Regulator approval means patients who meet criteria will be able to purchase tablets with private prescription
Patients in the UK will soon be able to buy the Wegovy weight-loss pill, the medicines regulator announced on Thursday.
It is the first GLP-1 receptor agonist tablet for weight-loss to be approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), making the UK the third country to authorise the pills, behind the US and the United Arab Emirates.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
Analysis pinpoints areas most vulnerable to hotter, drier weather causing ground to shrink and drag foundations down
Millions of homes are at risk from climate-related subsidence, according toan analysis by the British Geological Survey (BGS).
As hotter, drier summers driven by global heating become more frequent, the ground under houses can shrink and drag down a property’s foundations. The most vulnerable areas include London, Essex, Kent and a tranche of land from Oxford up to the Wash on England’s east coast, according to scientists, who say mitigation measures will be needed.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy
© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy
© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy
A highly anticipated gene therapy human trial is now testing whether scientists can make aging cells behave like younger ones, a development that could open a new chapter in regenerative medicine. The study, focused on keeping cells young through a process known as partial reprogramming, has treated its first patient with a form of glaucoma that can lead to blindness.
The trial is being conducted by Life Biosciences, a biotechnology company based in Boston. Researchers are testing a gene therapy designed to activate three specific genes inside cells. The goal is to restore some of the traits of younger cells without changing their identity or normal function.
Scientists have long been interested in the possibility of reversing some effects of aging at the cellular level. The new trial marks one of the first major efforts to test that idea in people.
Glaucoma was chosen as the first target because the disease damages neurons in the optic nerve, which carries visual information from the eye to the brain. Once injured, these nerve cells normally do not regenerate. Researchers hope the treatment will encourage damaged neurons to repair themselves and restore lost function.
The approach is based on a concept called partial reprogramming. Scientists discovered years ago that four genes could transform adult cells into stem-cell-like cells. While that breakthrough created powerful research tools, it also raised concerns because fully reprogrammed cells lose their specialized roles.
The new strategy takes a more controlled approach. Instead of using all four genes, researchers activate only three. The aim is to roll back some signs of aging while allowing cells to remain the specialized cells they were meant to be.
Interest in the field grew after a 2020 study led by geneticist David Sinclair. His team reported that activating the three genes in mice with damaged optic nerves promoted nerve regeneration and improved vision. The treatment also appeared to reverse vision loss in older mice and animals with glaucoma.
Scientists have launched the first human trial of a gene therapy designed to make aging cells act young again. The treatment uses three genes to partially reprogram cells and is being tested in glaucoma patients. pic.twitter.com/A7nVv2vmdi
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 10, 2026
Those findings generated excitement among scientists studying aging and longevity. They suggested that some effects of aging might not be permanent and that cells may retain the ability to recover youthful functions under the right conditions.
Since then, Life Biosciences has carried out additional studies in rodents and monkeys. According to the company, those experiments did not reveal serious safety problems. The human trial is now intended to determine whether the treatment can be used safely in patients.
Although several animal studies have reported promising results, some researchers worry that changing a cell’s biological age could have unintended consequences. One concern is that reprogrammed cells might begin dividing uncontrollably, increasing the risk of cancer.
Matt Kaeberlein said the technology offers enormous potential if it can be shown to work safely in people. At the same time, he noted that the field remains in its early stages and that researchers must carefully watch for serious side effects.
Experts say the eye may be one of the safest places to begin testing the approach. Any unexpected effects are likely to remain localized, reducing the risk of widespread damage elsewhere in the body.
Researchers view the trial as an important milestone for a field that has largely been confined to laboratory and animal studies. Success could eventually lead to treatments for diseases linked to aging and tissue degeneration. Failure, however, could reinforce concerns about the risks of altering cellular identity.
For now, scientists are watching closely as the first participants receive a therapy designed to answer one of medicine’s most ambitious questions: Can aging cells truly be persuaded to act young again?
The early modern Persian world produced a substantial body of occult-scientific manuals dedicated to one of humanity’s oldest political ambitions: world domination. This was a distinct genre of literature that promised access to universal sovereignty through mastery of the hidden forces governing the cosmos.
In his study “How to Rule the World: Occult-Scientific Manuals of the Early Modern Persian Cosmopolis,” historian Matthew Melvin-Koushki examines texts that reveal an intellectual culture in which political authority, scientific inquiry, and esoteric knowledge were deeply intertwined.
