News

Human bones may have been engraved by cannibals as part of a ritual in SOMERSET around 15,000 years ago, suggests new research. Bones found at Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge feature unusual zig-zagging cuts which researchers say indicates intentional engraving. The bones date from the Magdalenian period around 12,000 to 17,000 years ago. Previous analysis of the human bones from Gough's Cave found evidence of human cannibalism. But paleontologists debate about whether some of the marks found on the bones...

It was Frank Zappa who described politics as 'the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.' I mention that wonderfully cynical observation by the late musician as if there was ever a time for cynicism, we're living in it. Cynics aren't the same as pessimists or satirists. A pessimist looks at the world, sees it is wrong, and hides. A satirist looks at the world, sees it is wrong, and exaggerates its flaws. A cynic however looks at the world, sees...

Canals surrounding the Olympic Park have been invaded by a green carpet of duck weed - near the World Championship which has been marred with outbreaks of gastroenteritis. Teams are collecting up to 120 tonnes of green sludge every week on two canals in the capital as it multiplies in the heat. Athletes staying in the capital for the World Championships have contracted gastroenteritis, leading to many withdrawing from Monday's heats. Hot weather causes green carpet of duck weed on...

Brexit may not have happened if Britons were brighter because not enough people grew up with access to higher education, according to new research. With education the predominant factor dividing those who voted Remain or Leave, researchers from the University of Leicester reckon greater access to higher education may have reversed the result of the 2016 referendum. The paper, published in the journal World Development, suggests that greater access to higher and further education can produce different political outcomes. They...

Older people who voted for Brexit have ‘comprehensively shafted the young’. That’s the view of Sir Vince Cable, writing for the Mail on Sunday this weekend. He accuses over-65s of being ‘self-declared martyrs’ who claim leaving the EU is worth the cost. ‘The old have comprehensively shafted the young'... 'And the old have had the last word about Brexit, imposing a world view coloured by nostalgia for an imperial past on a younger generation much more comfortable with modern Europe.’...

There is one great truth that ties all revolutions in common and that is they never burst out in surprise. History, or at least when current events have been aged in the cask long enough to be classified as history, always has shown that there were warning signs, hints, foreshadowing adeptly revealed yet not immediately obvious. It is as though the story of humanity is being written by a truly cunning mystery novelist, thus casting God as the supreme meld...

Donald Trump's pledge to build a wall across the US/ Mexican border may be deemed unconstitutional because it would require federal troops to be billeted on the borders of southern US states. The wall was a big part of the President's election pledge and according to a recent leaked transcript he and the Mexican president have already been immersed in dialogue over how to construct the vast infrastructural project. Last week the House approved $1.6 billion to fund the first instalment...

Analysis of the latest GP Patient Survey for England reveals a marked worsening of access to GP surgeries over the past five years, largely as a result of sustained Tory underfunding of primary care services. Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, has slammed Theresa May’s record on General Practice and pledged to ensure GPs are given the resources they need. Millions of patients are finding it significantly more difficult to contact their GP surgery over the phone compared with five...

A plant dating back more than 100 million years to the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered growing in the American Mid West. The moss was found in 16 lakes around Wisconsin and Minnesota - and scientists likened their surprise to a "cheetah poking its head through your office window." They immediately realised it was quite different from other species, and DNA analysis of samples of the large, green algae identifed it as Lychnothamnus barbatus. The collectors knew they...