Science | The Guardian

To slow down a surge in Covid cases, last week Chinese authorities put Shanghai into lockdown. But with a population of 26 million there have been difficulties providing residents with basic necessities, and videos have appeared on social media showing protests and scrambles over food supplies. Now, authorities have begun easing the lockdown in some areas, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new Covid cases.Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, about what’s been happening in Shanghai, whether the Omicron variant may spell the end of China’s zero-Covid policy, and what an alternative strategy could look like

Scientists believe specimen shows life existed earlier than is widely assumed – increasing chances of life elsewhereScientists believe they have found evidence of microbes that were thriving near hydrothermal vents on Earth’s surface just 300m years after the planet formed – the strongest evidence yet that life began far earlier than is widely assumed.If confirmed, it would suggest the conditions necessary for the emergence of life are relatively basic. Continue reading...

But goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C will fail without immediate action, scientists warnFor the first time the world is in a position to limit global heating to under 2C, according to the first in-depth analysis of the net zero pledges made by nations at the UN Cop26 climate summit in December.Before these pledges it was more than likely that at the peak of the climate crisis there would be a temperature rise above 2C, bringing more severe impacts for billions of people. Now it is more likely that the peak temperature rise will be about 1.9C. Continue reading...

Schools are encouraging students to use mental health chatbots to address a surge in depression and anxiety. Critics worry they’re a Band-Aid solution unsupported by evidenceFifteen-year-old Jordyne Lewis was stressed out.The high school sophomore from Harrisburg, North Carolina, was overwhelmed with schoolwork, never mind the uncertainty of living in a pandemic that has dragged on for two long years. Despite the challenges, she never turned to her school counselor or sought out a therapist. Continue reading...

Operations stopped in Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan as global supply chains feel pinch of Beijing's zero-Covid measuresKey iPhone maker Pegatron has halted operations at two subsidiaries in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan, as global supply chains feel the pinch of Beijing’s strict zero-Covid measures.The business hub of Shanghai has become the heart of China’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus surfaced more than two years ago. Continue reading...

Scientists find that as video quality deteriorates, people speak louder and alter gestures to compensateFrom frozen screens to the oblivious person on mute, the trials and tribulations of video calls became familiar challenges as the pandemic forced workers to communicate from their kitchen tables, makeshift offices and boxroom desks.Now scientists have revealed why we often end up raising our voices at our colleagues: as video quality deteriorates, we speak louder and alter our gestures in an attempt to compensate. Continue reading...

UV filters absorbed by Posidonia oceanica may have damaging effects on ecosystems, scientists warnChemicals found in sunscreen lotions are accumulating in Mediterranean seagrass, a study has found.Scientists discovered ultraviolet filters in the stems of Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass species found on the coast of Mallorca and endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. Continue reading...

Research shows effects of compound found in magic mushrooms can be seen weeks after treatmentThe psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms helps to open up depressed people’s brains and make them less fixed in negative thinking patterns, research suggests.According to the findings, psilocybin makes the brain more flexible, working differently to regular antidepressants, even weeks after use. Researchers say the findings indicate that psilocybin could be a viable alternative to depression treatments. Continue reading...

The virus is now embedded in our world. But there are steps we can take to keep it at bay while we continue to live our livesWhat do I wish I had known in early 2020? Other than to buy shares in toilet paper, Zoom and vaccine companies, I wish I had known that a safe and effective vaccine against severe disease and death from Covid-19 would arrive within a year – and that reinfection would nevertheless become a major issue in managing the disease. These two facts would have shifted the UK government’s response, and allowed for a more unified scientific front in advising them.At the very beginning of the pandemic, several governments – including in Sweden, Netherlands and the UK – believed the best path through this crisis was to allow a controlled spread of infections through the population, especially the young and healthy, in order to reach some static state against the virus. The idea was that “the herd” who got infected would protect a more vulnerable minority.Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of EdinburghJoin Devi Sridhar for a Guardian Live online event on Monday 25 April. She will talk to Nicola Davis about Covid-19 and the lessons we can learn from our handling of the pandemic. Book here Continue reading...

