Science | The Guardian

The source, the number, and the claim need to be trustworthyWith cases, deaths, reproduction numbers, opinion polls and more, we get bombarded with statistics every day. But how can you spot a naughty number, a shabby statistic or dubious data? Lists of questions have been given by Tim Harford, Dave and Tom Chivers, and in The Art of Statistics (which David wrote), with considerable overlap as they grapple with the same essentials. Here is the short list that we use ourselves.The first question: how trustworthy is the source of the story? Are they honest, competent and reliable or are they trying to manipulate my emotions, say by provoking anxiety or reassurance? Are they giving the whole picture or selecting bits to suit themselves? Like the review that found insects had declined, but it turned out had only searched for studies that showed a decline. Continue reading...

In the outermost parts of our islands, a new industry in satellites, rockets and launch ports is poised for take-offIn the next 12 months, Britain is expected to make a remarkable aerospace breakthrough. For the first time, a satellite will be fired into orbit from a launch pad in the United Kingdom.It will be a historic moment – though exactly where this grand adventure will begin is not yet clear. A series of fledgling operations, backed by the UK Space Agency, are now competing to be the first to launch a satellite from British soil. Continue reading...

The UK’s Covid-19 Infection Survey, one of the largest in the world, offers £50 for enrolment and £25 for testing visitsMore than 500,000 UK participants in one of the biggest ever surveys of the prevalence of Covid-19 have been given shopping vouchers worth more than £210m, figures reveal.The Covid-19 Infection Survey is the largest regular survey of coronavirus infections and antibodies in the UK, helping to provide information to shape the government’s response to the pandemic. Continue reading...

Scientists are often blamed for leading to excessive curbs on society. But they are cautious for a very good reason

Scientists are cautiously optimistic that the variant may be a sign the virus is losing its power, despite the high infection figures

Figures show an 85% increase in first doses for those aged 18 to 24 and 71% for those aged 25 to 30The under-30s are driving a surge in people getting their first jab of the Covid-19 vaccine, with the overall number of people rising by almost half in the week up to 21 December, figures show.The sudden uptick is fuelled by fears of the Omicron variant, as well as the government’s “Get boosted now” publicity drive, which has seen millions of people come forward for their third Covid shot in the past fortnight. Continue reading...

Forget about the danger of robots creating a sci-fi-style dystopia. The modern corporation is already doing all of thatIn the first of his four (stunning) Reith lectures on living with artificial intelligence, Prof Stuart Russell, of the University of California at Berkeley, began with an excerpt from a paper written by Alan Turing in 1950. Its title was Computing Machinery and Intelligence and in it Turing introduced many of the core ideas of what became the academic discipline of artificial intelligence (AI), including the sensation du jour of our own time, so-called machine learning.From this amazing text, Russell pulled one dramatic quote: “Once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers. At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control.” This thought was more forcefully articulated by IJ Good, one of Turing’s colleagues at Bletchley Park: “The first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.” Continue reading...

Successor to the Hubble telescope takes off on board rocket from ESA’s launch base in French GuianaThe most ambitious, costly robot probe ever built, the $10bn James Webb telescope, has been blasted into space on top of a giant European rocket.Engineers reported on Saturday that the observatory – which has been plagued by decades of delays and huge cost overruns – was operating perfectly after going through the most nervously watched lift-off in the history of uncrewed space exploration. Continue reading...

The $13bn telescope, which replaces the Hubble, will allow us ‘to see back to the beginning of time’, astronomers say

In-the-community figures show London most affected with Sage warning hospitalisations rising fast

Lead scientist on Zoe Covid study says ‘misinformation’ in official messaging must be addressed to save lives

The climate crisis resembles a huge planetary lockdown, trapping humanity within an ever-deteriorating environmentThere is a moment when a never-ending crisis turns into a way of life. This seems to be the case with the pandemic. If so, it’s wise to explore the permanent condition in which it has left us. One obvious lesson is that societies have to learn once again to live with pathogens, just as they learned to when microbes were first made visible by the discoveries of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.These discoveries were concerned with only one aspect of microbial life. When you also consider the various sciences of the earth system, another aspect of viruses and bacteria comes to the fore. During the long geochemical history of the earth, microbes, together with fungi and plants, have been essential, and are still essential, to the very composition of the environment in which we humans live. The pandemic has shown us that we will never escape the invasive presence of these living beings, entangled as we are with them. They react to our actions; if they mutate, we have to mutate as well.Bruno Latour is a philosopher and anthropologist, the author of After Lockdown: A Metamorphosis and the winner of the 2013 Holberg prize Continue reading...

