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Tiger Woods has undergone surgery and is recovering after the car crash.© AFP Legendary golfer Tiger Woods underwent surgery after suffering multiple leg injuries after a car crash near Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was “very fortunate” to survive, law enforcement officials who found the US golf legend said. Several noted personalities, including former US President Barack Obama, wished Tiger Woods a speedy recovery. “Sending my prayers to @TigerWoods and his family tonight-here’s to a speedy recovery for the GOAT of golf,” he tweeted. “If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s to never count Tiger out.” “Thoughts are with @TigerWoods and others involved, wishing a speedy recovery and I hope the injuries are not bad,” tweeted fellow golfer Ian Poulter.Continue Reading

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The Cornish Eco Egg company has, like other eggs producers, seen a significant rise in their egg surplus during Lockdown 3.0. So as well as donating eggs to food banks, owner Cindy Rice has partnered with her friend; hotelier and business owner Karen Colam, to help tackle an as-yet under reported issue. Much has been talked about the suffering mental health of over stressed workers, but the mental health of those unable to work has been similarly impacted. The mental health of hospitality workers has taken a huge dive since the industry has been so badly hit by the Covid 19 pandemic. Cindy is offering free eggs to closed catering and hospitality companies to encourage them to bake cakes forContinue Reading

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In a landmark speech to the National Farmers’ Union’s annual conference, Labour leader Keir Starmer announced a new review in Labour’s rural policy, led by Plymouth MP Luke Pollard. In his speech today, Keir Starmer promised to bring the Labour Party closer to rural and farming communities in the first Labour leader’s speech to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference since 2008. Starmer said that Labour’s next manifesto should offer the hope and opportunities to rural communities as those who live in towns and cities. He also called on the Government to take measures to back British farming, including: Encourage people to buy more British food – including looking at whether more of the £2.4bn public spending on catering could be spent with British farmers and producers. Address theContinue Reading

Earth's existential threats: inequality, pandemics and climate change demand global leadership

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Future of the planet is in our hands. PopTika/Nasa Asked in 2003, the UK’s astronomer royal, Martin Rees, gave our present society 50/50 odds of lasting until the end of the century. It’s fair to say the odds haven’t improved in the years since he made this call. The planet is warming, a pandemic runs wild, the threat of nuclear war still hangs overhead and emerging technologies are allowing for the development of new weapons of mass destruction. Existential threats to human existence are growing – and the time left to address them gets ever shorter. So the new presidential term in the world’s most powerful nation takes on a special significance. The Biden-Harris administration cannot tackle the global challengesContinue Reading

Breast cancer: is milk a risk factor?

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Some studies have linked drinking milk with higher risk of oestrogen-receptor positive breast cancer. Summersky/ Shutterstock Breast cancer has now overtaken lung cancer as the world’s most commonly diagnosed cancer, and as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for women in many countries. While genetics can certainly increase risk of the disease, for most women lifestyle factors, such as alcohol or being overweight or obese, are bigger influences on developing breast cancer. Now, two separate studies, both published in 2020, have identified cow’s milk as another possible risk factor for breast cancer. The first study, which looked at 33,780 Swedish women since 1997, found that about 300 millilitres of cow’s milk per day (the equivalent of a large mug) increasedContinue Reading

Forget the Large Hadron Collider – our team has designed a particle accelerator the size of a large room

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A prototype of our novel plasma-based particle accelerator EuPRAXIA Conceptual Design Report In 2010, when scientists were preparing to smash the first particles together within the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), sections of the media fantasised that the EU-wide experiment might create a black hole that could swallow and destroy our planet. How on Earth, columnists fumed, could scientists justify such a dangerous indulgence in the pursuit of abstract, theoretical knowledge? But particle accelerators are much more than enormous toys for scientists to play with. They have practical uses too, though their sheer size has, so far, prevented their widespread use. Now, as part of a large-scale European collaboration, my team has published a report that explains in detail how aContinue Reading

After blocking Australian news, Facebook’s free speech myth is dead – and regulators should take notice

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mundissima/Alamy Stock Photo, CC BY-NC Facebook’s recent decision to block its Australian users from sharing or viewing news content provoked a worldwide backlash and accusations of hubris and bullying. Although the company has now reversed its decision following an agreement with the Australian government, the row has exposed the fragility of Facebook’s founding myth: that Mark Zuckerberg’s brainchild is a force for good, providing a public space for people to connect, converse and cooperate. An inclusive public space in the good times, Facebook has yet again proved willing to eject and exclude in the bad times – as a private firm ultimately has the right to do. Facebook seems to be a bastion of free speech up to and untilContinue Reading

Curious Kids: how does our brain know to make immediate decisions?

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shutterstock Dieter Hawlan/Shutterstock How does your brain tell you to stop if you’re crossing the road and you have to stop quickly? – Ruby, aged nine, Rochester, UK The human brain is really clever. It keeps our heart beating, it allows us to see and hear the world around us, and it also helps us to make hundreds of decisions every day. Sometimes decision making is hard, like deciding what book we want to read next. At other times decisions seem to happen without us even thinking, like when we stop crossing the road suddenly if a car is coming. So, how does our brain make decisions? Curious Kids is a series by The Conversation that gives children the chanceContinue Reading