Lovely shaggy inkcap (Coprinus comatus) aka lawyer's wig/shaggy mane #fungus #fungi 🍄

Chicken ovaries. Not a food I expected to come across even in the wonderland of a Chinese supermarket

I love when a paper makes me feel stupid by finding an obvious, overlooked solution: “perhaps most great whales have an unrecognized potential for great longevity that has been masked by the demographic disruptions of industrial whaling”; we killed all the old ones, only the babies are left. Duh. 🧪

This handsome beast is the larva of the spurge hawkmoth (Hyles euphorbiae) of Europe, Asia & N. America. It feeds on Ephorbia spp., sequestering toxic diterpenes from its host. 📷: Wolfgang Ahlmer CCBY4. #Euphorbiaceae #Aposematism #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I loved digging into this one for @livescience.com. There is video evidence of #dolphins and killer whales hanging out together on hunts. Are they really cooperating, or is something else going on? #science #orcas #killerwhales #behavior #marinelife 🧪🐬🦑 www.livescience.com/animals/mari...

This was a particularly fascinating piece of work to dig into for @newscientist.com We often hear of things being good for our #microbiome, and thus for our #health. But it wasn’t clear what a healthy gut microbiome consisted of. Now we have a better picture 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2508...

“Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” #montypython Apparently, they brought illness, particularly in urban areas. #history 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2508...

Dangerous retrograde step as #US #CDC pulls back on recommendations for #HBV #vaccine at #birth & dilutes advice for a proper three dose #immunisation schedule. This is a safe, cheap, robust & well-evidenced vaccine. There is no evidence of harm. 🧪 @who.int @gavi.org www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Have a look through this gallery to see one of the coolest examples of role specialisation in the insect world 🐜 They live inside twigs with small circular entrances & these workers have evolved heads the perfect shape to block those entrances - effectively, they are living doors!

Nice to see these very forthright words from European Council President António Costa @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu

Well this is an exciting message from Evri: "We need you to take action We're sorry your parcel has been damaged beyond repair in transit. Please contact your sender." It was four boxes of self-adhesive floor tiles. What on earth can they have done to damage them so badly?

If you've got a food allergy and constantly watch ingredients, or sometimes have to avoid hugging or kissing someone because of what they've eaten, this news could be for you: An experimental vaccine can prevent life-threatening allergic reaction in mice 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2507...

It is well known that #exercise is linked to better #cancer survival, but the mechanisms behind this are poorly understood. It now seems tumour growth is reduced by exercise due to muscle cells outcompeting cancer cells for sugar. @newscientist.com #health 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2506...

I've fallen a bit behind posting about articles I've written. This was a cool one published yesterday for @newscientist.com: We knew asteroid Bennu carried all but one of the molecules needed to kick-start life. Now we've found the missing ingredient. #space 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2506...

Pregnancy is linked to greater risk of dental issues, but we aren’t entirely sure why. Now, it seems that the oral microbiome changes when a woman is expecting, becoming less diverse and potentially more prone to causing inflammation. 🧪 #health #pregnancy www.newscientist.com/article/2506...

My cats made me write this story and I'm very glad they did. It also makes we want a leopard cat (a "chicken-killing tiger"), but apparently although they are adorably cute only for the first month, after that they go WILD 🧪 #nature #history #china www.livescience.com/animals/cats...

What led to the emergence of the first states, thousands of years ago? People often say agriculture, but the first large-scale societies didn't appear until 4000 years after the advent of agriculture. The answer may be growing grain, specifically. 🧪 #history www.newscientist.com/article/2505...

This is a great video from @tomvanderlinden.bsky.social on why films often don't feel as real any more and the (haptic) elements that trick your body into thinking you are actually there. It explains why I move in my seat so much during the test run scene in Top Gun: Maverick #films #science 🧪

Rafflesia hasseltii: a plant seen more by tigers than people. Watching this flower open by night was the closest thing to magic:

So does the future hold massive swamps of mosquitoes, farmed to produce parts for 3D printing? @sparkes.bsky.social 🧪 #insects #technology

Early humans like Neanderthals probably kissed, and our ape ancestors could have been doing it 21 million years ago 🧪 #evolution #kissing #sex It was great talking to @matildabrindle.bsky.social and @zannaclay.bsky.social for this @newscientist.com story. www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

This came as a big surprise to me: In the grasslands of Central Asia, long the domain of mobile peoples living in yurts, a giant settlement dating back 3600 years has been discovered. 🧪 #BronzeAge #science #archaeology www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

This was a fun story to work on partly because I've always loved the skeleton this research is based on: a Neanderthal specimen known as Altamura Man, still embedded in rock in Lamalunga cave in Italy, and peppered with "cave popcorn" or "popcorn concretions", making it look part of a coral reef 🧪

I loved working on this story. Reality really can trump the drama of fiction: Worker ants are tricked into murdering their mother by an imposter queen — who quickly takes the throne for herself 🧪 #ants #science Shakespeare would have been proud of that plot. www.livescience.com/animals/inse...

