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748 articles · page 4 of 16 · The Science front page
A Cardiff University report has questioned whether Welsh government support for people leaving prison is "fit for purpose", after figures showed drug-related deaths among probation-supervised prison leavers running well above the England and Wales average and rough sleeping on release rising for a fourth consecutive year.
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A magnitude 4.9 earthquake with an epicentre in waters south of Adelaide rattled residents across the region this morning, Geoscience Australia has reported. Callers to ABC Adelaide described shaking, windows rattling and a brief rumble lasting several seconds from the metropolitan area to the south coast.
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IBM researchers have demonstrated a multi-channel quantum interconnect, linking two 120-qubit chips with four superconducting couplers that transfer quantum information at an average accuracy of 99 percent, and up to 99.29 percent at their best.
Victorian health authorities are warning against the use of unregulated peptides after a cluster of anaphylaxis cases was linked to black-market products promoted on social media. New health data shows at least 13 Victorians have experienced anaphylaxis since July 2025, more than half in the past two months, with emergency departments treating patients for breathing difficulties, facial swelling and collapse.
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A new phase 2b clinical trial published in JAMA reports that a single-dose nasal spray of mebufotenin (5-MeO-DMT), a synthetic version of a compound found in Sonoran Desert toad venom, produced rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with difficult-to-treat depression. However, independent experts caution that the benefits were incomplete and the study excluded patients with suicidality, leaving questions about safety and long-term maintenance.
Stark health news emerged on Monday as an attack on Ebola responders in Congo killed a nurse and a funding cut to NHS maternity care raised safety concerns, alongside new scientific discoveries about microchimeric cells and protein fibers.
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MIT researchers have designed an implantable drug-delivery device that uses ultrasound to help chemotherapy drugs spread farther through the brain, potentially improving treatment for the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma. The device, called LUCID, can be implanted during tumour-removal surgery and wirelessly controlled to release drugs over an extended period while ultrasound enhances their distribution across the blood-brain barrier.
A stretch of water in western Antarctica has been named the Amos Channel after Jonathan Amos, the former BBC science correspondent, for what the naming committee called his "exceptional and influential role" in bringing Antarctic research to public understanding. The channel is a new feature between Rothschild Island and Alexander Island, formed when the ice that once connected them disintegrated.
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NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has ended its science mission and is expected to break up in Earth's atmosphere in the next few weeks, after more than two decades studying gamma-ray bursts and other violent cosmic events.
· 2 sourcesNigeria’s sole confirmed case in the ongoing Ebola outbreak, a 42-year-old Swiss citizen, was evacuated from Abuja to Switzerland on Monday as the Democratic Republic of Congo reported more than 10,000 infections and nearly 4,900 deaths since the outbreak began in mid-May. Uganda, declared Ebola-free in August, has imposed strict border measures including mandatory quarantine for returnees from the DRC.
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A shipwreck discovered off the coast of Turkey may be the oldest known in the world, dating to around 2700–2400 BCE, according to a research team studying the site. The find could transform understanding of early Mediterranean trade networks during the Early Bronze Age.
A major international climate report warns that Earth is entering a phase of rapid destabilization, with the rate of global warming nearly doubling since 2010 and seven of 16 key climate indicators reaching record extremes. The seventh annual 'State of the Climate' report, published in BioScience by a coalition of scientists, says atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeded 428 parts per million in May, higher than at any point in the last two million years, while fossil fuel consumption and energy-related emissions hit new records in 2025.
Scientists have discovered a giant new fungus in the forests of Yunnan, China, whose upright reproductive structures reach 50 centimetres in height and weigh up to 2.2 kilograms, making it the largest known fruiting body among ascomycete fungi. Evolutionary analysis suggests the lineage of the fungus, named Dianjunus rex and nicknamed 'D-rex', dates back roughly 65 million years to just after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.
An international research team has revisited a 2,700-year-old total solar eclipse record from China, uncovering new details about Earth's rotation and the Sun's activity in antiquity. By correcting a geographical error in the location of Qufu, the ancient capital of the Lu Duchy, the scientists were able to accurately reconstruct the eclipse of 709 BCE and measure changes in Earth's spin.
An artificial intelligence model can spot subtle signs of pancreatic cancer in CT scans an average of 475 days before diagnosis, raising the prospect of treating the disease at a much earlier, more curable stage, according to research published online in the journal Gut.
Astranis has upgraded its fourth launch contract with SpaceX to a dedicated Falcon 9 mission, set to carry all six satellites of the company's Block 4 production run to geostationary orbit in 2028, the company announced Monday.
