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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Mark Blunden and Rachelle Abbott

How DNA analysis has rewritten history of Pompeii victims ...Tech & Science Daily podcast

Catastrophe: More than 16,000 people are thought to have died in the eruption in 79 AD - (AFP/Getty Images)

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New DNA analysis of the charred victims of the Pompeii disaster in 79AD has rewritten history about some of the doomed town’s residents.

The giant Mount Vesuvius eruption released a 20ft layer of ash and sediment that entombed Pompeians, with plaster of paris later injected into these grim moulds used to create casts of the bodies.

Now, DNA testing of bone fragments by researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute and Italy’s Universita di Firenze of 14 casts under restoration has revealed new details about sex, age and ancestry.

On Thursday we reported how Australia’s government is set to introduce “world-leading” legislation to protect children by banning under-16s from social media.

We asked Clare Fernyhough, co-founder of Smartphonefree Childhood for the UK campaign group’s reaction to Australia’s plan, and her view on whether such new regulation could work here.

The first women’s Formula E test event, where speeds reach 200mph, took place at Madrid’s Circuito del Jarama after devastating floods in Valencia caused the race to be relocated.

Eighteen of the top established and emerging female drivers from the world of motorsport competed, including Indycar, Formula 2, GP3, and the F1 Academy - Tech & Science Daily speaks with Tech & Science Daily spoke with Beth Paretta, Formula E’s VP of Sporting.

Plus, plans for sewers to heat London buildings, UK could issue NHS-branded baby formula to stop people paying ‘over the odds’, and humanoid robot Ai-Da makes history as art sells for over $1 million.

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