Cornwall-born lynx kitten prepares for rewilding journey
A nine-month-old Carpathian lynx born at Newquay Zoo is starting her journey to be resettled into the wild, keepers say.The female cub, the first UK-bred lynx to join the initiative, was due to enter a week-long quarantine next week before her transfer to Germany at the end of the month, staff said.Following quarantine, the lynx will move to Zoo Karlsruhe in Germany, where she will undergo specialised training in hunting and survival skills within a semi-wild environment under the auspices of Europe's Linking Lynx programme. Her release into the wild was anticipated for autumn, contingent on her progress, the zoo said.
Dr Kathy Baker, research officer for the zoo's owners, the Wild Planet Trust, said: "This demonstrates how even smaller facilities like Newquay Zoo can make substantial contributions to international conservation initiatives. "We've planned every detail to give her the best chance of thriving in the wild."While the cub prepares for her journey, her parents, Kicsi and Onyx, remain on at Newquay Zoo and people can follow the lynx's progress on the zoo's social media channels.
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BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
Vera Rubin: First celestial image from revolutionary telescope
A powerful new telescope in Chile has released its first images, showing off its unprecedented ability to peer into the dark depths of the one picture, vast colourful gas and dust clouds swirl in a star-forming region 9,000 light years from Earth. The Vera C Rubin observatory, home to the world's most powerful digital camera, promises to transform our understanding of the a ninth planet exists in our solar system, scientists say this telescope would find it in its first year. It should detect killer asteroids in striking distance of Earth and map the Milky Way. It will also answer crucial questions about dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of our once-in-a-generation moment for astronomy is the start of a continuous 10-year filming of the southern night sky."I personally have been working towards this point for about 25 years. For decades we wanted to build this phenomenal facility and to do this type of survey," says Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for UK is a key partner in the survey and will host data centres to process the extremely detailed snapshots as the telescope sweeps the skies capturing everything in its Rubin could increase the number of known objects in our solar system tenfold. BBC News visited the Vera Rubin observatory before the release of the sits on Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the Chilean Andes that hosts several observatories on private land dedicated to space high, very dry, and very dark. It is a perfect location to watch the this darkness is sacrosanct. The bus ride up and down the windy road at night must be done cautiously, because full-beam headlights must not be inside of the observatory is no is a whole engineering unit dedicated to making sure the dome surrounding the telescope, which opens to the night sky, is dark – turning off rogue LEDs or other stray lights that could interfere with the astronomical light they are capturing from the night starlight is "enough" to navigate, commissioning scientist Elana Urbach of the observatory's big goals, she adds, is to "understand the history of the Universe" which means being able to see faint galaxies or supernova explosions that happened "billions of years ago"."So, we really need very sharp images," Elana detail of the observatory's design exhibits similar precision. It achieves this through its unique three-mirror design. Light enters the telescope from the night sky, hits the primary mirror (8.4m diameter), is reflected onto the secondary mirror (3.4m) back onto a third mirror (4.8m) before entering its mirrors must be kept in impeccable condition. Even a speck of dust could alter the image high reflectivity and speed of this allow the telescope to capture a lot of light which Guillem Megias, an active optics expert at the observatory, says is "really important" to observe things from "really far away which, in astronomy, means they come from earlier times".The camera inside the telescope will repeatedly capture the night sky for ten years, every three days, for a Legacy Survey of Space and 1.65m x 3m, it weighs 2,800kg and provides a wide field of will capture an image roughly every 40 seconds, for about 8-12 hours a night thanks to rapid repositioning of the moving dome and telescope has 3,200 megapixels (67 times more than an iPhone 16 Pro camera), making it so high-resolution that it could capture a golf ball on the Moon and would require 400 Ultra HD TV screens to show a single image."When we got the first photo up here, it was a special moment," Mr Megias said."When I first started working with this project, I met someone who had been working on it since 1996. I was born in 1997. It makes you realise this is an endeavour of a generation of astronomers." It will be down to hundreds of scientists around the world to analyse the stream of data alerts, which will peak at around 10 million a survey will work on four areas: mapping changes in the skies or transient objects, the formation of the Milky Way, mapping the Solar System, and understanding dark matter or how the universe its biggest power lies in its constancy. It will survey the same areas over and over again, and every time it detects a change, it will alert scientists. "This transient side is the really new unique thing... That has the potential to show us something that we hadn't even thought about before," explains Prof it could also help protect us by detecting dangerous objects that suddenly stray near Earth, including asteroids like YR4 that scientists briefly worried early this year was on track to smash into our camera's very large mirrors will help scientists detect the faintest of light and distortions emitted from these objects and track them as they speed through space."It's transformative. It's going be the largest data set we've ever had to look at our galaxy with. It will fuel what we do for many, many years," says Professor Alis Deason at Durham will receive the images to analyse how far back the stars reach in the Milky the moment most data from the stars goes back about 163,000 light years, but Vera Rubin could see back to 1.2 million Deason also expects to see into the Milky Way's stellar halo, or its graveyard of stars destroyed over time, as well as small satellite galaxies that are still surviving but are incredibly faint and hard to Vera Rubin is thought to be powerful enough to finally solve a long-standing mystery about the existence of our solar system's Planet object could be as far away as 700 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun, far beyond the reach of other ground telescopes. "It's gonna take us a long time to really understand how this new beautiful observatory works. But I am so ready for it," says Professor Heymans.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
