Female doctors have the best patient results (Picture: Getty) If you’re going into hospital, you want to know you’re getting the best care possible. That now officially includes having a female doctor. That’s because a new study has found patients are less likely to die when their doctor is a woman – with female patients enjoying an even lower risk. Patients are also less likely to be readmitted after leaving hospital when they were treated by a female doctor. The team behind the study said several factors may be behind the differences, and suggest that male doctors may underestimate the seve ..read more

Be warned: Google games are hard to stop (Picture: Google/Getty) If you’ve already done Wordle, Connections and now Strands for the day, don’t worry – the New York Times doesn’t have a monopoly on highly-addictive games. It turns out good old Google is also in on the act, and people are just discovering its array of wacky, retro games. We’re talking Pac-Man, we’re talking Snake, we’re talking Solitaire. Looking for a memory game that’ll bring on a sweat for fear you don’t get past four and look like a complete idiot? They’ve got that too. And for the ultimate human vs computer battle royale ..read more

Students with surnames towards the end of the alphabet tend to get lower grades (Picture: Getty/iStockphoto) Teachers marking work in alphabetical order could be inadvertently impacting their student’s career prospects – and not in a good way. New research from the University of Michigan found that students who had surnames that came later in the alphabet received lower grades than those at the top of roll call.  They also found that these students tend to receive ruder comments on their work and have lower grading quality, measured by post-grade complaints from students.  Associate ..read more

At what age do you think old age begins? (Picture: Getty) They say ageing is all in the mind, and according to a recent survey, that might just be true.  A new study published by the American Psychological Association has revealed that middle-aged and older adults believe that old age begins later in life than their peers did decades ago. Researchers looked at data from 14,056 participants in the German Ageing Survey and found that compared with the earliest-born participants, later-born participants reported a later perceived onset of old age. The survey covered people born between 1911 ..read more

Rogue waves can grow up to 30 metres tall (Picture: Getty/Tetra ) Far out to sea, beyond the horizon, lie real sea monsters. Long thought to be a myth imagined by sailors, these killers have now been seen and studied in real life. They are rogue waves. Rearing out of the sea up to 30 metres high – taller than three London buses end-to-end – rogue waves have swallowed up dozens of ships, and damaged many more, some being lucky enough to limp back to port after an encounter. Now it seems they may be even more common than previously thought, and scientists may know where they come from. Dr Aless ..read more

AI can be trained to create some creepy videos (Picture: Microsoft) Microsoft has released a video of the Mona Lisa rapping, and it has left some viewers creeped out. The giant tech company has revealed a new AI model that can take a still image of a face, and combine it almost seamlessly with an audio clip of someone speaking.  In one video example, researchers show how they animated the Mona Lisa to recite a comedic rap by Anne Hathaway using the AI Model VASA-1. Many took to social media to air their thoughts, with one user, Nikita Lebedev, writing: ‘This is wild, freaky and creepy al ..read more

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next If you’ve ever wanted to experience a day in the life of a polar bear, you’re in luck. Scientists from the US strapped cameras to a bunch of bears to see exactly what they were getting up to during an Arctic summer. Sadly, the answer was not good. The research revealed the bears were forced to spend more time on land due to rapidly shrinking sea ice, where they are less adapted to hunt and forage for food. One video shows a polar bear chewing on some antlers. Another is se ..read more

Most people rely on a mobile phone (Picture: Xavier Lorenzo/Getty Images) With the cost of living crisis takings its toll on the wallet, now might be a good time to check if your mobile network is giving the most bang for your buck. Maybe there is a better provider out there, but with so many options available, swapping to a different company can feel daunting. Consumer champion Which? did the leg work so you do not have to, reviewing the major UK mobile providers. It asked more than 3,700 customers using some of the biggest companies, including EE, O2, Three and Vodafone. The UK ‘Big Four ..read more

DNA hacking could be a problem of the future (Picture: Getty/Metro.co.uk) When details of a hack at DNA testing firm 23andMe first came to light the news made few headlines – the eyes of the world were on Israel and Gaza. Initial reports suggest around a million people’s accounts had been accessed, but the latest update suggests 6.9 million customers were affected. 23andMe provides users with a comprehensive ancestry breakdown based on their DNA and, according to the leaked data, its customers include Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – although this has not been verified. The company maintains t ..read more

The ‘UFO’ was seen sputtering along before crashing into a local judge’s property (Picture: Shutterstock/Getty Images/Metro.co.uk) Most people in this Texan town of about 1,300 know the alien as Ned. Ned was a spaceman who on April 17, 1897, crashed into a windmill near the home of a local judge in Aurora. He had been riding a cigar‐shaped spaceship travelling north at only 10 or so miles per hour just before 4am, The Dallas Morning News reported. ‘It sailed directly over the public square and when it reached the north part of town and collided with the tower of Judge Protctor’s windmill ..read more