SCIENCE

Social media is awash with claims iron deficiency can be identified in the mirror by dark circles, breaking hair and dry skin. But is ‘ferritin face’ real? Madeleine Finlay tells Ian Sample why so many of us struggle to keep our iron levels up, how we can actually diagnose low iron and the best way…

Controversial theory that Verica, who incited Emperor Claudius’s AD43 landing, was a woman could put a new spin on British history if true It was a moment that changed the course of British history: in AD43, Roman troops under the emperor Claudius landed in Kent. Now, an archaeologist has claimed…

Young people and women most at risk, study finds, as researchers call for vegan products to be fortified with iodine in particular Switching from dairy products to plant-based alternatives could lead to deficiencies in vital micronutrients, especially among young people and women, a study has…

Kseniia Petrova was detained for four months after arrest with research samples, and feared deportation to Russia Federal prosecutors have dropped all criminal charges against a Russian scientist who spent four months in immigration detention after flying into Boston with frog embryos intended for…

Pups that carry your shopping are one thing – but what about the mechanical canines being bought up in the US by ICE? Or the mutant mutts due to be developed by a startup called Warhound? Have you ever wanted to hang out with a dog with no fur, no face and a chip in its shoulder? If so, I suggest…

A space capsule 300 miles above us is growing the tiny crystals of a potential cancer drug in microgravity Roughly 300 miles above our heads, three washing machine-sized capsules are orbiting the Earth. Inside one of them, tiny crystals of a potential cancer drug are being grown in the…

Mink farms are the perfect petri dishes for deadly flu strains to emerge. Yet officials appear to be protecting business interests over human lives Could this be ground zero? Could it be the spot where the next pandemic begins? It’s certainly a candidate, not least because the chain of events that…

Brendan Larsen spent hours taking hundreds of photographs of the sky over a mountain in New Zealand A photograph showing thousands of satellites cross-hatching the night sky over New Zealand appeared so extraordinary the astrophotographer who captured it is fighting accusations it was created by…

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere Wednesday, burning up in the process Nasa ’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, which has spent two decades studying the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday,…

Chemical tests on Aratasaurus bone identify presence of heme, the organic compound that allows haemoglobin in blood to carry oxygen around body It could be the opening of a Jurassic Park rip-off: scientists examining ancient dinosaur bones find what appear to be fossilised red blood cells, and…

Many treatments are now extending lives but the measure of progress should not end with a scan or a survival curve Two decades ago, a dear friend called me in a trembling voice. Was there hope for his young nephew , whose cancer had spread to the brain? Sadly, “no”, I said. But today, for such…

UN-backed report finds even temporary rises above Paris agreement target could cause harm to glaciers and polar ice sheets Earth’s icy regions face such dangerous melting that global heating should be brought back below 1C after an inevitable period of overshooting global temperature targets, a UN…

Dr Marta Shahbazi was travelling to a conference to receive award for scientific excellence in developmental biology An “inspiring” Cambridge scientist died in the Spanish train collision on Wednesday that killed at least 69 people. Dr Marta Shahbazi , 41, an affiliate associate professor at the…

The Covid pandemic shed an unforgiving light on health and social care inequalities. The lessons have yet to be absorbed The fear that so many felt as the death toll rose during the Covid pandemic was magnified for Fiona Walker. “I know from experience they wouldn’t have valued my life,” she says,…

A mile beneath the Black Hills, scientists are building giant detectors to analyse neutrino particles – and possibly find the answer to existence For more than a century, the mining town of Lead, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, attracted workers with a taste for gold. Now, a flagship experiment…