Other items attracting large bids include 15g fragment of Winchcombe meteoriteWhile billionaires are battling it out in a race to colonise the moon, mere stratospherically rich mortals on Earth were able to grab a small slice of space rock for themselves on Wednesday at Christie’s annual sale of rare and unusual meteorites.Star-gazers and meteorite enthusiasts bid frantically for fragments of the “oldest matter humankind can touch” – as the auction house put it – while other objects such as a comet-cracked kennel from Costa Rica sold for tens of thousands of dollars. Continue reading...

Strategic and scientific motivations are not always neatly separable, but it’s clear Australia’s renewed interest in Antarctica is spurred in part by ChinaIn the 1950s, the Soviets came to Antarctica. As part of its contribution to the International Geophysical Year of 1957-8, a global scientific jamboree, the Soviet Union began building research stations across the great southern land – largely in areas claimed by Australia.Amid heightened cold war tensions, Australian officials were not pleased. Government records from the time reveal fears the Soviets might install defence infrastructure in Antarctica; the then foreign minister, Richard Casey, warned of missiles being launched on Sydney or Melbourne. The Australian Antarctic Territory is vast: at approximately 6m square kilometres (just shy of half of the landmass), the territory is almost the size of continental Australia itself. Plenty of room for Soviet missiles. Continue reading...

Low-income countries need access to technology and knowledge to produce their own vaccines, treatments and testsAs Australians struggle for access to rapid antigen tests (RATs) and third booster shots for the Omicron strain, spare a thought for millions in low-income countries where only 10% have had one vaccine dose, with even less access to tests or treatments.World Trade Organization (WTO) member states will meet virtually this week to decide on a proposal from India and South Africa, supported by over 100 countries, including the US and Australia, for a temporary waiver on WTO rules for intellectual property monopolies on Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments. Continue reading...

It’s not simply a staff shortage or training delays, but a lack of political will and funds, says Dr Hadyn Williams, chief executive of the BACPThere was excess demand for psychological support before Covid hit, and your article (Millions in England face ‘second pandemic’ of mental health issues, 21 February) highlights the impact the pandemic is having on the nation’s mental health. We need investment now to expand the mental health workforce in the NHS, schools, charities and voluntary services to support the millions who are experiencing mental health problems.It’s not simply a shortage of workers or delays in training them that’s preventing people accessing services, but a lack of political will and funds to bring existing skilled and experienced professionals into the workforce in greater numbers. Continue reading...

Pollution generated by burning fossil fuels causes snow to darken, absorb more solar energy and melt faster

US results also confirm previous findings that some neurons respond to speech or musicIt may not yet feature in a West End musical but scientists say they have found an unexpected response to singin’ in the brain.Researchers say they have found particular groups of neurons that appear to respond selectively to the sound of singing. Continue reading...

The ‘living with Covid’ strategy fails to provide testing, or address the impact of future variants, long Covid and inequalityOn Monday the government announced its “living with Covid” strategy, including a phasing-out of free access to rapid lateral flow tests, reduced access to the more accurate PCR tests for most of those with symptoms, an end to legal requirements to self-isolate and an end to financial support for those on low incomes needing to self-isolate.Announcing the changes, which will come into force on Thursday, Boris Johnson said the time to “compel” people was over. Now “people will be asked to exercise personal responsibility” to look after each other, he said.Christina Pagel is director of UCL’s Clinical Operational Research Unit, which applies advanced analytical methods to problems in healthcare Continue reading...

Discovery shows pterosaurs with a 2.5-metre wingspan existed about 25m years earlier than previously thoughtIt might be best known today for its otters and puffins but 170m years ago the Isle of Skye was home to an enormous flying reptile with a wingspan bigger than a kingsize bed, researchers have revealed.Fossil hunters in Scotland say they have recovered the remains of the world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur, adding the creature – known informally as a pterodactyl – also boasted a mouthful of sharp teeth for spearing and trapping fish. Continue reading...

