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Irish Times
03-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Sinister experiments and girl-power cults feature in August's young adult titles
'Saving Asha. That's my religion. That's my science. It's based on love and hope and not giving up. Ever.' In Kathryn Clark's debut, Things I Learned While I Was Dead (Faber, £8.99), we witness sisterly love taken to the extreme when Calico volunteers to be cryogenically frozen along with the dying Asha, as part of an experiment that may sound a tad dodgy, but is the only option left. Waking up decades later, after the 'Green War' has changed everything (there's a nice nod to 'Global Eco President Thunberg'), Calico discovers there's still no cure available, and that she's one of several teenagers in a former prison that feels like somewhere people 'go to rot'. As the thriller unfolds, there are also chapters in verse from Asha's perspective – cryptic lines about life or death that contribute to the uneasy sense that all is not quite as it seems in this 'vast but empty' space. The book closes with an epilogue that lapses into triteness a little too often, an unnecessary coda for this thought-provoking exploration of medical ethics and the nature of grief. This is sci-fi with a big heart, demonstrating the power of speculative fiction to tackle some of life's hardest challenges. I am excited to see what this writer does next. READ MORE Lauren Wilson's The Goldens (Harper Fire, £8.99) tugs us into the web of a 'perplexing gossamer thread of a human, every inch of her glittering gold'. Chloe, an aspiring writer unsure how to fit in at university, finds herself 'bewitched' by wealthy, glamorous Clara from the instant they meet. Thrillingly, Clara seems to be drawn to her too, and that feeling of being chosen is a heady one. 'In my experience, by the age of eighteen, every girl knows another girl that she would follow to the very ends of the earth. For me, that girl was Clara Holland.' Soon, they're living together, and it's all so lovely that Clara decides to invite others – reaching out to her vast army of online followers – into the circle. So begins the Goldens – 'the ultimate girl gang', a group of 'strong, beautiful, independent young women' who may or may not be a little cult-like. But people are always critical of such feminist enterprises, aren't they – and what evidence is there, really, that Clara has anything to do with that girl who never made it home alive from one of her extravagant parties? This appealingly glossy thriller is given depth by Chloe's scepticism – despite her attraction to Clara, she's also aware that the rhetoric is a little much. 'When all was laid bare,' she thinks, 'she was a pretty, privileged girl opening up her lovely home to girls just like her ... Surely, the only young woman she was empowering in this scenario was herself?' What Chloe gets from this isn't just proximity to the golden girl – it's what seems like a real career opportunity in the form of ghostwriting a book. Her complicated motivations make her plausible and relatable; this is a compelling, fun summer read. [ Queer romance at the end of the world: the best new young-adult fiction Opens in new window ] Mary Watson is having a busy 2025, with an adult thriller out earlier this year; her latest YA novel is Strange Nature (Bloomsbury, £9.99), in which Jasmin distracts herself from her impending Leaving Cert by falling in with a charismatic crowd of college students, hanging around on the campus she still associates with her now-disgraced professor grandfather. His career-destroying act of violence shattered her family, but his research, we discover, remains an active influence on some sinister experiments being carried out today. (We may note here that fiction tends to over-represent the percentage of highly-dubious medical experiments; the ones that follow the rules make for far less interesting tales.) 'The Wellness Formula,' we are told, 'is the blueprint for living an optimum life in the modern world. Guided by the very latest scientific advances, we take a holistic approach, one that challenges the usual assumptions around what we need to be in optimal health.' It all sounds marvellous, but with a suspicious death on campus, it may be time to start asking some questions about research ethics. This is a delightful read for fans of dark academia and mad scientists, and it's pleasing to see these tropes play out on an Irish canvas. 