If you think about shark noise, it might go like: duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnn dunnnn.

But they actually make more of a click click click sound.

Scientists have now recorded the first ever noises made by the predators.

They do not have voice boxes or obvious mechanisms to make sounds, so were previously thought to be mute, stalking the seas silently.

But now, we know that rig sharks, which can grow to 5ft-long and mainly eat crabs, appear to make sounds intentionally.

Listen to the video below if you want to hear the noise yourself. It’s not excactly scary, but it is a bit eerie, and definitely clicky – the last thing you’d hear over the surf as the predator swam up and clamped onto your torso?

The audio was detected by scientists at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand.

Carolin Nieder was working on shark hearing for her PhD, when she noticed there was a clicking sound coming from rig sharks she was handling as part of her work.

That pondering led to more investigations, and now she is among the authors of a research study in Royal Society Open Science called ‘Evidence of active sound production by a shark’.

It tells how the elasmobranch fish family, which includes sharks, skates and rays who have skeletons made from cartilage rather than bone, were not thought to be able to make deliberate sounds.

Until recently that is; studies in 2022 also showed wild stingrays and other rays making click noises when disturbed by divers.

To record the shark sounds, scientists placed rigs in a plastic tank equipped with a hydrophone to pick up noises underwater.

How and why do they make the clicks?

Sharks have strong teeth similar to bone, and these are thought be what is making the noise.

The study says: ‘We propose that forceful snapping of flattened teeth may be the sound producing mechanism.’

The study tells how clicks occured when they were disturbed by handlers, indicating it might be due to a stress or an attempt to defend itself.

Authors said: ‘Rigs handled for 20 seconds produced significantly more clicks during the first 10 seconds than during the subsequent 10 seconds, and both in the presence and absence of body movements.

‘Rigs were not observed to produce clicks during feeding or while free-swimming in the tank.

‘This may suggest that the initial handling triggers a stress or startle response, resulting in increased click activity.

‘As rigs become accustomed to the handling, the behavioural response likely diminishes, leading to fewer clicks over time.’

Other noises that surprised us

Hearing the sound of a shark and imagining a clicky close-up is pretty interesting, but it has nothing on the sound of the sun or the sound of a black hole as it hoovers up anything getting close to it, both of which scientists have recently sonified.

It’s always fun to have an extra element of immersivity to get creative with our nightmares.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Mother’s Day is meant to be about getting a lie-in, but there was little chance of that with the clocks going forward.

At 1am on March 30, the clock skipped forward to 2am, and the effects will be more far-reaching than just grumpily losing an hour of sleep.

While our watches and oven displays quickly adjust, our bodies do not – and scientists say the abrupt change is bad for us.

It essentially gives us ‘clock lag’ as a nation, as if we’d all taken an international flight.

Dr Jeffrey Kelu, an expert in circadian rhythms at King’s College London, told Metro that the health impacts of changing the time are profound.

This is because our sleep and waking are regulated by the 24-hour rhythms known as the body’s internal clock, as well as our metabolism and mood.

Dr Kelu said: ‘It’s not easy, but as scientists we want to put forward the evidence suggesting that removing Daylight Saving Time would be best for the general health of the public.’

While he believes more light in the morning would be better for health, even staying in summertime year round would be preferable to going backwards and forward every year.

Circadian rhythms are influenced by the hours of light and darkness, developed during years of evolution when humans had to rely on a campfire when evening fell.

While most may feel they get used to the new time within a few days to a week or so, the physical effects could be longer lasting.

What benefits are there to stopping changing the clocks?

‘Shifting time forward for around half a year is linked to chronic circadian misalignment,’ Dr Kelu said. ‘It is compromising health.’

Disruption is linked to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, mood disorders, and even immunity.

He said it can take months for our bodies to adjust, with the worst affects seen in the spring – now – when we lose sleep and many struggle to get used to an earlier alarm.

A survey by YouGov this week found that the clock change in March has a big impact.

Over half of Brits said it affected key aspects of life, espoecally sleep, meal times, and energy levels. More than a third (35%) said their sleep schedule takes a hit, with 11% adjusting their bedtime in advance to cope.

Meanwhile, more than one in 10 (11%) struggle to know when to eat, while one in 20 (5%) snack more due to increased hunger.

The survey of 2,197 adults was conducted this month on behalf of recipe box Gousto, whose nutritionist Sarah Fancourt said clock changes can disrupt our hunger cues and meal times, ‘leading to more snacking, and cravings for quick-fix, less nutritious foods.’

Could the UK stop changing the clocks?

Such concerns have led to calls to drop DST altogether, although the topic is highly political, and plans to actually change things have been shelved for now.

Last time the clocks changed, in October last year, members of the British Sleep Society called for us to keep a permanent winter, at least when it comes to the time.

Dr Kelu said that sleep cycle experts almost all agree that GMT would be preferable to DST year-round becuase it allows for more light in the morning, aligning best with our own body clocks.

‘This is particularly important in modern societies, where prolonged indoor activity and evening exposure to artificial light tend to delay circadian rhythms, including sleep onset and natural waking, he said.

‘In the UK, for example, winter sunrises occur much later than in summer. Starting the day an hour earlier under permanent DST would further limit morning light exposure, compromising circadian regulation. This impact is particularly pronounced in northern regions of the UK, where shorter winter days are more extreme.

‘In summer, early sunrises largely mitigate concerns about reduced morning light, however, increased evening light under DST may delay sleep onset by suppressing melatonin and increasing alertness.’

Despite recent discussions focusing on the benefits of more light in the morning, previous moves to standardise time across the year have tended towards keeping summertime year round.

Keeping GMT constantly would be very unpopular with those who love long summer evenings, making the most of the sunshine post-work when they can enjoy it.

Traffic-related accidents go down slightly because of daylight savings, studies suggest, and crime overall such as break-ins and burglary goes down slightly with less cover of darkness.

What happened to the EU’s plan to stop changing the clocks?

Five years ago, there was thought to be an imminent change after the European parliament voted to scrap the custom of changing the clocks twice per year.

It came after a public consulation showed overwhelming support for choosing a time and sticking with it, with the time changes supposed to be ended by 2021.

The UK was expected to follow suit, with a leaked government email suggesting that the favoured time would be permanent summertime.

But here we are still tick tocking backwards and forwards, forcing our poor bodies to try and work out if we should be asleep or eating breakfast.

The plan ended up more complicated than it seemed, with arguments about whether summertime or wintertime should be favoured, and problems such as Brexit meaning the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be in different time zones.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and discussions about clocks had to take a backseat to national lockdowns and travel bans.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

A newly identified wasp that buzzed among the dinosaurs had a bit of a unique way of catching prey.

Researchers studied 16 wasps frozen in 99-million-year-old Kachin amber in northern Myanmar, research published Thursday saidf.

But while the first half of these ancient insects could easily be mistaken for a modern wasp, the bottom half caught the palaeontologists off guard.

Meet Sirenobethylus charybdis, a wasp that the team half-jokingly called a ‘Cretaceous flytrap’ for its rear being shaped like the fly-gobbling plant.

‘Nothing similar is known from any other insect,’ the researchers wrote in the journal BMC Biology.

Lars Vilhelmsen, co-author of the study from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, said the wasp has a ‘small bear trap attached to the end of it’.

‘When I looked at the first specimen, I noticed this expansion at the tip of the abdomen, and I thought this must be an air bubble,’ Vilhelmsen added.

‘It’s quite often you see air bubbles around specimens in amber. But then I looked at a few more specimens and then went back to the first one. This was actually part of the animal.’

But rather than devouring creatures like a Venus flytrap, the team suspect that the wasp used its rump, lined with bristled hairs, to restrain prey.

Trapped in its bum flaps, the struggling insects would likely be unable to do anything as the prehistoric predator injects an egg inside it.

Over time, the egg would hatch inside, with the wasp larvae nibbling on it from the inside.

Scientists say they realised this after spotting that the wasp’s ovipositor, its egg-laying organ, is tucked between the maws.

The abdomen may also have been used to hold onto a mate – we guess it had a strong fear of being rejected.

Vilhelmsen and his colleagues from Capital Normal University in Beijing realised that the appendage could wiggle around as it was in different positions across all the specimens.  

‘Sometimes the lower flap, as we call it, is open, and sometimes it’s closed,’ he explained.

‘It was clearly a movable structure and something that was used to grasp something.’

If this is the case, sirenobethylus charybdis may have written the playbook that cuckoo wasps follow today.

Named after the wily cuckoo bird, these emerald-coloured critters lay their eggs in other wasps’ nests, so their young can feast on their new host’s larvae.

Amber has long been a vessel for prehistoric remnants, with everything from ancient plant ‘blood’ and lice to even crabs being found inside them.

The gem forms over millions of years as tree resin fossilises.

The authors said a fossil enthusiast purchased the amber containing Sirenobethylus charybdis and donated it to Capital Normal University’s Key Laboratory of Insect Evolution and Environmental Changes in 2016.

‘This is something unique, something I never expected to see, and something I couldn’t even imagine would be found,’ Vilhelmsen added.

‘It’s a 10 out of 10.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

This weekend is prime time for the Sunday Scaries, because you’ll know Monday’s alarm will go off even earlier than it usually does.

But putting the clocks forward will have effects more far reaching than just grumpily losing an hour of sleep.

While our watches and oven displays quickly adjust, our bodies do not – and scientists say the abrupt change really messes with us.

It essentially gives us ‘clock lag’ as a nation, as if we’d all taken an international flight.

Dr Jeffrey Kelu, an expert in circadian rhythms at King’s College London, told Metro that the health impacts of changing the time are profound.

This is because our sleep and waking are regulated by the 24-hour rhythms known as the body’s internal clock, as well as our metabolism and mood.

Dr Kelu said: ‘It’s not easy, but as scientists we want to put forward the evidence suggesting that removing Daylight Saving Time would be best for the general health of the public.’

While he believes more light in the morning would be better for health, even staying in summertime year round would be preferable to going backwards and forward every year.

Circadian rhythms are influenced by the hours of light and darkness, developed during years of evolution when humans had to rely on a campfire when evening fell.

This Sunday is the day we lose an hour of sleep in order to give us more hours of daylight in the evening. (In a cruel irony, it also happens to be Mother’s Day, the day mums most deserve a lie-in.)

But while most may feel they managed to get used to the new time within a few days to a week or so, the physical effects could be longer lasting.

What benefits are there to stopping changing the clocks?

‘Shifting time forward for around half a year is linked to chronic circadian misalignment,’ Dr Kelu said. ‘It is compromising health.’

Disruption is linked to metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, mood disorders, and even immunity.

and he said it can take months for our bodies to adjust, with the worst affects seen in the spring, when we lose sleep and many struggle to get used to an earlier alarm.

A survey by YouGov this week found that the clock change in March has a big impact.

Over half of Brits said it affected key aspects of life, espoecally sleep, meal times, and energy levels. More than a third (35%) said their sleep schedule takes a hit, with 11% adjusting their bedtime in advance to cope.

Meanwhile, more than one in 10 (11%) struggle to know when to eat, while one in 20 (5%) snack more due to increased hunger.

The survey of 2,197 adults was conducted this month on behalf of recipe box Gousto, whose nutritionist Sarah Fancourt said clock changes can disrupt our hunger cues and meal times, ‘leading to more snacking, and cravings for quick-fix, less nutritious foods.’

Could the UK stop changing the clocks?

Such concerns have led to calls to drop BST altogether, although the topic is highly political, and plans to actually change things have been shelved for now.

