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Cambridge experts recreate 336-year-old garden to commemorate ‘father of natural history’

18 June 2026 at 09:00

John Ray, 17th-century botanist who coined words petal and pollen, was a tutor at Cambridge when he created his first garden

He coined the terms petal and pollen, helped to lay the foundations of modern biology and is widely regarded as the greatest English naturalist of the 17th century.

But it was while he was a young college tutor at Cambridge in the 1650s that the botanist John Ray – also known as “the father of natural history” – created his first known garden and began to systematically study plants for the first time.

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© Photograph: Trinity College Cambridge.

© Photograph: Trinity College Cambridge.

© Photograph: Trinity College Cambridge.

Jeremy Clarkson shares ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer diagnosis

17 June 2026 at 09:29

Presenter warns viewers of ‘sombre news’ before release of Clarkson’s Farm episodes, shot last year, in which he goes for operation

Jeremy Clarkson has revealed he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer last summer and had an operation to remove 10% of his prostate, eight months after he underwent heart surgery for blocked coronary arteries.

In the final two episodes of the fifth series of his Prime Video documentary, Clarkson’s Farm, the 66-year-old presenter told his farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, and his land agent, Charlie Ireland: “I’ve got cancer.”

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© Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

© Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

© Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

Globally significant volcanic event formed Giant’s Causeway, scientists find

15 June 2026 at 15:14

Geochronologists say basalt columns in Antrim sprung up during volcanic activity over 5.5m years – 8m less than thought

For centuries, the tale has been passed from generation to generation: how the Irish giant Finn McCool built the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland to fight Benandonner, his Scottish rival, by hurling chunks of the Antrim coastline into the sea.

Now, scientists have revealed it was intense geological activity during a “major globally impacting volcanic event” – and not a legendary battle between two destructive giants – that led to the formation of the coastline’s 40,000 distinctive interlocking basalt columns about 60m years ago.

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© Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

© Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

© Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

UK hypermobility sufferers wait up to 21 years for diagnosis, study suggests

15 June 2026 at 00:01

Awareness of disorders such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is low among British healthcare professionals

People in the UK with hypermobility conditions are waiting up to 21 years to be diagnosed while suffering from symptoms ranging from chronic pain to partially dislocated joints, research suggests.

The study of more than 2,000 people, which was led by the University of Edinburgh and described as the largest of its kind in the UK, indicates awareness of hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD) and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is low among British healthcare professionals.

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© Photograph: parkerphotography/Alamy

© Photograph: parkerphotography/Alamy

© Photograph: parkerphotography/Alamy

David Hockney, revolutionary British artist famed for his pools and portraits, dies aged 88

Bradford-born painter, who made his name with sunkissed visions of California and never stopped breaking barriers, going on to become one of contemporary art’s most important figures, has died
‘David Hockney caught the look of the modern world’
David Hockney’s life in pictures

David Hockney, the iconic British painter who cast a revolutionary gaze across 20th-century art, has died aged 88.

He made his name as a pop artist during the swinging 60s and was perhaps best known for his paintings of swimming pools that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic. Works such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures) depicted hedonistic scenes of love, lust and loss taking place below the city’s sun-soaked skies.

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© Photograph: Aurélien Meunier/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aurélien Meunier/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aurélien Meunier/Getty Images

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