Last week’s IPCC report gives the world just 30 months to get greenhouse gas emissions falling. Beyond that, we’ll have missed our chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C and protecting our planet from the most serious impacts of climate change. As the window closes, some scientists feel like writing reports and publishing papers is no longer enough, and researchers around the world are leaving their desks and labs to take action on the streets.Madeleine Finlay meets scientists protesting at Shell HQ in London and speaks to the conservationist Dr Charlie Gardner about civil disobedience – and why he thinks it’s the only option left

As a format it’s slow, encourages hype, and is difficult to correct. A radical overhaul of publishing could make science betterWhen was the last time you saw a scientific paper? A physical one, I mean. An older academic in my previous university department used to keep all his scientific journals in recycled cornflakes boxes. On entering his office, you’d be greeted by a wall of Kellogg’s roosters, occupying shelf upon shelf, on packets containing various issues of Journal of Experimental Psychology, Psychophysiology, Journal of Neuropsychology, and the like. It was an odd sight, but there was method to it: if you didn’t keep your journals organised, how could you be expected to find the particular paper you were looking for?The time for cornflakes boxes has passed: now we have the internet. Having been printed on paper since the very first scientific journal was inaugurated in 1665, the overwhelming majority of research is now submitted, reviewed and read online. During the pandemic, it was often devoured on social media, an essential part of the unfolding story of Covid-19. Hard copies of journals are increasingly viewed as curiosities – or not viewed at all. Continue reading...

RATs are not infallible, but a few tips and tricks will help you get the most out of them

Testing people in their 50s could identify individuals at risk of poor balance later in life, study findsSimple cognitive tests in midlife could predict the likelihood of falling in later life, one of the most common causes of injury and death, new research suggests.Poor levels of word memory, verbal fluency, processing speed and cognitive ability in our 50s are early indicators of worsening balance in later life, a condition that increases the risk of falls, injury and death, researchers from University College London have found. Continue reading...

After an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured, Georgina Scull spoke to people around the world facing death – and discovered the regrets they want us all to learn fromI’m not sure I ever fully appreciated my life until I nearly lost it. In fact, I’m sure I didn’t. On the surface everything was good. I was married and living overseas with our two-year-old daughter. There was food on the table and a roof over our heads, but it felt as if I was drifting – constantly waiting for my real life to start. And then, at 37, I had an ectopic pregnancy, which ruptured and I nearly died.That was 10 years ago. It should have been the start of my second chance. The jolt to get me going. But, I’m afraid it wasn’t. I was alive, but I still wasn’t really living. I still seemed to be stuck in all the things I hadn’t done over the years, rather than enjoying all the things that I did. As the days and weeks passed, my regrets just grew. Continue reading...

Substance marketed online to ease range of joint and liver conditions, and to promote wellbeing, should not be usedA dietary supplement sold in the UK could be toxic and should not be used until it has been shown to be safe, an international group of biologists has warned.The team, from Manchester and Kyoto universities, reported last week that the supplement – known as SAMe – can break down inside the body into substances that cause a wide range of medical problems, including kidney and liver damage Continue reading...

A tiny smudge on the space telescope turned out to be starlight from Earendel, almost 13 billion years old – revealing evidence of the universe in its infancyEarendel – “morning star” in Old English – is among the first stars to exist in our universe, born less than one billion years after the Big Bang. And the Hubble space telescope has just performed the remarkable feat of detecting light from it.Mostly, the telescope gives us images of nearby galaxies in intricate detail, but those of distant galaxies are very murky indeed. Astronomer Brian Welch and his team, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, discovered the star while hunting for hints of the earliest galaxies. These galaxies are very hard to see, and the team chose to examine a selection of images from the Hubble looking for clues. Continue reading...

