Canadian Poet Anne Carson Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said the author was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to notify her of the win.Toronto-born Carson draws on themes and stories from ancient Greek and Roman literature for works that often blend elements of poetry, essay and fiction.Her books include “Eros the Bittersweet”, a look at the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature, verse novel “Autobiography of Red”, “Men in the Off Hours”, a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001 and “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy”, which compares Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.Last year, Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whose surreal and anarchic novels combine a bleak world view with mordant humour, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for work the judges said upholds the power of art in the midst of “apocalyptic terror”.medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognised a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognised two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.This week ends with Friday's peace prize. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organisation.

08-10-2026 14:33

Canadian Poet Anne Carson Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said the author was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to notify her of the win.Toronto-born Carson draws on themes and stories from ancient Greek and Roman literature for works that often blend elements of poetry, essay and fiction.Her books include “Eros the Bittersweet”, a look at the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature, verse novel “Autobiography of Red”, “Men in the Off Hours”, a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001 and “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy”, which compares Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.Last year, Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whose surreal and anarchic novels combine a bleak world view with mordant humour, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for work the judges said upholds the power of art in the midst of “apocalyptic terror”.medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognised a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognised two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.This week ends with Friday's peace prize. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organisation.

08-10-2026 14:33

Two Chemists Win Nobel for Explaining Mystery of ‘Mirror-Image’ Molecules

Henri Kagan, who is at Université Paris-Sud, first discovered a new way of manipulating chemical reactions in 1986. This allowed him to create a greater excess of one of the mirror images than had previously been thought possible.Kenso Soai from Tokyo University of Science took the next step in 1995. He published a scientific paper in the journal Nature describing the first ever chemical reaction that had the potential to be homochiral - producing only the desired version of an organic molecule.In 2003, he finally succeeded in controlling a reaction in which only one of the two possible mirror images was formed."Other than life itself," the Nobel Committee said in a statement, "no one had previously achieved this feat".At the press conference on Wednesday, Kenso Soai praised the "many, many excellent researchers" in this field.Professor Robert Mokaya, president of the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry said it was a "powerful example of how fundamental chemistry can underpin solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing society"."Different isomers (or versions of molecules) can have completely different biological and physical effects, so they are crucial in finding effective medicines to treat all sorts of illnesses," he added.Prof Angus Davison, from the University of Nottingham, studies the biology of chirality and said that the Nobel-winning chemistry could help reveal how and why life favours "one-handedness"."In ways that we don't yet quite understand, the chirality of the basic building blocks of life ends up making bodies that are themselves also chiral," he told BBC News.This was the foundation, he explained, of our hearts being on left hand side of our bodies and snail shells that coil to the right.Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said the research awarded this year's prize has become part of "our basic understanding of how chemistry functions".He said showing how a mirror image is created is "probably the most fundamental question in life - because somehow that happened four billion years ago when life was created. And now we have, for the first time, mimicked that in the lab".

07-10-2026 19:44

Mysterious Cold Spot Discovered on the Moon, Puzzling NASA Scientists

Researchers have discovered a new impact crater on the Moon’s surface - and it's surrounded by a mysterious cold spot.The study titled “New lunar crater reveals extensive distal regolith modification” was published in Science Advances and it is believed by the team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that the spot first formed in Spring 2024, so it's relatively new.They along with scientists from UCLA, Intuitive Machines, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) looked at images captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and this find means that they can improve their understanding on unexplained lunar cold spots that appear near new impact craters as well as the formation of the new lunar surface feature, also known as the McGetchin crater.Size-wise, the lunar impact crater is approximately around 222 meters in diameter, but how often do craters this size appear on the Moon?According to researchers crater production models, it is "an event of century-scale rarity" as predictions for craters like McGetchin happen once every 132 years on average.This rare occurrence allows scientists to analyse the formation before “space weathering, impact gardening, and other surface processes" causes changes to the surface."Discovered in repeat Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera images, it provides a unique opportunity to study surface modification by a pristine impact, prior to subsequent fading,” they explained.What's more, it discovery gives researchers "the best opportunity yet to observe a large, virtually unaltered cold spot with well-characterized pre-impact conditions.”Cold spots are located around fresh impact craters and are "extensive regions of reduced nighttime temperature relative to surrounding terrain that have been observed around young impact craters between ∼30 m and ∼2 km in diameter," noted the team and were first found in nighttime temperature data from the LRO’s Diviner Lunar Radiometer.So how big are the cold spots? Well, they are actually much bigger than the actual craters themselves, in fact they reach “tens to, in some cases, hundreds of crater radii."There are a number of theories as to why these cold spots exist, the most popular one being that they are a result of a “decompaction” of the upper layer of regolith during the impact event.“Thermal modeling shows that the observed nighttime cooling is consistent with reduced density in the upper centimeters of the regolith, resulting in lower thermal inertia,” they explained.Measurements taken on the Apollo 16 mission landed on a ‘faint’ cold spot appear to support this theory, as footprints left by astronauts n the South Bay cold spot were measurably deeper than similar prints at other lunar landing sites.As for how long cold spots last, they fade slowly - “on ∼100 ka to ∼2 Ma timescales" to be more precise, making them reliable dating markers for impact craters on the Moon.Being able to discover young lunar impact craters “has enabled their use in investigations of regolith thickness, the recent impact cratering rate, and as potential source craters for lunar meteorites.”“This will improve our understanding of cold spot formation and provide a calibration for the fading timescale of cold spots, potentially enabling age estimates for some of the youngest craters on the Moon using cold spot properties,” they explained.