Last time the clocks changed, in October last year, members of the British Sleep Society called for us to keep a permanent winter, at least when it comes to the time.

Dr Kelu said that sleep cycle experts almost all agree that GMT would be preferable to BST year-round becuase it allows for more light in the morning, aligning best with our own body clocks.

‘This is particularly important in modern societies, where prolonged indoor activity and evening exposure to artificial light tend to delay circadian rhythms, including sleep onset and natural waking, he said.

‘In the UK, for example, winter sunrises occur much later than in summer. Starting the day an hour earlier under permanent DST would further limit morning light exposure, compromising circadian regulation. This impact is particularly pronounced in northern regions of the UK, where shorter winter days are more extreme.

‘In summer, early sunrises largely mitigate concerns about reduced morning light, however, increased evening light under DST may delay sleep onset by suppressing melatonin and increasing alertness.’

Despite recent discussions focusing on the benefits of more light in the morning, previous moves to standardise time across the year have tended towards keeping summertime year round.

Keeping GMT constantly would be very unpopular with those who love long summer evenings, and say that it lets them spend more time in the sun as post-work is when they can enjoy it.

Traffic-related accidents go down slightly because of daylight savings, studies suggest, and crime overall such as break-ins and burglary goes down slightly with less cover of darkness.

What happened to the EU’s plan to stop changing the clocks?

Five years ago, there was thought to be an imminent change after the European parliament voted to scrap the custom of changing the clocks twice per year.

It came after a public consulation showed overwhelming support for choosing a time and sticking with it, with the time changes supposed to be ended by 2021.

The UK was expected to follow suit, with a leaked government email suggesting that the favoured time would be permanent summertime.

But here we are still tick tocking backwards and forwards, forcing our poor bodies to try and work out if we should be asleep or eating breakfast.

The plan ended up more complicated than it seemed, with arguments about whether summertime or wintertime should be favoured, and problems such as Brexit meaning the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be in different time zones.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and discussions about clocks had to take a backseat to national lockdowns and travel bans.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

In 1924, scores of New Yorkers flooded the streets armed with telescopes to see the alien civilisation above their heads.

Mars, the red planet to our blue marble, was believed to be home to extraterrestrial life within its dusty mountains.

‘The fact of their existence is a natural conclusion from observations of their planet,’ one astronomer said at the time.

Well over a century later, it seems pretty clear that Martians aren’t moseying around our planetary neighbour.

But that doesn’t mean they never did. Nasa’s Curiosity rover has found the largest organic compounds ever seen on the planet.

The material was found inside a 3.7 billion-year-old rock in Yellowknife Bay, which may have once been a habitable freshwater lake.

Onboard tests detected molecules suspected to be remnants of fatty acids, which are produced by living creatures to form cell membranes.

‘Our study proves that, even today, by analysing Mars samples we could detect chemical signatures of past life, if it ever existed on Mars,’ said Caroline Freissinet, the lead study author and research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Researchers stressed these molecules, though described as organic, could have also formed in chemical reactions that did not involve life.

They were also careful to stress they can’t say for sure that these molecules are traces of dead microbial Martians, called ‘biosignatures’.

The new findings, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mark the first major clue that Mars’ organic chemistry might have reached the complexity needed for life to begin.

Scientists know Mars was once a habitable place with blue seas, gushing rivers and clear skies. But no slam-dunk evidence of Martians has ever been found.

Curiosity has been exploring Mount Sharp, located within an ancient meteor impact crater called Gale, since 2012.

‘There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer, which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars,’ said Daniel Glavin, senior scientist for sample return at Nasa and a study co-author.

Trundling along in the following year, the rover drilled into a sample of mudstone from a rock nicknamed ‘Cumberland’.

Between finding the ruins of a spaceship and this rock, only one of the two might seem tantalising.

But Freissinet and her team have been seriously excited by Cumberland. They and other scientists have, among other things, identified Martian organic molecules, clay minerals that hint at water and nitrates, which on Earth are essential to the health of wildlife inside of it.

Now the team have discovered inside it three large organics – decane, undecane and dodecane – that may have once been fatty acids that converted to alkanes when heated.

The enzymes that build fatty acids on Earth do so two carbon atoms at a time, meaning the compounds contain more even numbers of carbon than odd.

‘Cumberland is teasing us,’ Freissinet said. ‘The one in the middle with 12 carbons is more abundant than the other two.’

Curiosity rifles through rock samples by drilling them into grit, popping them in quartz cups and baking them at temperatures up to 1100°C. Any gases coughed up are identified with a high-tech tool called a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer.

But Curiosity is no laboratory. So experts back on Earth have to run experiments under Mars-ish conditions to help make sense of what Curiosity finds.

Freissinet and Glavin’s team’s experiments suggest that the fatty acids contained in the rock are 3,700,000,000 years old – roughly when life is thought to have began on Earth.

For now, the next step is hauling all the rock samples to Earth to finally ‘settle the debate about life on Mars’, said Glavin.

‘It’s been a long journey to this point,’ he added. ‘This is really searching for a needle in a haystack.

‘There’s no question about it. We have three needles.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Could there be a ‘vast underground city’ beneath the Pyramids of Giza?

Egypt’s desert holds many secrets, even after centuries of excavation and graverobbing.

The last undiscovered tomb of the Tutankhamun dynasty was only confirmed to belong to pharaoh Thutmose II earlier this year.

Around half of the known pharaoh’s burial sites are yet to be found.

Even the river that allowed the pyramids to be built along its banks has vanished into the sand.

That made the way two-and-a-half million 2.5 ton blocks of granite were moved to build the Great Pyramid of Giza seem mysterious, until the older course of the River Nile was mapped last year much further to the west than it runs today.

Lingering questions of where, how and why have fuelled speculation that the pyramids could point towards alien intervention or lost civilisation, and advanced technologies of which we can only imagine.

Now researchers claim they have discovered ‘the legendary halls of Amenti’ – in other words, the underworld of Egyptian mythology – right beneath the pyramids of Giza.

Describing it as ‘a vast underground city’, they say the ‘unprecedented discoveries’ using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) include structures, rooms and corridors.

Listing their claimed discoveries, they said: ‘The discovery of an extensive network of vertical shafts estimated to extend at least 1km deep beneath each Great Pyramid, which appear to serve as access points to this underground system.

‘The existence of vast chambers beneath the earth’s surface, comparable in size to the pyramids themselves.

‘A remarkably strong correlation between the layout and characteristics of these underground chambers and the legendary Halls of Amenti, as described in ancient myths, including those associated with the god Thoth.’

New, unpublished research from Corrado Malanga from Italy’s University of Pisa, Filippo Biondi with the University of Strathclyde in Scotland and Egyptologist Armando Mei was shared with the MailOnline.

They said they have a confidence level ‘well above 85%’ that the ‘structures identified beneath the Pyramid of Khafre, as well as those beneath other pyramids on the Giza Plateau’ exist.

But not everyone sees what they do. Monica Hanna, a top Egyptologist and dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, told Metro: ‘It is totally unfounded. A total scam.’

Professor Lawrence Conyers, a radar expert at the University of Denver,told MailOnline that the technology used doesn’t penetrate 1km into the ground.

‘My take is that as long as authors are not making things up and that their basic methods are correct, their interpretations should be given a look by all who care about the site,’ he said.

‘We can quibble about interpretations, and that is called science. But the basic methods need to be solid.’

The only way to prove the theory is to do targeted digs of the site, something that fact-checkers have long stressed.

Professor Lawrence Conyers, a radar expert at the University of Denver, said no claims can be made anytime soon that the structures exist.

But underground structures may exist beneath the pyramids as the site was once ‘special to ancient people’ such as the Mayans.

But these bold claims have captured the imagination of social media users who believe a range of conspiracy theories, including that aliens built the pyramids.

Another, that followers claim is proven by these researchers, is a highly advanced civilisation known as the Tatarian Empire developed infinite energy, world peace and elaborate buildings before being wiped out by mud floods and war, and then deliberately erased from history.

Devotees of this theory point to buildings as varied as the Pyramids of Giza, the White House and random churches all over the world as entry points to this supposedly lost civilisation buried beneath our feet.

Others have claimed the pyramids were ancient power plants, which one of the researchers – Corrado Malanga – appears sympathetic to.

Part of what has made this claimed discovery go viral is the proliferation of AI imagery, offering various interpretations of what hypothetical underground structures could look like.

While these latest claims lack credibility, there is some evidence of underground structures yet to be explored.

A 2024 study from Japanese and Egyptian researchers, published in Smithsonian Magazine, found what could be ‘a shallow structure connected to a deeper structure’ beneath the pyramids.

Whether it is empty or filled with sand and gravel, they do not know, but the evidence they found pointed to nothing ‘comparable in size to the pyramids themselves’, like the latest claims suggest.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore, 61, and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams, 59, only planned to be floating in the endless abyss of space for a week. Eight days tops.

But the two Nasa astronauts have been stuck in the International Space Station (ISS) since June after a raft of technical hiccups.

Some nine months later, the space-faring duo will return home at about 10pm (GMT) tonight, according to Nasa.

They opened the hatch door of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle yesterday to begin their 17-hour trip home.

If all goes to plan, the capsule will splash down off Florida’s Gulf Coast. Right now, the capsule is soaring over the Pacific, according to a SpaceX tracker.

But how different will the two astronauts’ bodies be after hundreds of days in space? And what challenges will they face when reunited with gravity?

Why stand when you can float? How life without the effect of gravity changes us

Space, it’s pretty safe to say, is hostile to us Earthlings. There’s no gravity to keep you and all the bones and organs jiggling inside of you in place.

And given that the human body is 60% water, the lack of gravity – called microgravity – can have strange effects on us.

‘They have spent a total of 286 days in space, which is 35 times more than their original mission length,’ says Dr Kirsty Lindsay, assistant professor in rehabilitation sciences within Northumbria University’s Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory. 

‘After this extended period of time floating in microgravity we would expect them to have lost muscle mass and bone density, to have more fatty tissue in their muscles and importantly for landing day they have less circulating blood volume.’

Standing up, for example, becomes pointless. Muscles that help to maintain our posture – think back, neck, calves and quadriceps – diminish by as much as 20% in only two weeks.

This also includes the heart, which doesn’t have to pump as hard up in the stars as there’s low gravity. The muscle will shrink about 1/40th of an ounce a week.

Astronauts have to stay fit while on the ISS. The output has a gym and Nasa recommends astronauts exercise for about two hours a day.

This is to combat the loss of bone and muscle mass, called ‘deconditioning’, says Liz Johns, the interim head of space exploration at the UK Space Agency.

‘This deconditioning is counteracted by a strict exercise regime that all astronauts keep up throughout their time on the International Space Station,’ she says.

Blood flow is a two-man operation. The heart pumps blood up while gravity drags it down. So, without its colleague, the heart is suddenly pushing up too much blood for our head to handle.

All this liquid pools in the back of our eyes, causing a condition called oedema which impacts the optic nerve and can develop in two weeks. While most people’s vision goes back to normal when they’re back on land, they might need to wear glasses for the rest of their lives.

Some astronauts like Michael R. Barratt, who stayed on the ISS for six months in 2009, became more farsighted. He also had blemishes on his retina as his eyeballs were squeezed by all the liquid.

‘Puffy face and chicken legs’

When we suddenly have too much blood in our heads and too little in our legs, what will that do to Butch and Suni?

