BBC: A number of candidates are being considered for the post of UK chief science adviser, the person responsible for providing scientific advice to the prime minister and authoritative analysis during a crisis. For example, the science adviser had to decide whether to evacuate British nationals from Japan in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster last year and when to resume flying planes after the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. The highest-profile name among the current candidates is Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust and a former professor of medicine and head of the division of medicine at Imperial College London. The successful candidate will take office at the end of the year, when the current adviser, John Beddington, retires.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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