Michael Le Page
@mjflepage.bsky.social
Award-winning reporter at New Scientist who clings to the belief that good journalism mattters. I write about life on Earth, inc climate ☀️, food 🍱, CRISPR 🧬 and biomed 💊
My bio & stories: https://www.newscientist.com/author/michael-le-page
My bio & stories: https://www.newscientist.com/author/michael-le-page
Pinned
Michael Le Page
@mjflepage.bsky.social
· Oct 19
mRNA covid vaccines spark immune response that may aid cancer survival
An analysis of patient records suggests that mRNA covid-19 vaccines boost the immune response to cancerous tumours when given soon after people start a type of immunotherapy, extending their lives
www.newscientist.com
mRNA 🧬 vaccines - but not other kinds - trigger an innate response that can allow the immune system to 'see' and attack tumours, animal studies suggest 🧪
If true, the covid vaccines should do this - and now we have the first evidence this is so
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
If true, the covid vaccines should do this - and now we have the first evidence this is so
www.newscientist.com/article/2500...
January 2, 2026 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Michael Le Page
For our first podcast of 2026 we pick out some of the big science stories coming this year
👇 with @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @jjaron.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social and @alexthompo.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/2Ybb...
👇 with @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @jjaron.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social and @alexthompo.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/2Ybb...
Humans are finally heading back to the moon; Cheaper weight loss drugs are coming; Milestone for LSD trials; Promise of new carbon tax
Spotify video
open.spotify.com
January 2, 2026 at 10:35 AM
For our first podcast of 2026 we pick out some of the big science stories coming this year
👇 with @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @jjaron.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social and @alexthompo.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/2Ybb...
👇 with @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @jjaron.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social and @alexthompo.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/2Ybb...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
Incredible story from @mjflepage.bsky.social - a murder victim revealed to have two sets of DNA www.newscientist.com/article/2507...
Murder victim discovered to have two sets of DNA due to rare condition
A woman's body has been found to consist of varying proportions of male and female cells because of an extremely rare form of chimerism
www.newscientist.com
January 2, 2026 at 9:04 AM
Incredible story from @mjflepage.bsky.social - a murder victim revealed to have two sets of DNA www.newscientist.com/article/2507...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
It’s junk. It has always been junk. www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
Human-plant hybrid cells reveal truth about dark DNA in our genome
It has been claimed that because most of our DNA is active, it must be important, but now human-plant hybrid cells have been used to show this activity is mostly random noise
www.newscientist.com
December 31, 2025 at 6:48 PM
It’s junk. It has always been junk. www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
The @newscientist.com editor asked reporters what their favourite stories were this year, so I thought I'd post some of mine 1/
December 31, 2025 at 1:04 PM
The @newscientist.com editor asked reporters what their favourite stories were this year, so I thought I'd post some of mine 1/
In 2012 the ENCODE project claimed that most of our genome 🧬 wasn't junk after all on the basis that most of it was active in some way 🧪
In response, @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social proposed the random genome project - even random DNA would be mostly active, he suggested 1/2
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
In response, @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social proposed the random genome project - even random DNA would be mostly active, he suggested 1/2
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Redirecting
doi.org
December 31, 2025 at 12:50 PM
In 2012 the ENCODE project claimed that most of our genome 🧬 wasn't junk after all on the basis that most of it was active in some way 🧪
In response, @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social proposed the random genome project - even random DNA would be mostly active, he suggested 1/2
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
In response, @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social proposed the random genome project - even random DNA would be mostly active, he suggested 1/2
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
Two startups say they want to create CRISPR babies 🧬 to prevent serious inherited diseases 🧪
But why found companies to try to do this when there’s already a far better way of preventing inherited diseases, I ask in my latest column?
www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
But why found companies to try to do this when there’s already a far better way of preventing inherited diseases, I ask in my latest column?
www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
Gene-edited babies are the future – but these CRISPR start-ups aren’t
Three start-ups are aiming to create gene-edited babies. Columnist Michael Le Page has no doubt that editing our offspring will one day become routine, but not like this
www.newscientist.com
December 29, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Two startups say they want to create CRISPR babies 🧬 to prevent serious inherited diseases 🧪
But why found companies to try to do this when there’s already a far better way of preventing inherited diseases, I ask in my latest column?
www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
But why found companies to try to do this when there’s already a far better way of preventing inherited diseases, I ask in my latest column?
www.newscientist.com/article/2509...
