32 h. ago Wicker review – Olivia Colman is smelly fisherwoman falling for wicker man in uneven fable

Sundance film festival: an inventively made fantasy boasts eye-catching premise and typically rewarding performance from Oscar-winner but something’s missingIn terms of attention-demanding loglines, this year’s Sundance has a few. There’s body horror Saccharine, about a diet craze that involves eating human ashes, midnight movie Buddy, about a Barney-esque kids TV star who starts murdering children and then there’s Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant which, well, you can probably imagine.But the annual “wait, what?” prize easily goes to offbeat fable Wicker, the story of a smelly spinster fisherwoman who commissions herself a husband made of, that’s right, wicker. While the film does have its expected amount of audience-provoking moments – wicker-fucking bringing the most noise both on and off the screen – to its credit, there’s an attempt to give us more than just easy shock value, something that can’t always be said for films in this often tedious category. Writer-directors Alex Huston Fische...

Politics

3 d. ago New study challenges claim about microplastics in the human body

For years, studies have suggested that plastic particles have been detected in the human body

Politics

3 d. ago Couple 'stunned' to find 'human body after human body' under floor of dream home

Lucy and Rhys Thomas bought their dream home at auction for £405,000

Politics

5 d. ago US officials tried to lobby against Marine Le Pen election ban, French judge says

Magali Lafourcade says the two envoys were convinced the far-right leader’s corruption trial had been politicalEurope live – latest updatesA French magistrate has said two Trump administration emissaries approached her seeking to lobby against an election ban on the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen.Magali Lafourcade, the secretary general of France’s human rights commission (CNCDH), an independent body that advises the government, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) she had reported the content of the meeting to the French foreign ministry immediately, fearing a potential “manipulation of the public debate in France”. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Scientists reveal the impact of air pollution on the human body

Breathing in air pollution like ozone and PM2.5 harms nearly every major system in the human body

Politics

8 d. ago The Guardian view on microplastics research: questioning results is good for science, but has political consequences | Editorial

Errors in measuring microplastic pollution can be corrected. Public trust in science also needs to be shored up It is true that science is self-correcting. Over the long term this means that we can generally trust its results – but up close, correction can be a messy process. The Guardian reported last week that 20 recent studies measuring the amount of micro- and nanoplastics in the human body have been criticised in the scientific literature for methodological issues, calling their results into question. In one sense this is the usual process playing out as it should. However, the scale of the potential error – one scientist estimates that half the high-impact papers in the field are affected – suggests a systemic problem that should have been prevented.The risk is that in a febrile political atmosphere in which trust in science is being actively eroded on issues from climate change to vaccinations, even minor scientific conflicts can be used to sow further doubt. Given that there...

Politics

8 d. ago Couple make 'cheeky bid' on abandoned house and left stunned by what's inside

The pair are taking on a huge renovation project

Politics

8 d. ago Couple left stunned after buying abandoned Welsh house without stepping inside

Welsh couple's renovation videos of junk-filled 1970s property go viral with on social media over two million views in six days

Politics

9 d. ago Couple have sex in MRI machine for wild experiment and one thing baffles scientists

After scientists studied a number of people having sex in an MRI scanner there's one thing that has left them stumped about the human body - providing them with useful insights

Politics

1 week ago NASA ISS medical evacuation: Surprising effects of returning to Earth on the human body

Four astronauts have returned to Earth after months on board the International Space Station

Politics

1 week ago ‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body

Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. One chemist called the concerns “a bombshell”.Studies claiming to have revealed micro and nanoplastics in the brain, testes, placentas, arteries and elsewhere were reported by media across the world, including the Guardian. There is no doubt that plastic pollution of the natural world is ubiquitous, and present in the food and drink we consume and the air we breathe. But the health damage potentially caused by microplastics and the chemicals they contain is unclear, and an explosion of research has taken off in this area in recent years. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Warped world of ‘body brokers’ who sell ‘donated’ corpses for cash & skin bodies for display But families have no idea

THE warped world of body brokers, where people who acquire and sell human cadavers, has become a multi-million-pound industry fuelled by an obsession with the dead. Private companies have been found to skin and chop up bodies to make a profit, all under the chilling guise of "human tissue banks" and here, The Sun takes...

Events

3 w. ago The physical warning sign to change what you’re doing at the gym

When the human body is pushed beyond what it is ready for, the risk of injury rises sharply

Events

4 w. ago Body of triathlete apparently killed by shark found on California beach

Erica Fox’s remains were found after nearly weeklong search, marking a rare shark-related fatality for CaliforniaCalifornia firefighters have found the body of a California triathlete on a beach north-west of Santa Cruz, almost a week after she went missing amid speculation that she was killed by a shark.The remains of Erica Fox were found on Saturday, her father and husband confirmed to local news outlets. Fox, 55, was part of a group of more than a dozen swimmers who left from Lovers Point near Monterey, California, on 21 December, but she never returned to shore. A witness driving by the area reported to authorities that they saw a shark with what appeared to be a human body in its mouth emerge from the water, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Continue reading...

Events