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Apple to allow EU customers to download apps without using App Store

theguardian.com

Apple is to allow EU customers to download apps without going through its own store, as...
Apple is to allow EU customers to download apps without going through its own store, as the iPhone maker adapts to new Brussels laws.Under the changes the US tech company will also give iPhone users a range of browsers to choose from as their default, allow the use of alternative payment systems to Apple Pay, and pe...
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Generic drugs in the US are too cheap to be sustainable, experts say

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Generic drugs are the singularity of American healthcare – they are too cheap. And it’s driving...
Generic drugs are the singularity of American healthcare – they are too cheap. And it’s driving some manufacturers out of business altogether.Drug prices regularly spark recrimination and outrage on Capitol Hill, such as a recently announced investigation by Senate Democrats and Bernie Sanders into the price of albu...
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I discovered a tiny frog that lives its whole life inside one plant

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I remember the park rangers saying: “Why are you going up there? There is no water...
I remember the park rangers saying: “Why are you going up there? There is no water on the top, and you’re not going to find any frogs.” I said: “Well I’m going to check it out.”The Espinhaço mountain range in the east of Brazil is a very special place, and it’s mostly unknown. My house looks on to the mountain in Pi...
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EU fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit 60 year low

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The European Union pumped out 8% less carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels it burned in...
The European Union pumped out 8% less carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels it burned in 2023 than it did in 2022, the Guardian can reveal, pushing these emissions down to their lowest level in 60 years.The fall in planet-heating pollution is the steepest yearly drop on record behind 2020, when governments shuttered ...
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Hunter-gatherers were mostly gatherers, says archaeologist

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Early human hunter-gatherers ate mostly plants and vegetables, according to archeological findings that undermine the commonly...
Early human hunter-gatherers ate mostly plants and vegetables, according to archeological findings that undermine the commonly held view that our ancestors lived on a high protein, meat-heavy diet.The evidence, from the remains of 24 individuals from two burial sites in the Peruvian Andes dating to between 9,000 and...
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Ted fellows resign from organisation after Bill Ackman named as speaker

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The Ted organisation has been hit with resignations and criticisms after naming the controversial activist billionaire...
The Ted organisation has been hit with resignations and criticisms after naming the controversial activist billionaire Bill Ackman, who was instrumental in forcing out Harvard’s president over antisemitism allegations, among its main speakers at this year’s conference.Four Ted fellows, led by the astronomer Lucianne...
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Science fiction awards held in China under fire for excluding authors

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A prestigious literary award for science fiction, which was hosted in China for the first time,...
A prestigious literary award for science fiction, which was hosted in China for the first time, has come under fire for excluding several authors from the 2023 awards, raising concerns about interference or censorship in the awards process.The New York Times bestseller Babel by RF Kuang, an episode of the Netflix dr...
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Experimental use of pig liver to filter blood offers hope for patients

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Surgeons externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human body and watched it successfully filter...
Surgeons externally attached a pig liver to a brain-dead human body and watched it successfully filter blood, a step toward eventually trying the technique in patients with liver failure.The University of Pennsylvania announced the novel experiment on Thursday, a different spin on animal-to-human organ transplants. ...
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Key climate language poorly understood by majority in UK, poll finds

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The British public has a worryingly low understanding of language around the climate crisis and environmental...
The British public has a worryingly low understanding of language around the climate crisis and environmental policies to reduce waste, according to the findings of a survey.Only a quarter of people questioned clearly understood the term “green” and about the same number could accurately describe what “sustainable” ...
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Online retailer eBay to lay off 1k workers, firm says in letter to employees

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Meta has not done enough to safeguard children, whistleblower says

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has not done enough to safeguard children after Molly Russell’s death, according to...
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has not done enough to safeguard children after Molly Russell’s death, according to a whistleblower who said the social media company already has the infrastructure in place to shield teenagers from harmful content.Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineer and consultant at the Instagram and Face...
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Nose wheel falls off Boeing 757 airliner waiting for takeoff

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Post Office set targets for recovering cash from accused in Horizon scandal