'As far as Roscoe is concerned, the accident last year never happened. I can be free of it, as easy as surrendering to the sea. I can be Iggy again, who loves to swim, and hang out, and bump into cute strangers on their paddle-boards. It hadn't occurred to me before now, but it seems totally possible that this summer I could start again. Why didn't I think of this sooner?' [ Unflinching examinations of contemporary teenage life in these YA picks Opens in new window ] The space between tagline and title evaporates with Daniel Tawse's This Book Will Make You Cry (Hodder, £9.99). I wondered initially if we were in for some metatextual fun, a tear-jerking book within a tear-jerking book, but quickly and glumly realised we are now in an era where sales and marketing teams are skipping straight to BookTok descriptions. Despite shadowy references to an accident of the previous year, this is a fairly predictable queer summer romance – though what a joy to live in an era where there's a sufficient volume of titles for this sentiment to even be possible. The twist here, though clever, is one many readers will spot in advance. The emotional intensity is skilfully conveyed but the love interest himself is remarkably bland (bonding over a shared love of pizza and Pixar movies echoes Phoebe Buffay being astonished she and her birth mother agree that puppies are cute rather than ugly; this may be a return to the dark days of 'insta-love'). While this book did not make me cry, it did have me rooting very much for Iggy and their emotional journey. Finally, Becki Jayne Crossley tackles a lot in Tart (Bloomsbury, £8.99), which opens with a boy on a bike landing in a coma and then jumps to what his girlfriend, Libby, was getting up to: 'I stood in front of a group of poisonous teenage girls and kissed a boy that wasn't my boyfriend. They filmed it from at least three different angles, so I get to relive the memory I don't fully possess every time I open a social media app.' Libby's ostracisation at school is brilliantly, hauntingly depicted; that very particular brand of girl-gang cruelty leaps from the page. Fortunately, there's new girl Neha, who's shocked no one realises Libby's the victim here; a few small acts of kindness between the two bring them together and the sparks begin to fly. Neha's worried her crush on her new friend will make things weird – and anyway, isn't Libby grieving her comatose boyfriend? Meanwhile, Libby's never felt this way about a girl before ... We can see where it's going, but this is sort of the point: it is a wholesome and optimistic hug of a book. Some of the more serious topics, like Neha's grief over her dead parents, feel sidelined in favour of the fuzzy (though worthy) joy of finding your tribe, and there's a twist that resolves the potential conflict a little too easily. One for Heartstopper fans; the gritty-realist aficionados should go elsewhere.
Time of India
16-06-2025
- Science
- Time of India
73-million-year-old bird fossils found in Arctic, hint at nesting during dinosaur age
At a time when the Arctic was home to some of the last remaining dinosaurs, birds were not just surviving there– they were nesting and raising their young. A new international study has found fossil evidence confirming that birds were breeding in polar regions as far back as 73 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period. The discovery significantly pushes back the known timeline of bird activity in the Arctic and reveals that these ancient species were far more adaptable than previously believed. Fossil clues from Alaska offer fresh insight The research was carried out by an international team led by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, with participation from the University of Reading in the UK. The team studied over 50 small fossil specimens, including bones and teeth, collected from the Prince Creek Formation in northern Alaska– an area already known for dinosaur discoveries. According to Dr Jacob Gardner from the University of Reading, a co-author of the study, and as quoted by the University of Reading website, 'For the first time, we determined the identities of large numbers of fossils using high-resolution scans and the latest computer tools, revealing an enormous diversity of birds in this ancient Arctic ecosystem.' Juvenile bird fossils point to nesting behaviour Among the fossils, researchers identified several bones belonging to very young birds. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Wrinkle Cream Keeps Selling Out At Costco (Find Out Why) The Skincare Magazine Undo This rare find strongly suggests that birds were not simply migrating through the Arctic but were nesting and raising their offspring in the region. 'Finding bird bones from the Cretaceous period is already very rare. To find baby bird bones is almost unheard of. That is why these fossils are significant,' said Lauren Wilson, the lead author of the study, as quoted by the UAF website. Polar nesting began much earlier than thought The fossils are around 73 million years old, showing that birds were nesting in the Arctic at least 30 million years earlier than scientists thought. This discovery changes what we know about how early birds lived and how they adapted to harsh environments. As Wilson stated, 'Birds have existed for 150 million years. For half of the time they have existed, they have been nesting in the Arctic.' Range of bird types identified According to the report, the fossil remains showed several types of birds, including early diving birds, gull-like birds, and ones similar to today's ducks and geese. These birds seemed well-suited to life in the ancient Arctic, which was warmer than it is now but still tough for nesting. The study gives a rare and important look at how birds lived with dinosaurs in northern regions, helping us learn more about life in ancient ecosystems.