‘The answer is “puffy face and chicken legs”,’ professor Mike Tipton from the University of Portsmouth’s Extreme Environments Laboratory (School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences) told Metro.

‘Caused by blood volume shifts in space due to microgravity. On return to Earth, gravity makes blood pool in lower extremities, increasing the chance of fainting when upright.’

As their bodies adapt to weightlessness, Butch and Suni will likely lose weight. Most astronauts shed about 5% of their body weight during a four to six-month stay in orbit.

Bones demineralise and lose strength without gravity. As a comparison, older men and women lose 0.5-1% of their bone mass every year – astronauts lose up to 2% every month.

Many astronauts also develop a skin condition known as ‘baby feet’, with months in space turning their feet soft. This could make it particularly painful to walk, an act they haven’t had to do in nine months, or wear shoes.

While our muscles and bones help us move, it’s the brain calling the shots. Researchers have found that extended stays in space can rewire the parts of our brain that specialise in movement and orientation, as was the case for a Russian cosmonaut who spent 169 days on the ISS a decade ago.

Their circadian rhythm – the body’s internal clock – will have also been thrown off. Orbiting Earth every 90 minutes means they have seen the sun rise and set every hour and a half.

They might come back taller

We do, however, have good news for any 5’11” men who list themselves as 6′ on their Tinder bios. Without that pesky gravity squishing you down, people grow by about two inches when in space as their spines elongate.

Radiation is typically not a big worry for the inhabitants of Earth because the atmosphere acts as a cocoon, so most of it is deflected.

However, the ISS doesn’t have this high-level security system. High-energy atomic nuclei from exploding stars throughout the galaxy can penetrate spaceships, spacesuits and skin.

These big and heavy nuclei heighten the chances that astronauts will die of cancer as well as damage their DNA and white blood cells.

What are the long-term effects of space travel?

Things will also stay weird even when Butch and Suni finally reunite with Earth’s gravity. The effects of gravity on the body are stronger than the effects of microgravity, making rehabilitation a long journey.

Even something so simple as standing up will be a struggle for the pair once they come down, says Dr Lindsay.

‘In space, all the blood that is normally in your lower legs moves up into the trunk, and this is seen by the brain as having too much fluid, so it gets rid of the extra while you’re in microgravity. However, once you are back in gravity your blood is pulled down towards your feet again, so now you have a low blood volume,’ she says.

‘This means that when standing up if their heart can’t pump enough blood up to their brain, something it hasn’t had to do for a while, they might faint.’

To help combat this, Butch and Suni will probably have chugged down an isotonic drink to stay hydrated. Rescue teams will keep them sitting as much as possible as they’re being transferred, Dr Lindsay adds.

They’ll both be wobbly at first, too, as their vestibular system – the organs of the inner ear that maintain balance – get used to gravity all over again.

The pair will undergo about 45 days or so of rehabilitation programmes – after, however, a rest day to reunite with loved ones as well as gravity.

‘Roughly speaking they will need one day of recovery for each day spent in space, so they may have ongoing symptoms for a while after they land,’ Dr Linday adds.

‘Williams and Wilmore are both on their third flight so they will know what to expect. Bone density is the slowest thing to recover, and it might be that bone density is always lower for some people after spaceflight, we don’t have enough information to be sure.’

The ‘demands of gravity’, Tipton says, can be ‘challenging’ to readjust to.

‘Fluid shifts are likely to occur most rapidly with blood pressure control and cardiac functioning,’ he says. ‘It will take longer for bone and muscle mass to return and with them full physical function.’

The longest any human has been off Earth is almost 438 days, a title held by Dr Valery Polyakov on the Russian space station Mir in 1994 and 1995. 

Outside of adjusting to having their feet on the ground again, there’s something else Butch and Suni will need to readjust to – daily life.

‘Although astronauts can speak on the phone, email and even video call their families, it’s not the same as hugging them in person, so I think they will feel like we all did after the lockdown ended and we could visit friends and family again, happy, overwhelmed, maybe tired by the noise, and they will feel heavy too, so lots of emotions for sure,’ she says.

‘They have been on an amazing, dangerous, exciting adventure, and now they need to go back to normal, walking the dog and shopping for dinner and doing laundry.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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Exploding stars known as supernovas may have sparked mass extinctions that wiped out up to 85% of animals on Earth.

‘Supernova explosions are some of the most energetic explosions in the Universe’, said Dr Nick Wright, an astrophysics lecturer at Keels University.

‘If a massive star were to explode as a supernova close to the Earth, the results would be devastating for life on Earth.’

That’s not just a future possibility – it ‘may have already happened’, a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal suggests.

Dr Wright was part of a research team, led by Dr Alexis Quintana, who conducted a ‘census’ of supernovas within our galaxy – the Milky Way.

When it comes to ‘going out with a bang’, no one does it better than stars.

Massive, dying stars – five to 10 times the size of our Sun – start to collapse when they run out of fuel.

It happens with such abrupt force, it sends out powerful shockwaves and an expanding cloud of hot gas.

If they’re big enough, those supernovas leave a black hole in their wake.

They are, hands down, the biggest explosions humans have ever witnessed. But we have only ever done so from afar.

Supernovas included in Quintana and Wright’s census were up to 3,260 light-years away from the Sun. For reference, one light-year is 9.5 trillion kilometres.

What they were looking for was the rate at which these massive stars form in the Milky Way, and within close proximity (well, 65 light-years, if you can call that close), to Earth.

They wondered whether this lined up at all with mass extinction events on Earth, some of which have previously been blamed on nearby supernovas.

Among these are the late Devonian extinction, 372 million years ago, and the late Ordovician extinctions, around 445 million years ago.

Somewhere up to 75% or 85% of animal species, mostly marine, were annihilated in those extinction events.

Among those were the huge, predatory fish, Dunkleosteus – pronounced like uncle – with armoured eyeballs and no teeth, just jaws it filed sharp each time it opened its mouth.

It is possible that a supernova could have stripped the Earth’s atmosphere of its ozone – even more so than the greenhouse gases trapped inside – and exposed the planet’s life to often fatal levels of ultraviolet radiation.

Such damage to Earth and its ozone could last for 100,000 years, with its effects felt long after, stifling attempts by doomed species to survive.

This latest study supports that theory. Dr Alexis Quintana, now with the University of Alicante, said: ‘It is a great illustration for how massive stars can act as both creators and destructors of life.

‘Supernova explosions bring heavy chemical elements into the interstellar medium, which are then used to form new stars and planets.

‘But if a planet, including the Earth, is located too close from this kind of events, this can have devastating effects.’

They’re not the first to suggest that the violent death of a star nearly wiped out life on Earth.

Researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, blamed ‘killer cosmic rays from nearby supernovae’ for the Devonian extinction, in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020.

‘Earth-based catastrophes such as large-scale volcanism and global warming can destroy the ozone layer too’, astronomy and physics professor Brian Fields, who led the study, said.

‘But evidence for those is inconclusive for the time interval in question.

‘Instead, we propose that one or more supernova explosions, about 65 light-years away from Earth, could have been responsible for the protracted loss of ozone.’

Co-author Adrienne Ertel, a graduate student at the time, said: ‘To put this into perspective, one of the closest supernova threats today is from the star Betelgeuse, which is over 600 light-years away and well outside of the kill distance of 25 light-years.’

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For ten years, Earth has been at the receiving end of mysterious radio emissions every two hours.

After more than a decade, the source of these signals has finally been identified, nearby the Big Dipper.

A new research paper published in Nature Astronomy points to a red dwarf and white dwarf star, which are orbiting so tightly that their magnetic fields are sending out radio signals whenever they collide, which is every two hours.

The discovery is surprising to scientists, who previously had only managed to attribute radio blasts to neutron stars.

Dr Iris de Ruiter, who led the study, said: ‘We worked with experts from all kinds of astronomical disciplines.

‘With different techniques and observations, we got a little closer to the solution step by step.’

Scientists have captured a special kind of radio signal from a galaxy that’s nearly 9 billion light-years away from the Earth.

The signal was not sent by aliens but was emitted from a star-forming galaxy called ‘SDSSJ0826+5630’, when the universe was only 4.9 billion years old.

What makes this radio signal special is that it’s at a specific wavelength known as the ’21 cm line’.

‘It’s the equivalent to a look-back in time of 8.8 billion years,’ said Arnab Chakraborty, a cosmologist and co-author of a study on the detection.

It was the first time this type of radio signal has been detected at such a massive distance.

In 2022, similar radio signals led scientists to the discovery of a neutron star unlike any previously found.

Strange-looking pulses which lasted about 300 milliseconds each were noticed by Manisha Caleb, a lecturer at the University of Sydney.

‘The flash had some characteristics of a radio-emitting neutron star. But this wasn’t like anything we’d seen before,’ she said.

A neutron star is the collapsed remains of a massive supergiant star. Apart from a black hole, they are the smallest and densest stellar objects known to man.

When they’re especially dense, they can be called pulsars – and often emit bursts of radio waves that we can pick up here on Earth.

It was found that the neutron star sent out pulses unlike anything seen before.

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship which exploded only minutes after takeoff disrupted hundreds of plane flights as the US is still grappling with a spate of aviation disasters.

The rocket sent debris flying from Texas where it launched, to as far as the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, and interrupted around 240 flights, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday.

Specifically, the Starship failure on Thursday caused 171 delays in departure averaging 28 minutes, 28 diversions, and 40 planes to hold in the air for 22 minutes on average with the FAA’s Debris Responsive Area active.

The federal agency also issued ground stops spanning more than an hour at Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Palm Beach International Airport and Orlando International Airport in Florida.

No one was injured in what was SpaceX’s second test launch explosion within just over a month. Starship’s seventh test flight exploded on January 16 and littered Turks and Caicos with debris.

SpaceX owner Musk, who has been spending much of his time at the White House leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, said the explosion on Thursday was ‘a minor setback’.

‘The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks,’ wrote Musk on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, adding that ‘progress is measured by time’.

Shortly after the Thursday mishap, the FAA called on SpaceX to investigate why the unmanned spaceship imploded. The 123m rocket was supposed to make its way back into the Earth’s orbit after one hour.

Starship is a critical component in Musk’s mission to have humans land on Mars.

The explosion and resulting disruptions to flights happened just over a month after an American Airlines regional jet and a Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air and resulted in the worst aviation disaster in the US since 2001. Numerous small plane crashes across the US recently also have Americans nervous about air travel.

A few hundred FAA employees reportedly received termination notices in mid-February from an ‘exec order’ Microsoft email after President Donald Trump vowed to fire air traffic controllers who are not mentally competent for the job.

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Woolly mammoths are a step closer to roaming the world again after scientists engineered a ‘woolly mouse’.

It may be on a much smaller scale, but they are hailing it as evidence they can tweak the necessary genes to bring back the ancient ancester of modern elephants.

‘De-extinction’ company Colossal Biosciences previously set out their ambition to return three animals long gone from the planet.

They said they hoped to see the first mammoth calf born to an elephant mother in 2028, and now they’ve hit a milestone on the way.

The ‘woolly mouse’ has been engineered to have faster growing, thicker hair than its normal cousin. Photos of it held next to a standard grey mouse show that this is certainly the case, with the new version sporting a luscious mane that could be in a hair ad.

The company’s founder Ben Lamm told Metro it’s not about bringing them back for the sake of it, because they have cool tusks.

He said: ‘It’s forecast that we’re going to lose up to 50% of all biodiversity between now and 2050.

‘So we are in the sixth mass extinction, that has been driven by man.

