Gap between men's and women's life expectancy no longer closing, data suggests
Men are no longer catching up with women's life expectancy, ONS data suggests, as public health campaigns have reached saturation point. The gap has narrowed every year for the past decade, falling from 4.2 years in 2006-8 to 3.7 years in 2012-14. But the latest data shows that this trend came to a halt in 2014-16, with the gap stagnating at 3.7 years. Life expectancy for women at birth is now 82.9 years, and for men it is 79.2 years.
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AI is becoming RACIST as robots mimic society, experts warn
ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI) which learns from humans and could be used to assess candidates for jobs, university places and bank loans could deny people based on their race or sex, technology experts have warned. Machine learning may be inherently racist and sexist if it learns from humans and will typically favour white men, research has shown.
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The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.
Latest research: Without sleep, there is low energy and disease. With sleep, there is vitality and health. More than 20 large scale epidemiological studies all report the same clear relationship: the shorter your sleep, the shorter your life. To take just one example, adults aged 45 years or older who sleep less than six hours a night are 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke in their lifetime, as compared with those sleeping seven or eight hours a night. A lack of sleep also appears to hijack the body’s effective control of blood sugar, the cells of the sleep-deprived appearing, in experiments, to become less responsive to insulin, and thus to cause a prediabetic state of hyperglycaemia. When your sleep becomes short, moreover, you are susceptible to weight gain.
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One in 50 people in UK now say they are lesbian, gay or bisexual
The percentage of people identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual increased significantly last year, to 2% of the UK population. The proportion was up from 1.7% in 2015, according to Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures published on Wednesday, and it means there were just over 1 million people identifying as LGB in 2016. The ONS, which stresses that sexual identity “does not necessarily reflect sexual attraction or sexual behaviour”, described it as “a statistically significant increase”.
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Homeless facing worst winter crisis for 20 years, says Big Issue founder
England could face its worst winter homelessness crisis in more than two decades and radical action is needed to prevent the situation from deteriorating, the Big Issue founder has said. John Bird, a life peer who set up the magazine sold on the street by homeless people, said the UK risked moving back to the “desperate” times of the 1990s when the Big Issue started.
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Girls go along with sex acts, says teacher
Are children turning to pornography to educate themselves about sex? Are boys coercing girls to do things they later regret? A 24-year-old secondary school teacher tells the BBC she's shocked by the stories she hears from her teenage pupils. This is an interesting article with some insight into how girls think, act and behave.
*Note: We are currently carrying out research for Cambridgeshire Police on this issue. If you are interested in the findings please do get in touch and we will keep you updated.
The BBC, read the full story
PhD research prompts launch of Scottish National Investment Bank
The power of research is not underestimated today with the launch of the Scottish National Investment Bank, which could leverage a total of £3.4 billion funding in its first year, which was heavily influenced by research from PhD student Gemma Bone Dodds.
ESRC, read the full story