CBS News
04-06-2025
- CBS News
Former Colorado EMT indicted, accused of treating over 100 patients without a license
A Colorado man has been indicted for allegedly claiming to be a certified paramedic and practicing medicine without a license, treating over 100 patients. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a paramedic certificate to Lauren Wilson in 2009, but discovered in 2011 that he had an undisclosed criminal history under a different spelling of his name. Wilson's certification expired in 2012 before the department finished the process to revoke it. Officials said Wilson never received another paramedic certification, but resumed working as a paramedic in an ambulance company. The CDPHE said he provided care to over 100 patients, often as the only paramedic in the ambulance transporting patients in critical condition to emergency rooms. They said he also decided to transport patients against their will or without their consent. He reportedly worked with medical service companies in 2021 and again in 2022 after claiming to be a certified paramedic. Authorities said he submitted a forged Colorado driver's license with a false birth date to hide his criminal history. Wilson reapplied for a paramedic certification in 2022. Authorities said he used a false birth date and claimed to have never been charged or convicted of a crime. The background report Wilson submitted was based on his false birth date, said the CDPHE, and did not uncover his criminal history. He was arrested on May 29 and was released from the Aurora Municipal Detention Center on a $50,000 bond. Wilson is facing multiple charges, including attempting to influence a public servant, two counts of forgery of a government-issued document, and five counts of unauthorized practice of medicine while fraudulently representing to be a professional.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Birds have been nesting in the Arctic Circle for almost 73 million years, newly discovered fossils reveal
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Birds have been nesting in rugged Arctic environments for almost 73 million years, new research finds — more than 25 million years longer than was previously thought. A collection of more than 50 fossils found in northern Alaska, which include embryos and hatchlings, suggest some of the early ancestors of modern birds either migrated or adapted to the harsh polar environment in the Mesozoic era, the age of dinosaurs. "The common conception is they're too primitive to be exhibiting this advanced behavior," Lauren Wilson, lead author of the study and a doctoral student of paleontology at Princeton University, told Live Science. "So you're either dealing with [Arctic winters] as an itty-bitty, freshly hatched bird, or you're 3 months old, and having to fly about 2,000 kilometers [1,240 miles] to get to a point where it makes sense to even migrate," Wilson explained. "I don't think we would expect either of those things from these birds that don't belong to that modern lineage of birds." Whether the birds migrated south or hunkered down for the winter, the research provides the earliest known evidence of either behavior in birds. And while some modern birds, like the ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea) and snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) are known to nest in the frigid Arctic, there is now evidence that this behavior started millions of years before the meteor that wiped out non-avian dinosaurs crashed into Earth, if not earlier. "Many birds nest in the Arctic today, and they are key parts of Arctic communities and ecosystems and food webs," Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh who peer-reviewed the study but was not involved in it, told Live Science in an email. "These fossils show that birds were already integral parts of these high latitude communities many tens of millions of years ago, and thus that these communities are a long-term norm of Earth history, not a recent ecological innovation of modern times." The fossils in the collection come from at least three different families of bird: the extinct, loon-like hesperornithes; ichthyornithes, an extinct bird that resembled seagulls; and several species resembling ducks that are within or very similar to neornithes, the group containing all modern birds. Related: Hoatzin: The strange 'stinkbird' born with clawed wings that appears to be an evolutionary 'orphan' Notably, the researchers did not find any fossils of the dominant bird group of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago) — enantiornithes, now-extinct birds that typically had teeth in their beaks and claws on their wings. But a few factors reveal why they likely didn't live in the Arctic. They likely took longer than other birds to incubate their eggs, they took several years to reach full adult size (where most modern birds grow to adult size within weeks) and they "may have had a period where they're almost naked because they molted their feathers simultaneously," which is not helpful during an Arctic winter, said study co-author Daniel Ksepka, a paleontologist and curator of the Bruce Museum in Connecticut. The world was warmer in the Late Cretaceous than it is today, but the region the birds were found in likely experienced freezing temperatures, snow and roughly four straight months of winter darkness. Growing to adulthood so quickly allowed modern birds to practice long-range migration and prosper