Fiery meteor sighting leaves onlookers in awe across Australia
Onlookers were left stunned when a bright object appeared to fall from the sky and hit the ground with a bang on Sunday (10 August).
Footage from CCTV and dashcams shows the glowing object lighting up the nighttime sky, shocking onlookers.
Scientists later confirmed that the flash was indeed a meteor, and the bang could have been a sonic boom - a loud noise created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
New ‘remarkable' pancreatic cancer vaccine offers fresh hope for patients
A vaccine that appears to slow the progression of one of the most deadly cancers could be manufactured in bulk, researchers say. The jab has given hope to patients after a trial found it increased the survival of participants with pancreatic cancer. Researchers described the findings as 'remarkable' and have already started testing the efficiency of the jab among a larger group of pancreatic and bowel cancer patients. The jab uses a new type of immunotherapy, designed to improve vaccine delivery to the lymph nodes, which help the body fight infections and disease. Pancreatic and bowel cancers frequently carry a mutation in a gene called KRAS, which plays a key role in tumour growth, and scientists developed the jab to recognise and attack this gene. The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, tested the jab on 20 patients with pancreatic cancer and five with bowel cancer. When participants were followed up after 20 months, 68 per cent had developed strong immune responses specific to mutant KRAS tumour proteins. Participants who had the strongest immune responses lived and stayed cancer-free for longer than those with weaker responses. Some patients survived about two years and five months after receiving the vaccine. In comparison, just three in 10 people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive for a year. Pancreatic cancer has some of the poorest survival rates due to late detection. It doesn't usually cause symptoms in the early stages, and as it grows, it can cause tummy pain, yellowing of the skin, unexplained weight loss and changes in stools. Many patients see their cancer returning even after treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. But the trial showed the jab could help prevent the cancer from returning for more than 15 months. Unlike other cancer jabs which are personalised to individual patients, this vaccine, ELI-002 2P, has a single version which can be given to all patients meaning it can be manufactured in bulk and given more rapidly. Dr Dani Edmunds, research information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: 'It's promising to see that vaccines could help people with pancreatic and bowel cancer live cancer-free for longer.' 'More research is needed to understand why some people benefit from the vaccine while others don't, so that we can make sure we're beating cancer for everyone,' he added. Professor Richard Sullivan, director of the Centre for Conflict and Health Research at King's College London, has suggested more research is needed. 'There is some interesting science in this study, but this is a long way from proving any sort of clinical utility,' he said.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
UK recovers position in EU's Horizon Europe science research programme
The UK is quickly recovering a prime position in the EU's £80bn science research programme 18 months after becoming a participating member following the resolution of Brexit problems, data shows. The country was frozen out of Horizon Europe for three years in a tit-for-tat row with the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, over the Northern Ireland trading arrangements. While the UK has to play catch-up, entering three years into the seven-year 2020-27 funding programme, data shows British scientists are punching above their weight with €735m (£635m) in grants in 2024. That ranks the UK as the fifth most successful country in the programme, which is open to 43 nations: the 27 EU member states and 16 non-EU associate members also including New Zealand, Canada and Norway. Germany, the top participant in Horizon in 2024, won €1.4bn (£1.21bn) in grants and Spain, which came third, got €900m (£777m). Scientists have said previously they were 'over the moon' to be back working with EU colleagues. They said they knew it would take time to return to the top three because of the time it took to build multinational consortiums to apply for funds. But in terms of grants for proposals by individual scientists, which are easier to assemble, the UK now ranks as the second-most successful participating country after Germany, with €242m (£209m) in funds. The UK is the single most successful applicant country when it comes to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, one of the most prestigious grant programmes for doctoral and post-doctoral research in the world. UK scientists have said repeatedly the Brexit lockout damaged Britain's reputation on the world stage and made it difficult for universities to recruit researchers from the EU. In terms of recipients, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge are neck and neck, with awards of over €65m each, followed by University College London and Imperial College. With projects ranging from the research to develop brain catheters inspired by wasps to efforts to create aviation fuel from yeast and greenhouse gases, the UK has been catapulted to the top of the league of non-EU beneficiaries by number of grants. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena, a professor in medical robotics at Imperial College London recently completed a 15-year Horizon-backed research project creating a cranial catheter inspired by a conversation he had with the renowned zoologist Julian Vincent about wasps' ability to penetrate hard tree bark to lay eggs. Smaller grantees have included individual projects on topics such as textile recycling, conservation and robots on farms. The UK was one of the leading beneficiaries of Horizon, earning more in grants than it contributed in funds before Brexit.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Going vegan or veggie could slash risk of four top cancer killers by up to 25 per cent, experts discover
Ditching meat and dairy could slash the risk of deadly cancers by up to a quarter, scientists say. A major study of nearly 80,000 people found vegans were 25 per cent less likely to develop cancer than meat eaters—with the diet linked to lower rates of breast cancer and prostate cancer in younger men. Researchers followed members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America for eight years and found vegetarians also cut their cancer risk by 12 per cent. Among this group, rates of colorectal cancer fell by 21 per cent, stomach cancer by 45 per cent and lymphoma by 25 per cent. Lacto-ovo vegetarians—who eat dairy and eggs—had a lower risk of blood cancers, while pescatarians were less likely to get colorectal cancer. The study also revealed that, compared with meat eaters, vegetarians tended to be leaner, drank less alcohol, smoked less and exercised slightly more. They were also less likely to have used oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy. While researchers adjusted for these factors, they said it was impossible to rule out that lifestyle differences such as these may have influenced cancer risk. The findings, from scientists at Loma Linda University in California, were published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It comes amid growing concern over a baffling rise in cancers among young people. A recent global review found rates of colorectal cancer—also known as bowel cancer —in under-50s are climbing in 27 out of 50 countries. England has one of the steepest increases, with cases in younger adults rising by an average of 3.6 per cent a year, while in the US, the rate is going up by around two per cent annually. While bowel cancer is linked to obesity, doctors warn it is also striking fit and healthy patients. Some believe environmental factors—such as exposure to plastics or pollution—could be to blame. Symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, and a lump in the abdomen. Bleeding from the back passage or blood in the stool can occur when tumours bleed into the digestive tract. However, bowel cancer can also appear with no symptoms until it has spread, making it far harder to treat. Just over half of patients survive 10 years after diagnosis. Other cancers are also on the rise in younger age groups. Rates of metastatic breast cancer—which has spread to other parts of the body—in women under 40 increased by 3.5 per cent a year between 2004 and 2017, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, is now the most common cancer in young people. A landmark study by Cancer Research UK examining 50 years of NHS data found the risk of developing all cancers has risen sharply, with experts believing a mix of genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors may be driving the trend.
