Tom Howarth

Congratulations to Prof Omar Yaghi and his colleagues on winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their pioneering work on world-changing materials. 🧪

I caught up with Prof Yaghi a few weeks ago to chat all about his work. You can listen to our conversation below:
pod.link/1296673906/e...

Germans meet up to eat pudding with forks — and the trend goes global The trend, called “Pudding mit Gabel,” has taken off on German social media, and now has crossed the Atlantic.

This trend really makes the world seem weird... but not so bad. 🧁

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

The hidden trigger behind Parkinson’s has finally been spotted | BBC Science Focus Magazine The findings mark a major advancement in our understanding of the world’s fastest-growing neurological disease

Co-first author Dr Rebecca Andrews:
“This is the first time we've been able to look at oligomers directly in human brain tissue at this scale: It’s like being able to see stars in broad daylight”

🧪

www.sciencefocus.com/news/hidden-...

A digital illustration of a planet surrounded by a flat gaseous disc, in bright orange tones. In the central parts of the disc, material is flowing from the disc onto the planet along arched trajectories above and below the plane of the disc.

🆕 Our VLT finds a rogue planet growing at record rate: six billion tonnes a second!

This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a planet of any kind, providing insights into how rogue planets form&grow: https://f.mtr.cool/pvyxnsjnfx 

🔭 🧪 ☄️
#exoplanets
Illustration ESO/L. Calçada

Why is autism really on the rise? What the science says As Trump blames Tylenol, Nature looks into the decades of research on the causes of autism.

Useful explainer

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Long-distance runners may face higher colon cancer risk, early findings suggest | BBC Science Focus Magazine A new study has raised questions about the link between extreme endurance running and colorectal cancer

Long distance ultra runners may be at greater risk of colon cancer. 🧪 🏃

Emphasis on the 'may' here - findings are very preliminary and only based on a small group.

Could be to do with blood flow away from digestive system...

NB: running is still super healthy
www.sciencefocus.com/news/ultra-r...

Pepe

Do Reptiles Have Moods, Too?

My pet tortoise, Pepe, approves this message. 🐢 🧪

➼ 'Long dismissed as unintelligent, reptiles are emerging as cognitively and emotionally complex animals. A new study involving tortoises suggests that they also possess mood states.'

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/s...

NASA’s Tally of Planets Outside Our Solar System Reaches 6,000 The milestone highlights the accelerating rate of discoveries, just over three decades since the first exoplanets were found.

6,000 and counting 🧪

The number is somewhat arbitrary, but it's impressive how far we've come in 3 decades since the first exoplanet discovery.

We'll no doubt be at 10,000 in a couple of years, tops.

www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-t...

We’ve Lived through the Three Hottest Summers on Record Climate-fueled heat has caused thousands of excess deaths over the past three summers, which were the three hottest on record

Congratulations, you've just lived through the three hottest summers on record 🫠

But with greenhouse gas emissions still piling up in the atmosphere, those records probably won't stand for terribly long. 🧪

(graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social)

YouTube video by ESO Chasing Starlight New images of M87's black hole show its changing magnetic field

Ch-ch-changes 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P04...

The image shows seven hexagonal images put together like a flower. All the images show the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in front of an orange sun or moon rise. All the hexagons are dated and show the ELT assembly at the specific date.

1/ A rising telescope under a rising Sun and Moon! 🔭☀️🌕

This montage is a kaleidoscope of moments from the construction of our Extremely Large Telescope.

Creating this #ELT collage took Boris Häußler, an ESO astronomer in Chile, years of meticulous planning.

Artificial sweeteners may speed up brain ageing, study claims | BBC Science Focus Magazine Your diet soda could come with a side of unwanted health risks.

Artificial sweeteners linked with cognitive decline. 🧪

Curiously, the association was only found in people under 60, not those older.

~ 1 can of diet soda a day was equal to 1.6 years of brain ageing over the study period. 🧠
www.sciencefocus.com/news/artific...

Where America’s CO emissions come from – what you need to know, in charts Carbon dioxide emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. Too much CO2 can disrupt the climate and oceans.

For those more visually inclined, here's pretty much everything you need to know about US CO2 emissions, in charts. 📈 📊

theconversation.com/where-americ...

Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.

Ooo, someone has done an actual study on this.

UK and Chinese researchers analysed 2.6M Bluesky posts referencing 532,000 scientific articles. Posts garnered more attention and tended to be more original (ie, not just copy-paste the link).

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Line graph time series of global ocean heat content for the 0-2000 m layer for 3 year averages, yearly averages, and five years averages from the late 1950s to 2025. There is a long-term warming trend. The baseline is 1955-2006 for the zero reference to calculate the anomalies.

Meanwhile, back in reality, global ocean heat content just updated through June 2025 and set a new record high. Time to wake up!

Data (anomalies) & methods from www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...

Bluesky now platform of choice for science community It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…

Say it louder for the people in the back 👏
arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Cats get dementia too. And they might be the key to new human treatments | BBC Science Focus Magazine New research has found that our feline friends develop dementia in a similar way to human Alzheimer’s Disease, opening the door to further research.