A reminder that everyone should consider taking vitamin D in winter, and many throughout the year
I didn’t until this year but I wish I had
www.nhs.uk/conditions/v...
I didn’t until this year but I wish I had
www.nhs.uk/conditions/v...
Vitamin D
Find out about vitamin D, including what it does, how much you need, and how to ensure you get enough.
www.nhs.uk
December 23, 2025 at 10:37 AM
A reminder that everyone should consider taking vitamin D in winter, and many throughout the year
I didn’t until this year but I wish I had
www.nhs.uk/conditions/v...
I didn’t until this year but I wish I had
www.nhs.uk/conditions/v...
It would be very surprising if this wasn't the case but always good to have solid evidence:
New research: Real-world energy statistics from multiple markets show that high renewable energy usage is often associated with below-average power prices.
zerocarbon-analytics.org/energy/the-m...
zerocarbon-analytics.org/energy/the-m...
The myth of renewables pushing up power prices - Zero Carbon Analytics
Data show that high renewable energy uptake is often associated with below-average power prices, challenging the claim that renewables increase costs.
zerocarbon-analytics.org
December 18, 2025 at 4:39 PM
It would be very surprising if this wasn't the case but always good to have solid evidence:
Gene drives 🧬 that spread rapidly within a population could be a game-changing technology in the battle against malaria 🦟
The key components of one potential drive have now been successfully tested 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
The key components of one potential drive have now been successfully tested 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
Genetic trick to make mosquitoes malaria resistant passes key test
The rollout of a type of genetic technology called a gene drive for tackling malaria could be edging closer after a lab study supports its success
www.newscientist.com
December 16, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Gene drives 🧬 that spread rapidly within a population could be a game-changing technology in the battle against malaria 🦟
The key components of one potential drive have now been successfully tested 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
The key components of one potential drive have now been successfully tested 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2508...
My look back at a year of claims about deextinction that didn't live up to the hype. No, the dire wolf is not back from the dead 🧪
Featuring @toriherridge.bsky.social @devoevomed.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social and @grenyer.bsky.social
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Featuring @toriherridge.bsky.social @devoevomed.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social and @grenyer.bsky.social
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
De-extinction was big news in 2025 – but didn't live up to the hype
Biologists poured cold water on Colossal Biosciences’ claim to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction, and some worry the overblown headlines will undermine conservation work
www.newscientist.com
December 15, 2025 at 12:37 PM
My look back at a year of claims about deextinction that didn't live up to the hype. No, the dire wolf is not back from the dead 🧪
Featuring @toriherridge.bsky.social @devoevomed.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social and @grenyer.bsky.social
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Featuring @toriherridge.bsky.social @devoevomed.bsky.social @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social and @grenyer.bsky.social
www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
Colossal Biosciences made a lot of big announcements this year, and @mjflepage.bsky.social has been doggedly (direwolfingly?) covering them all. Here's his great summary of a year of "de-extinction" www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
De-extinction was big news in 2025 – but didn't live up to the hype
Biologists poured cold water on Colossal Biosciences’ claim to have brought the dire wolf back from extinction, and some worry the overblown headlines will undermine conservation work
www.newscientist.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Colossal Biosciences made a lot of big announcements this year, and @mjflepage.bsky.social has been doggedly (direwolfingly?) covering them all. Here's his great summary of a year of "de-extinction" www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
New podcast:
🐬 Orcas and dolphins - an uneasy alliance
🧠 Distinct psychiatric conditions - same root causes?
