
But there are alternatives....


But there are alternatives....

Pan Europe found several pesticide residues in 85% of apples, with some showing traces of up to seven chemicals
Environmental groups have raised the alarm after finding toxic “pesticide cocktails” in apples sold across Europe.
Pan Europe, a coalition of NGOs campaigning against pesticide use, had about 60 apples bought in 13 European countries – including France, Spain, Italy and Poland – analysed for chemical residues.
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Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: No finches yet and only a single thrush, but tuning into January’s sounds has revealed that nature is beginning to stir
If my teenage son hadn’t mentioned it one grey morning this week, I’m not sure I’d have noticed, having been too caught up in the January doldrums. But he was right: there’s a new fullness to the soundscape here on our urban housing estate. “The birds just sound louder,” he said, scanning the rooftops, “more enthusiastic.”
“Go on then, what are they?” he grinned, giving me permission to perform my party trick. I closed my eyes and listened. Sparrow. Robin. Wood pigeon. Wren. Blue tits – a bickering winter flock of them – and, there, the see-see-see of long-tailed tits.“Which one makes this sound?” he asked, and whistled a long, descending note like something falling from the sky. “They’re my favourite.” “Starling!” I said. Right on cue, one made that exact sound somewhere above us, confirming his perfect impression.
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More than 300 brown hairstreak butterfly eggs discovered near Llandeilo this winter after decade of decline
Record numbers of eggs of the rare brown hairstreak butterfly have been found in south-west Wales after landowners stopped flailing hedges every year.
The butterfly lays its eggs on blackthorn every summer. But when land managers and farmers mechanically cut hedges every autumn, thousands of the eggs are unknowingly destroyed.
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This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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Projects in development expected to grow global capacity by nearly 50% amid growing concern over impact on planet
The US is leading a huge global surge in new gas-fired power generation that will cause a major leap in planet-heating emissions, with this record boom driven by the expansion of energy-hungry datacenters to service artificial intelligence, according to a new forecast.
This year is set to shatter the annual record for new gas power additions around the world, with projects in development expected to grow existing global gas capacity by nearly 50%, a report by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) found.
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Emergency pumps are deployed in attempt to stop water inundating homes around River Parrett
Since medieval monks started draining and managing the Somerset Levels, humans have struggled to live and work alongside water.
“At the moment it feels like a losing battle,” said Mike Stanton, the chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority.“Intense rainfall is hitting us more often because of climate change. It may be that in the next 50 years, perhaps in the next 20, some homes around here will have to be abandoned.”
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Despite no criminal charges being brought against them, four officers have been detained since the MV Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six workers
Several crew members of a ship that collided with a bridge in Baltimore almost two years ago are still being held in the US by federal authorities despite the fact that no criminal charges have been brought against them.
In the early hours of 26 March 2024, the MV Dali departed the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka. While navigating the Fort McHenry channel, the 1,000ft-long Singapore-flagged cargo vessel lost power before striking the bridge. The impact resulted in the deaths of six people who were working on the bridge at the time.
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Inspired by YouTube creators, some people are limiting beef to a handful of ‘feast days’ a year to cut their climate impact
“I love beef,” says Vlad Luca, 25. But unlike most other self-proclaimed steak lovers, Vlad eats it only four times a year, on designated “beef days”.
The “beef days” phenomenon has been popularised by the brothers John and Hank Green, known collectively as vlogbrothers on YouTube. John, 48, is better known for his YA fiction, including The Fault in Our Stars, while Hank, 45, is a self-described science communicator and entrepreneur.
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A wave of affordable Chinese-made EVs is accelerating the shift away from petrol cars, challenging long‑held assumptions about how transport decarbonisation unfolds
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Last year, almost every new car sold in Norway, the nature-loving country flush with oil wealth, was fully electric. In prosperous Denmark, which was all-in on petrol and diesel cars until just before Covid, sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) reached a share of 68%. In California, the share of zero-emissions vehicles hit 20%. And at least every third new car now bought by the Dutch, Finns, Belgians and Swedes burns no fuel.
These figures, which would have felt fanciful just five years ago, show the rich world leading the shift away from cars that pump out toxic gas and planet-heating pollutants. But a more startling trend is that electric car sales are also racing ahead in many developing countries. While China is known for its embrace of electric vehicles (EVs), demand has also soared in emerging markets from South America to south-east Asia. BEV sales in Turkey have caught up with the EU’s, data published this week shows.