I am struggling with this logic. If you ban songs from KPop Demon Hunters because people are "uncomfortable" with references to demons and "associate them with spiritual forces opposed to God and goodness", surely you must also ban stories of Jesus casting out demons. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's amazing that forensic science on the skeleton of Béla, the young Hungarian Duke of Macsó, can tell us that he was murdered by three assailants in a bloody and coordinated attack (back in 1272) . 🧪 #history #murder www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Epstein-Barr virus, the common pathogen behind mononucleosis/mono/glandular fever/kissing disease, seems to prime some people to develop the autoimmune condition systemic lupus erythematosus 🧪 #health #mono www.newscientist.com/article/2504...

Was this giant, mysterious collection of holes arranged in a snake-like pattern on Monte Sierpe in Peru the world's first spreadsheet? Evidence suggests it could have been a monumental Inca accounting device for trade and tax. 🧪 #history #archaeology www.newscientist.com/article/2503...

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

I suspect that the feeling that there isn't enough time to do the things you actually need to do is a pretty common phenomenon outside #science research, too. @nature.com It's certainly how I feel. 🧪

I love every question in this quiz, but my favourite mystery song title clue is this: 10. The Beatles’ Temporal Conjecture of Counterfactual Reasoning GIVEN: One week contains exactly seven days. ALSO GIVEN: Love is needed and can be provided for more than seven days a week... 🧪 #math #music

🧵(1/?) I find the lack of US action on #birdflu so far this year bemusing. I live in England and have a mere 8 chickens, but because I give spare eggs to neighbours, as of today, I have to abide to stricter biosecurity rules. 🧪 #health www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Could Vikings* have settled in Iceland 70 years before the widely accepted date? *or more accurately, Norse people. #Vikings were the Norse people who raided, traded and explored by sea. All Vikings were Norse, but not all Norse people were Vikings #history 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2502...

You've probably heard that the microbiome is linked to aspects of health, including conditions like anxiety, but did you know that the mix of microbes in the gut might also help shape a child's personality? #science 🧪 #health #microbiome #bacteria #brain www.newscientist.com/article/2502...

A very nice thread on Nanotyrannus here by @davehone.bsky.social 🧪 #dinosaurs

This is a cracking bit of research. The tiny tyrannosaur named Nanotyrannus, long thought by many to be just a figment of the imagination (aka a young T. rex that was misclassified) turns out to almost certainly be a real species #science 🧪 #dinosaurs www.livescience.com/animals/dino...

Some lovely cheetah-like examples of the wonderfully named shaggy scalycap (Pholiota squarossa) emerging from the base of a tree in the garden of the Mottisfont @nationaltrust.org.uk property. #fungifriends #mushrooms 🍄

Sight has been restored in people with previously incurable vision loss. A tiny wireless chip implanted in the back of the eye and a pair of high-tech glasses have helped people with advanced age-related macular degeneration read again. #science #blindness 🧪 www.newscientist.com/article/2500...

I love getting emails like this from "journals". I suspect they didn't review my recent publications too carefully, given that I am not a professor and my only research paper was back in 2001 (it was about marine turtles, though). 🧪 #journals #scientificpublishing #research #science

Fortunately I don't know anyone who does this. It would make me twitch like Commissioner Dreyfuss in the Pink Panther films, much as I do when people mix up "me" and "I" and say things like "Bob and me are going to the shop." #grammar #language #words #subediting #editing #writing xkcd.com/3143/

University administration: "We need you to complete 26 hours of lab safety training 🧪 each year so that everyone is safe and responsible." Also university administration:

I spotted some lovely looking honey fungus (Armillaria mellea, I think) on my run this morning. 🍄 #fungifriends #fungi #mushrooms

A beautifully preserved skeleton found near Golden Cap on England's Jurassic Coast has been identified as a new species of ichthyosaur 🧪 #palaeontology #paleontology #jurassic www.newscientist.com/article/2499...

It's amazing what science can tell us about the past. We now know what was in King Richard III's oral microbiome from an investigation of the plaque on his teeth. #science #history #archaeology 🧪 Read more @newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

Naked mole-rat workers may have specific roles, such as cleaning the toilet chamber or transporting waste, rather than being generalist helpers. The findings suggest their colonies are even more complex than we thought. 🧪 #animals #zoology #nature www.livescience.com/animals/land...

This seems an eye-catching finding. H5N1 flu viruses - like the avian influenza H5N1 virus infecting dairy cattle in the US – can persist in cheese made from contaminated raw milk. Raw milk-cheeses include Cheddar, Comté and Parmigiano Reggiano, to name but a few. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looks like vultures don't do much in the way of cleaning out the old junk in the attic. #birds #science #history #nature 🧪 www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Measure Twice, Cut Once xkcd.com/3149/

Are any of the other big science awards catching up with the #Nobels? For @nature.com, I spoke to a panoply of prize-winning scientists including Andre Geim, @saraseager.bsky.social and Robert Langer to see what they thought. 🧪 #science www.nature.com/articles/d41...