19-09-2026 13:14

Costa Rican man, 119, seeks recognition as world's oldest person

In a modest wooden home in Sardinal, about a 20-minute drive from Costa Rica's Pacific coast, Jose Flores spends his days napping, eating meals prepared by his granddaughter, and arm-wrestling ​with her.His family and official records indicate that he is 119 years old, which would make ‌him the world's oldest man, though international verification of his birth date is still pending as specialists review historical documents.Sardinal is a hot town on the Nicoya Peninsula, one of the world's five regions commonly known as Blue Zones, where people tend to live ​longer and healthier lives and are more likely to reach the age of 100.Residents attribute their longevity ​to calcium- and magnesium-rich water, a diet based on corn and beans, physical work, ⁠and strong family and community ties.Hellen Flores, Jose's granddaughter and carer, said her grandfather, who spent his life working ​in the countryside, now lives "calmly and happily." From time to time, he recalls stories from his life, tells the ​occasional joke and says one of the secrets to his long life is his family."Without love, without affection, without care, he would not still be here," she said.For Jorge Vindas, founder of the Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone Association, which studies longevity in the region, ​other factors also help explain longevity cases such as Flores'.According to his identity card, Flores was born on ​July 11, 1907."Family and social networks are number one, along with spirituality and the strong faith of these people, who are very ‌physically ⁠active," Vindas said. He added that they eat healthily and lead calm, low-stress lives.On the verification process, Vindas said the association has historical records that still need to be confirmed by international organizations, including Guinness World Records."We have a large number of documents, from the birth certificate and baptism certificate to documents from later in life, when he ​was already a father ​and beyond," he said. "Once all ⁠that documentation is reviewed, we hope it will be validated and that we will have good news soon."As the validation process continues, Flores' family is awaiting an answer ​that Hellen Flores said would carry meaning beyond their own household."It would be a ​source of pride, ⁠both for the family and for the country," she said.Flores had eight children and now has 23 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and one great-great-granddaughter.The world's oldest living person is Ethel Caterham of Britain. Born on August 21, 1909, in Hampshire, England, ⁠she ​turned 117 in 2026. She was recognized as the world's oldest living ​person after Brazilian nun Inah Canabarro Lucas died in April 2025.

09-09-2026 18:25

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Canadian Poet Anne Carson Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature Thursday “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature”.Ingrid Carlberg, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, said the author was in Iceland “listening to the wind” when the academy reached her to notify her of the win.Toronto-born Carson draws on themes and stories from ancient Greek and Roman literature for works that often blend elements of poetry, essay and fiction.Her books include “Eros the Bittersweet”, a look at the pleasure and pain of desire in ancient Greek literature, verse novel “Autobiography of Red”, “Men in the Off Hours”, a collection of poetry and prose that won Canada’s Griffin Prize for poetry in 2001 and “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy”, which compares Marilyn Monroe and Helen of Troy.The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm.Last year, Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai, whose surreal and anarchic novels combine a bleak world view with mordant humour, won the Nobel Prize in Literature for work the judges said upholds the power of art in the midst of “apocalyptic terror”.medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognised a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognised two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.This week ends with Friday's peace prize. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organisation.