🎇 The new field of Galactic Ecology
🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/6245...
with me, @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social, @alexwilkins.bsky.social and @alecluhn.com
🐬 Orcas and dolphins - an uneasy alliance
🧠 Distinct psychiatric conditions - same root causes?
🎇 The new field of Galactic Ecology
🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/6245...
with me, @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social, @alexwilkins.bsky.social and @alecluhn.com
Orcas and dolphins are now hunting together; Genetic root of psychiatric conditions; Black hole stars and cosmic ecology
Spotify video
open.spotify.com
December 12, 2025 at 3:23 PM
New podcast:
🐬 Orcas and dolphins - an uneasy alliance
🧠 Distinct psychiatric conditions - same root causes?
🎇 The new field of Galactic Ecology
🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/6245...
with me, @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social, @alexwilkins.bsky.social and @alecluhn.com
🐬 Orcas and dolphins - an uneasy alliance
🧠 Distinct psychiatric conditions - same root causes?
🎇 The new field of Galactic Ecology
🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/6245...
with me, @pennysarchet.bsky.social, @mjflepage.bsky.social, @alexwilkins.bsky.social and @alecluhn.com
Reposted by Michael Le Page
Feedback has spent some time sifting through 2025's key scientific achievements to come up with a range of weird and wonderful (and less wonderful) winners for our inaugural Backsies awards
Best acronym? Best use of AI? We present our end-of-year awards
Feedback has spent some time sifting through 2025's key scientific achievements to come up with a range of weird and wonderful (and less wonderful) winners for our inaugural Backsies awards
www.newscientist.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Feedback has spent some time sifting through 2025's key scientific achievements to come up with a range of weird and wonderful (and less wonderful) winners for our inaugural Backsies awards
Chocolate might have an anti-ageing effect, according to a study of 500 women that I reported on earlier this year 🧪
It's not definitively proven - but is all the excuse I need to indulge over Xmas
www.newscientist.com/article/2478...
It's not definitively proven - but is all the excuse I need to indulge over Xmas
www.newscientist.com/article/2478...
Key component of dark chocolate might have an anti-ageing effect
A chemical that is mainly found in dark chocolate seems to slow our rate of biological ageing, but it isn't clear if eating chocolate is good for us overall
www.newscientist.com
December 10, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Chocolate might have an anti-ageing effect, according to a study of 500 women that I reported on earlier this year 🧪
It's not definitively proven - but is all the excuse I need to indulge over Xmas
www.newscientist.com/article/2478...
It's not definitively proven - but is all the excuse I need to indulge over Xmas
www.newscientist.com/article/2478...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
The reverence people (especially many journalists) have towards him will never cease to baffle me
December 9, 2025 at 6:35 PM
The reverence people (especially many journalists) have towards him will never cease to baffle me
Quelle surprise. We are talking about a person who wrote a book called How to feed the world that completely ignored climate change. Making it completely irrelevant. And it's theme was also that we can't do anything different
Vaclav Smil is doing fossil fatalism reports for an Atlas Network conservative think tank in Canada, the Fraser Institute
December 9, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Quelle surprise. We are talking about a person who wrote a book called How to feed the world that completely ignored climate change. Making it completely irrelevant. And it's theme was also that we can't do anything different
Reposted by Michael Le Page
One retracted study doesn’t offset a decade of literature and common sense, all of which make it obvious that a hotter, more chaotic planet is a poorer planet
Gift link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Gift link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
One Retracted Study Doesn’t Cancel Climate Science
It’s hard enough for most of us to predict what we’re having for dinner tonight, much less how the the world will look in 2100. By that time we might have cured cancer and started building giant space...
www.bloomberg.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:21 PM
One retracted study doesn’t offset a decade of literature and common sense, all of which make it obvious that a hotter, more chaotic planet is a poorer planet
Gift link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Gift link to my @opinion.bloomberg.com column
www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
“I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children’s risk of contracting hepatitis B changed.
