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A recent study suggests that genes explain 50%–55% of the differences in how long people live, far higher than the long-standing estimate of 20%–25%. It’s an eye-catching number, but as ageing expert Karin Modig explains, it doesn’t mean your genes have suddenly taken control of your lifespan. Your DNA hasn’t changed; your environment has.
Over the past century, we’ve removed many of the biggest threats to life: deadly infections, unsafe childbirth, contaminated water and high rates of accidents. When those external dangers shrink, what’s left to explain differences in lifespan starts to look more genetic – almost by default.
Meanwhile, new research tracking baby boomers and gen X shows that while mental health mostly recovered after COVID lockdowns, being a woman or growing up poor still affects mental health throughout life – inequalities that started in childhood and never went away. And scientists think they may have solved the mystery of why a river in the western US carves straight through a mountain range instead of flowing around it – the answer involves a chunk of Earth’s crust the size of a country literally dripping into the mantle
below.
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Clint Witchalls
Senior Health Editor
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buritora/Shutterstock.com
Karin Modig, Karolinska Institutet
Why genetic influence on lifespan appears to have doubled.
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The lifelong mental health impact of socioeconomic inequalities were even larger in women from the Baby Boomer generation.
PerfectWave/ Shutterstock
Darío Moreno-Agostino, UCL
Our findings highlight life-long inequalities in mental health by factors that are down to chance.
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The Gates of Lodore mark the beginning of the Green River’s path through the Uinta Mountains.
Scott Alan Ritchie / shutterstock
Adam Smith, University of Glasgow
Deep beneath the Rockies, a huge slab of crust ‘dripped’ into the mantle. It changed America forever.
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World
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Rachael Jolley, The Conversation
Iran is struggling with a massive water crisis, this is a global phenomenom.
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Politics + Society
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Estelle Marks, University of Sussex; King's College London
Even crime we think of as ‘local’ can exploit force boundaries.
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Kerry Brown, King's College London
As the UK tries to make sense of a world in which the US is not a wholly reliable ally, a realistic stance on China is essential.
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Arts + Culture
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Luba Kassova, University of Westminster
Women still struggle for recognition as artists, producers, mixers and engineers.
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Steve Waters, University of East Anglia
I left Hamnet dry-eyed – so why did it affect others so powerfully?
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Business + Economy
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Narmin Nahidi, University of Exeter
Green finance hinges on causing a minimal environmental disruption but tension in Greenland is building.
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Health
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Robin Bailey, University of Cambridge
Why the safest response to volatility is to stop trying to predict what comes next.
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Anthony Booker, University of Westminster
Evolution has created plants with the power to kill and heal.
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Aaron Thierry, Cardiff University
Preventable suffering is both widespread and socially produced.
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Science + Technology
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Adam Smith, University of Glasgow
Deep beneath the Rockies, a huge slab of crust ‘dripped’ into the mantle. It changed America forever.
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The most clicked links from yesterday
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