Why nightmares could make you age faster and die sooner
Frequent nightmares are linked to premature ageing and increase the risk of an early death, according to a new study. Adults who report weekly nightmares are more than three times likely to die before the age of 70 compared to those who rarely or never experience them, researchers found. The study found nightmares to be a 'stronger predictor of premature death' than smoking, obesity, poor diet, and low physical activity. The scientists warned the findings should be treated as a 'public health concern', but said people can reduce nightmares by managing stress. The team, led by Dr Abidemi Otaiku of the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Imperial College London, analysed data from 2,429 children aged eight to 10 and 183,012 adults aged 26 to 86 over a period of 19 years. The research, presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress this month, found that nightmares disrupt both sleep quality and duration, which impairs the body's overnight cellular restoration and repair ability. The combined impacts of chronic stress and disrupted sleep are likely to contribute to the accelerated ageing of our cells and bodies. Dr Otaiku said, 'Our sleeping brains cannot distinguish dreams from reality. That's why nightmares often wake us up sweating, gasping for breath, and with our hearts pounding – because our fight-or-flight response has been triggered. This stress reaction can be even more intense than anything we experience while awake.' He said: 'Nightmares lead to prolonged elevations of cortisol, a stress hormone closely linked to faster cellular ageing. For those who frequently experience nightmares, this cumulative stress may significantly impact the ageing process.' He added: 'Given how common and modifiable nightmares are, they should be taken far more seriously as a public health concern.' Researchers found that children and adults who had frequent nightmares also exhibited faster ageing. This accounted for approximately 40 per cent of those who had a higher risk of early death. Dr Otaiku said this was the first study to show nightmares can predict faster biological ageing and earlier mortality, even after accounting for other health issues. Even monthly nightmares were linked to faster ageing and increased mortality compared to those who had no nightmares. and the links were consistent across all ages, sexes, ethnicities, and mental health statuses. 'The good news is that nightmares can be prevented and treated,' said Dr Otaiku. Simple measures, such as maintaining good sleep hygiene, managing stress, seeking treatment for anxiety or depression and not watching scary films can be effective in reducing nightmares, he said.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
The simple blood test that can predict Alzheimer's decline
Alzheimer 's decline could be predicted with a simple blood test already offered to those at risk of type 2 diabetes. The disease is the most common type of dementia, with symptoms including confusion, speech and language issues, problems with moving around and behaviour changes. Around a million people in the UK are living with dementia, but that figure is projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040, Alzheimer's UK warns. There is currently no cure for the disease nor any definitive way to predict how quickly it will progress, only medicines to help relieve some of the symptoms. However, research presented at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress 2025 suggests a blood test used to detect insulin resistance could also identify patients at a high risk of cognitive decline. Neurologists at the University of Brescia, in Italy, analysed data from 315 non-diabetic patients with cognitive deficits – that included 200 people with Alzheimer's disease. All participants were tested for insulin resistance using the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index – a low-cost, widely available marker calculated from standard blood test. They were then followed up three years later. Participants were divided into groups of varying cognitive impairment and also separated according to their insulin resistance score. Among those with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's, individuals with the highest TyG scores declined four times faster than those with lower TyG levels – but this link was not seen in the group with cognitive impairment not caused by Alzheimer's. 'Once mild cognitive impairment is diagnosed, families always ask how fast it will progress,' said lead investigator Dr Bianca Gumina. 'Our data show that a simple metabolic marker available in every hospital laboratory can help identify more vulnerable subjects who may be suitable candidates for targeted therapy or specific intervention strategies.' It's believed insulin resistance impairs glucose uptake in the brain, which means it is less active. This can lead to increased inflammation in the brain disrupting the blood-brain barrier and contributing to amyloid build-up – a protein that can form toxic plaques in the brain - all of which are linked with the progression of Alzheimer's disease. While inflammation is the body's defence mechanism which responds to damage and infection to keep us healthy, too much of a good thing can have consequences, Alzheimer's Research explains. When these toxic proteins build up in people with Alzheimer's, the brain fights back with an inflammatory response to keep the damage at bay. But this is thought to cause more damage. 'We were surprised to see the effect only in the Alzheimer's spectrum and not in other neurodegenerative diseases', Dr Gumina noted. She suggested it highlights that there is a 'disease-specific vulnerability' to insulin resistance and interventions could change the trajectory of the disease. Researchers also found high insulin resistance was associated with blood–brain barrier disruption and cardiovascular risk factors, but these were not associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's progression. It's hoped these findings could help detect Alzheimer's patients who are at a high-risk of cognitive decline early and enrol them in more targeted clinical trials – such as anti-amyloid trials. This blood test could also be used to make timely interventions to improve their insulin sensitivity. 'If targeting metabolism can delay progression, we will have a readily modifiable target that works alongside emerging disease-modifying drugs', concluded Dr Gumina. The researchers are currently investigating whether levels of insulin resistance also track with neuroimaging biomarkers- brain scans which indicate the structure, function and chemistry of the organ as well as diagnosing neurological conditions.
