off-beat

It is his jousting behaviour that has enabled Bruce to win every one of his contests and become the undisputed king of the circus. So effective is this novel behaviour that Bruce seldom has to fight, making him more relaxed than the other birds over whom he reigns supreme.

Extreme heat can increase levels of specific proteins, known as shock proteins, in the blood of pregnant women. These proteins can trigger inflammation by activating the body’s immune response. High temperatures may also reduce blood flow to the placenta, limiting the oxygen and nutrients the baby receives.

Some peptide drugs are important, legitimate medicines. Insulin is one example. GLP-1 drugs are another.

Cocoa is one of the scarce, climate-sensitive and largely consumed commodities. The industry conglomerates have been exploring lab-grown alternatives to cocoa beans for years now. But where does that leave the consumers?

Scientists warn urgent emissions cuts are needed to meet net zero targets and avoid worsening impacts.

What began as a small-scale craft nearly 100 years ago has expanded into a structured industry, with plastic bangles from Pali reaching markets in countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, alongside widespread domestic demand.

Gloves used by scientists in the lab may be skewing our understanding of the plastic crisis. New research reveals that these gloves can shed tiny particles that look identical to microplastics under a microscope. By accidentally mistaking these for pollution, researchers may have unintentionally inflated global microplastic estimates.

Security experts have expressed concern that AI researchers in nations such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea might soon create powerful AI models and use them to threaten or attack other countries, or to create chaos in those countries’ economies.

While epigenetic clocks are highly effective research tools to study ageing at the population level, they aren’t designed to make claims about the health of individuals.

Posthumous digital avatars are created from the digital traces left behind by dead people during their lifetime. Built through a combination of AI, machine learning and advanced data analysis, these avatars can recreate the physical and psychological likeness, personality and even memories of the deceased. But the advent of posthumous avatars raises significant ethical issues.

People who lose their sight later in life, or whose blindness is caused by damage to the eyes rather than the brain, can still develop the condition. This makes it clear that blindness itself isn’t the deciding factor. Something specific about the visual brain is.

Limiting summer bird feeding also limits the spread of disease, which happens more prominently when birds gather in numbers to share food and water.