Superb letter in today’s ⁦The Times and The Sunday Times⁩

Mini-scoop... Plato's last evening revealed, from papyrus scroll carbonised by Vesuvius...

thetimes.co.uk/article/url-pl…

Hi #INC4 👋 from 1972 when the WaPo ran this lede: “We are all just a little bit plastic now.” Said the White House’s Council on Env Quality, “I know this is going to be a significant future issue… potentially our next bad one.” Re: phthalates. #keepgoing #PlasticsTreaty

I worked as a teacher for a month at a school run by conspiracists who believed they were battling a sinister plot against humanity. The children were taught that crystals could cure them of illnesses and that Bill Gates was going to force them to eat insects.

Here’s the story:

🌌🦠🛰️

NEW: A Cambridge scientist has set the James Webb telescope to gaze at a distant planet tomorrow, to investigate one of the most tantalising signs of alien life

He told me of 'sleepless nights' + 'revolutionary' implications if findings confirmed
thetimes.co.uk/article/james-…

“They talked about ferrets so much that I was not even able to speak”

Another Truss classic.

Remarkable stat from this Anne Jenkin piece: 20 male Conservative MPs have been suspended since the last election

thetimes.co.uk/article/37db97…

Experts criticise author Jonathan Haidt who claimed smartphones rewire children’s brains

thetimes.co.uk/article/0b08d6…

Clip from the Question Time 2005 election leaders’ special in which voters complain to Tony Blair about being given doctors’ appointments sooner than needed

We are recruiting for an assistant news editor. Lots of exciting things happening at The Times and The Sunday Times and a great time to join. Apply below!

newscareers.co.uk/vacancies/3281…

An opportunity to repost one of my favourite pieces of financial journalism ever

I’m delighted to start this week as Health Correspondent at the Times! Really looking forward to working alongside the brilliant Eleanor Hayward.

Please get in touch for coffee/ tips!

Thrilled to have Poppy on board - send health stories our way 💫💫

In @TheTimes, an explanation of just how easy it is for practically anyone to make an eerily convincing deepfake - regardless of the deepfaked individual's consent, or the potential for harm.

As @_AndreaMiotti told @RhysBlakely, the profound harms made possible by this

This is a fantastic piece of journalism - and one not many reporters would be equipped to do. Everyone with a Facebook or Instagram account should read it.

🤖 So #ChatGPT wrote the first sentence of this Elsevier article. Any other parts of the article too? How come none of the coauthors, Editor-in-Chief, reviewers, typesetters noticed? How can this happen with regular peer-review? pubpeer.com/publications/C…

30 years ago today, 32 women became the first female priests in CofE history

@TheTimes has tracked down five to speak about their unlikely celebrity status, their fight for acceptance

And how the battle still rages today

Please do give this a retweet:

thetimes.co.uk/article/we-wer…

Day 4. They suspect nothing.

I talked to so many doctors who remember, at the start of their careers, watching teenagers die of cystic fibrosis.

Now these kids can expect to finish college, start families, and live essentially normal lives.

Bumblebees learn tasks from each other that no single bee could learn from scratch in its lifetime.

Which suggests bees have something approaching 'culture'.

Clever bees.