Simon Hedges

Fraudulent scientific papers are booming A subset of journal editors may be partly responsible

Scientific journals exist to do one thing: provide accurate, peer-reviewed reports of research to an interested audience. But according to a new paper in PNAS, #scientific #fraud now happens on a massive scale and is growing quickly.

Gift article, free to read

www.economist.com/science-and-...

Ditch your dish sponge, take a packed lunch: 33 easy plastic-free kitchen swaps Plastic is a growing concern, so it’s time to cut back. Here’s how, from tips on reducing our use to ideas for more sustainable products

And here are some practical things you can do to help with the #plastic #pollution crisis

www.theguardian.com/thefilter/20...

Life-saving idea! Pass it on!

To all political parties: Commit to no GP appointment fees EVER I just signed 38 Degrees’ open letter asking ALL political parties to commit to NEVER charging GP fees - will you join me?

Hi, I just signed this and you might want to too! 38 Degrees is sending an open letter to ALL political parties, asking them to commit to NEVER charging GP fees. Will you join me and sign? 38d.gs/lbni

#NHS #UK

I prosecute and defend the most serious sexual offences in our courts.

The overwhelming majority of offenders are British-born. Overwhelmingly the victim is someone known to them, either a partner or relative.

Anybody purporting to care about protecting women might start there.

Fraudulent Scientific Papers Are Rapidly Increasing, Study Finds

"For years, whistle-blowers have warned that fake results are sneaking into the scientific literature at an increasing pace. A new statistical analysis backs up the concern."

#science #publishing #peer-reviewed

Gift article, free to read

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/s...

Scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation Experts say the report being used to justify the mass rollback of climate regulations has many claims based on long-debunked research

ICYM - Scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation

- Experts say the report being used to justify the mass rollback of climate regulations has many claims based on long-debunked research

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

World in $1.5tn ‘plastics crisis’ hitting health from infancy to old age, report warns Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet

And in case that wasn't scary enough, here's another article on the planetary #plastic #pollution crisis, this one by the @theguardian.com's @dpcarrington.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Opinion | You Are Contaminated

#Plastic buildup inside the brain "has grown 50 percent in just eight years, and that, as of last year, there might be inside your skull the equivalent of a full plastic spoon — by weight perhaps one-fifth as much polymer as there is brainstem in there"

Gift article

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/o...

Healthy Lifestyle Can Help People at Risk for Dementia, Study Finds

The study found that a combination of exercise, healthy diet and other behaviors led to cognitive benefits. How much intense guidance is required was unclear, experts said.

Gift article

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/h...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

Kemp’s book covers the rise and collapse of more than 400 societies over 5000yrs. The lessons: "people are fundamentally egalitarian but are led to collapses by enriched, status-obsessed elites, while past collapses often improved the lives of ordinary citizens."

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse

- An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation by Luke Kemp argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

Story by me
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Someone asked me just today if RSS is “still a thing”.

Friends, it definitely is! Though I will always sigh for google reader, RSS remains a fantastic way to pull in news from the sources you want to read, without “the algorithm” sucking you into rage and despair.

Meet the contestants for Australia's top underrated animal Move over, roos and emus — this National Science Week, we're looking for the most underrated Australian animal. Meet the contestants, and vote for who you think should win.

It's a difficult concept & a *nightmare* choice (& I want more invertebrates) but still - let's give more fab species a big boost! Vote! Vote! Vote!

98%

That's the decrease in the annual number of single-use plastic bags in the UK since a 5p charge started 10 years ago (it's now 10p)

Not all environmental problems are that easy to tackle, but change is possible

Resharing the Mail's 2015 splash, which has aged well

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Autistic ppl seldom get to cherry pick what we are good at and what our specific impairments are … and it’s safe to say that many of us don’t have “Autism Superpowers” in the purview of a capitalist society …

Many quirks of “Gifted Kids” don’t correlate to career success.

bsky.app/profile/auti...