Nasa’s flagship mission counts down to launch at 1220 GMT on Christmas Day from Kourou, French GuianaFinal checks and fuelling are under way for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, a flagship mission for Nasa that aims to observe worlds beyond the solar system and the first stars and galaxies that lit up the cosmos.If all goes to plan, the $10bn (£7.4bn) observatory will become the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space when it blasts off at 12.20pm UK time on Christmas Day onboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Continue reading...

The approval comes as reports of shortages in monoclonal antibody treatment arise and cases spikePeople at greater risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid-19 will likely have more treatment options in January.That’s the forecast in the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval this week of the first two antiviral pills used to treat Covid-19 and reports of shortages of a monoclonal antibody treatment used against the Omicron variant. Continue reading...

Band’s management says singer self-isolating at home and is not showing any symptoms

Chief scientific adviser responds to criticism that Sage modelling has ‘spread gloom’ about Omicron variant

Nasa’s new administrator discusses the space race with China, UFOs, billionaire ‘astronauts’ and building a ‘mission control’ for climate changeWhen Apollo 11 launched in July 1969, Bill Nelson was an army lieutenant on leave behind the iron curtain, listening with colleagues to the BBC on shortwave radio.“There were three young Americans standing on the hills overlooking Budapest, screaming at the top of our lungs, cheering as that rocket lifted off,” Nasa’s new administrator recalled in a video interview. Continue reading...

Mission is step closer to exploring most energetic and exotic celestial objects in universeNasa’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has successfully extended its 4-metre boom arm to assume its operational configuration.Launched on 9 December atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, IXPE is a space observatory designed to study X-rays from black holes, neutron stars and other exotic celestial objects. Continue reading...

Nearly 120,000 new positive tests recorded as numbers continue to rise

Analysis: smaller proportion of people hospitalised with Covid variant means little when rise in infections is so huge, warn experts

Two studies show people may be at less risk from latest Covid variant but ‘we don’t have conclusive data’

What explains the discrepancy between variant’s apparent prevalence and the relatively low figures in official data?

Is there something great you have always wanted to do, but fear has held you back? Make 2022 the year you go for itThe “comfort zone” is a reliable place of retreat, especially in times of stress – living through a global pandemic, for instance. But psychologists have long ƒextolled the benefits of stepping outsideit, too. The clinical psychologist Roberta Babb advises regularly reviewing how well it is serving you. The comfort zone can, she says, become a prison or a trap, particularly if you are there because of fear and avoidance.Babb says people can be “mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, occupationally” stimulated by facing their fears or trying something uncomfortable. “Adaptation and stimulation are important parts of our wellbeing, and a huge part of our capacity to be resilient. We can get stagnant, and it is about growing and finding different ways to be, which then allows us to have a different life experience.” Continue reading...

Yesterday, daily cases in the UK exceeded 100,000 for the first time since the pandemic began. Despite this, the government has stuck to its guns in refusing to introduce any restrictions in England before Christmas Day. Yesterday also saw the publishing of a report from a team at Imperial College London that suggests, in the UK, the risk of a hospital stay is 40% lower with Omicron than Delta.To find out what all this means for the weeks and months ahead, Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample.Archive: Sky News, ITV News Continue reading...

As the data comes in, experts are confident the new variant will soon be dominant – if it isn’t already

Up to 600 children in the first year and 2,000 the year after will be among first in Europe to receive Palforzia treatmentChildren in the UK will be the first in Europe to receive a life-changing treatment for peanut allergies, after NHS England secured a deal for a drug that decreases the severity of symptoms including anaphylaxis.The oral treatment, Palforzia, will be available to up to 600 children aged four to 17 the first year and 2,000 the following year. Continue reading...

Latest updates: researchers at Imperial College London stress that reduction in severity must be balanced with larger risk of infection

Hundreds of Roman and medieval coins and artefacts uncovered near ancient city of CaesareaArchaeologists in Israel have discovered the remnants of two shipwrecks off the Mediterranean coast, replete with a sunken trove of hundreds Roman and medieval silver coins.The finds made near the ancient city of Caesarea were dated to the Roman and Mamluk periods, about 1,700 and 600 years ago, archaeologists said. They include hundreds of Roman silver and bronze coins dating to the mid-third century, as well as more than 500 silver coins from the middle ages found amid the sediment. Continue reading...

