Whether you’re seeking extra insights into weekly runs or trying to maximise your triathlon training, picking a proven heart rate monitor could be key to getting more out of your exercise. Before you decide, though, you must choose your fighter carefully: will it be a standalone chest strap or a multi-purpose watch that you can wear around the clock? The data collected from the optical heart rate...
In June 1993, David Brown was exasperated. For eight years he had been developing a drug that was supposed to treat angina, but early clinical trials showed it wasn’t having enough of an effect to make it into a commercial success. His employer, Pfizer, gave him three months to turn the project around. A few weeks later, Brown heard some unusual news from a group of Welsh men involved in a...
A new lateral flow test that could detect monkeypox infections in humans in 10 minutes is being trialled with the help of UK businesses. Derby life science firm SureScreen Diagnostics is working with Yorkshire-based medical technology provider TestCard and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London to carry out the trial. During the pandemic SureScreen was involved in some of the first...
In November 2020, Alphabet-owned AI firm DeepMind announced that it had cracked one of biology’s trickiest problems. For years the company had been working on an AI called AlphaFold that could predict the structure of proteins – a challenge that could prove pivotal for developing drugs and vaccines, and understanding diseases. When the results of the biennial protein-predicting challenge CASP...
Gwyneth Paltrow doesn’t know what a vagina is and neither do you. Then again you’re not the CEO and face of a £200 million wellness behemoth who just put out a £57 candle named ‘This Smells Like My Vagina’ and posed for a screening of her new Netflix ‘docu-series’ in front of red and pink roses in the shape of women’s genitals. In the opening scene of The Goop Lab episode three, “The Pleasure Is...
Despite the way our species evolved away from climbing trees to walking on flat ground, some people are still walking around with chimp-like feet. As much as eight percent of humans may have feet that are “flexible”, according to a study in The American Journal of Anthropology. This is surprising, because part of the reason our feet work so well is that they don’t bend in the middle — it gives us...
Why ayurvedic? “It’s a system of traditional Indian medicine that gives you insight into your health in relation to the environment,” says practitioner Sebastian Pole of pukkaherbs.com. Ayurvedic toothpastes contain few of the whiteners, abrasives, sweetening agents and sugars present in Western pastes. And let’s face it – minty freshness gets a bit tedious after a while. \1. In a bowl, blend...
There are three distinct types of smile, a new study has revealed. People switch between ‘reward’, ‘affiliation’ and ‘dominance’ smiles, using different facial muscle combinations to make them, according to researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s claimed the findings could enable people to influence the outcome games and negotiations and could even assist surgeons working on...
In Frankfurt, Germany, you can’t simply grab a burger inside a restaurant, go to an indoor pool or have a drink in an indoor bar. Before doing so, you have to present either certification of full vaccination, or a negative test result from the last 24 hours. To make this work, testing centres are literally at every corner (often in converted barber shops), with results available within 10-15...
n a year in which Covid-19 and Brexit made borders an even hotter topic, some of the finest graphic novels told migrants’ stories. Welcome to the New World (Bloomsbury) is built out of Jake Halpern and Michael Sloan’s Pulitzer-winning New York Times strips and charts a real-life Syrian family’s arrival in Connecticut. It is told straight, and the rewards come in the carefully researched detail...