Over the past week, the UK has been hit with three storms: Dudley, Eunice and Franklin. With high winds and heavy rain, they have brought death and injury, caused extensive damage to trees and infrastructure and stopped transport across the country.Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Fredi Otto about how rare these weather events are, and whether the climate crisis could bring us more frequent and intense storms in the futureArchive: Met Office, STV News, ITV News, Sky News, BIG JET TV Continue reading...

Analysis: several world-leading studies to guide future Covid care depend on widespread testing now threatened by government cutsAfter a bruising two years in which the UK failed to prove its resilience to a pandemic, the government hopes to re-cast the nation as a scientific superpower: a country that has built on the lessons of the crisis to deliver better research, more precision healthcare, and a more streamlined pathway to new drugs and vaccines.But the government’s decision to substantially cut back on free Covid testing, as part of Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” strategy, already threatens to undermine pioneering trials and coronavirus surveillance that are the envy of other nations. Together, they are crucial for understanding how drugs keep patients out of hospital, how immunity is holding up in vulnerable care homes and hospitals and how the epidemic is unfolding around us. Continue reading...

Prime minister says all legal restrictions can be lifted now vaccination levels are high and deaths are low

The Pacific country was coronavirus-free until last month but an outbreak of thousands of cases is overwhelming the health systemFrontline health workers in Solomon Islands have warned that its health system is on the brink of collapse as the country struggles to deal with a devastating outbreak of Covid-19.A senior doctor and two nurses at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in the capital of Honiara have told of how there are no beds for Covid patients – leading to people dying on the floor of the wards – as well as a lack of facilities and staff shortages that have led to Covid-positive nurses being recalled to work and probationary nurses tending to critically ill patients solo, when they should be supervised by a more senior nurse. Continue reading...

The cost of lockdown has been appalling, but the crisis is over. Now the prime minister can get back to his other demons

The answer to today’s logical teaserEarlier today I set you the following puzzle about a game show, which has been used during Oxford university admissions interviews for joint philosophy courses. The puzzle has three versions and I will discuss the solutions to all of them below, as well as how they relate to basic issues in computer science.1. The standard version Continue reading...

Hands on buzzersUPDATE: To read the answers click here.Today’s puzzle concerns contestants in a fictitious game show trying to win £1m. It was also once given to a different sort of contestant competing for a different sort of prize: candidates applying to study joint philosophy degrees at Oxford university.The teenagers were hoping to study PPE (politics, philosophy and economics), Maths and Philosophy, and Computer Science and Philosophy. They were set the puzzle in their admissions interviews, as part of a back-and-forth discussion in which the interviewer may have given hints and asked probing questions. The interviewer was focussed on how the candidates went about solving the puzzle as much as the solutions they gave. Continue reading...

Exclusive: NHS leaders urge ministers to tackle huge rise in depression, anxiety, psychosis and eating disorders since Covid hit

Usually twinkling in summer months, the ‘rival of Mars’ will appear clearer in still winter airThis week offers early risers a chance to see the silver moon next to the deep-red star Antares. The chart shows the view looking south from London at 0500 GMT on the morning of 24 February.The moon will be low in the sky with an altitude of just 12 degrees; Antares will be even lower, so find the clearest southern horizon that you can. With 46.8% of its visible surface illuminated, the moon will be more or less at its last quarter phase, about to become a waning crescent. Continue reading...

Monarch said to have mild symptoms, but staff may look to drugs recently approved in UK

