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A scientist who found the oldest water ever discovered on Earth decided the best course of action was, of course, to drink it. Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar was leading a team of geologists studying a Canadian mine in 2016 when she made the remarkable discovery. The flowing water about three kilometres below the surface was between 1.5bn and 2.6bn years old, according to tests, making it the oldest water found on Earth. “When people think about this water they assume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock,” said Prof Sherwood Lollar. “But in fact it’s very much bubbling right up out at you. These things are flowing at rates of litres per minute – the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.” Upon tasting the ancient water, she found that it was “very salty and bitter” and “much saltier than seawater”. That was an encouraging sign, because saltier water tends to be older. In this case, where the water has been ageing for billions of years, it is hardly surprising. “If you’re a geologist who works with rocks, you’ve probably licked a lot of rocks,” said Sherwood Lollar. Her team also found that life had once been present in the water, by looking at the sulphate – the composition of salts – in it. “We were able to indicate that the signal we are seeing in the fluids has to have been produced by microbiology – and most importantly has to have been produced over a very long time scale. “The microbes that produced this signature couldn’t have done it overnight. “This has to be an indication that organisms have been present in these fluids on a geological timescale.” Fortunately, the scientist had no terrifying sci-fi movie-esq reaction to drinking the ancient water, and lived to tell the tale. The paper was published in Nature in 2016. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

KARLSRUHE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 16, 2023--

We are living in the golden age of streaming, with absolutely loads of platforms hosting

Technology giant Meta has rejected an accusation of online censorship as protesters called for language around women’s bodies to be normalised. Demonstrators gathered outside the company’s London office in King’s Cross on Friday morning. She Oath, described as a female empowerment charity, joined representatives from period product firm Bodyform, which is running a campaign aimed at normalising use of words such as vagina, clitoris and vulva online. These are our bodies and we shouldn’t be shamed or cast into the shadows for what we naturally have to experience Brookmorgan Henry-Rennie, She Oath Bodyform said that since launching its campaign it has been “slapped with multiple violations of Meta’s ad policy – deeming their content as too sexual and labelling it with an 18+ warning”. It says menstrual health “shouldn’t be censored” and doing so makes “important subjects, that are already taboo, almost impossible to talk about”, affecting lives and health. But Meta said some adverts had been removed by mistake and had since been reinstated, and apologised for any confusion. The company said it has no blanket ban on words like menopause or vagina, adding that adverts are governed by a stricter set of policies “because they receive paid distribution to appear in people’s feeds”. She Oath’s founder Brookmorgan Henry-Rennie said: “We use our platform to educate, entertain and inform around subject matters like authentic confidence, women’s health and well-being. “So this shadow-banning is not just depriving trauma-experienced girls and women from gaining access to our resources, it’s putting them in further danger. These are our bodies and we shouldn’t be shamed or cast into the shadows for what we naturally have to experience. “If it wasn’t for Bodyform’s ads being banned, we wouldn’t have even realised that our posts were being deprioritised. “Meta really does need to do better.” The adverts were removed by mistake by our automated review systems and have since been reinstated. We apologise for any confusion caused Meta spokesperson Ruth Gresty, spokesperson for Bodyform, said: “It’s unfortunate but not surprising that our latest campaign, which calls out the unnecessary censorship of words commonly used to talk about, describe and define women’s bodies and their experiences, has been censored by some social media companies. “In doing so, these companies have simply underlined the need for campaigns of this nature that seek to break down the barriers that prevent women from being able to speak openly and confidently about their bodies. “We at Bodyform will not be deterred from our mission to make talking about the female body normal.” A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, said: “We want Facebook to be a place where people can express themselves and we are proud of the way our community uses the platform to have important and open conversations about women’s health. “The adverts were removed by mistake by our automated review systems and have since been reinstated. We apologise for any confusion caused.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live AI developing faster than laws aiming to regulate it, academic warns Facebook Marketplace is most complained-about online retail platforms UKRI announces £50 million to develop trustworthy and secure AI

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