…this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
…this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
The decision by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to downgrade its recommendations to protect infants from hepatitis B is a dangerous move that will harm children.
Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT
Click here to read AAP's full statement: bit.ly/3Y9ZQJT
December 5, 2025 at 5:52 PM
“I want to reassure parents and clinicians that there is no new or concerning information about the hepatitis B vaccine that is prompting this change, nor has children’s risk of contracting hepatitis B changed.
…this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
…this is the result of a deliberate strategy to sow fear and distrust among families.”
We don't hear much about human cloning these days, but could it be happening in secret - for instance, to help ageing dictators to stay alive? 🧪
I explore this in the first of my new column for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
I explore this in the first of my new column for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
Could the super-rich be cloning themselves? And why would they?
Nearly three decades since the remarkable cloning of Dolly the sheep, it has all gone quiet on the human cloning front. Michael Le Page wonders what's happening behind the scenes
www.newscientist.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:07 PM
We don't hear much about human cloning these days, but could it be happening in secret - for instance, to help ageing dictators to stay alive? 🧪
I explore this in the first of my new column for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
I explore this in the first of my new column for @newscientist.com
www.newscientist.com/article/2506...
Reposted by Michael Le Page
This was a very high tide, but this is what climate change looks like.
The Bay took over the highway during this morning's #KingTides in Marin.
December 5, 2025 at 12:05 AM
This was a very high tide, but this is what climate change looks like.
Reposted by Michael Le Page
ICYMI, @mjflepage.bsky.social's insightful critique of climate action and why it's getting worse, not better www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
Why is climate action stalling, not ramping up as Earth gets hotter?
As the impact of global warming becomes more obvious, you might expect countries to step up climate action and preparation, but we’re seeing the opposite happen
www.newscientist.com
December 5, 2025 at 12:17 PM
ICYMI, @mjflepage.bsky.social's insightful critique of climate action and why it's getting worse, not better www.newscientist.com/article/2505...
What did extinct dire wolves really look like? Compare and contrast this virtual dire wolf from Prehistoric Planets: Ice Age, with the gene-edited grey wolves Romulus and Remus that a certain company describes as "dire wolves"
December 4, 2025 at 3:55 PM
What did extinct dire wolves really look like? Compare and contrast this virtual dire wolf from Prehistoric Planets: Ice Age, with the gene-edited grey wolves Romulus and Remus that a certain company describes as "dire wolves"
Reposted by Michael Le Page
We estimate that by the start of 2025, the UK economy was approximately 8% smaller than it would have been without Brexit, based on macro data, and 6% smaller using firm-level micro data”
www.euronews.com/business/202...
www.euronews.com/business/202...
A decade of Brexit: Britain falls behind peers in trade and growth
Economic analysis shows UK GDP per capita grew up to 10% less than similar nations as firms froze spending and productivity slipped.
www.euronews.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:34 AM
We estimate that by the start of 2025, the UK economy was approximately 8% smaller than it would have been without Brexit, based on macro data, and 6% smaller using firm-level micro data”
www.euronews.com/business/202...
www.euronews.com/business/202...
The British public voted for Brexit. Nuff said
British public’s verdict is in: Die Hard is not a Christmas movie
British public’s verdict is in: Die Hard is not a Christmas movie
Survey also reveals Britons’ favourite festive film, views on tear-jerkers and family cinema trips
When Macaulay Culkin recently said he didn’t consider Die Hard to be a Christmas film – wading into one of pop culture’s most heated holiday debates – he was booed by a live audience.
But it looks like the British people are behind the actor, with a survey revealing that Home Alone is the UK’s favourite festive film, while Die Hard has officially been voted not a Christmas movie. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:05 AM
The British public voted for Brexit. Nuff said