An early example of fake news has been found in the 3000-year-old Babylonian story of Noah and the Ark, which is widely believed to have inspired the Biblical tale. Nine lines etched on ancient clay tablets that tell the Gilgamesh Flood story can now be understood in very different ways – according to a Cambridge academic.

Study of thousands of players shows a simple online game works like a “vaccine”, increasing skepticism of fake news by giving people a “weak dose” of the methods behind disinformation.