‘It’s really important to acknowledge that conservation works – it just doesn’t work at the speed of which we are changing the planet and eradicating species.’

The idea is that by learning how to engineer DNA from lost creatures, it will be possible to ‘restore Earth, one species at a time’, with possibilities also to support endangered species which are not yet extinct.

Mr Lamm said the creation of the mouse was a ‘watershed moment’ in his mission.

It doesn’t just have flowing, thicker locks, but includes seven different traits making it more adapted to the cold. Changes to melanin production created a golden mouse rather than the black/agouti wild type coat color. 

Colossal woolly mice have changes in body weight due to changes in lipid metabolism and fatty acid absorption.

Mr Lamm said: ‘We’ve proven our ability to recreate complex genetic combinations that took nature millions of years to create.

‘This success brings us a step closer to our goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth.’

George Church, renowned genetics professor and fo-founder of Colossal, said: ‘The Colossal Woolly Mouse demonstrates remarkable progress we’ve made in precise genome engineering, including optimized delivery methods, innovative multiplexing and combinations of gene targeting strategies.

‘We are showing that we can now rationally design and construct complex genetic adaptations, with profound implications for the future of multi-gene de-extinction and engineering.’

As well as mammoths, Colossal hope to bring Tasmanian tigers (thylacines) and dodos back from the dead.

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The Northern Lights might be visible as far south as Norfolk if they appear in the skies above the UK tonight, an expert predicts.

It’s not guaranteed, but a geomagnetic storm – caused by energy, blasted from the Sun to Earth in solar winds – mean you may see them if the conditions are right.

Sometimes this energy breaks into the earth’s atmosphere and makes gases glow to form what we know as the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights.

‘There’s a very high probability that they’ll be exploding across the sky at northern latitudes’, astronomer Tom Kerss, the ‘chief aurora hunter’ with Hurtigruten cruises in Norway, told Metro.

‘Therefore, from more southerly latitudes, or mid-northern latitudes like the UK, if you’re looking north, you should be able to see something at some point tonight on your northern horizon.’

When will the Northern Lights be visible?

If the aurora borealis does appear, it will peak around midnight tonight. You could see it as early as 9pm or as late as 2am.

Tom said: ‘You might need a smartphone camera or another camera to draw out any color, but if you keep your eyes cast to the north and your skies are clear, there’s a good opportunity, particularly around the hours of around nine o’clock tonight, through to about two o’clock in the morning, to see some Northern Lights dancing.’

Where will you be able to see the Northern Lights?

‘This is just a forecast, and it could exceed expectations, or it could be a bit of a damp squib’, Tom said.

‘But we would expect them to be visible like from all of Scotland and large parts of the north of England, maybe northern Wales, and even possibly as far south as the north of Norfolk, for example.

‘I think it’s very probable that they’ll be seen widely from Scotland and large parts of the north of England, but it might be tricky to see them if you’re in the south of England.’

Ultimately some places are more suitable than others.

Tom said: ‘Unfortunately, the weather’s not always great there, but I would definitely go up into the north of Scotland.

‘I used to live in the north of Scotland near Inverness, so looking out over the North Sea from the beach there, it’s just perfectly clear and dark. There’s no no light pollution or any obstructions in the way.

‘But if you have a local dark sky spot – for example, a dark sky park – it’s definitely worth going there.

‘You could go to Kielder [Forest] if you’re in Northumberland, or you could go to the Galloway Forest in Scotland.

‘Even as far south as the South Coast, if you went somewhere like the South Downs or the New Forest, then you might have an opportunity to find dark enough sky to make the Northern Lights more likely to be seen for you.’

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Panic over: the ‘city killer’ asteroid at risk of slamming into Earth like a grenade is now overwhelmingly likely to pass on by.

The latest calculation from Nasa shows it only has a 0.0027% chance of hitting Earth, meaning the odds of this happening are 1 in 37,000.

This is down from a peak of around 1 in 32, which triggered concerns of how to mount a planetary defence mission.

There was even talk of having to blast the space rock with a nuclear bomb in space, in a risky and untested manouevre.

The asteroid had been given the highest ever threat level, at a 3 on the Torino scale.

But after examining it more closely, Nasa concluded that we don’t need to worry (much – though you’re still a lot less likely to win the lottery).

This is what we hoped would happen, and it’s not unusual for an asteroid to initially appear more likely of a strike before the probability is refined down.

Nasa said latest observations show ‘there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century’.

They said there is still a small chance of it hitting the Moon on December 22, 2032, however, which was estimated at 1.7% yesterday.

If you feel like you’re hearing more scary stories about asteroids lately, it’s not that more are coming our way, but that we’re getting better at noticing them.

Previously, we might only have realised we were in danger after a rock actually hit us, which definitely was not preferable.

As we get better at observing them, we will know about them much further in advance. If one does seem to be coming out way, we’ll have a better chance to knock it off course, or at the very least to get out of the way.

If 2024-YR4 had hit, the UK was still not within the predicted ‘impact risk corridor’, according to the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN).

This corridor stretches across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia, the IAWN said.

Estimated at being up to 90m across, the asteorid could have caused ‘severe blast damage’ as far as 50 km (31 miles) from the impact site.

Chris Hadfield, a retired astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station, said it could potentially strike with a force 500 times more powerful than the atomic bombs which ended World War Two.

He said: ‘It’s like a grenade. A grenade is no bigger than your fist, but it can do damage over a wide area.’

The rock was like a ‘bullet zeroing in on Earth from deep space’, travelling at around 17 kilometres per second,’ he added while speaking with LBC.

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Mars has been known as the Red Planet for thousands of years; even the ancient Egyptians called it ‘The Red One’ (Her Desher).

Now scientists think they have worked out exactly what gives our closest planetary neighbour its rusty hue, and they’ve even made a copy of the Martian dust in a lab.

A study published in Nature today says that the iron oxide could be a different mineral to the one most commonly presumed.

Researchers said the water-rich iron mineral ferrihydrite could be the main culprit, as opposed to hematite, which is formed in drier conditions.

Adomas Valantinas of the Universit of Bern said that while the idea has been suggested before, this is the first time that such dust was recreated, and the idea ‘proven’ using observations.

The only way to 100% prove the theory is by looking at samples, which won’t happen for a while.

Nasa’s Perseverance Rover has been collecting soil and rock from the planet so they can be brought back to Earth by a future mission. If and when this happens, we will know for sure.

Mr Valantinas said: ‘The fundamental question of why Mars is red has been thought of for hundreds if not for 1000s of years.

‘From our analysis, we believe ferrihydrite is everywhere in the dust and also probably in the rock formations, as well.

‘We’re not the first to consider ferrihydrite as the reason for why Mars is red, but it has never been proven the way we proved it now using observational data and novel laboratory methods to essentially make a Martian dust in the lab.’

To test their theory, they tried to recreate the dust by grinding particles to just one hundredth of the width of a human hair, given that on Mars it is very small in size.

This meant they could compare how it reflected light with the planet itself, to see if it was a match with observations.

If the theory is correct, it won’t only solve the mystery of the colour.

It would also give clues about the environment of Mars back in the day, because ferrihydrite forms when there is cool water.

There’s none of that on Mars now, but potentially there might have been billions of years ago, meaning the past might potentially have been more habitable.

Mr Valantinas added: ‘Was there ever life? To understand that, you need to understand the conditions that were present during the time of this mineral formation.’

For ferrihydrite to form, they must have been conditions where oxygen, from air or other sources, and water could react with iron to create the oxide.

‘Those conditions were very different from today’s dry, cold environment,’ he said. ‘As Martian winds spread this dust everywhere, it created the planet’s iconic red appearance.’

Humans could be headed to the Red Planet soon if Elon Musk gets his way, some of them on a one-way trip to start a colony.

So the more we know about it, the better – especially if we find out it may not have always been so inhospitable.

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The mystery of ‘ghost lanterns’ haunting a town in South Carolina might have been solved.

The glowing balls of light have often been spotted by an old railway track and were said to belong to the ghost of a woman who lost her husband in a train accident.

Now a scientist believes earthquakes might be behind the spooky phenomenon.

The ghostly glowing lights in a remote area of Summerville, South Carolina, have been recorded since mid-20th century, alongside reports of slamming doors, footsteps, and disturbed animals and birds.

Legend has it the lights are lanterns, carried by a ghost whose husband lost his head in a train accident.

But a seismologist for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Susan Hough, has crashed the party for ghost hunters, as she believes the lights are nothing to do with paranormal at all.

She argued in a research paper in January the ‘lanterns’ were actually a phenomenon called earthquake lights.

Earthquake lights have been reported across the world, and are described as ‘balls of light, streamers, and steady glows’ which are visible around the time of an earthquake.

Seismologists are yet to agree a theory for why these lights appear in the first place.

One expert has suggested they are a result of underground gases like methane or radon ignited by static electricity or rock movements.

Hough says this theory makes the most sense when it comes to the Summerville ghost lanterns.

She studied the first reports of the glowing lights in the 1950s and 1960s and found they coincided with three magnitude 3.5 to 4.4 earthquakes that took place only a few kilometres away.

The theory is that even smaller unrecognisable earthquakes have occurred since.

The steel rails of the defunct rail line as well as nearby scrap heaps could be igniting the underground gases.

As for why sightings of the ghost lights are only on dark and misty nights, Hough said these ignitable gases might be trapped in water droplets before lighting up.

Earthquakes would also explain other paranormal reports such as shaking cars and swinging doors and spooked animals.

The scientist acknowledges her theory is unproven, but it could be tested by measuring gas emissions from the ground in areas where the ‘ghosts’ are seen.

The area was the scene of the infamous 1886 Charleston earthquake, which caused 60 deaths and up to $6million (equivalent to $186.51million in 2023) in damage.

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A woman only realised she had five contact lenses stuck under her eyelid after going to a plastic surgeon about something different.

The ‘otherwise healthy’ woman, aged 33, knew she had lost lenses from her left eye a few times, but thought they must just have fallen out.

She went to doctors in China because she was self conscious about her facial asymetry caused by a medical condition, and wanted a procedure to make her eyes look more even.

Doctors did not immediately realise the lenses were there either, and suggested she have a fat injection under sedation to plump up the left eye.

But while doing this, ‘several transparent contact lenses migrated from the upper fornix’, a medical report in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery detailed.

They described the find as ‘rare’, which we certainly hope is the case.

While you also have a fornix in your brain, this was thankfully not where the contact lenses ended up.

They were hiding close to where the eye and the eyelid meet, and managed to stay there without causing obvious symptoms because they were soft lenses.

The woman, who researchers said gave consent for her image to be used, had been using contact lenses for years before this discovery.

Although the paper was published last year, the case has only now been getting wider attention.

Doctors warned that people who have hemifacial atrophy could be at increased risk of this happening while wearing contacts.

The condition, also known as Parry-Romberg syndrome, causes the skin and soft tissue on one side of the face start to waste away. It usually starts in childhood and stabilises with age, but still leaves visible effects.

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Those with the condition might have an increased risk of their contact lenses being disloged and hidden in a space between the eye and eyelid, the paper said.

Plastic surgeons should be careful to conduct a thorough eye inspection, especially of the upper eyelid, before any surgical intervention, the doctors advised.

This is not the first time missing contact lenses were found to be actually very much still nearby.

In 2016, surgeons at Solihull Hospital near Birmingham found 27 contact lenses stuck in a woman’s eye while preparing her for cataract surgery.

