Joel Cox

3 days ago | theguardian.com | Michael Safi |Oliver Laughland |Natalie Ktena |Joel Cox |Sami Kent

“This is the future, man,” a SpaceX fan tells Oliver Laughland as they look over at a giant rocket. “It’s a weird combination of the wild wild west and the brand new future!”The rocket stands in Starbase, Texas, and the Guardian US southern bureau chief was visiting at a very particular time: as the area home to Elon Musk’s pioneering space company was poised to vote in an election to officially transform the place into its own city.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Ian Sample |Joel Cox

Ian Sample is joined by James Kinross, colorectal surgeon and author of the book Dark Matter: The New Science of the Microbiome, to answer all your questions about gut health. In episode one, James explains how the gut microbiome gets set up, how it impacts our early development, and the effect antibiotics can have on our microbes

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Madeleine Finlay |Leyland Cecco |Joel Cox |Ellie Bury

In March 2021, the Toronto-based reporter Leyland Cecco heard about a memo sent by New Brunswick health officials that warned about a possible unknown neurological syndrome thought to be affecting about 40 people. Since then the story has taken many twists and turns, most recently with a peer-reviewed study that concludes there is no mystery illness after all.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Ian Sample |Eli Block |Joshan Chana |Joel Cox |Ellie Bury

For a long time the appendix was considered disposable. After all, millions of people have theirs removed each year and go on to live healthy lives. But as Heather F Smith, a professor of anatomy at Midwestern University tells Ian Sample, researchers are increasingly understanding what this small worm-shaped organ may be bringing to the table in terms of our health.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Ian Sample |Madeleine Finlay |Joel Cox |Ellie Bury

Direct to consumer tests that claim to tell us our biological – as opposed to chronological – age are getting a lot of attention, but what can they really tell us about our health? Science editor Ian Sample talks to Dr Brian H Chen, an epidemiologist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, who has conducted research into a variety of these tests called epigenetic clocks.