As restrictions end in England, the Tories’ promise to ‘build back better’ is nowhere to be seenThis week, England arrives at a moment that will fit the Boris Johnson era to perfection. Even if the pandemic is not quite over – something symbolised by news of the Queen testing positive – everything is being arranged to convince us that it is. On Monday, the prime minister is expected to explain his government’s “living with Covid” strategy, and on Thursday, most remaining Covid rules and restrictions will be lifted.Although Northern Ireland seems to be taking a similar route, Scotland and Wales are once again sticking to more cautious policies, but that is presumably the way Johnson likes it. Here is an opportunity for him to show the libertarian, Brexity backbench hardcore which seems to now run the Conservative party that their home country is blazing a trail towards the dazzling uplands of freedom and easy living, and all is once again well.John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Experts are predicting demand for life-saving antiviral drugs will rapidly outpace supply. Like the vaccine, the poorest countries will be left until lastCovid-19 has quietly become the gift that keeps on giving for big pharma. The past two years has seen it reap huge profits from Covid vaccines, while simultaneously opposing wider sharing of the technology required to make them. And now there’s a new money-spinner on the rise: Covid antiviral treatment pills. Once again, we’re poised to fall into the same inequality traps we’re caught in with the global vaccine rollout.Both Pfizer and Merck have new antiviral pills rapidly arriving on the market – Paxlovid and molnupiravir respectively. As with the vaccines that came before them, both corporations have made it their business to ultimately decide who gets to make generic versions through the medical patent system – a crucial, life-saving question for millions around the world.Othoman Mellouk is a medicine access advocate with the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition Continue reading...

The global pandemic sparked a huge superhuman effort to control coronavirus. But the billions spent have also had an unexpected impact on medicine and scienceWhen Tom Pooley, 21, became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against plague as part of a medical trial last summer after tests on mice, he was inspired by the thought that his involvement could help to rid the world of one of the most brutal killers in human history.“They made it quite clear I was the first human to receive it,” says Pooley, a radiotherapy engineering student. “They didn’t dress it up, but they made it clear it was as safe as possible. There are risks, but they are talented people: it’s a big honour to be the first.” The single-shot, based on the Chadox technology developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group and AstraZeneca, took less than five seconds to painlessly administer, he says. That night, he felt a little unwell, but he was fine within three hours; and the small trial continued apace to combat the centuries-old bacteria threat, which killed 171 in Madagascar as recently as 2017. It uses a weakened, genetically altered version of a common-cold virus from chimpanzees. Continue reading...

Sydney Halpern’s account of postwar US research that deliberately infected hundreds with the disease is shocking – and important for the Covid eraFor three decades after the second world war, US scientists and doctors carried out a research programme of striking ambition – and breathtaking moral negligence. They deliberately infected more than 1,000 people, including at least 100 children, with hepatitis, an illness that can trigger chronic liver disease and cancer.Very few of those subjected to this experimentation had much idea of what was being inflicted upon them. Many were poor and uneducated and came from prisons, asylums and orphanages. A disproportionate number were black. Continue reading...

Free home testing and self-isolation likely to end, but ONS infection survey remains

Experts have serious ethical concerns over Shout, a service backed by the Duke and Duchess of CambridgeThe UK’s biggest crisis text line for people needing urgent mental health support gave third-party researchers access to millions of messages from children and other vulnerable users despite a promise never to do so.Shout, a helpline launched with a £3m investment from the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, says it offers a confidential service for people struggling to cope with issues such as suicidal thoughts, self-harm, abuse and bullying. Continue reading...

Psychiatrist Holan Liang, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, discovered for herself how important a sense of belonging is“Oh, don’t put me through to the manager, I’ve spoken to him before. He’s a useless Chinaman and can’t speak a bloody word of English!”It’s the early 90s and I’m 17, working during the holidays as a receptionist at a small computer parts company in Watford. Knowing nothing then (and even now) about RAM, DRAM and VGA graphic cards, I had a low threshold for putting things through to the manager if sales staff weren’t around. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Human breast milk can contain harmful bacteria, drugs and viruses, say health expertsExperts have sounded the alarm over a growing trend for selling human breast milk online, warning that it can contain harmful bacteria, drugs and viruses including HIV.The concerns prompted eBay to remove listings from its platform, saying it had updated its automatic filters to stop breast milk being sold on the site in future. Continue reading...

New research reveals the staggering scale of underwater sound communication, starting with sturgeon 155m years agoThe primordial deep, it turns out, is a very chatty place.In a new study published in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology, Cornell University researchers reveal that fish rely on acoustic communication far more than previously thought. Continue reading...

As the new plan is set to be announced, here’s what might change, from testing to shielding

Experts have been calling for an Australian centre for disease control for decades and now that campaign is ratcheting up. But what should an Australian CDC look like?

