A diver who filmed an incredibly rare encounter with a Great White shark in the Mediterranean Sea in May has described the moment as "pretty special".
"The shark was pretty close to us [...] And in fact my fingers were trembling when I was trying to get the camera operating," volunteer diver Derk Remmers told the BBC.
It is thought overfishing has contributed to driving the species to near extinction in the Mediterranean.
Scientists say people should not be concerned as the shark, believed to be an adult male, was spotted many miles offshore between Tunisia and Sicily.
Conservationists said they hoped the sighting may encourage governments to create marine protected areas in Mediterranean waters.
Divers working for the NGO Healthy Seas captured the footage whilst diving to highlight the problem of so-called "ghost fishing nets".
This occurrence of aurora australis, or Southern Lights, was captured by Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir.
Science correspondent Pallab Ghosh explains why the explosion is a setback for space exploration.
A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday night.
In a video message from Buckingham Palace, wildlife helps the King deliver a birthday card for Sir David Attenborough.
The forest where the Sumatran orangutans live has been split by a road.
Newly released video shows the moment the hatch of Artemis II's Orion capsule is unlocked to a joyful reunion with the four astronauts.
Steve Backshall spotted two of the UK's last surviving orcas which he described as one of his "greatest British wildlife moments".
France's Eiffel Tower and Barcelona's Sagrada Família Basilica were among the famous global landmarks that went dark for an hour on Saturday night.
The 98m tall Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft made a four mile journey from their assembly building to Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tenerife hit by snow as Storm Therese batters Canary Islands
BBC …
Vetenskapsnyheter
A volunteer diver has described shaking as he filmed his encounter with an endangered Great White shark between Tunisia and Sicily.
<p>In today’s newsletter: Researchers are giving us new insights into early detection and treatments, but with access to life-saving care remaining uneven patients still have a long road ahead</p><p></p><p>Good morning. Israel has returned fire on Iran following a wave of missile strikes, the first attacks between the two countries since April’s ceasefire, despite <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/08/trump-briefing-israel-iran-missile-attack-peace-deal">Donald Trump reportedly urging</a> Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate. The escalation threatens to drag the Middle East back into a regional war and raises fears that peace talks between Washington and Tehran could be derailed. But today we are looking at another – and possibly more hopeful – topic.</p><p>News of cancer, whenever it arrives, is never welcome. For most of human history, a diagnosis has been a death sentence. But increasingly, better drugs, better care and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/nhs-hospitals-adopt-faster-accurate-bladder-cancer-test">better testing</a> mean that this is no longer true for many. Survival chances have radically improved for several cancers in recent decades. More than 50 million people are alive today after a cancer diagnosis in the last 5 years, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/01-02-2024-global-cancer-burden-growing--amidst-mounting-need-for-services">World Health Organization</a>. Cancer mortality rates have <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/all-cancers-combined/mortality">decreased by almost a quarter</a> (23%) in the UK since the early 1970s.</p><p><em><strong>Middle East </strong></em>| Israel launched<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/08/israel-netanyahu-airstrikes-iran-retaliation-defies-trump"> airstrikes on central and western Iran</a> on Monday in apparent defiance of Donald Trump after he urged restraint ov…
Ett forskarteam vid Lunds universitet har följt hur patienter med avancerad cancer, söker vård under sin sista tid i livet. Genom att studera deras vårdmönster, har forskarteamet utvecklat en mätmetod som relaterar sjukvårdsbehov till tidens förändrade värde för patienter i livets slutskede. Ju mindre tid de har kvar att leva, desto mer värdefull känns tiden.
Varje år dör knappt en procent av Sveriges befolkning, men tar tio procent av sjukvårdens resurser. En stor del av kostnaderna går till sjukhusvistelser, trots att många patienter helst vill undvika tunga behandlingar den sista tiden. Denna obalans väcker viktiga etiska frågor om värde och rättvisa i vården och om hur resurserna bör fördelas när varje dag blir mer värdefull ju närmare döden man kommer.
– Fortfarande är det så att vi troligen ger potentiellt onödig sjukvård till patienter med allvarlig sjukdom. Om vi istället kunde hitta en bättre tajming och ändra inriktning på vården när vi ser att det går åt fel håll, kan patienters livskvalitet öka under deras sista tid, säger Jenny Klintman, forskare vid Lunds universitet samt överläkare på Onkologen på Skånes universitetssjukhus.
