Key points from government’s defence strategy

Oscar Bentley Political reporter PA Media Keir Starmer launched the review alongside Defence Secretary John Healey at BAE Systems in Govan, Glasgow Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has set out the government’s defence strategy for the next decade. The so-called “root and branch” review of the UK’s defence capability, led by former UK defence secretary…

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Inside the British lab growing a biological computer

In a laboratory outside Cambridge sits a remarkable “biological computer”. Its 200,000 human brain cells, grown in the lab, lie on silicon circuitry that communicates their synchronised electrical activity on a screen to the outside world. The CL1 device, about the size of two shoe boxes, was developed by Australian start-up Cortical Labs with the…

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When the Earth Was Green review: Gripping account of how plants and animals co-evolved

An artist’s impression of an environment where prehistoric plants thrived Christian Jegou/Science Photo Library When the Earth Was GreenRiley Black (St Martin’s Press (US, available now; UK, later this month)) The behaviour of plants is invisible to the naked human eye. They operate on timescales our imaginations can’t entertain, and they run roughshod over familiar categories…

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