The lenses, which resembled a ‘blueish mass’, were causing the woman, 67, discomfort that she simply attributed to dry eye and old age.

Initially, eye specialists discovered 17 lenses, before a further examination revealed that another 10 lenses were stuck in the eye.

Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee ophthalmologist who dealt with the case, said: ‘She was quite shocked. When she was seen two weeks after I removed the lenses she said her eyes felt a lot more comfortable.’

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Chinese scientists have created a ‘super diamond’ 40% harder and far more durable than natural ones.

Experts say the creation could lead to breakthroughs across several key industries that rely on diamonds, including polishing and cutting tools.

Until now, the hardest diamonds have been found in asteroid and meteoroid impact craters, meaning they are rare and often very small.

Most natural and synthetic diamonds have a cubic structure, but ultra-hard diamonds such as those found in craters – known as lonsdaleite – have a hexagonal structure.

Lonsdaleite was first discovered in the Canyon Diablo meteorite in Arizona in 1967.

While applications of such hexagonal diamonds (HDs) have been largely underexplored due to the small size and low purity of samples obtained, a group of researchers has made a ‘well-crystallised, nearly pure HD’ by heating highly compressed graphite.

The researchers, led by Liu Bingbing and Yao Mingguang from China’s Jilin University, say the diamond’s excellent thermal stability and ultra-high hardness mean it could have ‘great potential for industrial applications’.

The ‘super diamond’ structure exhibits high thermal stability ‘up to 1,100°C and a very high hardness of 155 Giga Pascals (GPa)’, according to the research, published in the Nature Materials journal.

In comparison, natural diamonds have a hardness of around 100 GPa and a thermal stability up to around 700°C

Despite the diamond’s rare qualities, it would be no more expensive than natural ones sold at jewelry stores, Professor Oliver Williams, Chair
Condensed Matter and Photonics Group at Cardiff University, says.

‘A synthetic diamond could be as low as $300 from China.

‘It’s very cheap. For industrial application, they are going to have to be a lot cheaper than natural diamonds.

‘If you make a 40% harder one, there has to be a premium, but I can’t imagine that it’ll be much higher.

Ben Green, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics, also told Metro that the ‘super diamond’ would not be used at scale if it were costly.

‘There are significant challenges to overcome before this material can be used at scale, but if a method could be found to [for example] produce bulk quantities or coat other materials in it, then depending on price it might find industrial use.

‘The most obvious application is cutting (possibly including other diamonds!).’

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We all know that the Moon is made of Swiss cheese – but you might mistake it for Red Leicester in a couple of months.

Lowly Earthlings are about to get their first chance this year of seeing a lunar eclipse – including in London.

North, South America and Europe will all see the rare astronomical event which causes a ‘Blood Moon’ next month.

But depending on where on the planet you are will decide what kind of eclipse you see.

What is a blood moon?

Lunar eclipses are the elaborate, delicate dance between the Earth, Sun and Moon.

The Earth has two shadows. The darkest, central shadow is called the umbra, while scientists know the outer shadow as the penumbral.

Because the Earth is larger than the Moon, the blue marble’s shadow can envelop the entire lunar surface.

A penumbral lunar eclipse is the first phase of a lunar eclipse and is when our nighttime neighbour passes the Earth’s penumbra.

Then a partial lunar eclipse will follow as the Earth’s shadow slowly gobbles up the Moon.

A total lunar eclipse sees the Moon swallowed up by the umbra whole. As the Moon drifts away, a second partial and penumbral lunar eclipse will follow.

A Blood Moon happens because a tiny streak of sunlight skims the Earth’s atmosphere during this, projecting the colours of the sunset like a movie projector onto a white sheet.

So instead of the usual pale look, the Moon is splattered with colours like pale red or burnt orange.

When is the Blood Moon?

Depending on where you live, either March 13 or 14 (the day of the Full Moon).

The eclipse will start as a penumbral one before going into partial and then full across the course of about six hours. Totality – when the Moon is blood red and in the deepest shadow – will last just over an hour.

So, if you poke your head out the window and see nothing happening, don’t worry. You just need to be a little patient.

North and South America will see the entire eclipse, Europe the beginning of the penumbral and partial phases while Asia will catch the tail-end.

Only one in 10 people worldwide will see the entire eclipse from beginning to end, according to Time and Date.

Instead, you might have to settle with the Moon turning a little dusky pink before the Sun rises and you can’t see it at all.

For eclipse hunters in the UK, you won’t see the totality but will be able to see the penumbral phase.

You’ll need to set an early alarm to see the eerie copper-red moon, though, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

The Moon will first slide into Earth’s penumbra at 3.57am EST on March 14.

Londoners will have their best shot at seeing the blood-red moon at 6.19am a few minutes after sunrise and the working day begins.

This is because the eclipse’s peak is at 6.58am when the Moon will have sadly set below the horizon. 

In Europe, only the western UK, Ireland, Portugal, central Spain, and northwestern France will see the totality.

Western and Central Europe will be able to see the partial eclipse just before the Moon sets and the Sun rises for about 75 minutes.

How can I see the Blood Moon?

Pretty easily, actually. Depending on your vantage point and the amount of dust, clouds and pollution in the atmosphere, you should be able to see this otherworldly light show with the naked eye.

Since the Earth’s shadow removes the Moon’s glare, our cosmic companion will be easier to look at than normal.

You likely won’t need a telescope, binoculars or eclipse glasses. But observational equipment can be used if you want to see the subtleties of the Moon’s colour change – seeing the grey craters, valleys, and mountains go scarlet.

If you live in a city, the skies might be an orange glow most days but because of the not-as-cosmically-fun light pollution.

City observers can use maps like this one to see what the darkest location near them is.

If you can’t catch the lunar eclipse, many space agencies, observatories and stargazer websites host live streams you can tune into.

When will the next lunar eclipse be?

A second total lunar eclipse will occur on September 7-8, this one best seen from Asia.

People in the US will miss out on this cosmic song and dance altogether, but Britons should be able to see it during moonrise.

A version of this article was originally published on January 14, 2025.

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A letter from the renowned English scientist Sir Isaac Newton predicted when the world would end as we know it.

The warning, scrawled above a maths calculation on a letter slip in 1704, says Earth will ‘reset’ in 2060.

Newton, known for formulating the laws of motion and gravity and inventing calculus, also had a life-long interest in religion and believed in biblical visions of the apocalypse – especially the Battle of Armageddon.

This prophesied war is mentioned in the final chapter of the Book of Daniel and Revelation, and pits the forces of good, led by God, against the forces of evil, led by the kings of the Earth.

The battle will be won by the forces of good, it predicts, and there will be a new era of peace.

To come up with the date, Newton used the ‘day-for-a-year principle,’ a method employed at the time to interpret biblical prophecies, reports the Mail Online.

He used the 1260, 1290, 1335 and 2300 days mentioned in the Book of Daniel and Revelation (which discusses the end and beginning of certain times) and interpreted each day as a year.

Writing under the alias ‘Jehovah Sanctus Unus’, he said in the letter: ‘So then the time times & half a time are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a yeare & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calendar of the primitive year.

‘And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of lived kingdoms, the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end A.C. 2060. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner.’

In another prediction where he mentions the date 2060, Newton wrote: ‘This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, [and] by doing so bring the sacred prophecies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.

‘Christ comes as a thief in the night, [and] it is not for us to know the times [and] seasons [which] God hath put into his own breast.’

Stephen D. Snobelen, a history of science and technology professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, told the Daily Mail that Newton’s prediction ‘did not involve the use of anything as complicated as calculus, which he invented, but rather simple arithmetic that could be performed by a child.’

He said Newton was not a scientist in the modern sense of the word – he was a ‘natural philosopher’.

‘Practised from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, natural philosophy included not only the study of nature, but also the study of God’s hand at work in nature,’ Mr Snobelen added.

He said Newton believed there would be a new era and that the biblical prophecy called for the Jews to rebuild The Temple before the second coming of Christ.

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Radioactive materials are found naturally in the Earth. But even so, saying an area is radioactive can conjure up images of things in a science fiction film – green glowing men, deformed animals.

In reality, however, the effects of human activity, from nuclear weapons testing and industrial accidents, have created some highly radioactive areas and can pose severe health effects to those who go near them.

From Kyrgyzstan to Cumbria, some of the locations are a bit surprising.

1. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Location: Pripyat, Ukraine

In April 1986, one of the worst nuclear accidents in history took place. The event occurred during a late-night safety test at the plant that was meant to simulate a station power failure.

But this led to the actual deactivation of the plant’s safety systems which created a massive steam explosion and an open-air graphite fire. The fire sent plumes of radioactive materials high into the atmosphere exposing over five million people in the former USSR alone to its fallout. 

The area saw higher than normal rates of some cancers and other diseases, and a high death rate in those who cleaned up the site. This has also led to some animals in the area mutating and adapting quicker by developing cancer resistant cells.

2. Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant

Location: Fukushima, Japan

In 2011, the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant disaster saw the plant’s three reactors leaking radioactive material and spillovers of contaminated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

The city of Fukushima was struck by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake which caused a tsunami, and the existing safety features of the powerplant were overwhelmed. The plant managed to survive the initial earthquake, but the resulting tsunami was more than twice as powerful as the plant could withstand.

This led to the plant’s seawater pumps, which were designed to keep the reactors cool during the shutdown, to fail.

The plant had to be shut down, but massive amounts of radioactive waste still spilt into the environment. It is thought that it will take roughly four decades to completely decommission the power plant.

3. The Hanford Site

Location: Washington, USA

This site is now one of the most radioactive places in the world after it produced around 74 tons of plutonium for the US’s nuclear weapon stockpile.

Established in 1943, it was used during the Cold War and was one of the United States’ main facilities for plutonium production to make nuclear weapons. It is commonly recognised as being a contributing part to the first atomic bomb.

Hanford produced nearly two-thirds of the plutonium used in the US nuclear weapons stockpile as around 60,000 nuclear weapons were made there, including the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. 

The site is now decommissioned, but it still holds around 60% of the high-level radioactive waste (by volume) and it’s currently managed by the US Department of Energy.

The vast majority of the production waste has been buried underground, but large areas of groundwater have since become contaminated.

4. The Polygon

Location: Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan

The Semipalatinsk Test Site, also called the Polygon, is lesser known but was used by the Soviet Union to test nuclear weapons and it is estimated that around 456 bombs were dropped there in total between 1949 and 1989.

The full impact of the tests only came to light when the site closed in 1991 as the Soviet Union never revealed what their tests entailed. The general consensus is that around 200,000 local residents were affected as many developed different types of cancer. In 2010, a BBC article reported that one in 20 children are born with genetic defects.

5. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan

Beneath the Earth in Mailuu-Suu in Kyrgyzstan lies a rich source of uranium. In the Cold War, the Soviet Union mined large amounts of uranium ore, and heavily contaminated waste mining products were buried around the excavated areas, but significant amounts were also left above ground.

This meant that waste got into the river too, and the effects are still lingering. Interviews with the local residents in 2015 revealed that those in the area said they were full of illness, with people suffering from cancer due to the Soviet Union’s actions.

However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, locals say there has been little monitoring or maintenance of the dumps. In a 2010 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote: ‘Production targets usually took precedent over environmental, health and safety standards.’

It warned that Mailuu-Suu was in urgent need of a cleanup.

Around 10,000 metric tonnes of radioactive uranium were produced between 1946 and 1967 which provided much of the fuel for the Soviet Union’s first nuclear weapons and atomic energy plants.