Bid to fill underground visitor centre in complex with artefacts not even dug up yet shocks archaeologistsNo one in the column of tourists making their way to York Minster along the city wall even glances at Northern House. The slab of beige 1960s architecture is not a building that provokes much passion.But the layers of mud beneath it are a different matter. A plan to demolish Northern House to unearth the centuries of history below and create a new Roman-themed visitor centre, hotel and apartments has caused a row among archaeologists. Continue reading...

Electrical problem triggers global safety alert on 2,000 Philips machinesTwo thousand ventilators being used in UK hospitals are at risk of suddenly shutting down due to electrical faults that have led to a global safety alert.Hospitals have been ordered to source replacement ventilators after Philips Respironics said its breathing support devices could suddenly stop working, in some cases without activating a warning alarm. Continue reading...

Team rides SpaceX-launched Falcon 9 rocket on flight hailed as commercial milestoneThe first all-private team of astronauts sent to the International Space Station arrived safely on Saturday to begin a week-long mission hailed as a milestone in commercial spaceflight.The rendezvous came about 21 hours after the four-man team representing Houston-based startup company Axiom Space lifted off on Friday from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, riding a SpaceX-launched Falcon 9 rocket. Continue reading...

The mathematician and author talks about the exploitation of our feelings, cancel culture, and why she believes JK Rowling is an example of ‘punching-down shame’Cathy O’Neil is a writer, a mathematician and author of the bestselling Weapons of Math Destruction, which won the Euler book prize. Her latest book is The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation, which looks at the ways shame is manufactured and exploited in a range of industries, including prisons, welfare systems and social media, for coercive and commercial purposes. She argues that a common intention is to shift responsibility for social problems from institutions to individuals.This is a very different book to your previous one. What made you decide to write about the subject of shame?

Group received lottery funds while promoting unproven treatmentsA British autism charity that received hundreds of thousands of pounds in national lottery funding has links to the anti-vaccine movement and is being jointly run by a campaigner who likened the Covid-19 jab rollout to a Nazi war crime.Thinking Autism also promoted unproven autism treatments in testimonials on its website and directed families to clinicians linked to the disgraced former doctor Andrew Wakefield, an investigation has found. Continue reading...

Most of rare isotope of helium found on mid-ocean ridges dates to big bang, providing clue to planet’s formationA rare isotope of helium, bubbling up along mid-ocean ridges, is proving to be a vital clue to our planet’s origins.Just 2kg of helium-3 – enough to fill a balloon the size of your desk – leaks out of the Earth each year. Very little of this rare isotope is produced on the Earth’s surface today, and most of it dates to the big bang, where it would have been incorporated into planets as they grew out of the dust and debris spinning around the early sun. Continue reading...

Crew of four on way to space station in mission hailed by Nasa as putting ‘commercial business up in space’A SpaceX rocket ship has blasted off carrying the first all-private astronaut team ever launched to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight hailed by industry executives and Nasa as a milestone in the commercialisation of spaceflight.The team of four selected by Houston-based startup Axiom Space Inc for its debut spaceflight and orbital science mission lifted off on Friday morning from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Continue reading...

Supporters of climbing therapy say it can help people focus on the here and now and provide relief from the whirlwind of modern lifeWhenever he’s stressed out, physicist Forrest Sheldon likes to defy the laws of gravity. He ditches his equations and enters a vertical world. A junior fellow at the London Institute for Mathematical Sciences, he credits climbing with getting him out of his head. “I go to the climbing gym,” he says with a smile, “and everything melts away.”Sheldon climbs three times a week, each session clocking in at a strenuous three hours. The practice has become essential to his well-being. As he puts it: “No matter what happened today, I’ll go climbing and I’ll have fun. And I’ll feel better after.” Continue reading...

