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Does it take 15,000 litres of water to produce a kilogram of beef?

If you spend much time on social media, and we don’t necessarily recommend it, then you’ve probably come across a strange fascination with water consumption. Mainly, this is people telling you that u...

2026-05-02

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Have RFK and MAHA really changed American views on vaccines?

Vaccine policy in the US is something of an ideological battleground. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is a vaccine sceptic, and since taking office he has attempted to remake US vaccine policy....

2026-04-25

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Is Trump right that wind turbines are killing millions of birds?

US president Donald Trump is no fan of wind turbines, or windmills as he calls them. Not only does he think they ruin the view from a golf course he owns in Scotland, but they are also deadly to bird...

2026-04-18

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Dr Spock’s dangerous advice on baby sleep

Sometimes it is obvious to everyone when an idea is harmful, or a piece of advice is damaging. But not always. Occasionally bad ideas and terrible advice end up being accepted in society and supported...

2026-04-11

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How likely is ‘likely’?

When you’re listening to the news, you will often hear words that are meant to communicate the probability of something happening. A terrorist attack is “a realistic possibility”, the spread of a ce...

2026-04-04

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How much water does AI consume?

As Artificial Intelligence continues to expand rapidly, some people have raised concerns about its potential environmental impact - in particular its use of water, which is used to cool both data cent...

2026-03-28

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Paul Ehrlich: The man who bet England wouldn’t exist by the year 2000

Paul Ehrlich’s bestselling book The Population Bomb opens with an apocalyptic paragraph. “The battle to feed all of humanity is over,” it states. “In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of peop...

2026-03-21

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Transgender women in sport: Does ‘comparable’ mean ‘equal’?

In most sports, men compete against men and women compete against women. That is generally considered fair, because men are faster, more powerful and have greater endurance. But there is an ongoing c...

2026-03-14

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US-Israel war with Iran: Do the gulf states have enough interceptor missiles?

On Saturday 28th February, the US and Israel launched a military attack on Iran, targeting the country's missile infrastructure, military sites and leadership. In response, Iran launched a wave of st...

2026-03-07

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Has a company really discovered a million new species?

Have a million new species just been discovered? That’s the claim made by Dr Oliver Vince, co-founder of a company called Basecamp Research, who are collecting genetic data to train AI systems. The h...

2026-02-28

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Did AI researchers let AI hallucinations into scientific papers?

AI can make mistakes – and AI chatbots like ChatGPT warn you about that whenever you ask them anything. These mistakes sometimes involve making up entirely fictitious, factually false statements know...

2026-02-21

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Is an ancient charioteer the best paid sportsperson of all time?

Modern sport can seem awash with money, but it’s been claimed that the richest sportsperson of all is an ancient Roman Charioteer from the second century AD called Gaius Appuleius Diocles, with career...

2026-02-17

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Is this Premier League striker a secret maths genius?

Chelsea striker Liam Delap has recently stunned fans on Instagram by apparently doing incredibly complicated calculations in his head, finding what’s known as the cube root of some very large numbers....

2026-02-07

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Could Europe use its financial muscle to strong-arm the US?

Could European Nato members use their large holdings of US shares and bonds to put pressure on America? It’s a question that some in Europe found themselves asking as the geopolitical crisis over Gree...

2026-01-31

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Can you get £71,000 on benefits?

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: Is it true that someone needs to earn £71,000 before they receive more money than a family on benefits? Did Canadian prime minist...

2026-01-28

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Is Greenland as big as Africa?

The vast island of Greenland has found itself at the centre of a geopolitical crisis. But a little bit of geography can help us see the situation in a new light. YouTuber and map expert Jay Foreman e...

2026-01-24

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How close is Greenland to the United States?

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: How far away is Greenland from the United States? We check a number From Our Own Correspondent. Does converting our entire ener...

2026-01-21

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No, a study has not shown that the covid jab causes cancer

In Autumn 2025 a paper in South Korea was published that excited many a vaccine sceptic online. The paper claimed that receiving a vaccination against Covid19 was linked to a 27% increase in cancer ri...

2026-01-17

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Have more than 100 private schools been forced to close because of VAT?

Tim Harford investigates some of the numbers in the news. This week: A headline in the Mail says more than 100 private schools have closed since Labour came to power and ended the VAT exemption for pr...

2026-01-14

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Does Venezuela really have the biggest oil reserves in the world?

When people think of oil rich nations their mind generally goes to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the US. But according to international statistics, the country with the largest oil reserves is Venezuela, w...

2026-01-10

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