Cats get dementia too, and it looks a lot like Alzheimer’s in humans 🧪 🐈

This could offer a naturally occurring model to study the disease, as opposed to artificial models induced in rodents.

www.sciencefocus.com/news/cat-dem...

‘It’s just chaos!’: Inside the political unravelling of America’s climate disaster defence system | BBC Science Focus Magazine Staff at NOAA say verbal orders, travel bans and self-censorship are reshaping the agency from within

The Trump administration's gutting of science is having serious impacts on climate research in the US. 🧪

Scientists inside NOAA told me they're afraid to even use words like 'climate change' in research proposals now, for fear that they won't get funding. 🌎

www.sciencefocus.com/news/noaa-ch...

Finance sector failing to curb deforestation, new report finds | Trellis $8.9 trillion remains tied to forest-destructive companies.

Financial institutions funnelled $8.9 trillion into companies driving deforestation last year. 🌳

Vanguard, BlackRock and JPMorgan together provided over $1.6 trillion to companies driving deforestation.

More info on the Forest 500 report here 👇
trellis.net/article/fina...

This tiny stone tool may have just rewritten human history | BBC Science Focus Magazine A discovery on an Indonesian island has pushed back the timeline of early human sea crossings and deepened the mystery of who made them.

A discovery on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has pushed back the timeline of early human sea crossings and deepened the mystery of who made them. 🧪

“This is by far the earliest known evidence for the presence of early humans on Sulawesi,” Adam Brumm said.
www.sciencefocus.com/news/stone-t...

With 24 hours to go, the committee has been clear: Ambition is not up for compromise and attempts by UNEP to deliver a treaty at any cost will not be tolerated - Global Plastics Policy Centre The Chair's proposed Plastics Treaty text is fiercely rejected just 24 hours before the negotiations end. Sam Winton reports from Geneva.

If you're curious about the state of play at the Global Plastics Treaty talks, this is brilliant (and terrifying, and disappointing):

plasticspolicy.port.ac.uk/with-24-hour...

The airline industry’s dirty secret: Clean jet fuel failures Reuters found that over 160 sustainable aviation fuel projects have been announced over the past 12 years, but only a small portion have gone ahead.

165 sustainable aviation fuel projects announced by airlines over the past 12 years.

Only 10 have reported producing any fuel so far.

www.reuters.com/graphics/AVI...

A massive earthquake could be brewing beneath North America, study suggests | BBC Science Focus Magazine A long-quiet fault in Canada is building toward a major earthquake. The only problem? No one knows when it will strike.

The Tintina fault, which runs from northeastern British Columbia through to central Alaska, has been quietly accumulating strain for at least 12,000 years. 🧪

Previously thought to be relatively benign, new analysis suggests it’s still very much active.
www.sciencefocus.com/news/tintina...

Exclusive: Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps in UN Treaty The United States has sent letters to at least a handful of countries urging them to reject the goal of a global pact that includes limits on plastic production and plastic chemical additives at the start of U.N. plastic treaty talks in Geneva, according to a memo and communications seen by Reuters.

Over 100 countries have backed a plastic production cap. The US is firmly against it.

Hopefully there will be some way around this impasse. Perhaps an agreement without the US is better than no agreement?

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

As plastics treaty talks enter the final round, here’s what to expect | Trellis The world has one more chance to forge a legally binding, global treaty to reduce plastic pollution. Failure will have dire results.

As governments and stakeholders gather in Geneva, the outcome of the plastic treaty talks will shape global plastic policy for decades — and have ripple effects across supply chains.

trellis.net/article/plas...

A vivid image of a nebula, showing a bright blue centre surrounded by a glowing ring of reddish-orange gas and dust, set against a backdrop of stars in deep space.

The iconic Helix Nebula! 🤩

The blue-green glow comes from oxygen atoms shining under the intense ultraviolet radiation emitted by the central star and the hot gas.

Discover more: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0907a/

🔭 📷 ESO

This simple tool could let you find out your heart’s real age | BBC Science Focus Magazine The researchers behind it are hoping to reframe cardiovascular risk in a more relatable way

Most US adults have a heart that’s ageing faster than they are – sometimes by more than a decade – according to a new study led by researchers at Northwestern Medicine. ♥️ 🧪

Quite big disparities between sex, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

www.sciencefocus.com/news/heart-a...

OpenAI launches personal assistant capable of controlling files and web browsers AI agent can find restaurant reservations and go shopping for users, but OpenAI acknowledges there are ‘more risks’

I watched the launch of the ChatGPT agent last night. Seems like it could be a game changer.

Interested to see how the risks Sam Altman highlighted are managed.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Refractory solid condensation detected in an embedded protoplanetary disk - Nature Observations at infrared and millimetre wavelengths of the young protostar HOPS-315 show a gaseous disk captured at the point at which solids are first starting to condense, the t = 0 for planet forma...

Full paper published in Nature available here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...