I studien, i vilken 192 patienter i nordöstra Skåne ingick, undersökte forskarna patienternas vårdförlopp med avseende på när, var och hur ofta de sökte vård under sin sista tid i livet. De kunde då se mönster och identifiera hur många akutbesök och sjukhusinläggningar personer med allvarlig sjukdom har och var i sjukvårdssystemet de vårdas och dör.
– Vi såg till exempel att efter ett par besök på akuten, blir patienten ofta återinlagd under en längre tid. Redan då skulle vårdteamet kunna hålla ett samtal om övergången från behandling till symtomlindrande vård och överföra patienten till specialiserad palliativ vård. Vi måste ibland våga avsluta en behandling när risken är att den inte gagnar patienten, fortsätter Jenny Klintman.
Jenny Klintman menar att det inom sjukvården finns en stor medvetenhet om problemet med att pa…
In a new study, an AI tool identified images of seahorse, shark fin and sea cucumber samples in luggage
By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Clara Moskowitz
Scientists hoping to stop the illicit trade of marine wildlife have a new tool to spot seahorses, shark fins and sea cucumbers hidden in luggage. The tool, which uses artificial intelligence, could be deployed at airports to bolster wildlife enforcement efforts, the researchers say.
Wildlife trafficking is a major industry: around the world, some $20 billion in plant and animal products are sold illegally every year, according to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). That includes marine species—such as sea cucumbers , seahorses and shark fins, which are illegally harvested and sold for possible medicinal uses or as food. Many of these wildlife products pass through airports and often go undetected , environmental advocates say.
In the new study , which was published on Sunday in the journal Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability, researchers trained an AI algorithm on hundreds of three-dimensional x-ray images—the kind of imaging already used in airports—of 68 dried shark fin, seahorse and sea cucumber samples. Across hundreds of images, the algorithm correctly identified these samples 92 percent of the time, with a false positive rate of about 13 percent.
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“Never in my career would I think AI would be such an important part of my research,” says Vanessa Pirotta, lead author of the study and a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia. X-ray imaging “enables us to look in and around luggage and mail items—this means we can use this tech to understand how people may change their trafficking efforts over time,” she says.
The algorithm, sh…
You're reading the web edition of STAT's ADA in 30 Seconds, from the American Diabetes Association's annual conference.
Äkta eller falsk? Det kunde den svenske köparen inte veta när hen köpte tavlan ”Ung kvinna med pälskrage” för ungefär 15 år sedan. Men nu har ny AI-teknik lagt fram bevis för att målningen med största sannolikhet är gjord av den kände modernisten Amedeo Modigliani.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s obesity drug showed promise in cutting liver fat, but it was less impressive at overall weight loss, new data shows.
<p>A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldn’t forget research in the field is a story of small victories</p><p>It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer” to the 2016 Obama‑Biden plan to fight and cure it “once and for all” and Sajid Javid’s 2022 “war on cancer” initiative in the UK. But framing it this way can obscure how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling and turning back the advance of this terrible condition – often in simply giving people more time to live.</p><p>Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. As the Guardian revealed, there is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/30/cancer-jab-can-eradicate-entire-tumours-in-patients-trial-shows">new jab</a> effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/02/drug-bladder-cancer-life-changing-surgery-durvalumab">spare bladder cancer patients</a> invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/31/daily-pill-daraxonrasib-double-survival-time-pancreatic-pancreas-cancer-clinical-trial">new drug called daraxonrasib</a>, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/07/the-guardian-view-on-cancer-treatments-new-hope-for-patients-now-and-in-the-future">Continue reading...</a>
Some south London residents say they fear for their health after the Environment Agency (EA) approved for more waste to be burned at an incinerator each year.
Jim has lived in Sutton for nearly 20 years, about 15 minutes from the Beddington incinerator. He says his life has worsened since the plant began operating.
"When the wind has dropped, you can smell a kind of toxic chemical smell, and it's like a taste that you can almost feel on the back of your throat," he said.
Sutton Council has called on the government to "answer the very real concerns of the community", but the EA said it placed "stringent conditions" on waste sites and emissions from the plant were "monitored around the clock".
Jim told the BBC: "Certainly since the incinerator started up, things have got considerably worse."
