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With the arrival of spring, a timeless ritual begins anew: male birds fill the air with song, seeking to attract mates and defend their territories from other competing males. But there is a lot we still don’t understand about how birds learn which sounds to sing. Our latest study offers new insights and suggests genes may play a more important role than scientists realised. In nearly half of the world’s bird species, young birds learn by imitating the songs of adults. As birds learn songs from one another, mistakes inevitably happen, leading to variation in songs between populations of the same species, similar to the formation of d...... Read Full article on HadNews

Around 8% of human DNA is made up of genetic sequences acquired from ancient viruses. These sequences, known as human endogenous retroviruses (or Hervs), date back hundreds of thousands to millions of years – with some even predating the emergence of Homo sapiens. Our latest research suggests that some ancient viral DNA sequences in the human genome play a role in susceptibility to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Hervs represent the remnants of these infections with ancient retroviruses. Retroviruses are viruses that insert a copy of their genetic material into the DNA of t...... Read Full article on HadNews

When the term “social model of disability” was coined by British sociologist Mike Oliver in 1983, it helped form the basis of the disability rights movement. To mark the birth of that movement, as well as the 30th anniversary of the autistic rights movement, our new report reflects on why it is vital that autistic people are always at the centre of autism research. During the 1980s, the term “social model of disability” challenged how society largely regarded disability as a personal tragedy. Disablement was seen as something that belonged to individual disabled people, with heavily medicalised personal “impairments”. But Oliver ar...... Read Full article on HadNews

It’s a cliche of reporting on people who reach 100 years of age, or even 110, to ask them some variation of the question: “What did you do to live this long?” Inevitably, some interesting and unexpected answer is highlighted. Fish and chips every Friday. Drinking a glass of strong liquor every day. Bacon for breakfast every morning. Wine and chocolate. While a popular news story, this is a relatively meaningless question that doesn’t help us understand why certain people have lived so long. Let me try to explain why, via beautiful buildings, fighter pilots and statistics. In the second world war, Allied statisticians were applying ...... Read Full article on HadNews

Cognitive decline and dementia already affect more than 55 million people worldwide. This number is projected to skyrocket over the next few decades as the global population ages. There are certain risk factors of cognitive decline and dementia that we cannot change – such as having a genetic predisposition to these conditions. But other risk factors we may have more power over – with research showing certain modifiable lifestyle habits, such as smoking, obesity and lack of exercise, are all linked to higher risk of dementia. What role nutrition plays in preventing cognitive decline and dementia has also been the focus of scientific...... Read Full article on HadNews

Wake up. Brush teeth. Exfoliate. Drink a glass of pineapple “coochie juice”? That’s the advice from the latest viral trend on TikTok claiming to help women alter the smell and taste of their vulva and vagina. A wave of short videos on the social media platform suggest strategies, including consuming large amounts of pineapple and banana, to make vaginas smell and taste sweeter. One video suggests a home-brewed pineapple concoction taken three times daily for “vagina cleansing” and to make the vulva “smell good” will have benefits such as a “tighter”, “sweeter” vagina. But what are we to make of these claims? Is “coochie juice” b...... Read Full article on HadNews

If you’re in your 20s and 30s, you probably watch pornography. Millennials and gen Z are watching more pornography than any other age group and are also more likely than any other demographic to experiment with AI pornography. As technology advances, AI-generated tools and techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated and accessible. This can lead to unethical content, including deepfakes – videos in which a person’s face is replaced with someoneelse’s likeness, without their consent. Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) recently faced a scandal when it became awash with deepfakes of Taylor Swift. But what about other kinds of A...... Read Full article on HadNews

I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours. I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years. This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered ...... Read Full article on HadNews

Any dog owners reading this will know the joy of getting home and being greeted with utter delight by their pet – tail wagging wildly before enthusiastic but face-drenching licks. While some owners will push their pooches away playfully to discourage face licking, others positively revel in their dog’s affection and may even offer up pursed lips for a canine kiss. It’s a heartwarming scene. But think of what that doggy companion has been licking throughout the day. Their food and water, their paws, their toys and chews – and maybe their bottom and genitals. Do those cute kisses seem a little less appealing now? Not matter what pets ...... Read Full article on HadNews