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the Persian cosmopolis stretched across a vast geographical area, encompassing regions ruled by the Timurids, Safavids, Mughals, and Ottomans. Persian functioned as a language of administration, scholarship, and elite culture throughout much of the Islamic world. Within this environment, occult sciences held a prestigious position. Far from being marginalized superstition, disciplines such as astrology, lettrism, talismanic science, geomancy, and astral magic were widely regarded as legitimate branches of knowledge capable of revealing the hidden structure of reality.
Rulers across the wider early modern Persian world cultivated an image of themselves as universal, sacral, and cosmocratic sovereigns. In this context, Alexander the Great, famous for conquering much of Asia, served as one of the key historical models of world rulership.
Resāla-ye Ḥorūf (On the Letters) by Ebn Torka Esfahāni is an influential treatise on lettrism, the occult power of letters and language. It was written to support the ambitions of a Timurid ruler and presents an explicitly imperial application of occult knowledge. Kholāsat al-Baḥrayn (Epitome of the Two Seas) by Lotf-Allāh Nishāpuri Samarqandi is a Timurid manual combining geomancy and talismanic magic squares. The “two seas” refer to these two occult disciplines.
Historian of science Sonja Brentjes has argued that the traditional distinction between “scientific” and “occult” disciplines often obscures how knowledge was organized in pre-modern Islamic societies. Her research shows that astrology, astronomy, mathematics, and related fields frequently coexisted within shared scholarly frameworks. Rather than treating occult sciences as marginal pursuits, many learned communities regarded them as legitimate fields of inquiry tied to broader investigations of nature and causality.
The central premise of many Persian occult-scientific manuals was that the universe operated according to precise correspondences linking celestial bodies, divine names, letters, numbers, and earthly events. A skilled practitioner could decipher these relationships and harness them for practical purposes. Political power was one of the most significant of these ends. Sovereignty was not understood solely as a matter of military force or administrative competence. It was also conceived as a cosmological phenomenon rooted in the proper alignment of ruler, heavens, and sacred knowledge.
One of the defining features of these manuals was their emphasis on universal kingship. Authors frequently addressed rulers who aspired not merely to govern territories but to establish dominion over the entire inhabited world. Such ambitions reflected broader political developments of the period. The rise of large imperial formations, including the Safavid and Mughal empires, fostered ideological visions of global sovereignty. Occult sciences provided a language through which these aspirations could be articulated and legitimized.
A notable example of such a text is Kāshefi Jr.’s Herz al-amān (Amulet of Safety from the Seditions of the Times), which promises to enable officials and bureaucrats to exert extraordinary influence over sovereigns even to the point of what the text frames as magical mind control. Asrār-e Qāsemī (Qāsemian Secrets) by Hosayn Vāʿez Kāshefi engages with illusionism and terrestrial magic.
These manuals typically promised access to what might be described as technologies of sovereignty. Through the manipulation of sacred letters, numerical formulas, planetary configurations, and ritual procedures, rulers could acquire charisma, victory, obedience, and divine favor. These techniques were often presented as scientific rather than magical. Their authors argued that they operated according to discoverable laws embedded within creation itself. Mastery of occult science thus became analogous to mastery of astronomy, medicine, or mathematics: a disciplined pursuit of knowledge that yielded predictable effects.
A particularly important branch of this intellectual tradition was the science of letters (ʿilm al-ḥurūf). Drawing on centuries of Islamic mystical speculation, practitioners argued that letters constituted the fundamental building blocks of reality. According to this belief, just as God created the universe through speech, letters possessed creative and transformative power. By arranging, calculating, and invoking letters according to specific procedures, the practitioner could influence events in the material world.
Toḥfa-ye Rūḥānī (A Spiritual Boon) by Jalāl al-Din Davāni is a concise treatise on political letter magic. Written for a Khalji sultan in central India, it continued the Timurid tradition of applying occult knowledge to governance. Soʾl al-Molūk (Query of Kings) by Ebn Torka Esfahāni is a more extensive handbook of political letter magic intended to guide rulers seeking power and legitimacy through occult practices.
For rulers, the implications were profound. The science of letters promised more than personal enlightenment. It also offered practical written methods for governing subjects, defeating enemies, and securing dynastic stability. These occult-scientific manuals frequently contained instructions for constructing talismans, calculating auspicious moments for military campaigns, or invoking divine assistance through combinations of sacred names and letters. Books were more socially significant in early modern Islamdom than in Christendom and, as a rule, were considerably more encyclopedic in scope.