during those ancient Arctic summers, which boasted around six months of 24-hour daylight and a burst in insect populations. But the weather wasn't the only challenge. They lived alongside "probably about 12 or 13 different kinds of typical dinosaurs," like the Pachyrhinosaurus, a relative of Triceratops that was about 16 feet (5 meters) long and weighed 2 tons (1,800 kilograms). Other dinosaurs like Troodon, an 11-foot tall meat-eater with short, serrated teeth, "would have happily taken advantage of a bunch of these little cute little chicks for dinner," said Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and advising author of the study. RELATED STORIES —Chickens sprouted dino-like feathers when scientists messed with the Sonic Hedgehog gene —Why don't all birds fly? —Ancient duck-like creature discovered in Antarctica may be the oldest modern bird ever discovered To get to the fossil sites in the Prince Creek Formation in Northern Alaska, the researchers drove 500 miles (800 km) from Fairbanks, chartered a small aircraft to fly to the Colville River, then took inflatable motorboats up the river before setting up camp, Druckenmiller said. There they would look for an "orangey, pebbly, sandy" layer of sediment that contains small bones and teeth, and often lay on the permafrost to "excavate with little dental picks and small tools" from the layer itself. Now that the Prince Creek Formation is "one of the major North American Cretaceous bird sites," according to the researchers, Wilson says the next step is simply to find more fossils. "The more bones we find, the more confident we can be in exactly what types of birds we have," she said. "We might even still find a random bone that's from a bird we didn't know was there."
The Guardian
29-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Birds were nesting in the Arctic during age of dinosaurs, scientists discover
The Arctic might evoke images of polar bears and seals, but 73m years ago it was a dinosaur stomping ground. Now fossil hunters say these beasts shared their turf with a host of different birds. Researchers believe their discovery of more than 50 bird fossils from the Prince Creek formation in Alaska is the oldest evidence of birds nesting in polar regions, pushing back the date by more than 25m years. 'The previous oldest evidence for polar nesting is a penguin colony from the Eocene of Antarctica [that lived about 46.5m years ago],' said Lauren Wilson, first author of the work from Princeton University. More than 200 species of bird nest in the Arctic today, with the researchers saying they are crucial members of the ecosystem, helping with essential tasks such as pollination and seed dispersal. And the latest findings suggest their presence is nothing new. 'These new fossils fill a major gap in our understanding of bird evolution,' said Prof Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North and a co-author of the study published in the journal Science. While the earliest birds emerged in the Late Jurassic, about 150m years ago, the delicate nature of bird bones means such animals are rare in the fossil record. 'Prior to this work, and with the exception of a few footprints, bird fossils weren't known from Alaska,' said Druckenmiller. The discovery involved far more than mere good fortune, with the team carefully excavating bones as well as washing and sieving material from small, sandy deposits to isolate tiny fossils, many of which were less than 2mm in size. 'It was literally like panning for gold, except bird bones are our prize,' said Druckemiller. Wilson added that many of the bones were from embryos or hatchlings. At least one species of bird, she said, belonged to a now-extinct group called Ichthyornithes, and would have resembled a toothed seagull, while the researchers also found at least one member of another extinct group called Hesperornithes: foot-propelled diving birds with teeth. Many of the fossils came from toothless birds that may have resembled ducks. That, the team note, is significant because features such as a lack of teeth are a hallmark of Neornithes, the group that includes all living birds and their most recent common ancestor. It suggests the prehistoric birds nesting in the Arctic were close relatives of modern birds. Druckenmiller said that, like the Arctic today, the Prince Creek ecosystem of 73m years ago would have experienced about six months of continuous daylight in the summer, during which it would have been very green. As a result there would have been an abundance of food. However, the winter would have been chilly. 'While [winters were] not as harsh as today, year-round residents would have to endure freezing temperatures, occasional snowfall, and about four months of continuous winter darkness,' he said. Wilson said the newly discovered fossils showed the birds were breeding in the Arctic, but she said it was unclear if they spent the winter there, adding it was highly likely at least some of them were migratory. Steve Brusatte, a professor of palaeontology and evolution at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the work, said that while the fossils discovered by the team were 'absolutely minuscule', they told a huge story. 'These fossils show that birds were already integral parts of the these high-latitude communities many tens of millions of years ago, and thus that these communities are a long-term norm of Earth history, not a recent ecological innovation of modern times,' he said.