6. Siberian Chemical Combine, Tomsk-7

Location: Seversk, Russia

Still, with the Soviet Union, one radiochemical plant of the Siberian Chemical Combine called the ‘secret city’ of Tomsk-7, now known as Seversk, had several nuclear facilities for the production of plutonium and uranium.

The city was closed, and only plant workers and their families could live in the area. But in 1993, workers caused a massive accident that released radioactive gas, uranium and plutonium into the environment to a distance of 28km, and it’s thought that 177,000 people were affected by the fallout.

Siberian Chemical Combine was one of the production facilities used to produce weapon-grade nuclear products for the Soviet nuclear weapons program. 

After the fall of the Union in 1991, the site stopped production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium and is now a major place for the storage and handling of weapons-grade nuclear materials.

7. Sellafield

Location: Cumbria, UK 

During the Cold War, Sellafield uwas sed to produce weapons-grade nuclear material for the UK’s nuclear weapon program. 

Since then, it was the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to be used for electrical generation, but this part of the facility has since been decommissioned and is currently being dismantled.

Now, the site is used for nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning. The plant still releases contaminated waste into the Irish Sea. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the radiation exposure from artificial radioactivity in the Irish Sea is very low compared to the natural radioactivity in the environment.

8. The Somali Coast, Somalia 

Somalia’s shores have become a dumping ground for a large amount of nuclear and hazardous waste.

In 2009, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Nick Nuttall, told Voices of America that on average, it costs European companies $2.50 (£1.90) per ton to dump the waste on Somalia’s beaches rather than $250 (£190) a ton to dispose of the waste in Europe.

The United Nations Environment Program believes that the rusting barrels of waste washed up on the Somali coastline during the 2004 tsunami were dumped as far back as the 1990s.

It is estimated that no less than 600 barrels of toxic and nuclear waste may have been dumped on their shores, meaning that there may be a future environmental disaster brewing. 

9. Karunagappalli, India

The coastal town of Karunagappalli in Kerala, India, is known for its high background radiation from the phosphate mineral monazite in its soil which contains thorium. Thorium is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive metal. 

However, researchers have not found a higher level of cancer among locals in the area, but some reports have found a higher reading of radiation per person. 

10. BOMARC Site RW-01, The McGuire Air Force Base

Location: New Jersey, USA

Back in the US, the fenced-off annexe to the McGuire Air Force Base was identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as being highly contaminated.

In June 1960, a fire destroyed a nuclear warhead-equipped missile which released radioactive plutonium into the environment, while heat from the fire and fire suppression activities led to the dispersion of plutonium over the area.

11.  Church Rock Uranium Mill

Location: New Mexico, USA

In 1979, a large spill sent thousands of tons of solid radioactive mill waste and gallons of acidic solution into the Puerco River. The fallout spread over 80 miles (130 km) and reached as far down as Navajo County in Arizona.

It is said that the local residents who used the river suffered the effects of radiation exposure – including some serious infections that lead to amputations – and herds of sheep and cattle died after drinking the contaminated water. 

12. Kyshtym disaster

Location: Mayak, Russia

In 1957, a massive nuclear accident took place at the top secret Mayak nuclear station in the Soviet Union, becoming one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents at the time, known as the Kyshtym incident.

The accident, where more than 80 tons of radioactive waste were released by an explosion, spread large amounts of nuclear material over an area of more than 52,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi), where at least 270,000 people lived. 

Around 10,000 people evacuated and waste from the plant was also dumped in the surrounding area and into Lake Karachay.

13. The Goiânia incident

Location: Goiás, Brazil 

In 1987, at the Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, thieves stole a teletherapy unit containing cesium-137 from the abandoned medical clinic.

They then opened the machine, removed the lead capsule containing the caesium, and unknowingly spread the radioactive material over a large area. 

From the incident, four people were confirmed dead, and around 250 people received significant exposure to radioactive contamination. In the cleanup, topsoil had to be removed from several sites, and houses were demolished. All the objects from within those houses, including personal possessions, were seized and burnt.

A rare predatory fish which lives 2,000 metres below sea level has been spotted in broad daylight.

Spanish shark researchers say they may have captured the first-ever footage of a black seadevil fish.

The black seadevil, also known as a humpback anglerfish, came to the water’s surface 2 km from the coast of Tenerife, leaving scientists puzzled.

The predatory fish, with sinister sharp teeth and gaping jaws, typically only inhabits the ocean’s sunless depths, around 200 to 2,000 metres below sea level.

However, photographer David Jara Boguñá and a team of shark researchers at Condrik Tenerife followed one for more than an hour last week, which shocked onlookers due to it being only six inches long.

Marine biologist Laia Valor, who was also part of the shark expedition, told the EFE news agency: ‘We were returning to port when I saw something black in the water that didn’t look like plastic or debris. It seemed unusual.’

‘There could be thousands of reasons why it was there.’

‘We simply don’t know. It’s an extremely rare and isolated sighting.’

Scientists have been dumbfounded by the discovery, with each positing new theories as to why the terrifying fish turn up on the water’s surface.

The team from Condrik speculated that it may have been unwell or fleeing from a predator.

Expert Bruce Robison told National Geographic the black seadevil could have been swallowed by a larger predator and then spat out closer to the waterline.

The humpback anglerfish died shortly after the footage was taken, but its sighting will still prove hugely valuable to those researching the deep sea.

David Jara Boguña said on Instagram: ‘This could be the first recorded sighting in the world of a black demon or adult abyssal (Melanocetus johnsonii) alive, in broad daylight and on the surface.

‘A legendary fish that few people will have had the privilege of observing alive.

‘Apparently, the existing records to date correspond to larvae, dead adult specimens, or recordings made with submarines.

‘This surprising discovery did not leave the crew indifferent and will be remembered forever.’

The body of the fish was later given to the Museum of Nature and Archaeology of Tenerife.

Despite only being about six inches long, Black seadevils came to fame during a terrifying scene in the 2003 film Finding Nemo, when the creature lures Marlin and Dory with its glowing appendage.

Indeed female black devils use their bioluminescent ‘fishing poles’ to bait their prey.

The creatures live without sunlight due to their depth below land, but scientists know black seadevils make their light using glowing bacteria.

The mysterious fish mate even more bizarrely. The far smaller males will fuse their bodies to a female, who uses their genetic material when she’s ready to reproduce.

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We might already be too late to knock ‘city killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 out of the way with a tested method, a scientist has warned.

The space rock has a 2.3% chance of hitting Earth in in 2032, according to current estimates,

Nasa is trying to get a better idea of its intended route by looking at it with the James Webb space telescope, but with only eight years before its possible hit, we could already be short on time. 

Dr Robin George Andrews, author of How to Kill an Asteroid, gave an unsettling warning that to properly mount a planetary defence mission, you need at least a decade to plan and execute it.

An emergency situation might come down to either evacuating the potential impact site, or blasting the asteroid with a nuclear bomb in space, he said.

The science journalist and author told Metro that the only method we’ve currently ever used to deflect an asteroid nudged it only slightly at first. If we did the same with YR4, it could take a long time to amount to a significant change in trajectory.

‘It’s not like you’re playing pool, and you hit the cue ball into something and it flies off in the other direction,’ he said. ‘Eight years is tight, basically.’

If hitting it wouldn’t be enough to safely knock it off course, there is the nuclear option… literally.

‘This has never been tested in space because it’s technically illegal, and it would cause tensions,’ Dr Andrews said.

‘But if you put a nuclear weapon next to an asteroid – chased it through space, basically – and detonated it, it would give it an even bigger push.

‘If the choice was to evacuate the area or maybe use a nuke to deflect it… I imagine people are talking about that as a possibility.’

This woud break a current taboo against the use of nuclear weapons, but the explosion itself would not have negative consequences for us as ‘it would be so far away that we wouldn’t even see it.’

Such a drastic method ‘would never be a first resort,’ though.

Nasa’s DART mission in 2022 was the first and only time humans ever deflected an asteroid, when 160m-wide Dimorphos was hit causing its orbit time to shrink by 33 minutes.

Dr Andrews said that this method, where the asteroid was slammed into by a spacecraft the size of a van, had risks: ‘You don’t want to deflect it so it hits somewhere else on Earth, or breaks up into fragments that are still big and may hit random spots.’

The asteroid known as YR4 is smaller than Dimorphos, so there is a good chance we could alter its trajectory at least by some degre.

And don’t forget there’s a good 97.7% chance the asteroid will miss the Earth altogether, and no deflection will be needed.

If it really starts to look like a direct hit, though, governments and space organisations will speed up efforts to deflect it. One option could be developing a more powerful deflection spacecraft than the one used in the DART mission.

‘If you can hit it more aggressively with a bigger spacecraft, you could give it a bigger push in the other direction,’ Dr Andrews said.

‘I cannot see a situation where SpaceX would sit it out, and they’re good at making things quickly.’

The scientist wrote a thread on X outlining what he sees as the potential difficulties in any planetary defence misson, which made headlines for its warning that we can’t just bash into any asteroid heading our way and be sure of success, particularly if time is short.

If an asteroid is hit too hard, it might shatter causing problems in itself: ‘As I often say, it’s like turning a cannonball into a shotgun spray.’

The James Webb telescope, which is the most powerful ever made, should be able to tell us more about YR4’s size, and possibly its composition too.

It will have another couple of months to make its observations and work out how much we need to worry, before the asteroid heads too far from our neighbourhood to be seen. After that, if we still don’t know, we’ll have to wait until it’s next back in 2028.

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The ‘city killer’ asteroid (possibly) heading our way might spare us and slam into the Moon instead, scientists said.

The space rock known as 2024 YR4 has a 2.1% chance of hitting Earth based on current observations.

If it came down anywhere populated, that would be very bad, flattening an area miles wide if it’s on the larger side of estimates. 

But another possibility is that the Moon would take the hit, according to David Rankin of the Catalina Sky Survey asteroid hunting group, who put the chance of it whacking our satellite at 0.3%.

While that sounds alarming, it actually wouldn’t be a bad outcome, as it would save us from being pummeled ourselves.

Dr Robin George Andrews, science journalist and author of How to KIll an Asteroid, told Metro: ‘The Moon would barely notice. It would be like a mosquito hitting a windshield.’

Here on Earth we might get a good display though as it slammed into the surface at 50,000kph. 

Dr Andrews, who wrote about the possible moon strike in New Scientist, told Metro: ‘’The Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere to slow the asteroid down, so it wouldn’t explode in the air; it would hit the surface for sure.

‘The estimate is it would hit the near side, so we would all get to see it. Some people say that it wouldn’t be bright enough, and some say it would be brighter than the full moon.’

While we might get a fireworks display, he said it would take a ‘hilariously colossal’ asteroid hitting the Moon for things like tides on Earth to be affected. 

How big is Asteroid 2024 YR4?

We still don’t know the exact size of YR4, but it is thought to be in the region of 40m to 90m wide, putting it in the category of potential city killer, rather than planet killer (like the huge one which killed the dinosaurs).

It has a small chance of hitting Earth on December 22, 2032. 

Another question is what it’s actually made of, which could affect planetary defence missions. Some asteroids are solid rock or iron, but others are more like rubble bound together by gravity, which would crumble apart into boulders when hit, potentially creating dangerous debris.

Nasa’s James Webb telescope will now study the asteroid to try and learn more about it before it goes too far away again for us to analyse, in time for us to work out if we need to try and stop it.

