“Half a million people in the UK with dangerously high blood pressure – a ‘silent killer’ that causes tens of thousands of deaths a year – could be cured by a new treatment.

Doctors have developed a technique to burn away nodules that lead to a large amount of salt building up in the body, which increases the risk of a stroke or heart attack.

The breakthrough could mean people with primary aldosteronism – which causes one in 20 cases of high blood pressure – no longer have to have surgery or spend their lives taking the drug spironolactone to lower their risk of a stroke or heart attack.”

From The Guardian.

“Much has been written about how modern lifestyles mean we are no longer getting enough sleep, unlike our ancestors who lived in less technologically advanced times. But an analysis of 54 sleep studies conducted around the world has found that people in small, non-industrialised societies actually get less sleep than those in more industrialised regions.”

From New Scientist.

“On 24 February 2025, Prime Minister Samdech Thip Dei Hun Manet highlighted the remarkable achievements in Cambodia’s ongoing mine clearance campaign over the past 32 years. Since its inception in 1992, the initiative has successfully cleared nearly 3,300 square kilometres of land across 15 provinces, significantly enhancing safety and quality of life for residents…

In 2024 alone, over 273 square kilometres were cleared, destroying 17,853 anti-personnel mines, 228 anti-tank mines, and 91,111 explosive remnants of war. This concerted effort has led to a dramatic decrease in casualties, with the number plummeting from 4,320 in 1996 to just 49 in 2024.”

From Construction & Property.

“On a 300-acre farm in an undisclosed location in rural Wisconsin, surrounded by fields dotted with big red barns and bordered by wild blue chicory and goldenrod, live some of the most pampered pigs in the world.

They are delivered by C-section to protect them from viruses that sows can carry, and bottle-fed instead of nursed for the same reason. They are kept under warming lights and monitored around the clock for the first days of their lives, given toys and marshmallows as treats.

But they don’t get to go outside and play in the dirt like other pigs. They are clones and constitutionally weak, genetically engineered to have kidneys, hearts and livers more compatible with the human body.

These miniature pigs are part of a bold scientific experiment that takes advantage of breakthroughs in cloning and gene editing to realize the centuries-old dream of xenotransplantation — the transfer of animal kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs into humans who need them.”

From New York Times.