#Farmers and @zslofficial.bsky.social #scientists join forces to vaccinate badgers against #TB

The climate needs a politics of the possible To win voters’ consent, policymakers must offer pragmatism and hope

"Voters everywhere prefer cleanliness to pollution and a future in which they can thrive to one that looks dangerous. Those are more potent rallying cries than an abstract target."

"That is what those fighting #climatechange need to offer."

www.economist.com/interactive/...

In Ultraviolet Light, Birds-of-Paradise Show True Colors Red Bird-of-Paradise by Tim Laman. From the Summer 2025 issue of Living Bird magazine. Subscribe now. Birds in the Paradisaeidae family—more than 40 species collectively called the birds-of-pa...

Birds-of-paradise are always fabulous, but did you know they can glow? A recent study discovered that over 80% of all birds-of-paradise species are “biofluorescent”—able to transform ultraviolet light into luminescent yellows and greens. Keep reading: 🔗 www.allaboutbirds.org/news/ultravi...

How a tree-killing beetle chose wrong human to fly into, revealing presence in B.C. The tiny beetle could scarcely have picked a worse human to fly into.

Our recent paper about detecting emerald ash borer in Vancouver got some press attention in BC. I'm glad the reporter connected with the person who found the beetle. This is such a fun story and I'm glad we got to tell it:
www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

Myth: “Sharks can smell a drop of blood from a mile away”

Fact: That’s…that’s not how smell works you guys! Sharks have an extremely well-developed sense of smell and can detect blood, as well as many other scents, in very low concentrations. But this unsourced claim that you’ve all heard is wrong!

Public Science Engagement Using Social Media — Center for Wildlife Studies

Friends, it’s never been more important for scientists to break out of the ivory tower and engage with the public.

My course- which you can take for graduate school course credit, continuing professional education credit, or just to learn a new skill- can help.

Please share!

🧪🦑🌎🐠🦈 #SciComm

And here's the graphical abstract from our paper on human-elephant conflict risk mapping

#risk #models #elephants

Interested in human-elephant conflict (HEC)? Then see the new paper by Carly Schwarz, Juliana Masseloux, and me on predicting HEC risk, based on work by @zslofficial.bsky.social and others:

doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

#elephants #conflict #coexistence #risk #modelling

Trump’s inaugural fund received $19m from fossil fuel industry, analysis shows President raised $239m for inauguration – more than previous three inaugural committees took in combined

Fossil fuel industry gave $19m to Trump’s inaugural fund, analysis shows

- In his inauguration speech, the president pledged to “drill, baby, drill"

- Biggest donors: Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum

Storyby @dharna.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Revealed: The mega farms polluting the environment with excrement Mega farms in Scotland have repeatedly leaked excrement and failed to monitor contamination, putting humans, wildlife and the environment at risk.

#FactoryFarming - animal hell that is hugely polluting Scotland (and England!)

#PlanetaryBoundaries #PublicHealth
theferret.scot/mega-farms-p...

1. One thing you need to realise about the British Establishment is that it uses clowns to express its deepest desires. People like Rod Liddle offer a kind of deniability - "lighten up, he's just having a laugh". But they deliver a closer representation of its truths than any sober editorial.

Affected predators include Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles (details: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...)
These poisons are widely for sale at eye-level in Australian hardware stores; much more carefully regulated elsewhere. Advice & action here: www.actforbirds.org/ratpoison
#Tasmania

Heavy Rains Cause Deadly Flooding and Evacuations in Texas

Your occasional reminder that climate change makes intense rain events more intense.

At this point, the question is not "did climate change affect this" but instead "how much of an affect did climate change have?"

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/u...

Assisted colonization could be our ally in adapting to climate change, study suggests From Shakespeare’s plays to William Wordsworth’s poetry to J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy realms, Britain’s lush green forests are described as a paradise of trees. Thousands of species have called these oak...

Assisted colonisation rethought

Our idea is to move species to help maintain robust ecosystems under climate change

Not simply to move some species at risk

Process-based conservation rather than species-centric

Explained & explored in this @mongabay.com article
news.mongabay.com/2025/07/assi...