A little-known flu virus is sickening cattle around the world. Are humans next? - Science | AAAS

In 1991, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stumbled into a fight with the American beef industry. A children’s alphabet book featuring the cartoon heroes warned about methane from cattle warming the planet and urged readers to eat less meat. The National Cattlemen’s Association made a big fuss out of it and Random House, the publisher of the book in question, agreed not to reprint it.

Oct 12, 2026By Farms.com Researchers discover cattle pregnancies can succeed without a protein long considered essential For many years, scientists believed that a protein known as interferon tau (IFNT) was essential for successful pregnancy in cattle. This protein is produced by the developing embryo and was thought to send a crucial signal to the mother, helping maintain the pregnancy. However, new research from Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich has challenged this long-standing scientific belief. The study, recently published in Nature Communications, found that cattle embryos can establish and maintain pregnancies even without producing interferon tau. The discovery could change how scientists understand reproduction in cattle and may lead to new strategies to improve fertility in livestock. The research team, led by Dr.

‘I’d like to have known her that bit longer, really. Those eight years went very, very quickly. I loved the child. I lost her. And that seemed to me to be the end of everything really, when she’d gone.”Ray Lee, now 90, lost his daughter Anne on 21 October 1966. It was the day her primary school, along with several surrounding houses, in Aberfan was engulfed by an estimated 100,000 tonnes of slurry from one of the colliery spoil tips that overshadowed the Welsh mining village. Anne was one of 116 children killed, alongside 28 adults.‘It seemed to be the end of everything’ … Ray Lee, who lost his daughter Anne in the disaster. Photograph: BBC Studios/Mei WilliamsGaynor Madgwick (nee Minett) was in the same school and was the same age as Anne when the disaster struck, but she was catapulted back to the far wall by the initial impact and, although severely injured, survived. Her grandfather dug her out. When she asked her father that evening, in hospital, where her brother and sister were, he told her they had both gone to heaven. Marlene Gerlach remembers screaming and screaming for her three children across the unrecognisable school site. They all survived.