Colorectal cancer rates among children and teens in the United States have increased dramatically over the past 20 years, with diagnoses in children aged 10 to 14 rising from 1 per million in 1999 to 6 per million in 2020, and for those aged 15 to 19 from 3 per million to 13 per million, according to a new analysis of CDC data. The disease remains rare in young people, but new research suggests it often presents more aggressively in this age group.
Health experts and patients say US vaccine policy is in a state of limbo after Robert F Kennedy Jr's overhaul of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was halted by a judge but replaced with nothing. Without a functioning committee, newly approved vaccines lack the recommendation insurers need to mandate coverage. Ron Kroening, a retired Oklahoma public health employee, was charged a $40 co-pay for a new mRNA flu shot that his doctor recommended because of this gap. 'I figured that was an error because I've never had to pay for a flu shot in my life,' he told the Guardian.
Senior doctors in England will strike on 25 and 26 November unless the government enters formal pay and workload negotiations, the British Medical Association has announced, accusing ministers of ignoring consultants' concerns.
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Scotland was braced for its fifth weather warning in five days on Tuesday as another deep area of low pressure moving in from the Atlantic brought fresh rain and gales to the UK, days after Storm Boelo brought two deaths and left 90,000 properties without power. The Met Office yellow wind warning came into force at 3am, with gusts of up to 70mph forecast across much of Scotland.
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Astronomers have found what they say is the first known star that would appear green to the human eye: a white dwarf, or dead star, named WD J1330+6435. Research led by astrophysicist Mark Hollands of the University of Warwick shows the star's ultra-dense atmosphere suppresses other colours, leaving a ghoulish chartreuse glow.
Rakuten Medical, the San Diego-based biotech arm of Japanese conglomerate Rakuten, is betting heavily on the U.S. market for its novel photoimmunotherapy cancer treatment, which its CEO likens to a 'lightsaber' that could one day rival surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and immunotherapy. The company is running Phase 3 trials in the U.S. and aims to submit for FDA approval in 2028.
Uganda has banned all non-essential travel to and from the Democratic Republic of Congo and ordered citizens returning from there to spend 21 days in quarantine, as the World Health Organization condemned an attack that killed a nurse responding to an Ebola alert in north-eastern DRC.
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NASA's PACE satellite has captured this autumn's leaf colour as it spread from the high latitudes toward the equator, showing red foliage peaking in New England, northern Canada and northern Russia in late September before shifting into the Mid-Atlantic, Mongolia and northern China in early October.
Tasmania's Health Minister, Bridget Archer, has ruled out a commission of inquiry into the state's health system, saying the death of a Hobart man linked to ambulance delays has been referred to the coroner. She also revealed that an overtime shift at the unstaffed Zeehan ambulance station was cancelled days before a man died there on Saturday.
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Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science and their collaborators have overcome a significant obstacle to building larger quantum computers, achieving highly accurate control of several silicon spin qubits operating at the same time. In a study published in the journal Nature Physics, the team traced a major source of simultaneous-operation errors to a microwave effect called the AC Stark shift and showed that a pairwise calibration technique, combined with an improved device design, kept five qubits on a shared control line accurate to about 99.9% even when all five ran at once.
A major clinical trial has confirmed that a simple, inexpensive liquid can stop tooth decay in young children without the need for drilling, injections, or anesthesia. The treatment, known as silver diamine fluoride (SDF), takes only seconds to apply and could prevent painful infections and reduce the need for dental surgery under general anesthesia.
A doctor charged with manslaughter has returned to work, according to reports from The Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times. The identical headline appeared on both outlets on 25 October 2026, but the available article texts contain no additional information about the doctor, the case, the workplace or the circumstances of the return.
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Barcelona has released more than half a million male mosquitoes carrying a parasite that makes them effectively sterile, in the largest European experiment against mosquito-borne disease. The trial, which runs until mid-November, aims to replicate Singapore's results, where the wolbachia parasite cut dengue cases by 70%.
The U.S. is grappling with its worst resurgence of measles in decades, with more than 4,580 cases recorded so far in 2026, more than double the number for all of 2025, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvania is the hardest hit state, with at least 1,338 confirmed cases across 44 counties, more than 250 hospitalizations and five deaths.
Uganda's health ministry said on Sunday that all 60 people monitored after contact with Kenya's first Ebola patient had been discharged, as the country defended new quarantine measures against an outbreak that has spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to several countries.
· 2 sourcesA study by forensic psychiatrist Dr Rajan Darjee has found that 43 of an estimated 126 homicides in Victoria in 2024 and 2025, about one in three, were committed by people with psychosis, a fourfold increase from a decade ago when one in 10 homicides were perpetrated by people with psychotic disorders. Experts have described the rise as the result of 'catastrophic failings' in the mental health system and warned that the public 'should not feel safe'.
Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, have developed a chemical coating for fabrics that can break down and deactivate nerve agents, potentially offering a new layer of protection for soldiers, farmers and industrial workers.
Leo Barraclough, 86, walked into the emergency department at Caboolture Hospital one afternoon in June 2024 complaining of severe back pain. Twenty-one hours later he was dead, and a confidential internal review has since identified a series of failures in his care, including critical delays in assessment, monitoring and treatment. His family is demanding answers about why the hospital recorded the death as 'not unexpected' and initially did not refer it to the coroner.
Queensland researchers have said a published study contains a ‘silly mistake’ that over-inflates the efficacy of a newly approved vaccine against chlamydia in koalas, but the regulator responsible for the approval is standing by its decision.
An international clinical trial has found that a three-drug combination therapy shrank tumours in 77 per cent of patients with HPV-unrelated head and neck cancers, more than double the current standard of care. The results, which will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2026 in Madrid, have spurred researchers to advance the regimen to a global Phase III trial, offering new hope for patients with aggressive, difficult-to-treat disease.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has completed a test orbital delivery of a survival kit, using a SpaceX Starfall reentry capsule launched from Cape Canaveral on October 20. The demonstration, part of the Rocket Cargo program, dropped an inflatable liferaft and standard nautical survival gear from orbit, marking a step toward using commercial rockets to rush supplies to remote locations within minutes.
A University of Surrey analysis of 86,564 breast cancer diagnoses in England has found that people from Black, Asian and mixed backgrounds, and those from deprived backgrounds, are up to a third less likely to be diagnosed through routine screening and more likely to be diagnosed in an emergency setting.
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Storm Boelo caused widespread disruption across Scotland's rail network overnight and into Sunday, flooding a station in Glasgow, downing trees and damaging overhead wires. Network Rail said flood pumps at Dalmarnock station had cleared the water by 11am, but the storm has forced the closure of several routes across the country.
An international team of astronomers has discovered three actively feeding supermassive black holes inside a single galaxy more than 12.5 billion light-years away. Observed as it was just 1.2 billion years after the Big Bang, the galaxy, designated J0148-4214, provides a remarkable snapshot of the early universe's chaotic processes.
Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, astronomers have detected what may be the first known moon outside our Solar System, a giant gaseous body in the CD-35 2722 star system that blurs the line between planets and moons. The candidate exosatellite, described in a study published in Nature, circles a brown dwarf rather than a planet, and its mass rivals that of Jupiter.
Scientists at NYU Langone Health have mapped how pancreatic cancer constantly reshapes its genetic makeup to become more aggressive, spread, and evade treatment, using single-cell analysis of nearly half a million tumour cells. The study, published October 13 in Nature Genetics, found that blocking activity of the MYC gene can push aggressive cancer cells back toward a less dangerous state, suggesting a potential new approach to treating one of the deadliest cancers.
A man in his 20s has died in north London after a tree fell onto his car during Storm Boelo, which continues to cause widespread disruption across the UK. In Scotland, more than 30,000 homes remain without power on Monday morning, with engineers working to restore supplies before another storm arrives on Tuesday.
· 21 sourcesScientists at the University of Warwick have discovered that a superconductor studied for four decades does not have the uniform crystal structure long assumed, but instead contains a complex patchwork of atomic arrangements, potentially overturning established theories and opening new avenues for improving superconducting materials.
The Atlantic County Utilities Authority has installed a new microplastic removal system at its Atlantic City wastewater treatment plant, using technology designed by Princeton University alumni Nathanial Banks and Yidian Liu through their startup PolyGone Systems. Installed this week after a two-year pilot program, the system is the first of its kind in the world and is fully funded by a federal grant.
Lunar meteorites offer a more representative sampling of the Moon than the rocks returned by the Apollo missions, but scientists still do not know exactly where on the Moon they originate, according to researchers studying the rare space rocks. The meteorites, pieces of the lunar surface blasted into space and eventually falling to Earth, provide a window onto the Moon's earliest formation and could help answer outstanding questions about the lunar crust.
Scientists in China have demonstrated a laboratory process that could help explain why the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its visible surface. The experiment, published in Physical Review Letters, used lasers to create plasma structures that brought magnetic fields together, releasing energy in a way that mimics a possible trigger for the nanoflares thought to heat the corona.
Britain's cocaine market is worth an estimated £9.8bn a year, with consumption rising 26% since 2021 despite flat survey data, according to a new analysis that also reveals record death rates driven by an ageing cohort of users.
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