He described seeing large amounts of dust that he said was new to the area. "Obviously dust is fine particles. Most of it is in the air, but some of it will land on your windowsill," he said.
His concerns have deepened since the EA granted the site permission to process about 10% more waste each year , around 35,000 tonnes, taking the annual limit to 382,286 tonnes.
"I do worry about it a lot," he said. "I'm furious that they've brought about this new increase. That's 10% more rubbish that we'll be breathing in."
Sutton Council said it had not welcomed the increase, and called on the EA and the government to "answer the very real concerns of the community and explain this terrible decision". It pointed out a school also sits about 700m from the incinerator's chimneys.
Christopher Woolmer, chair of the council's environment committee, said he was "deeply disappointed" by the decision, which the council had consistently opposed.
He said the authority formally objected last year, arguing the site lacked the capacity to process the proposed volume and raising concerns about Viridor's repeated permit breaches, which he said had led to a downgrade in its compliance rating.
…
How math can help you decide what to order for dinner
An experiment with 2,520 participants backs Richard Feynman’s answer to every diner’s dilemma: do I want to try something new?
In a scene that could have easily featured in an episode of the US television sitcom The Big Bang Theory , the late US physicist Richard Feynman once turned a visit to a Thai restaurant he often dined at into a mathematical riddle: how adventurous should we be in trying new dishes? Feynman promptly solved this on a sheet of paper.
Now, behavioural scientists have revisited Feynman’s solution — some of which had been obscured by his inscrutable handwriting — and found that his was indeed the optimal strategy.
Feynman’s dilemma is one that will be familiar to any restaurant-goer. Do we keep ordering the best dish we’ve had so far, or do we explore the menu in the hope of finding something better? A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 1 June probes this question, and includes experimental findings that participants adopt meal-choosing strategies that closely approximate Feynman’s mathematical solution.
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Behavioural scientist Shoham Choshen-Hillel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says that the authors wrote a “super creative article.” “The restaurant example stands in for decisions in many settings,” she adds. Real-life examples include choosing a home to buy, deciding whom to partner up with and selecting a parking spot.
The story begins with a regular visit by Feynman , a Nobel prizewinning physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and his friend Ralph Leighton, to a Thai restaurant in nearby Glendale in the late 1970s. (Leighton helped Feynman to write his popular 1985 memoir S…
<p>Experts say results from trial of new triple hormone drug for type 2 diabetes are striking but further tests needed</p><p>A new triple-action weekly jab for type 2 diabetes could significantly reduce blood sugar and body weight, according to <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(26)00967-0/fulltext">phase 3 trial results</a>.<br><br>
Patients in the trial receiving weekly retatrutide injections for 40 weeks lost more than four times as much weight as those on placebo, while the average drop in long-term blood sugar (HbA1c) was more than twice that of the placebo.</p><p>The triple hormone drug mimics three gut hormones that help control your appetite, blood sugar and metabolism: GLP-1, GIP and glucagon. Unlike other diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which primarily target the GLP-1 pathway to suppress appetite, or Mounjaro, which contains GLP-1 plus GIP to control blood-sugar levels, retatrutide also engages the glucagon receptor, which helps increase energy expenditure.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/weekly-diabetes-jab-reduce-blood-sugar-levels-body-weight">Continue reading...</a>
An ecologist is calling for a ban on plastic memorials in Kingston Cemetery.
Alison Fure, 68, is petitioning Kingston Council to begin phasing out plastic decorative items, including ornaments, flowers, and windmills, on graves.
Fure, who has lived within walking distance of the cemetery in south-west London for 35 years, said environmental degradation caused by plastics had left the burial ground's ecology "hanging by a thread", and said a change in policy would bring the site in line with other cemeteries in London.
Kingston Council said it would consider the petition once it had closed, and was committed to protecting the cemetery's "vital habitats".
Fure said she regularly went litter picking with her granddaughter in the cemetery, which is classified as a Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC).
"The immediate concern is the plastics becoming microplastics. The mowers churn up plastic leaves and petals and it gets embedded over the years," she said.
Elsewhere in the UK, the removal of artificial flowers in graveyards has caused some upset, with families arguing that they relied on the faux blooms if they were unable to visit a relative's grave regularly.
Others have said that plastic flowers are a cheaper alternative that lasts longer , as rabbits and other animals do not eat them.