Council chair says decision not guided by data or made in consultation with health profession

For any monitoring system to be reliable and cost-effective, it cannot rely solely on self-reported tests, writes Prof Sylvia Richardson of the Royal Statistical SocietySajid Javid is right to argue against scrapping the Office for National Statistics’ Covid surveillance study (Cabinet splits emerge over ‘living with Covid’ strategy and free testing, 17 February). Throughout the pandemic, national surveillance studies have provided invaluable information to support decision-making.For any real-time health surveillance system to be reliable and cost-effective, it cannot rely solely on self-reported tests. These data sets are likely to be biased, as it is impossible to know how many people are also reporting their negative results and, if tests start to come with a cost, how many people simply aren’t testing. If we are to get reliable information about the prevalence of Covid, it is essential to maintain studies such as the ONS’s and React to allow statisticians to estimate infectiousness and the proportion of the population who are infected (including those without symptoms), as well as to identify new variants. Continue reading...

French virologist who shared the Nobel prize as co-discoverer of HIV but championed the anti-vax movement in later lifeThe French virologist Luc Montagnier was a protagonist in one of the most acrimonious scientific disputes of the late 20th century. The disagreement, with the American scientist Robert Gallo, over who had discovered HIV and its role in causing Aids, was resolved only after the intervention of the US and French presidents, Ronald Reagan and Jacques Chirac. In 2008 Montagnier and his colleague Françoise Barré-Sinoussi were jointly awarded half of the Nobel prize for medicine. The rest of the prize went to Harald zur Hausen, for his unrelated discovery that human papillomaviruses cause cervical and other cancers.In later life Montagnier, who has died aged 89, alienated his own supporters after he promoted a range of fringe theories. He was a champion of the anti-vax movement, arguing that diseases including HIV could be cured by diet. When the Covid pandemic began, he claimed that Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, had originated in a lab experiment to combine coronavirus and HIV. He told viewers on French TV that vaccination was an “enormous mistake” that would promote the spread of new variants. Continue reading...

Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia first countries to be assisted by global mRNA hub

Cases of illness normally seen in west Africa are ‘stark reminder’ of need to invest in outbreak preparednessThe death of a newborn baby with Lassa fever in Luton is a grim reminder of the global threat posed by deadly infectious diseases. Three cases have been confirmed in England – the first time the acute viral illness normally only seen in west Africa has emerged in the UK for 13 years.This weekend, officials from the UK Health Security Agency are closely monitoring hundreds of people identified as potential contacts of the three cases. The Guardian has learned many of these individuals will continue to be monitored for the rest of the month and into March. Continue reading...

A black rock, the size of a fist, was lying right where my head had beenI live in a small town called Golden, in a valley bottom between two mountain ranges in Canada. I’m retired, and apart from my dog, Toby, I live alone. I lead a pretty quiet life, especially since the pandemic.On Sunday 3 October last year, I went to bed as usual at about 9.30pm. The next thing I remember is waking up at 11.30 to the sound of Toby barking like mad. It was his protective bark: “Something’s out there!” So I quickly got up. Almost immediately there was an explosion, and everything was covered in plasterboard and debris. Continue reading...

Both will focus on origin of ‘solar wind’ and turbulence within itNasa is setting up two space missions that will help us understand space weather and the constantly changing space environment.Space is filled with charged particles and magnetic fields that originate on the Sun. This “solar wind” is turbulent and can damage technology on Earth and in space. Because it is a form of radiation, it can also be harmful to astronauts. Nasa’s two new missions will study the origin of the solar wind and the turbulence within it. Continue reading...

More than 300 senior staff in England polled as Boris Johnson expected to unveil living with coronavirus plan

The latest statistic hints at the breadth of Covid-19’s impact on health in the United StatesThere have been more than 1m excess deaths in the US during the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).The deaths are mainly attributable to Covid-19, as well as conditions that may have resulted from delayed medical care and overwhelmed health systems. Continue reading...

