongoing, some are already raising concerns about Europe's next winter

Should you be worried that an AI picture of the pope went viral?

27 March 2023

You may have seen these images of Pope Francis looking stylish in a puffer jacket on social media, but you might not have realised they were created by the artificial intelligence tool Midjourney

Is GPT-4 already showing signs of artificial general intelligence?

24 March 2023

Microsoft has created a series of tests for OpenAI's GPT-4 that it claims show the artificial intelligence model is already displaying "sparks" of general intelligence

A common and treatable cause of heart attacks is being overlooked

9 March 2023

Research suggests inflammation may be just as important as cholesterol as a cause of heart attacks, suggesting different treatments should be considered for prevention

Long freight train in the middle of the desert of California.

US freight trains are getting longer – is that safe?

23 February 2023

Freight trains as long as 8 kilometres transport goods in the US, but in light of recent derailments, some are asking if current safety guidelines are up to scratch

The Chinese balloon, spotted above Charlotte, North Carolina on 4 February 2023

Unidentified objects: What's behind the rise in aerial shootdowns?

13 February 2023

A spate of shootdowns involving balloons and other flying objects over North America comes as the US military is becoming more sensitive to unidentified aerial phenomena

In a trial, some participants were asked to reduce their calorie intake by 25 per cent every day. After two years, they showed signs of slowed biological ageing in one test, but not in others

Does restricting calories slow down ageing? We simply don't know

9 February 2023

A test based on blood biomarkers suggests that calorie restriction slightly slows ageing, but the jury is out on whether the dieting strategy really works

Countries such as the UK, Mexico and South Africa have a tax on sugary drinks

Taxing sugary drinks may not cut obesity as much as headlines claim

27 January 2023

A study has suggested that the UK’s 2018 sugar tax prevents 5000 cases of obesity among 10 to 11-year-old girls in England every year, but the picture may be rather more complicated than that