Grief has always inspired songwriters. Popular songs including Let Me Go, by Gary Barlow, Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven and The Living Years by Mike and the Mechanics, were all written as a way of working through the grief of losing a loved one. Tears in Heaven deals with the sudden loss of Clapton’s four-year-old son. The Living Years addresses the songwriters’ mutual regrets over disagreements with their fathers while they were alive. The songs are as poignant and heartrending as you might expect from something written about close family bereavement. Barlow’s Let Me Go, however, is a remarkably upbeat and joyful record, written ...... Read Full article on HadNews

John (surname withheld) is an influencer from Florida who has gained notoriety by eating raw chicken for at least 25 days. He uses a blender to grind up the uncooked chicken (wing and breast) with flavourings, raw eggs and lettuce before drinking this chicken smoothie. Raw chicken and eggs have a significant infection risk from harmful bacteria such as salmonella and campylobacter, which can cause severe illness. Symptoms of food poisoning include fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and blood infections that, even in healthy people, can lead to hospitalisation and death. So why has John not fallen sick with food poisoning from such an...... Read Full article on HadNews

England’s new environmental policy, biodiversity net gain, went live on February 12. Most new developments – everything from a few houses to large solar farms or new roads and railways – will now have to provide a 10% net gain in biodiversity, maintained for at least 30 years. The idea is that, instead of driving a loss of habitats for wildlife, developments will now contribute to a recovery. The new policy will be rolled out to small sites in April 2024 and nationally significant infrastructure projects in 2025. Scotland and Wales are considering adopting similar policies. It’s an exciting moment – we are academics who assess polici...... Read Full article on HadNews

By 2050, approximately a quarter of the UK population is expected to be over the age of 65. With this in mind, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has put “healthy ageing” on its agenda. This means finding ways to maintain health, wellbeing and functional ability in order to have a good quality of life and enjoy the later years. Everyone ages at a different rate – but there are some things that can influence how well we age, such as by making changes to the types of activity we do and the foods we eat. Older adults are generally less physically active than they were when they were younger and because of this, their energy intake req...... Read Full article on HadNews

Earlier this year, the UK’s weather and climate service, the Met Office, announced average global temperatures in 2023 were 1.46°C above pre-industrial levels. This made it the hottest year on record, 0.17°C higher than the previous record in 2016. However, shortly after that announcement, the Met Office also forecast a multi-day blast of cold Arctic air bringing sub-zero temperatures, snow and ice to many parts of the UK. When the cold snap arrived, temperatures dropped to -14°C in the Scottish Highlands and -11°C even in England. Ten days later, a village in the Scottish Highlands reached a balmy 19.9°C, the warmest January temper...... Read Full article on HadNews

Medical cannabis, often in the form of cannabidiol (CBD) oil, is one of the most recent trends in the human health and wellness world. Unsurprisingly, this trend has made its way to our pets, with a recent study suggesting that 38% of surveyed Danish dog owners routinely gave their pets some form of cannabis product. Because many people actively promote the use of CBD to support their own health and wellbeing, the use of CBD oil for pets is attracting increased attention from vets and pet owners alike. Previous studies suggest that 80% of dog owners in the US and Canada had bought cannabis products for their pet. While availability an...... Read Full article on HadNews

These days it’s hard to miss the body positivity movement. But love and respect for the body isn’t new and wasn’t invented by the west. Indeed, global research I’ve collaborated on has found that body appreciation is understood and experienced the same way all over the world – although we did find large differences in levels of body appreciation between different countries. First, it’s important to understand what body image and body appreciation means in psychology. Body image is the “inside view” that you have of yourself. Historically, body image research was focused on negative aspects, such as appearance anxiety or clinical cond...... Read Full article on HadNews

In the heart of London, a new kind of show is unfolding. Elvis Presley, the king of rock ‘n’ roll, is to take to the stage once more – not in flesh and blood of course, but as a hologram. This spectacle, titled Elvis Evolution, is more than just a concert and offers a distinct experience from the likes of Abba’s digital avatars: it’s a testament to how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping our experience of music and performance. Unlike the Abba Voyage hologram show, which primarily focuses on delivering a high-tech concert experience, Elvis Evolution aims to provide an immersive journey into Elvis’s life. It will feature interact...... Read Full article on HadNews

It wasn’t just the virus that spread during the pandemic – anxiety, depression and other mental health concerns saw a worrying rise as well. But new research from my colleagues and I confirms there had already been a substantial increase in emotional problems among young people even before COVID-19. Adolescence is an age when people are particularly vulnerable to mental health problems, which may then continue into adulthood. Studies have highlighted concerning trends showing a steep rise in mental health issues in recent decades. However, the reasons most frequently given for this rise, such as changes in family life, school factor...... Read Full article on HadNews