France 36-14 Ireland Bielle-Biarrey scores twice in dazzling display The Six Nations is under way and already a couple of things are crystal clear. It is going to take a seriously good team to beat France in Paris in this year’s championship and watching them attack will be an absolute...
Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Arsenal need energy from home crowd, Florian Wirtz has found his groove and Liam Rosenior deserves respect Daniel Farke is understood to have wanted a new goalkeeper during the January transfer window but the Leeds board failed to oblige. Might that decision ultimately cost the club their Premier League status?...
Abdusattorov triumphs at Wijk aan Zee as Uzbek pair sweep ‘chess Wimbledon’
The duo from Tashkent took first and second prizes at the traditional Netherlands New Year tournament, while the favourites from India ended up near the bottom Nodirbek Abdusattorov added to his growing reputation as one of the world’s top players last weekend when the Uzbek grandmaster, 21, triumphed in the...
Lelia Duley obituary
My wife, Lelia Duley, who has died aged 67, was an obstetric epidemiologist who studied health outcomes related to pregnancy, childbirth and its aftermath. Working alongside frontline clinicians, she designed large-scale trials to test commonly used, but under-evaluated, treatments for pregnant women. Continue reading...
Bonobos can play make-believe much like children, study suggests
An ape was able to identify the location of imaginary objects in pretend scenarios, researchers find Whether it’s playing at being doctors or hosting a toy’s tea party, children are adept at engaging in make-believe – now researchers say bonobos can do it too. While there have been anecdotal reports...
‘Part of our biological toolkit’: newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in music, researchers find
Brain activity suggests newborns can detect and predict patterns relating to rhythm, study says Newborn babies can anticipate rhythm in pieces of music, researchers have discovered, offering insights into a fundamental human trait. Babies in the womb begin to respond to music by about eight or nine months, as shown...
Autistic girls much less likely to be diagnosed, study says
By age 20 diagnosis rates for men and women almost equal, research finds, challenging assumptions of gender discrepancy Females may be just as likely to be autistic as males but boys are up to four times more likely to be diagnosed in childhood, according to a large-scale study. Research led...
‘Everything is quagga mussel now’: can invasive species be stopped? – podcast
On a recent trip to Lake Geneva in Switzerland, biodiversity reporter Phoebe Weston witnessed the impact of one of the planet’s most potent invasive species, the quagga mussel. In just a decade the mollusc, originally from the Ponto-Caspian region of the Black Sea, has caused irreversible change beneath the surface...
Mediterranean diet can reduce risk of stroke by up to 25%, long-term study suggests
Two-decade study indicates a diet rich in foods such as olive oil, nuts and vegetables can cut risk of every type of stroke A Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of every type of stroke, in some cases by as much as 25%, a large study conducted over two decades...
Unlicensed weight-loss drugs marketed on social media as ‘prizes’
‘Giveaway’ competitions on WhatsApp and Telegram for retatrutide and other drugs described as ‘extremely dangerous’ Hidden-market promoters of weight-loss drugs are running social media “giveaway” competitions that offer powerful, unlicensed medicines as prizes. The Guardian has been monitoring WhatsApp and Telegram groups promoting substances such as retatrutide – a medicine...