After-work drinks on Zoom are not the same as in the office or the pub. I can’t wait to reconnect

Research into samples of 30,000 men in China suggests ability of sperm to swim in right direction could be affectedAir pollution may affect semen quality, specifically sperm motility — the ability of sperm to swim in the right direction — according to a new study analysing the sperm of over 30,000 men in China.The research, published today in the journal JAMA Networks, also suggests that the smaller the size of the polluting particles in the air, the greater the link with poor semen quality. Continue reading...

Findings go against the assumption that mental processing speed declines from a peak at age 20It is widely accepted as one of life’s bleak but unavoidable facts: as we get older, our brains get slower. But now a study, based on data from more than 1 million people, suggests that mental processing speed remains almost constant until the age of 60.The analysis puts perceived reductions in speed down to people becoming more cautious as they get older. This could account for the large body of research that has concluded that mental processing speed peaks at about the age of 20 and undergoes a steady decline from that point onwards. Continue reading...

Authorities warn against practice for younger children due to lack of safety and efficacy dataAs news broke recently that the Covid vaccine for children under five would be delayed in the US amid ongoing clinical trials, a call to make the vaccines off-label for use among those children gained force – but officials caution against vaccinating young children without any safety or efficacy data for this age group.When providers sign an agreement to provide Covid-19 vaccine shots, they also agree not to give the vaccine off-label, or use it for purposes other than what it was approved to do. Continue reading...

To study life on the red planet, people from around the world volunteer to live with strangers in the middle of nowhereThe Mars weather is beautiful today, and an astronaut is about to suffocate to death under the cloudless blue sky.The trouble starts after three crew members leave the safety of the Hab, their pressurized six-person living station, and venture outside to do some routine work. They trudge along in 35lb spacesuits, breathing air pumped by fan and watching the jagged red landscape through their fishbowl-like glass helmets. Continue reading...

While Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote about death and taxes remains true for most, the same might not be said for some of the world’s billionaires. And their efforts to extend life are under way. Most recently, a Silicon Valley start-up called Altos Labs signed up a dream team of scientists, including numerous Nobel laureates, with an aim to rejuvenate human cells.Ian Sample speaks to Prof Janet Lord about the science of ageing, extending our health as well as our lifespans, and how old we could actually goArchive: TEDx Talks, Bloomberg Studio 1.0, Lifespan News, Lance Hitchings Continue reading...

Exclusive: whole genome sequencing could end ‘diagnostic odyssey’ of multiple tests that still do not give precise diagnosisA simple test could end years of uncertainty for people with relatively common neurological conditions, new research has found.Historically, obtaining a definitive diagnosis for conditions including Huntingdon’s disease and some forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been difficult, because, although the cause of the symptoms is genetic, knowing which test to carry out has resulted in delays of many years. Continue reading...

Research finds much lower risk of infant hospitalisation when mother had mRNA vaccine during pregnancy

Researchers say taking social attitudes into account sees 2100 climate projections varying by 1.8CScientists have modelled thousands of possible futures, and found that different social attitudes could make the difference between a temperature increase of just 1.8C or 3.6C by the end of the 21st century.Researchers dived into how the complex interactions between social factors, such as public opinion or adherence to the status quo, will affect the global heating trajectory by 2100 and found that there were five main possible outcomes. None of them meet the 1.5C Paris agreement target, but almost all achieve 0.5C less heating than the standard models, which don’t account for changes in social factors. Continue reading...

Good-looking people may be better at fighting infections, a study finds, so don’t feel shallow when you swipe rightName: Gorgeous people.Age: Considerable. Certainly of greater longevity than poor saps like you who’ve been battered by the ugly stick and, let’s face it, will probably die sooner than hotties like me. Continue reading...

As a person dies in the UK from a case of Lassa fever, what do we know about this potential deadly disease?A patient in the UK who has died from Lassa fever, an acute viral infection endemic in parts of Africa, was a newborn baby, according to reports.The Guardian reported last week that a patient had died in Bedfordshire after being found to have Lassa fever. The confirmed case brought the total number of people diagnosed with the disease in England to three. Continue reading...