Planets & Transits
New Moon in Leo August 12, 2026
The New Moon arrives in Leo August 12 at 8:36 PM UTC, and with it comes a singular...
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- Written by: James Carney, Lancaster University
It’s easy to explain the appeal of drugs like heroin and cocaine, which directly stimulate the brain’s reward centres. What’s less easy to explain is the appeal of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin that produce altered states of consciousness.
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- Written by: Roger Pickup, Lancaster University
A golden era of antibiotics shifted the leading causes of death away from infection to cancer and cardiovascular disease. At the moment, we can still treat most infections as only a few are resistant to what is currently the last line of antibiotics – the colistins.
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- Written by: Garrath Williams, Lancaster University
Last week, the National Obesity Forum caused a furore by claiming that eating fat, including saturated fat, will help cut rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Public Health England hit back, calling NOF’s advice “irresponsible”.
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- Written by: James Borrell, Queen Mary University of London
In the past week you’ve probably eaten crops that wouldn’t exist in nature, or that have evolved extra genes to reach freakish sizes. You’ve probably eaten “cloned” food and you may have even eaten plants whose ancestors were once deliberately blasted with radiation. And you could have bought all this without leaving the “organic” section of your local supermarket.
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- Written by: Cameron Webb, University of Sydney
It only takes a single fly to alight on your picnic lunch to make you uneasy about what germs may have landed with it. But what harm can come from a fly landing on your food? Should you throw it away?
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- Written by: Kacie Dickinson, Flinders University and Louisa Matwiejczyk, Flinders University
Consuming too much energy – whether from fat or carbohydrates, including sugar – will make you gain weight. If left unchecked, this excess weight increases your risk of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.
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- Written by: Duane Mellor, University of Canberra and Nenad Naumovski, University of Canberra
Have you ever wondered why you have so many different types of flour in your pantry? You might have cornflour and arrowroot, self-raising, and plain flour. And if you like to bake bread, possibly strong bakers’ flour.
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- Written by: Eric Schoch, Indiana University
"These findings provide us with a much better understanding of how this class of drugs may act upon the brain in ways that might raise the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia," says Shannon Risacher. "Physicians might want to consider alternatives to anticholinergic medications if available when working with their older patients."
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- Written by: Kristina Sauerwein, Washington University in St. Louis
The drugs are sold under the brand names Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium, and Protonix, among others. More than 15 million Americans have prescriptions for PPIs, although the number of people taking PPIs is likely higher because the figure does not include PPIs bought over-the-counter without prescriptions.
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- Written by: Jared Piazza, Lancaster University
“I’m vegetarian.” “I’m vegan.” These statements typically will be met with a range of reactions, varying from bafflement to praise. But what makes people adopt a vegetarian or vegan diet?
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- Written by: Karen Keane, Northumbria University, Newcastle
Drinking cherry concentrate can lower systolic blood pressure for up to three hours, our latest study found. If tart Montmorency cherry concentrate was a drug, it would probably get FDA approval.
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- Written by: Chris Elliott, Queen's University Belfast
Anybody suffering from a food allergy will know what a huge cause of anxiety it can be. From forensically examining information on food packaging to having to repeatedly ask restaurant staff detailed questions about their ingredients, it can take up a lot of time and energy. And, even then, there are still uncertainties to deal with.
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- Written by: Clare Collins, University of Newcastle
Historically called the disease of kings, gout was common among wealthy gents who could afford to eat and drink to excess. These days it doesn’t just affect the rich: rates of gout have been increasing globally since the 1960s. It now affects around 70,000 Australians a year and is more common in men aged over 70.
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- Written by: Nicola Jones, University of Warwick
People who ate 100 grams of chocolate a day—basically one bar—had reduced insulin resistance and improved liver enzymes. Insulin sensitivity is a well-established risk factor to cardiovascular disease.
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- Written by: Cynthia Lee, McGill University
Children who had vitamin D stores above the threshold recommended by the Canadian Pediatric Society averaged around 450 grams (or about one pound) less body fat at 3 years of age.
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- Written by: Andrew Smith, Drexel University
In case you’ve forgotten the section on the food web from high school biology, here’s a quick refresher. Plants make up the base of every food chain of the food web (also called the food cycle).
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- Written by: Saskia Angenent, University of York
"The principal interest of this piece of work is that it provides direct evidence for early dairying at high altitude in the Alps," says Kevin Walsh.
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- Written by: Hayley Syrad, PhD candidate, UCL
The food and drink young children are consuming could be putting their health at risk. In a new study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, we report that toddlers are consuming too much protein and too many calories for their age, putting them at risk of obesity in later life. We also found that
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- Written by: Jennie Jackson, Lecturer in Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Glasgow Caledonian University
One British title chose to focus on a rather different story. “Walnuts prevent heart disease,” declared the Daily Express in a huge, front-page headline. It might have had retirees rushing to buy them by the sackful.
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- Written by: Don Campbell, University of Toronto
"It looks like acetaminophen makes it harder to recognize an error, which may have implications for cognitive control in daily life," says Dan Randles.
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- Written by: Mark Derewicz, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Can Long Lost Data Put Heart Healthy Oils To Rest?Randomized controlled trials—considered the gold standard for medical research—have never shown that linoleic acid-based dietary interventions reduce the risk of heart attacks or deaths.