Melvin-Koushki argues that these texts should not be dismissed as irrational relics of a pre-modern worldview. Such interpretations impose modern distinctions between science and magic that did not exist in the same form during the early modern period. For many Persian scholars, the occult sciences represented advanced forms of natural philosophy. They sought to uncover causal mechanisms operating beyond ordinary perception yet still embedded within the natural order. Political success became inseparable from the ability to understand and manipulate the hidden architecture of existence.
This perspective helps explain why prominent intellectuals devoted considerable attention to occult subjects. Scholars who wrote on astronomy, philosophy, theology, and medicine frequently engaged with occult disciplines as well. Court patronage further elevated their status. Rulers sought astrologers, letter mystics, and talismanic experts not because they rejected rational inquiry but because they viewed these specialists as possessors of powerful forms of knowledge essential to successful governance.
The relationship between occult science and empire was particularly significant. Early modern rulers faced immense challenges, including administering diverse populations, maintaining military superiority, and legitimizing their authority across vast territories. Persian occult-scientific manuals addressed these concerns directly. They promised techniques for enhancing royal charisma, predicting political developments, and securing divine support for imperial projects. In effect, they offered a comprehensive theory of power that united metaphysical insight with practical statecraft.
At the same time, these manuals illuminate important dimensions of Islamic intellectual history that are often overlooked in conventional narratives. Modern accounts frequently emphasize legal scholarship, theology, or philosophy while marginalizing esoteric traditions. Yet the evidence suggests that the occult sciences occupied a central place within elite culture. These texts were copied, studied, translated, and circulated across political boundaries. Their practitioners moved between courts and scholarly networks, contributing to a shared intellectual world that extended from Anatolia to India.
The popularity of these texts also reflects broader transformations across early modern Eurasia. In many cultures, periods of imperial expansion generated heightened interest in universal systems of knowledge. European courts patronized astrologers and alchemists, Chinese emperors consulted cosmological experts, and rulers throughout the wider Persian world sought guidance from occult scientists. In each case, political ambition encouraged efforts to understand and control the forces believed to shape history. The pursuit of world rule was simultaneously a quest to master the hidden workings of the cosmos.
Liana Saif, a historian specializing in Islamic esotericism and the occult, stresses that practitioners understood occult operations as grounded in a structured cosmology. She notes that many authors viewed magical and talismanic practices as operating through hidden natural causes rather than supernatural violations of nature. In this interpretation, the occult sciences functioned as extensions of natural philosophy rather than alternatives to it.
Noah Gardiner, a professor of religious studies specializing in Sufism and the occult, highlights the importance of language and symbolism in Islamic esoteric thought. He demonstrates that letter mysticism was not merely a form of speculative theology but a sophisticated intellectual tradition concerned with the relationship between divine speech, creation, and human knowledge. Such ideas helped support broader claims that mastery of letters could provide access to hidden dimensions of power.
Melvin-Koushki argues that the influence of Persian occult-scientific manuals should not be exaggerated. Their promises were often grandiose, and their practical effectiveness remains impossible to evaluate by modern standards. Historically, however, what matters is not whether their techniques worked but why educated individuals considered them credible. Their authority rested on coherent intellectual frameworks that integrated religion, philosophy, mathematics, and cosmology. Within these frameworks, occult science appeared neither irrational nor marginal but deeply meaningful.
This perspective helps explain why prominent intellectuals devoted considerable attention to occult subjects. Scholars who wrote on astronomy, philosophy, theology, and medicine frequently engaged with occult disciplines as well. Court patronage further elevated their status. Rulers sought astrologers, letter mystics, and talismanic experts not because they rejected rational inquiry but because they viewed these specialists as possessors of powerful forms of knowledge essential to successful governance.
The decline of these traditions resulted largely from changing epistemological assumptions introduced during the modern period. New distinctions between science and superstition gradually relegated occult disciplines to the margins of intellectual life. As a result, much of their historical significance became obscured. Recent scholarship, including Melvin-Koushki’s work, seeks to recover these traditions not as curiosities but as integral components of early modern knowledge systems.
Research suggests households that include a GLP-1 user collectively spent £780m less on grocery bills
Weight-loss drugs are saving users’ households more than £400 a year on grocery bills, according to a survey, which found use of GLP-1s has nearly tripled in the past two years to 1.9 million adults.