Fure said Kingston Cemetery, which "should be a place of natural peace, dignity, and reflection", was now home to cellophane wrappers, plastic plant pots, broken ornaments, artificial flowers, windmills and litter.
"You don't want people laying in a landfill site," she said.
"I think the council would be surprised that the situation has gotten so badly out of hand.
"Everyone blames the crows, but after a windy day, the cemetery looks a state."
Fure said she was also concerned about plastics ending up in the Hogsmill River, which borders the southern edge of the site.
"Everything ends up blowing down the bank and into the river," she said.
The ecologist said…
A village in Kent is home to what is thought to be the world's largest scale model of the solar system and beyond, created to help people understand the enormity of space.
The model is spread across Otford, near Sevenoaks, with representations of the Sun and planets placed around the parish and stretching into nearby woodland.
Simon Featherstone, co-chair of the Otford Society, said the project was designed to allow visitors to "visualise the sheer vastness of our solar system".
Each planet is represented by a marker, with the Sun at the centre on the recreation ground and Pluto positioned about a mile away, reflecting distances at a precise scale.
The idea was first proposed as a millennium project by local resident David Thomas, a retired teacher and amateur astronomer who wanted to create something that would inspire learning.
Featherstone told Secret Kent how Thomas carried out detailed calculations to ensure the planets were placed correctly.
"The idea was to put the planets in the exact positions that they were at the turn of the millennium. and so every planet had to be in exactly the right place in its orbit," he said.
The project involved consulting industry bodies to create materials that would last.
Thomas wrote to the Cement Federation asking for a mix "that would last a thousand years", while stainless steel was chosen for some elements after discussions with the Steel Federation.
The model has continued to evolve, with QR codes now allowing visitors to access videos and information about each planet using their phones.
Rod Shelton, president of the Otford Society, said support from Nasa helped bring the project to life.
"They were wonderful. They were so helpful," he said.
Shelton said Nasa allowed the team to use their material which mean they had access to "the world's finest pictures".
The scale of the model goes beyond the village, with representations of stars as far away as Los Angeles, Australia and New Zealand.
The closest star…
AI-teknik kan bidra till att tidigare hitta de idrottare som riskerar att drabbas av rädsla och osäkerhet efter en skada, visar forskning vid Umeå universitet. – Om vi kan identifiera dessa individer tidigare kan rehabiliteringen anpassas för att öka tryggheten, säger Charlotte Häger, professor i fysioterapi.
You're reading the web edition of STAT's ADA in 30 Seconds, from the American Diabetes Association's annual conference in New Orleans.
Those ousted included ADA journal editor-in-chief Steven Kahn and former ADA president Desmond Schatz
Eli Lilly presented new safety and tolerability data on retatrutide at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association on Saturday.
NASA’s X-59 plane goes supersonic for the first time
This experimental plane, which reached supersonic speeds yesterday, is designed to travel faster than the speed of sound without creating bothersome sonic booms
By Meghan Bartels edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier
NASA’s experimental X-59 plane is one step closer to making faster-than-sound flight quiet after the aircraft flew supersonic for the first time on June 5, reaching a peak speed of 713 miles per hour—about equivalent to Mach 1.1—and an altitude of 43,400 feet.
“ Flying at supersonic speeds is a major milestone for the X-59 team,” said Cathy Bahm, project manager for the program at NASA, in a statement in late May, before the flight . “Completing the first mission-conditions flight is especially meaningful—it’s the moment where we begin validating the aircraft in the environment it was designed for.”
The flight lasted 81 minutes and was based at Edwards Air Force Base; NASA pilot Jim Less flew the milestone sortie.
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“Supersonic” is a slippery term, given that the speed of sound depends on the temperature and pressure of the local atmosphere. Mach 1 represents the local speed of sound, above which movement is considered supersonic; Mach 5 marks the transition to even faster “hypersonic” speeds. When objects travel faster than the speed of sound, the pressure waves they produce are funneled to their rear and produce a cone; if the object is flying low enough for this cone to hit Earth, the result is a loud noise called a sonic boom .
