If you’re one of the one in three Australians whose New Year’s resolution involved losing weight, it’s likely you’re now contemplating what weight-loss goal you should actually be working towards. But type “setting a weight loss goal” into any online search engine and you’ll likely be left with more questions than answers. Sure, the many weight-loss apps and calculators available will make setting this goal seem easy. They’ll typically use a body mass index (BMI) calculator to confirm a “healthy” weight and provide a goal weight based on this range. Your screen will fill with trim-looking influencers touting diets that

Existing theories on the chemistry of ageing are being turned on their head, thanks in particular to a small ultra-resistant bacterium capable of “coming back to life” after extremely harmful attacks. This is Deinococcus radiodurans, one of the most resistant bacteria known to date, which lives in arid environments such as desert sand. It survives in canned meat after the “shock” treatment of gamma radiation sterilisation. It can also overcome an irradiation dose 5,000 times greater than the lethal dose for humans. Studies have shown that this bacterium survives even if its DNA is damaged and broken into several hundred fragments as