More than 6.3% of households in Great Britain now include at least one GLP-1 user, according to the research by Worldpanel by Numerator. This marks a sharp rise from 4.1% of households in 2025 and 2.3% in 2024.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Ashok Saxena/Alamy
© Photograph: Ashok Saxena/Alamy
© Photograph: Ashok Saxena/Alamy
From Spain to Japan, experiments have repeatedly shown a left-turn bias, but exact mechanic ‘is still an open question’
“I’m not an ambi-turner,” laments Derek Zoolander in the eponymous noughties satire about the world’s hottest male model and his rare catwalk hangup. “It’s a problem I’ve had since I was a baby … I can’t turn left.”
Now, research suggests that the fashionista’s career-threatening quirk was even more unusual than previously thought. Tests reveal that when people are ambling about, they have a natural tendency to turn to the left and walk in an anticlockwise direction.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images
A major international ranking has highlighted eleven Greek scientists who have made it into the global elite of research. Spanning institutions from Stanford and Columbia to the University of Crete, these researchers are recognized among the top 1,000 scientists worldwide in their respective fields.
This prestigious list is compiled annually by Research.com, a prominent educational platform and academic research portal. To compile these rankings, Research.com analyzes data from millions of scientists globally, evaluating their career achievements based heavily on a standard academic metric called the h-index.
The h-index is a metric used to measure both the productivity (how much they publish) and the impact (how often other scientists cite their work) of a researcher.
Here is a summary of the researchers making waves in the global scientific community:
1. John Ioannidis (Stanford University)
A professor of medicine at Stanford and one of the world’s most-cited scientists. He is a pioneer in “meta-research”—the study of scientific methods themselves to improve the quality and reliability of research.
2. George Yancopoulos (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals)
Yancopoulos is a top biomedical scientist and the billionaire co-founder of Regeneron. He is highly recognized for developing life-saving monoclonal antibody treatments, notably used to combat viruses like Ebola.
3. Tom Maniatis (Columbia University)
Maniatis is a pioneer in molecular biology and biotechnology who revolutionized gene cloning techniques. His current research focuses on comprehending the molecular mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
4. Christos Pantelis (University of Melbourne)
Pantelis is a professor of psychiatry who heads the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre. He is a global leader in using brain imaging to study the development and structural changes associated with schizophrenia.
5. Nicholas Peppas (University of Texas at Austin)
A chemical and biomedical engineer known as the father of modern drug delivery systems, he pioneered the development of hydrogels used in oral drug delivery, contact lenses, and tissue engineering.
6. Constantinos Stoumpos (University of Crete)
One of the three researchers on the list based entirely in Greece, Stoumpos is a materials chemist specializing in halide perovskites, which are highly efficient materials used to advance next-generation solar cells and electronics.
7. Costas Soukoulis (Iowa State University / FORTH)
Soukoulis is a physicist who split his career between the US and Greece. He is world-renowned for his groundbreaking research on metamaterials—artificial materials engineered to manipulate light and sound waves in ways natural materials cannot.
8. Spyros Pandis (University of Patras / FORTH)
A chemical engineering professor based in Greece, Pandis is an international authority on atmospheric chemistry and air pollution, focusing on how airborne particulate matter affects both human health and global climate change.
9. Eleni Diamanti (CNRS / Sorbonne University)
A physicist based in France who is a leading researcher in quantum cryptography, Diamanti develops secure quantum communication networks and protocols to protect data from future cyber threats.
10. George Paxinos (NeuRA / University of New South Wales)
Paxinos is a world-famous neuroscientist based in Australia who mapped the human and animal brain. His highly detailed brain atlases are universally utilized by neurosurgeons and medical researchers worldwide to identify specific brain structures.
11. Gerasimos Rassias (University of Patras)
An organic chemist based in Greece whose research focuses on developing new chemical synthesis methods, his work helps streamline the creation of complex molecules used to manufacture new pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.
Luca Parmitano to pilot all-male crew of four paving way for planned first human landing of Artemis IV in 2028
Jared Isaacman, the Nasa administrator, hailed the creation of “Earth’s first starfleet” on Tuesday as he revealed the Artemis III crew and details of the next stages of the space agency’s project to return humans to the moon.
An Italian astronaut, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA), will be the pilot of the planned two-week mission to lower Earth orbit next year that will test lunar landers from private companies Blue Origin and SpaceX.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Bill Stafford/NASA/AP
© Photograph: Bill Stafford/NASA/AP
© Photograph: Bill Stafford/NASA/AP
Login