The asteroid was first identified as a potential problem by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Chile on December 27 last year.

What would happen if it hit the moon?

If the Moon ‘bravely’ came between us and the asteroid, the impact would likely cause a crater, because it would be a direct hit.

Any debris thrown up by the impact would either stay there or drift into space, Dr Andrews said. 

There would only be a small possibility of any coming our way, and if it did, it would burn up in the atmosphere.

While the asteroid’s possible path is cause for concern, It’s important to note there is still a very low chance of it actually harming us.

Even if we were unlucky enough for it to hit, it would be much more likely to come down above an ocean or desert than a populated area.

But if it did hit the Moon, we could thank our celestial bodyguard for diving in front to save us.

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Scientists and historians finally know why hundreds of human bones are still being pulled from the bottom of the River Thames in a 300-year-old mystery.

Researchers examined 30 skeletons found in London’s famous river to find out why an unusually large proportion keep being found there.

Nicola Arthur, curator at the Natural History Museum, said: ‘Most people – including Londoners! – are quite taken aback to hear that hundreds of human bones have come from the River Thames.

‘They have been encountered fairly regularly in the water places of northwest Europe, but the Thames’ human bones represent a uniquely large assemblage.

‘The big question for these human bones is how they came to be in the river.’

Early theories from the 19th century included the corpses coming from a battle between Celts and Romans.

Others in the 20th century put forward that the bodies have reappeared as the riverbank has eroded and revealed mass burials and drowning victims.

But modern technology has been able to reveal the bodies have come all the way back from the Bronze and Iron ages – from 4,000 BC to 1,800 AD.

Ms Arthur told Live Science: ‘We can now say with confidence that these don’t appear to just be bones that have steadily accumulated in the river through time.

‘There really was something significant going on in the Bronze and Iron Ages.’

Closer examination of the bones revealed evidence of trauma, suggesting the cause of death were injuries sustained in acts of violence.

‘Violence is a particularly common theme for later prehistoric human remains from watery places.

‘We have found patterns of skeletal trauma on the bones of the Thames human remains.’

In 2022, a rower came across a 5,000 year old human bone dating bac to the Stone Age along the banks of the Thames.

Graphic designer Simon Hunt was rowing along the river when he noticed the ‘very old’ human femur lying on the riverbank.

Mr. Hunt said he collected the bone up in a plastic bag and took it home to show his wife. He soon passed it over to the police who sent the bone to a lab to be tested.

Expert analysis revealed it is around 5,000 years old – belonging to a person living in Neolithic Britain between 3516 and 3365BC.

‘It looked very old, but part of me was thinking what if it isn’t?’ Mr. Hunt told the BBC.

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Antarctica’s only native insect could provide inspiration for how humans could travel into deep space.

The tiny midge called Belgica antarctica manages to live in the freezing continent by essentially switching itself off for the coldest seasons, researchers say.

This could hold clues for humans about subjects like cryopreservation, when living things are frozen at very low temperatures far below zero, to come back to normal life again in future.

This might be helpful if we ever get to Mars and then onwards into deeper space beyond our our solar system.

The concept of freezing humans like this featured in science fiction films such as Alien, where crew had to enter tube-like ‘Hypersleep’ chambers after showering to survive lengthy journeys.

Cryopreservation is already used for some tissue, such as embryos used in IVF.

But while it is possible for cells, we are far from ready to revive frozen human beings.

The article in Nature’s Scientific Reports tells how the frozen midge larvae ‘readily survived 32 days of simulated overwintering’.

An international research team, led by scientists at Japan’s Osaka Metropolitan University, found that the flightless midge naturally deals with the seasons during its two-year life cycle by undergoing ‘quiescence’ in its first year and ‘obligate diapause’ in its second.

These are essentially dormant periods when the weather is too cold to function.

The first period comes in immediate response to adverse conditions, and when conditions improve, the organism becomes active again.

Its second quiet period comes from within, when it reaches a fixed point in its life cycle.

This allows the midges to emerge as adults at the same time period, when summer arrives.

Dr Mizuki Yoshida said: ‘As adults, they have only a few days of life and need to find a mate, so this timing mechanism is key to their survival.’

Professor Shin Goto said: ‘We determined that for the Antarctic midge obligate diapause ends with the onset of low temperatures in winter so that the larvae all pupate at the same time and emerge as adults at the same time.’

He added that although such adaptations aren’t known to occur in other creatures, ‘we believe that insects inhabiting harsh environments such as the Arctic and high altitudes might be employing similar strategies.’

They reared midges over a period of six years to find out some of their environmental coping mechanisms, and work out how other species might be able to survive in extreme cold.

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Google has quietly removed key cultural holidays, including Black History Month and LGBTQ+ Pride Month, from its calendar app.

The tech giant’s online and mobile calendar has for years marked the two celebrationsd on the first days of February and June respectively.

But for 2025, both months are blank. References to Women’s History Month, Indigenous People Month, Jewish Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month and Holocaust Remembrance Day have also been removed from this year.

Now the time-management service only shows default entries for public holidays and national observances, such as Christmas Day.

Users began flagging the change yesterday to the Google Calendar Help Community board, where product experts confirmed the removal.

The decision to no longer acknowledge Black, LGBTQ+ and women’s holidays didn’t exactly go down well with users.

One user, Grace Spence, said: ‘I understand that posting here will do absolutely nothing but I need to express just how sick and absolutely disgusting this company is for removing these holidays’

‘History will never be on your side.’

Another added: ‘I am disappointed that you have removed cultural events from your calendar. I always envisioned Google as a force for good in the world, and not racially or culturally biased. Poor show, Google.’

A third user, Karen Cline-Tardiff, said the move is ‘shameful’.

In response, Google product experts recommended users manually add the cultural holidays or send feedback through the Calendar app.

A Google spokesperson told The Verge that the company worked with TimeAndDate.com, a time-keeping website, to help add public holidays and national observances to the Calendar software.

They said: ‘Some years ago, the Calendar team started manually adding a broader set of cultural moments in a wide number of countries around the world.

‘We got feedback that some other events and countries were missing – and maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable.

‘So in mid-2024, we returned to showing only public holidays and national observances from timeanddate.com globally, while allowing users to manually add other important moments.’

The company has also confirmed that the changes to Google Calendar will not impact Google Doodles, redesigns of the company logo on the search engine’s home page that celebrates

Timeanddate.com does list events such as Pride Month and Black History Month in the US.

Google has been approached for comment.

Timeanddate.com told Metro: ‘Timeanddate.com provides holiday data to customers via an application program interface (API), providing the same information available on our website. Customers can customise which data to display.’

It is not the only change Google, which is owned by its parent company Alphabet Inc, has made to its platforms since Donald Trump began his second term.

Google Maps renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America – and the US president took credit, of course.

‘GULF OF AMERICA!’ wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform along with a screen grab of the body of water named exactly that in Google Maps.

The change was made on Monday after Trump signed an executive order to rename the oceanic basin mostly surrounded by Mexico and the US.

A Google search of the Gulf of Mexico also yields the Gulf of America.

Google previously said that it follows ‘a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources’.

However, it is only users in the US who will see it named Gulf of America. Users in Mexico will still see it labelled Gulf of Mexico, and those in the rest of the world will see it as ‘Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)’.

Google in a blog post noted that it rolled out the changes because ‘the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has officially updated’ the name.

Trump in his Truth Social post shared a link to a White House page on presidential actions that declared February 9 as the first-ever Gulf of America Day.

‘As my Administration restores American pride in the history of American greatness, it is fitting and appropriate for our great Nation to come together and commemorate this momentous occasion and the renaming of the Gulf of America,’ wrote Trump.

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A woman in her early 30s developed a kidney infection after her menstrual cup blocked urine flow.

She had to visit the doctor after noticing blood in her wee, as well as having pain in her tummy in pelvis which lasted around six months.

The anonymous woman’s case was detailed in the BMJ yesterday, because this is not a common occurrence.

It shows that women need to be better informed about the potential complications and correct use of the cups, the paper’s authors suggested.

The woman had been using a menstrual cup to catch blood during the days of her heaviest period flow, which she emptied every two to three hours.

Three years earlier, she had needed a kidney stone removed, and thought it may be something to do with this.

A scan revealed no sign of kidney stones, but did reveal a swollen right kidney and ureter —the tube that carries urine away from the kidneys.

Her menstrual cup was also visible on the scan, right next to the opening of the ureter into the bladder.

She was asked not to use the cup until a follow-up scan a month later.

When she went back, the symptoms had gone completely, leading doctors to conclude the cup was the culprit.

Menstrual cups, which are inserted into the vagina during menstruation and can be washed and reused, are bought as an eco-friendly alternative to pads and tampons.

They can be an incredibly helpful option, especially when disposable products are not available, such as for those living in poverty in rural areas.

As the study says, they are generally safe, with few issues reported.

However, the possibility of issues arising is something users should be aware of.

Study authors said: ‘Presently, menstrual cups can be bought and used without clinical advice from a health professional, which emphasises the importance of detailed and clear patient information material.’

They said there had only been a few similar cases reported.

In three cases, the women still kept using menstrual cups after getting advice on positioning and one choosing a smaller size, and none of them reported having problems again.

‘Correct positioning, along with choosing the correct cup shape and size, is important to prevent negative effects on the upper urinary tract,’ the authors said.

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Invasive snakes breeding in the wild in at least three UK regions crawl up walls and into attics to survive, researchers said.

Aesculapian snakes, which can grow to over 7ft long, originally escaped from captivity, but are now surviving on their own using warm corners made by humans.

Researchers tracked 13 males and eight females between 2021 and 2022 to find out how they were surviving in a climate previously thought to be too cold for them.

They found out they relied on ‘human habitats’ – such as your house.

Researchers said in their paper: ‘We observed Aesculapian snakes actively seeking and returning to use inhabited buildings and… climbing large structures to access the attics and wall cavities of houses.’

This is ‘unusual behaviour’ compared to native snakes in the UK, the team led by Tom Major said.

The areas where there are known to be populations of the large snakes are around London Zoo in Regent’s Park (although the zoo says they are not responsible), near Bridgend in South Wales, and around Colwyn Bay in North Wales.

The populations have lived here for some years, but it’s only now that researchers have shed more light on what their lifestyles involve.

And we have to say, we we not expecting to have to worry about getting a bonus scaly flatmate.

Using radio trackers to snakes in the Colwyn Bay population, researchers monitored where the snakes went and how they spent their time, with updates twice a day.

The results found that male snakes showed a ‘distinct preference’ for buildings, while female snakes preferred woodland.

‘For snakes, anthropogenic structures such as buildings and culverts provide shelter, thermoregulatory opportunities and egg-laying sites,’ the paper said.

‘Snakes frequently took shelter in human features of the habitat, and compost heaps, vegetation piles, and buildings represented long-term shelter for female snakes.

‘This attraction towards anthropogenic features is unusual behaviour compared with native snake species in the UK that often avoid built up urban areas.’

Of all the 21 tracked snakes, five died during the study and one died shortly afterwards. Three were killed by cars, one was preyed on by a buzzard and found in its nest, one was cannibalised by a male snake, and one was killed by a mammal thought to be a stoat, badger or cat.

During the study, five of the males were seen sheltering in two different buildings each, while three males used three different buildings.

On one occasion, researchers discovered eggs inside the compost heap of a residential home.

Aesculapian snakes had not been seen here for around 300,000 years after they were wiped out in an Ice Age.

They were first reintroduced to the UK after their long absence following an escape from the Welsh Mountain Zoo in the 1970s.