These booms—as well as a massive price tag—prompted the 2003 retirement of the only supersonic passenger plane, the Concorde, which ferried passengers starting in 1976. The plane reached cruise speeds of 1,350 mph and could fly from N…
<p>Elon Musk firm plans the biggest stock market launch in history – but experts have flagged potential downsides</p><p>It’s being billed as the biggest stock market launch in history. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/03/spacex-ipo-stock-musk">Shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX</a> are poised to be released on 12 June with a valuation of $135 (£100.84). The company plans to sell 555.6m of them, which means it will raise $75bn from the sale.</p><p>On Friday, it was reported that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3cf5aed7-1a57-44ad-b9bc-11c779a5d2de?syn-25a6b1a6=1">up to a quarter of the shares could be reserved for individual investors</a>, rather than funds and banks. This is a bigger share than is typically the case in a large initial public offering (IPO).</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/06/spacex-ipo-buy-shares-elon-musk-stock-market-launch-risks">Continue reading...</a>
Detailed data from a midstage study offered further evidence that the obesity drug Pfizer acquired from the biotech Metsera could be dosed monthly.
<p>Diagnostic interviews seen as ‘gold standard’ vary in reliability from condition to condition, study says</p><p>Diagnostic interviews – the most common way to diagnose substance use and mental disorders including depression, anxiety, bipolar and personality disorders – vary in reliability from condition to condition, according to a new study in <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2849585">Jama Network Open</a>.</p><p>Laura Duncan, a psychiatry professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and one of the study’s authors<em>, </em>said diagnostic interviews are “often treated as a ‘gold standard’ for assessing mental disorders in both clinical settings and research”, but pointed out that these interviews fall short of providing a “definitive benchmark that demonstrates excellent validity and reliability”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/06/mental-health-disorders-interview-diagnosis-study">Continue reading...</a>
How prediction markets could forecast the future of science
Online prediction markets are taking bets on everything from climate change to quantum computing. But researchers question their accuracy
Prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi have soared in popularity over the past few months. From bets on disease outbreaks to wagers about artificial intelligence, many of their markets relate to science and research. So how do Polymarket’s prediction powers compare to the opinions of subject-matter experts?
In prediction markets, users bet on a future event by buying and selling shares in favour of various outcomes. The price of each share is determined neither by expert opinions nor by the ‘house’ setting odds. Rather, prices are based on demand, reflecting the market’s collective belief in the probability of the outcome.
But as well as providing a gambling platform, prediction markets offer a test of the concept of the wisdom of crowds — the long-held idea that collective predictions by large groups of people tend to be better than forecasts by subject specialists. According to Polymarket’s website, prediction markets can often determine outcomes more accurately than experts or polls because “economic incentives ensure market prices adjust to reflect true odds as more knowledgeable participants join.”
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Research has found that prediction markets sometimes outperform other forecasting methods in political elections, but some researchers remain unconvinced that they can rival the work of expert scientists.
Prediction markets are “potentially helpful forecasting supplements” when it comes to science, says Richard Borghesi, who researches finance and prediction markets at the University of South Florida in Tampa. The …
What’s the difference between a person, an artifact, and an ecosystem?
Aquanauts experience awe-inspiring ‘underview effect’
Like astronauts’ “overview effect,” a dramatic feeling of awe takes hold on extended seafloor stays
By Susan Cosier edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier
Mark Patterson was living underwater for a week inside the Hydrolab, a white, cylindrical research station at the bottom of the ocean in the eastern Caribbean. It was 1984, and he was on his first of what would become many missions involving saturation diving: descending to the seafloor and spending multiple days there, leaving the lab during the day to explore the underwater world as an aquanaut. After acclimating to the depths, he couldn’t ascend even if he wanted to. To avoid dire health consequences, he would have to spend 24 hours for every 100 feet of depth slowly decompressing when the mission ended.
Patterson wanted to dive at night. He put on his gear, opened the hatches and swam out into the sea, a 300-foot-long cord tethering him to the lab. When the cord pulled taut, he sat down on the sandy ocean floor. The lab glowed like a jewel in the distance, and around him bioluminescent plankton shone like stars. “That’s when I felt, ‘Wow, this is the coolest thing maybe I’m ever going to do: live underwater,’” says Patterson, a marine biologist at Northeastern University who has spent a total of 89 days under the sea.
Patterson experienced what scientists have called the “underview effect,” an intense sensation of awe that strengthens aquanauts’ perception of human connectedness to the world. The experience’s name references the so-called overview effect astronauts describe feeling when looking at Earth from orbit. Patterson was one of the 14 aquanauts who discussed their experiences of awe for a study in Environment and Behavior .
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