The UK government didn’t want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I’m not surprised
The 16-month battle to reveal the truth about Sydney Water’s poo balls
Powering up: how Ethiopia is becoming an unlikely leader in the electric vehicle revolution
‘My Tesla has become ordinary’: Turkey catches up with EU in electric car sales
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As rivers swell and homes are cut off, scientists say UK winter rainfall is already 20 years ahead of predictions
When flooding hit the low-lying Somerset Levels in 2014, it took two months for the waters to rise. This week it took two days, said Rebecca Horsington, chair of the Flooding on the Levels Action Group and a born-and-bred resident. A fierce barrage of storms from the Atlantic has drenched south-west England in January, saturating soils and supercharging rivers.
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Nova studija otkriva kako bakterije u crijevima mogu pomoći u određivanju hoće li aminokiselina asparagin iz prehrane hraniti rast tumora ili aktivirati imunološke stanice protiv raka. To crijevni mikrobiom, koji se sastoji od bilijuna mikroorganizama koji žive u crijevima, postavlja kao središnjeg igrača u odgovoru tijela na rak i na moderne tretmane raka poput imunoterapija.
Cerebralna amiloidna angiopatija (CAA) je stanje u kojem se protein (nazvan amiloid) nakuplja u mozgu, slabeći krvne žile. Osobe s cerebralnom amiloidnom angiopatijom imaju četiri puta veću vjerojatnost da će razviti demenciju unutar pet godina, bez obzira na to jesu li imale moždani udar, tvrdi nova studija.
Agregacija proteina tau definira tauopatije, najčešće neurodegenerativne bolesti povezane sa starenjem, koje uključuju Alzheimerovu bolest i frontotemporalnu demenciju. Specifični neuronski podtipovi selektivno su osjetljivi na agregaciju tau proteina, disfunkciju i smrt. No, znanstvenici sa UC San Francisco nedavno su identificirali sakupljač opasnog otpada u mozgu koji odlaže toksične nakupine tau proteina koje mogu dovesti do demencije. Neuroni s više ovog sakupljača otpada, tehnički poznatog kao CUL5, manje su osjetljivi na Alzheimerovu bolest.
Nova studija sugerira da melatonin iz svakodnevne hrane može obilježiti prehrambene obrasce povezane s nižim stopama pretilosti i depresije, a da ne pokazuje jasne veze s drugim kroničnim bolestima. Melatonin, koji se nalazi u hrani životinjskog i biljnog podrijetla, povezan je s koristima za san, raspoloženje i metaboličko zdravlje u eksperimentalnim, opservacijskim i suplementacijskim studijama.
Transplantacija fekalne mikrobiote (FMT) može dramatično poboljšati liječenje raka, sugeriraju rezultati dviju studija. Prva studija pokazuje da se toksične nuspojave lijekova za liječenje raka bubrega mogu eliminirati FMT-om, a druga studija sugerira da je FMT učinkovit u poboljšanju odgovora na imunoterapiju kod pacijenata s rakom pluća i melanomom.
Znanstvenici sa Oregon State University razvili su novi nanomaterijal koji pokreće par kemijskih reakcija unutar stanica raka, ubijajući stanice putem oksidativnog stresa, a zdrava tkiva ostavljajući na miru. Ovi rezultati unapređuju područje kemodinamičke terapije ili CDT-a, novog pristupa liječenju temeljenog na prepoznatljivom biokemijskom okruženju koje se nalazi u stanicama raka.
Prema rezultatima nove studije panel s četiri biomarkera - aminopeptidazom N (ANPEP), polimernim imunoglobulinskim receptorom (PIGR), CA19-9 i trombospondinom-2 (THBS2) - poboljšao je otkrivanje adenokarcinoma gušterače u usporedbi s mjerenjem samo razina CA19-9.
Povijesni podaci pokazuju da muškarci razvijaju koronarnu bolest srca deset godina prije žena. No nedavno objavljena studija pokazuje da ta razlika među spolovima i dalje postoji. Naime, muškarci su imali značajno veću kumulativnu incidenciju kardiovaskularnih bolesti. Imali su veće kumulativne stope incidencije podtipova kardiovaskularnih bolesti - koronarne bolesti srca i zatajenja srca u usporedbi sa ženama, no nije bilo razlike u moždanom udaru.
Odrasli ljudi srednje i starije životne dobi koji su bili aktivniji navečer imali su lošije kardiovaskularno zdravlje u usporedbi sa svojim vršnjacima koji su bili aktivniji tijekom dana, pokazala je nova studija. Spomenuto zapažanje se posebno odnosi na žene.
Znanstvenici su po prvi put uspjeli identificirati specifični genetski nacrt manije, definirajuće značajke bipolarnog poremećaja. Bipolarni poremećaj jedno je od najtežih i najsloženijih psihijatrijskih stanja koje pogađa oko 2% ljudi diljem svijeta. Iako su epizode depresije, psihoze i drugih simptoma česte, manija je ono što razlikuje bipolarni poremećaj od drugih mentalnih bolesti.