Since then, the rat-eating snakes have occasionally been spotted, with a dog walker finding one along the Regent’s Canal towpath last year.

They kill their prey using constriction, like boas, are not venomous and do not pose a threat to humans.

Ranging from France to Iran, they are one of mainland Europe’s largest native snakes.

This article was originally published on October 16, 2024

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Elon Musk has changed his name on X to ‘Harry Bōlz’, causing uproar in the Crypto world.

The obvious meaning of the new name is a play on words – hairy balls? – but people think he has something more in mind, as it has sent the value of memecoins with the same name surging.

One coin launched minutes after the name change surged 17,000% in value in just half an hour, according to the Crypto Times.

Musk has not official endorsed any coin related to Harry Bolz, and has gone by this alias before, having previously changed his display name briefly in April 2023.

But given he is currently leading a group of investors reportedly offering an unsolicited $97.4billion to purchase the nonprofit that has control of OpenAI, his name change has got even more attention.

The bid submitted to OpenAI’s board of directors on Monday intensifies Musk’s battle with the company’s CEO, Sam Altman.

‘It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,’ stated Musk through his lawyer Marc Toberoff, who sent the bid, according to The Wall Street Journal.

‘We will make sure that happens.’

Altman quickly responded to Musk on X (formerly Twitter), which the latter owns.

‘No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,’ wrote Altman.

He reiterated that the AI giant is ‘not for sale’.

The offer is backed by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, venture heads including Valor Equity Partners and entertainment mogul Ari Emanuel, among others.

OpenAI was co-founded by Altman and Musk in 2015 as a charity and Musk left in 2019.

OpenAI proceeded to form a for-profit subsidiary that has allowed it to raise funds from investors including Microsoft. Altman has been trying to convert the subsidiary into a traditional company, and if it pans out, it would be one of the biggest conversions of a charity into a for-profit business of all time.

Among the obstacles Altman faces is OpenAI’s negotiations with stakeholders including Microsoft on how equity would be divided, and a letter its rival Meta Platforms sent to the California attorney general opposing the plan.

Musk views Altman’s plan as betraying OpenAI’s initial mission of developing AI openly and safely. He and his group of investors are apparently ready to match and exceed any higher bids for OpenAI.

‘If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI Inc. Board of Directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time,’ stated Toberoff.

OpenAI is known for developing and launching ChatGPT in 2022 and has largely been the driver of the generative AI boom.

Musk sued OpenAI and Altman months ago, alleging that the founders approached him to fund a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI to help humanity, not make money.

OpenAI was valued at $157billion in October.

When President Donald Trump announced the $500billion Stargate project led by OpenAI to support artificial intelligence development and construct data centers, Musk quickly criticized it and questioned that the funds were secured for it.

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Within the space of a few hours, I’ve been plunged into a bathtub of ice, had some unflattering headgear with electrodes attached to my head and had my blood removed, mixed with oxygen, and put back into my body.

It’s been quite the experience and certainly not your average spa break.

Welcome to SHA Wellness, a new-age clinic with locations in Spain, Mexico, and the UAE, that mixes science with the holistic to offer next-level treatments for the rich, the famous (Demi Moore, Kylie Minogue and Naomi Campbell have all been guests) and the tech bros signed up to their 7-day £5,000 ‘optimal health’ Leaders Progamme.

Want a simple massage or a yoga lesson? Easily sorted. Fancy a full-on plasma transfusion or stem cell therapy? They can do that too.

The clinic: What to expect

Our SHA was set in the mountains of Alicante. Just 40 minutes from the airport, it’s hard to miss the futuristic white building that spans 60,000 square metres and is home to an array of treatment areas, along with a gym, boutique and a hydrotherapy pool, plus a cinema, art gallery and 92 guest rooms.

Here, the rooftop tranquility pool offers breathtaking views of the Spanish landscape, while everyone is given the A-list treatment, no matter what your budget or what you’ve come for, as Metro soon discovered on a three-day Rebalance and Energise taster programme. 

Included in my package, which starts from around £1,900 for four days, is a batch of consultations and tests from nutrition, brain and wellbeing experts, along with a raft of treatments including massage and acupuncture, cryotherapy and intravenous ozone therapy — that last one I had to Google, despite the extensive description on SHA’s website.

To be fair, you certainly get bang for your buck, though I did opt for some extras (at a cost), such as an ice bath (£125), Thai massage (£140) and brain-boosting transcranial electrical stimulation (£330). It was busy, to say the least.

The path to longevity? Through the mouth

At each of my consultations, whether it was with a personal trainer, nutritionist or GP, a friendly face would ask: ‘Why are you here?’

And the answer – apart from writing a piece for Metro – was that I wanted to feel healthier, have more energy, and, most importantly, learn the secret to a longer life. 

As this place also has a 7-day programme called Well-ageing & Prevention, I felt confident I would find out. 

My nutritionist explained there were three menus guests could follow during their stay: all were dairy, meat and sugar-free, but the ingredients and calorie intake varied depended on the goal.

For those after good old R&R, there’s the SHA menu; for anyone looking to clean up their diet, there’s Biolight; and for people intent on shedding a few pounds, there’s the Kushi menu, a restrictive plan designed for weight loss and detoxification.

As I wasn’t that fussed about losing weight and already quite hungry having spent three days prior to my trip weaning myself of meat, caffeine, sugar and dairy as advised by the clinic, I was told I could mix and match the menus, which felt like a real treat.

And despite the food being health-conscious, it was bloody delicious thanks to the brilliantly creative SHAmadi Restaurant chefs. 

Each morning started with miso soup and juice (beetroot and apple or carrot and apple), before our chosen menu choices. Porridges were made from millet and rice, and come with two side plates: a snack, such as a protein ball or sesame crackers, and crudites with dip. The first day I was served hummus, which I don’t usually like, but dutifully swallowed as if I was at military bootcamp. After mentioning this to my nutritionist, the following day I was given guacamole, and I never saw hummus again.

Lunch and dinners were hearty three-course affairs, unless you were on the Kushi diet, which offered two courses. If you load up at mealtimes with slow-release foods, you’re less likely to snack, or so I was told.

Each meal would start with a shot of apple cider vinegar and end with a herbal tea. Lunch consisted of sweet potato gnocchi and octopus gyoza in ramen, while dinners were sea bass, kale and roasted pumpkin and tofu ravioli with porcini mushrooms. Puddings were hit-and-miss in terms of hitting the sweet spot, but anything with berries and dark chocolate was divine.

All in the mind

With each consultation, I learned a bit more. Sometimes, especially if I’m eating more seeds and pulses, I get quite bloated, so I was advised to go for a short walk every hour to help my digestive system rather than sitting at my desk all day. 

Another thing I was keen to get assessed was my cognitive ability. Having been in the grip of perimenopause for a good eight years, I sometimes feel like my memory is my enemy and can really let me down. It also worries me that forgetfulness might be permanent.

However, after a series of tests which included memory games and reactive speed, I was told that my brain is far sharper than I realised, and (proud moment) in really good nick for my age.

I left the session with a handful of app recommendations, so I could continue training my brain back home.

Getting physical

I soon learned, though, that my body is more complicated. After standing in my bra and knickers on a machine that slowly spins you round to scan every nook and cranny, I received mixed results.

My muscle mass is excellent for my age – which is good, and expected, given the amount of time I spend doing weights at the gym – but my visceral fat (the stuff that surrounds your organs) is a worry. It would appear that I have more than I should, despite eating what I considered a healthy diet, which could lead to long-term damage. Combined with the results that my vascular health also needed a makeover, it came as a bit of a blow. 

My digestion was also an issue. After undergoing an ‘integrated bioenergy assessment with electromagnetic evaluation’ – which involved having electricity sent through my body to highlight any ‘blockages’ – I was told that every aspect of my digestive system is blocked in some way, and was advised to book a colonic if I have time (I don’t) for a kickstart.

However, among all the tests, there was a glimmer of light: my liver passed with flying colours, which was a surprise as I’d just drunk my way through a booze-filled Christmas. 

Fresh air

Feeling a little deflated, I decided to go for a walk and explore the area around the clinic. Within 20 minutes of weaving my way through quiet suburbia, I was ensconced in the hustle and bustle of Alicante’s tourist area. Shops and restaurants lined the streets, though I tried not to look at the menus so I wouldn’t feel tempted.

I ended up at the beach, where I took a deep breath and soaked up my surroundings. As I stood on the sand under the Spanish sun, it was time to turn my disappointment on its head. 

After all, I was here to relax (blue skies, being treated like a celeb, pampering treatments and a jacuzzi on my balcony, tick), but I was also at the clinic to learn how to be healthier and live longer, so I needed to consider the knowledge I’d been given as power, rather than a problem.

A new perspective

One of my consultants explained that all of the longevity treatments they offer – cryotherapy, ozone therapy, transcranial stimulation and ice baths, for example – should really be done over a course of time for full effect. I only had time for one session, but with each one, I couldn’t help but feel a little more rejuvenated. It was a start.

In the cryotherapy chamber, I had to stand in the most unflattering paper boob tube and pants wearing fluffy boots and gloves and a scarf as my head popped out the top. Dignity was not my friend, but I managed two minutes of my skin surface temperature going down to 10 degrees celsius easily. Next was the ice bath, where I withstood five minutes (the maximum time allowed). Knowing I had the mental strength to take these on was another boost. 

Having my body treated with an infrared tool to aid with my digestion, followed by a seaweed hydroenergetic detox to boost my metabolism, wasamazing. As were the ginger compresses on my kidney area and acupuncture for my general wellbeing. 

Then there was the transcranial electrical stimulation, which involves ‘neuropriming’ to increase brain plasticity and strengthen its connections more quickly. In my case, the treatment was designed to improve cognitive function, but it is also said to be useful for recovery after a stroke and addiction.

As I sat there with electrical pads on my head, silently transmitting electricity to my brain, I felt like I was getting an insider’s look at the longevity game. 

Metro’s verdict

After three and a bit days of no work and no stress, it’s a no-brainer to say I felt relaxed. But I also came home with some of the best advice possible when it comes to living longer. 

Knowing the clinic offered genetic testing and intravenous therapies to help keep the effects of old age at bay, I asked several of my consultants if that was the secret — endless treatments and futuristic therapies, ergo the need for an unlimited budget? 

Each one smiled and said the same thing. Yes, treatments can help, but the key is to stay healthy for as long as possible by following these core tenets: keep fit, eat healthily, take Omega 3 and vitamin D (if you’re deficient, which a Boots kit back home soon determined I was) and sleep – which is crucial for our bodies to recover and rejuvenate. That was it.

So have I kept up my SHA lifestyle now I’m back to the grind? Sort of. I still start each day with a miso soup (try it, it’s lovely), take Vitamin D, Omega 3 and B12, do my best to walk around a bit more in the office and go to bed a little bit earlier.

I’ve also cut down on sugar, booze, dairy and red meat, and have found that by eating a decent-sized healthy meal three times a day, I have kicked my need for evening snacks. Of course, I do still enjoy the odd treat as life would be boring otherwise.

Experiencing SHA Wellness may end up being a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, but it gave me tools I can use forever.

Rates for a Deluxe Suite at SHA Wellness Clinic are from €550. Rates for a four-day Rebalance programme are from €2,300. 

For more information, please visit shawellness.com. British Airways flies from London Gatwick airport to Alicante from £44 each way including taxes and fees. To book, please visit ba.com/alicante.