08-10-2026 14:33

Chester Zoo Celebrates Birth of World's Rarest Chimpanzee

The Independent Published this article:A critically endangered Western chimpanzee, which conservationists say is the "world's rarest chimpanzee", has been born at a zoo.Chester Zoo said the birth was a "small but vital boost" to the global population of the species which was "under huge threat" in the wild.The "baby boy" was in good health and had bonded well with its mother and the rest of the troop, it added.In line with the zoo's tradition, it will be named after a rock or pop star.Andrew Lenihan, from Chester Zoo, said: "We've previously welcomed Dylan (Bob), Alice (Cooper) and Annie (Lennox) - so watch this space."Mum ZeeZee and her new arrival instantly bonded and she's doing a great job of cradling him closely and caring for him."He said the apes were under huge threat in the wild as a result of hunting for the illegal bush meat trade, diseases spread by humans and extensive habitat loss and forest destruction across West Africa.The chimpanzee's arrival was a "small but vital boost to the global population of Western chimpanzees, at a time when it's most needed for this critically endangered species", he added.The zoo said just 18,000 Western chimpanzees remain across Africa and it is the first subspecies of chimpanzee to ever be declared critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).Western chimpanzees have become extinct in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.Mike Jordan, animal and plant director at the zoo, said: "In the last 25 years alone the world has lost 80% of its Western chimpanzee population, so the arrival of a healthy baby here at Chester offers us real hope that we can help turn things around for this species."He added the conservation zoo was "doing everything we possibly can to halt and reverse this".

14-01-2023 12:42

French City Asks Madonna to Lend It a Painting Lost in 1918

Marine Strauss wrote this article in Reuters:The mayor of Amiens, northern France, has asked Madonna to lend the city a 19th-century painting lost during World War One which it believes may be have been bought by the singer, to help its chances of becoming European Capital of Culture.The "Diana and Endymion" painting by Jerome-Martin Langlois, which depicts Roman goddess Diana looking lovingly at the handsome Endymion, was once on display in an Amiens museum but was lost after Germany bombed the city in 1918.French daily Le Figaro reported that the painting, or a nearly identical one, went on sale at an auction in New York in 1989 where Madonna paid $1.3 million for it.There was no immediate reply from a spokesperson for Madonna to an emailed request for comment.Amiens, where French President Emmanuel Macron was born, is a candidate to be European Capital of Culture in 2028."We do not dispute in any way the legal acquisition that you have made but we are candidates to be European Capital of Culture in 2028. So I would like that on this occasion, this year, you could lend us your painting," Amiens mayor Brigitte Foure said in a video posted on Facebook.The painting was commissioned by French King Louis XVIII for the Diane room in the Versailles palace and bought by the State in 1873.Foure said the painting was probably lent to the Amiens museum by the Louvre before World War One, after which Amiens lost trace of it.Madonna has just announced European dates for her "The Celebration Tour" where she will perform in Paris - less than two hours by train from Amiens - on Nov. 11-12, 2023.

18-01-2023 16:34

China Lifts Apparent Ban on Marvel Movies after Four Years

The Independent published this article:China has ended its de facto ban on Marvel films after four years.According to reports, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania are scheduled for a surprise release in the East Asian nation.The films will be released in February, after the lunar new year, marking the first Marvel releases in the Chinese market since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.In the past, the Chinese film board has never explained why Marvel movies were blocked from screening in the country.However, the apparent ban began at a time when tensions between the US and China reached a high amid a trade war.Films such as Black Widow, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder have all been denied a release in China.However, the Marvel films that were released in China before 2019 ended up beig box-office hits.The first Black Panther earned $105m in China in 2018, while Ant-Man and the Wasp grossed $121.2m that same year.The removal of this ban comes amid recent talks between the US and China.The US treasury secretary Janet Yellen reportedly sat down with her Chinese counterpart on Wednesday (18 January) in the highest-ranking contact between the two countries since their presidents agreed to look for ways to improve relations that have grown increasingly strained in recent years.Black Panther: Wakanda Forever crossed the threshold of $3bn at the global box office in 2022.It marked the 14th time that the Marvel studio has made over $3bn at the box office in one year. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ $955m and Thor: Love and Thunder’s $761m contributed to it.

18-01-2023 14:12

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