With each new find, such as the dinosaur leg recently unearthed in North Dakota, scientists build a more colourful picture of the ancient reptilesAlthough they became extinct 66m years ago, dinosaurs are always news. The latest manifestation of that is the media shower generated by the discovery of the perfectly preserved leg, including remnants of skin, of a dinosaur in North Dakota.It is suggested that this dinosaur, discovered at the Tanis fossil site, died on the very day the asteroid that caused the mass extinction of all the dinosaurs struck the Earth. It sounds almost too good to be true, but should make for a fascinating TV documentary next week, Dinosaurs: The Final Days, presented by Sir David Attenborough, naturally.Dr Dave Hone is a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, specialising in dinosaurs and pterosaurs. He blogs at Archosaur Musings, and presents the Terrible Lizards podcast. His latest book is The Future of Dinosaurs Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pathologists find what is believed to be the first evidence of the infection in the planet’s longest-lived vertebrate speciesA stranded Greenland shark found off the coast of Cornwall died from meningitis, according to a postmortem, providing what is believed to be the first evidence of the disease in the species.The 4-metre long shark, thought to be about 100 years old, was first discovered by a dog walker on 13 March on a beach near Penzance but was washed back into the sea before it could be properly examined. After a two-day search it was discovered floating in the water off Newlyn harbour beach by a tourist boat and a postmortem was carried out. Continue reading...

Gama aims to show that solar sails can revolutionise access to deep spaceThe French aerospace company Gama has raised €2m to deploy a solar sail in space.Solar sails require no engines to move. Instead, they are pushed around by the pressure of sunlight. The angle of the sail determines the direction of motion. Continue reading...

New measurement of fundamental particle of physics after decade-long study challenges theoretical rulebook in scientific ‘mystery’After a decade of meticulous measurements, scientists have announced that a fundamental particle – the W boson – has a significantly greater mass than theorised, shaking the foundations of our understanding of how the universe works.Those foundations are grounded by the standard model of particle physics, which is the best theory scientists have to describe the most basic building blocks of the universe, and what forces govern them. Continue reading...

UK research could lead to development of techniques that will stave off diseases of old agePeople could eventually be able to turn the clock back on the cell-ageing process by 30 years, according to researchers who have developed a technique for reprogramming skin cells to behave as if they are much younger.Research from the Babraham Institute, a life sciences research organisation in Cambridge, could lead to the development of techniques that will stave off the diseases of old age by restoring the function of older cells and reducing their biological age. Continue reading...

Data from UK’s Zoe Covid study confirms reports Omicron patients recover more quickly and are less likely to lose sense of smell or tastePeople who have the Omicron Covid variant tend to have symptoms for a shorter period, a lower risk of being admitted to hospital and a different set of symptoms from those who have Delta, research has suggested.As the highly transmissible Omicron variant shot to dominance towards the end of last year, it emerged that, while it is better at dodging the body’s immune responses than Delta, it also produces less severe disease. Continue reading...

Research shows people believe they are less likely to catch virus from friends and family than strangersThe presence, or even the thought, of friends and family can lull people into a false sense of security when it comes to Covid, researchers have found.Marketing experts have revealed that those who believe they previously caught Covid from a friend or family member are less likely to think they would catch it again than those who were infected by an acquaintance or stranger. Continue reading...

Remains of thescelosaurus in North Dakota believed to date back to extinction of species 66m years agoScientists believe they have been given an extraordinary view of the last day of the dinosaurs after they discovered the fossil of an animal they believe died that day.The perfectly preserved leg, which even includes remnants of the animal’s skin, can be accurately dated to the time the asteroid that brought about the dinosaurs’ extinction struck Earth 66m years ago, experts say, because of the presence of debris from the impact, which rained down only in its immediate aftermath. Continue reading...

This week, the UK expanded its official Covid symptom list to 12 symptoms including sore throat, loss of appetite, and a blocked or runny nose. British scientists have long called for a broadening of the list, but the change comes at a time when free rapid tests have been scrapped, and the UK is seeing its highest ever levels of infection, according the the Office for National Statistics.Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Linda Geddes about why this has happened now, what symptoms still haven’t made the list, and what it could all mean going forwardArchive: Sky News, Sky News Australia Continue reading...