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Targets set by the Post Office suggested it was prioritising clawing back money from branch operators...
Targets set by the Post Office suggested it was prioritising clawing back money from branch operators accused of financial irregularities due to the organisation’s discredited IT system, the Horizon inquiry has heard.Former investigator Robert Daily told the inquiry that increasing the target for recovering cash, wh...
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US buildings kill up to billion birds a year. These architects want to save them

theguardian.com

Chicago’s 82-story Aqua Tower appears to flutter with the wind. Its unusual, undulating facade has made...
Chicago’s 82-story Aqua Tower appears to flutter with the wind. Its unusual, undulating facade has made it one of the most unique features of Chicago’s skyline, distinct from the many right-angled glass towers that surround it.In designing it, the architect Jeanne Gang thought not only about how humans would see it,...
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Every year spent in school or university improves life expectancy, study says

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Every year spent in school or university improves our life expectancy, while not attending school is...
Every year spent in school or university improves our life expectancy, while not attending school is as deadly as smoking or heavy drinking, according to the first systematic study directly linking education to gains in longevity.Using evidence from industrialised countries such as the UK and US as well as developin...
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Hippy, capitalist, guru, grocer: the forgotten genius who changed British food

theguardian.com

If you were a young person living in London in the early 1970s and you were...
If you were a young person living in London in the early 1970s and you were looking for a bargain, the word of Nicholas Saunders was something close to holy scripture. Whatever you sought, Saunders had the answer. If you wanted to start an anarchist squat or self-publish a Trotskyist pamphlet, you consulted Nicholas...
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World first: malaria vaccine rollout begins in Cameroon

theguardian.com

The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said...
The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”.The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to children in the west African country, the first to be vaccinated after successful trials of ...
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Greenland is losing 30M tonnes of ice an hour

theguardian.com

The Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due...
The Greenland ice cap is losing an average of 30m tonnes of ice an hour due to the climate crisis, a study has revealed, which is 20% more than was previously thought.Some scientists are concerned that this additional source of freshwater pouring into the north Atlantic might mean a collapse of the ocean currents ca...
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Millions were in germ war tests (2002)

theguardian.com

The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct...
The Ministry of Defence turned large parts of the country into a giant laboratory to conduct a series of secret germ warfare tests on the public.A government report just released provides for the first time a comprehensive official history of Britain's biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979.Many of these te...
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Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university

theguardian.com

Any university lecturer will tell you that luring students to a morning lecture is an uphill...
Any university lecturer will tell you that luring students to a morning lecture is an uphill struggle. But even the most hungover fresher would surely be enticed by a physics lesson from Albert Einstein or a design masterclass from Coco Chanel.This could soon be the reality for British students, as some universities...
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NASA unlocks $1B canister of asteroid dust

theguardian.com

Curators at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have said they are “overjoyed” to have finally...
Curators at Nasa’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have said they are “overjoyed” to have finally got a canister of asteroid dust open, four months after it parachuted down through the Earth’s atmosphere into the Utah desert.The space administration announced Friday that it had successfully removed two stuck fastene...

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British artists team up to fight AI image-generating software

theguardian.com

Since the emergence of Midjourney and other image generators, artists have been watching and wondering whether...
Since the emergence of Midjourney and other image generators, artists have been watching and wondering whether AI is a great opportunity or an existential threat. Now, after a list of 16,000 names emerged of artists whose work Midjourney had allegedly used to train its AI – including Bridget Riley, Damien Hirst, Rac...
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Arctic zombie viruses in Siberia could spark terrifying new pandemic, scientists

theguardian.com

Humanity is facing a bizarre new pandemic threat, scientists have warned. Ancient viruses frozen in the...
Humanity is facing a bizarre new pandemic threat, scientists have warned. Ancient viruses frozen in the Arctic permafrost could one day be released by Earth’s warming climate and unleash a major disease outbreak, they say.Strains of these Methuselah microbes – or zombie viruses as they are also known – have already ...
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Nobel laureates call on EU to relax rules on genetic modification

theguardian.com

The EU must “reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering” before a key vote on gene editing,...
The EU must “reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering” before a key vote on gene editing, 34 Nobel prize winners have said.In an open letter shared with the Guardian and other European newspapers, the laureates demanded that lawmakers relax strict rules on genetic modification to embrace new techniques that...
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