Sharon BarbourHealth correspondent, BBC North East and Cumbria Supplied Baby Saskia had the typical measles rash Nowhere in the north-east of England and Cumbria has the childhood measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate of 95% needed to achieve the “herd immunity” at which point disease does not spread, latest figures show. Middlesbrough has the…
Getty Images A baby whose mother was not vaccinated against whooping cough while pregnant has died after contracting the infection, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said. The death, which occurred between January and June 2025, is the first fatal case of whooping cough in the UK this year. It follows government warnings about…
New research published in the journal Science reveals the Red Planet’s mantle preserves a record of its violent beginnings. The inside of Mars isn’t smooth and uniform like familiar textbook illustrations. Instead, new research reveals it’s chunky — more like a Rocky Road brownie than a neat slice of Millionaire’s Shortbread. We often picture rocky…
A study led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University has revealed a planet-forming disk with a strikingly unusual chemical composition: an unexpectedly high abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in regions where Earth-like planets may one day form. The discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), challenges long-standing assumptions about the chemistry of planetary…
In a new study, scientists at the University of Missouri looked deep into the universe and found something unexpected. Using infrared images taken from NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), they identified 300 objects that were brighter than they should be. “These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in the early universe, meaning they could…
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party will remove all net zero requirements on oil and gas companies drilling in the North Sea if elected. Badenoch is to formally announce the plan to focus solely on “maximising extraction” and to get “all our oil and gas out of the North Sea” in a speech…
Esme Stallard and Justin RowlattClimate and science team Sean Gallup/Getty Images It is smaller than your fingernail, but this hairy beetle is one of the biggest single threats to the UK’s forests. The bark beetle has been the scourge of Europe, killing millions of spruce trees, yet the government thought it could halt its spread…
Stethoscopes powered by artificial intelligence (AI) could help detect three different heart conditions in seconds, researchers say. The original stethoscope, invented in 1816, allows doctors to listen to the internal sounds of a patient’s body. But now a British team have designed one that can spot heart failure, heart valve disease and abnormal heart rhythms…
When genetic testing reveals a rare DNA mutation, doctors and patients are frequently left in the dark about what it actually means. Now, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a powerful new way to determine whether a patient with a mutation is likely to actually develop disease, a concept…
A team of computer scientists led by the University of Colorado Boulder has developed a new artificial intelligence platform that automatically seeks out “questionable” scientific journals. The study, published Aug. 27 in the journal “Science Advances,” tackles an alarming trend in the world of research. Daniel Acuña, lead author of the study and associate professor…