Infection with virus also associated with fivefold increase in risk of deep vein thrombosis, data suggestsCatching Covid is associated with a fivefold increase in the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and a 33-fold increase in risk of a potentially fatal blood clot on the lung in the 30 days after becoming infected, data suggests.The findings, published in the British Medical Journal on Thursday, could help explain a doubling in the incidence of, and deaths from, blood clots in England since the start of the pandemic compared with the same periods in 2018 and 2019. Continue reading...

New technique, already available in US, could aid in development of cardiovascular drugsScientists have developed a blood test that can predict whether someone is at high risk of a heart attack, stroke, heart failure or dying from one of these conditions within the next four years.The test, which relies of measurements of proteins in the blood, has roughly twice the accuracy of existing risk scores. It could enable doctors to determine whether patients’ existing medications are working or whether they need additional drugs to reduce their risk. Continue reading...

Scientists say remains belong to pterosaurs, who lived alongside dinosaurs more than 100m years agoScientists in Chile have unearthed a rare cemetery with well-preserved bones of ancient flying reptiles that roamed the Atacama desert more than 100m years ago.The remains belong to pterosaurs, scientists determined, flying creatures that lived alongside dinosaurs and had a long wingspan and fed by filtering water through long, thin teeth, similar to flamingos. Continue reading...

The new IPCC report offers not only hope, but practical solutions. Governments that have signed off on it must now actAmid the triple crisis of the war in Ukraine, the still-raging pandemic and escalating inflation, climate scientists have just pulled off a truly impressive achievement. They have stood firm and persuaded the world’s governments to agree to a common guide to solving the climate emergency. Despite the despair of mounting global problems, the release of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows some grounds for hope.After the recent reports on the causes and effects of climate change, this one covers solutions – with a summary signed off by the world’s governments. The summary is blunt and clear, and in many places acknowledges realities that scientists and campaigners have known for years but governments often avoided directly admitting.Simon Lewis is professor of global change science at University College London and University of Leeds Continue reading...

Particles discovered in tissue of 11 out of 13 patients undergoing surgery, with polypropylene and PET most commonMicroplastic pollution has been discovered lodged deep in the lungs of living people for the first time. The particles were found in almost all the samples analysed.The scientists said microplastic pollution was now ubiquitous across the planet, making human exposure unavoidable and meaning “there is an increasing concern regarding the hazards” to health. Continue reading...

Softly-spoken public servant who became a household name says the role had been challenging and complex

Professor theorises electrical impulses sent by mycological organisms could be similar to human languageBuried in forest litter or sprouting from trees, fungi might give the impression of being silent and relatively self-contained organisms, but a new study suggests they may be champignon communicators.Mathematical analysis of the electrical signals fungi seemingly send to one another has identified patterns that bear a striking structural similarity to human speech. Continue reading...

Infections have been rising in England since early March, driven by the Omicron BA.2 variant

Sessions with virtual-reality headset helped people overcome anxiety and complete everyday tasksIt’s a sunny day on a city street as a green bus pulls up by the kerb. Onboard, a handful of passengers sit stony-faced as you step up to present your pass. But you cannot see your body – only a floating pair of blue hands.It might sound like a bizarre dream, but the scenario is part of a virtual reality (VR) system designed to help people with agoraphobia – those for whom certain environments, situations and interactions can cause intense fear and distress. Continue reading...

Alan Walker calls on the media to keep the death toll in the public eye as the pandemic is not over, Marcia Heinemann is relieved that the official symptom list has been expanded and Jonathan Hauxwell is concerned about the lack of free testsAdrian Chiles invites us to “pick your personal gripe about the state of the world” (When the same awful thing happens often enough, it ceases to be newsworthy – and that is a big problem, 30 March). Mine is the failure of most of broadcast and print media to report the continuing death toll from Covid. This plays into the hands of libertarians who care little about public health, still less about the hugely unequal distribution of those deaths, and fuels the myth that Covid is just another virus that we have to live with.Chiles’s distinction between “interesting” as the basis for what is newsworthy rather than “important” is spot-on. But he omits examples of dogged journalism that do keep a story alive precisely because it is important, such as Amelia Gentleman’s outstanding work on the Windrush scandal. I hope that someone of her calibre takes up the Covid death toll and keeps it in the public eye. Last week it was over 1,000. Covid has definitely not gone away.

Seminal works left in pink gift bag with ‘happy Easter’ note for librarian after going missing in 2001The plot was worthy of a Dan Brown thriller – two Charles Darwin manuscripts worth millions of pounds reported as stolen from Cambridge University library after being missing for two decades.The disappearance prompted a worldwide appeal with the help of the local police force and Interpol. Now, in a peculiar twist, the notebooks – one of which contains Darwin’s seminal 1837 Tree of Life Sketch – have been anonymously returned in a pink gift bag, with a typed note on an envelope wishing a happy Easter to the librarian. Continue reading...

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Great Britain brought in emergency legal orders to allow a ‘pills by post’ abortion service. For abortions within the first 10 weeks, women were able to take the two tablets needed to end a pregnancy in the privacy of their own home rather than having to take the first at a clinic or hospital. The scheme was due to be scrapped in September 2022, but last week MPs voted to keep it in England. Wales will also be making it permanent.Madeleine Finlay spoke to Dr Abigail Aiken about her study looking at the outcomes of self-managed medical abortions during the pandemic, the benefits of taking abortion pills at home, and whether ‘Plan C’ could ever become available in shops and pharmaciesArchive: BBC Parliament, CBS 8 San Diego Continue reading...

Associate Prof Alan Pearce says he signed a $60,000 contract with league for tests on retired players but believes the AFL hindered his research’s progress for nearly 18 months

Observers believe AB Aurigae b is at the earliest stage of formation ever observed for a gas giant, and isn’t forming the way planets usually doScientists have observed an enormous planet about nine times the mass of Jupiter at a remarkably early stage of formation – describing it as still in the womb – in a discovery that challenges the current understanding of planetary formation.The researchers used the Subaru telescope, near the summit of an inactive Hawaiian volcano, and the orbiting Hubble space telescope to detect and study the planet called AB Aurigae b, a gas giant orbiting unusually far from its young host star. Gas giants are planets, like our solar system’s largest ones Jupiter and Saturn, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with swirling gases surrounding a smaller solid core. Continue reading...

This pandemic and future pandemic threats will remain challenging – New Zealand needs to build on its achievementsTwo weeks ago marked the two-year anniversary of New Zealand’s adoption of the elimination strategy and a lockdown that successfully stamped out the first wave of Covid-19. By chance, it was also the week that the government announced a major relaxation of Covid-19 control measures in response to the Omicron variant wave sweeping the country.By most metrics, the New Zealand Covid-19 response – the initial elimination strategy which has now transitioned to a mitigation strategy – has been one of the most successful in the world. It got the country through the first 18 months of the pandemic until vaccines became widely available, giving it very low Covid-19 mortality rates. Life expectancy actually increased during this period. Protecting public health has also been good for protecting the economy, resulting in relatively good economic growth and low unemployment.Prof Michael Baker and Prof Nick Wilson are epidemiologists at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health in Wellington Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following six problems, created by The Grabarchuk family, who are from Ukraine, and who are well-known international creators of puzzles. For more about them see the previous post.I’ve presented the problems together, with the solutions together at the end. Continue reading...

Evidence linking Alzheimer’s to disruption in the brain’s immune system is hailed as ‘enormous clue’The largest genetic study of Alzheimer’s to date has provided compelling evidence linking the disease to disruption in the brain’s immune system.The study, using the genomes of 100,000 people with Alzheimer’s and 600,000 healthy people, identified 75 genes linked to an increased risk of the disease, including 42 that had not previously been implicated. Continue reading...