Two weaker doses of Pfizer jab to be given, with some scientists calling for all in age group to be vaccinated• Covid vaccination for UK children: what has been approved?• Coronavirus – latest updatesHundreds of thousands of clinically vulnerable five- to 11-year-olds are to be offered Covid vaccines for the first time, with some scientists calling for the programme to be extended to the whole age group before the new UK school term.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended vaccinations for about 330,000 younger children at clinical risk, and also those living with someone who is immunosuppressed. Continue reading...

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says there will be enough vaccines for world’s adults – if they are not hoarded

DNA analysis of bodies in Hazleton North long cairn finds five generations of an extended familyAn analysis of DNA from a 5,700-year-old tomb has revealed the world’s oldest family tree, shedding “extraordinary” light on the importance of family and descent among people who were some of Britain’s first farmers.A research team has examined the bones and teeth of 35 people in one of Britain’s best preserved neolithic tombs, near the village of Hazleton in the Cotswolds. The results, said Dr Chris Fowler of Newcastle University, are nothing short of “astounding”. Continue reading...

Young children most vulnerable to Covid will be offered vaccine, and there are changes to booster schedules for some older onesThe UK government’s vaccine advisers have issued new guidance on Covid vaccinations for young people in light of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant. The advice opens up Covid vaccinations for children as young as five and extends the booster programme to more teenagers. Continue reading...

Industry body urges rethink on leaving out sector from aid package, saying many firms ‘will go to the wall’

Booster will also be available to medical teams and immunodeficient people four months after third dose

Scientists warn, however, that lower severity of cases is not fully understood and may not occur elsewhere

The year has been marked by the success of the vaccination drive – yet thousands have still diedThis time last year, Covid-19 cases were soaring in the UK, hospitalisations were steadily increasing, and the government had tightened restrictions to try to get a handle on a concerning new variant.Twelve months on, there is a sense of deja vu. A weary public is worried about its festive plans being cancelled, an outcome that would be all the more painful in light of the Christmas party scandal that has enveloped Downing Street in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Romanian communist regime hailed his wife as an eminent chemistry researcher, though she had no genuine qualifications. But her name lives on in academic journals, and British institutions have yet to retract honours bestowed on herRomanian researchers have called on academic publishers to remove Elena Ceaușescu’s name from almost two dozen scientific papers and books fraudulently published as her work, more than 30 years after the wife of the former communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was executed.Elena Ceaușescu was celebrated by state propaganda under her husband’s regime as a world-famous chemistry researcher, despite having no credible qualifications. The researchers say some of her work is still being cited and accessed, even though she was barely literate in science and unable to recognise basic formulas taught to first-year chemistry students. Continue reading...

Sandy Douglas, from Oxford University, says updated vaccine could ‘respond to any new variant more rapidly’

The James Webb space telescope, considered the Hubble’s successor, will stay on the ground an extra day due to high windsDangerously high winds will keep Nasa’s newest space telescope on the ground for at least an extra day, with the launch now targeted for Saturday – Christmas Day – at the earliest.Nasa announced the latest delay Tuesday. Upper-level high wind could force a rocket off-course or even damage or destroy it. Continue reading...

President pushes back against resistance to vaccine mandates, saying they are ‘not to control your life, but to save your life’

At least 66m-year-old fossil discovered in southern China reveals posture previously unseen in dinosaursScientists have announced the discovery of an exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo from at least 66m years ago that was preparing to hatch from its egg just like a chicken.The fossil was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China and belonged to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, which the researchers dubbed “Baby Yingliang”. Continue reading...

Agency will give go-ahead for Pfizer and Merck to launch groundbreaking oral treatments perhaps this weekUS federal regulators are expected to approve the first pills to treat Covid-19 as early as this week, it was reported on Tuesday.According to sources quoted by Bloomberg News, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will give the go-ahead for Pfizer and Merck to launch groundbreaking oral treatments perhaps as soon as Wednesday. Continue reading...

Understanding service workers’ current challenges, and adjusting your expectations accordingly, can ease shopping frustrationsAs we approach our second Christmas at the mercy of a virus that just won’t quit, one would think people would have accepted that supply chain issues and other Covid-related problems might mean low stock and delayed deliveries, as has been the case for going on two years. But after speaking to business owners and frontline retail staff, it seems this is far from true.The retail workers told me that most customers were perfectly gracious and well-behaved, but all reported a small group of shoppers that were hostile – even aggressive – in-store, online and on the phone, over matters that were quite clearly out of the service worker’s control. The word traumatised came up more than once. Continue reading...

Court papers reveal how long watchdog knew of potential problems at Wolverhampton site

Paxlovid is expected to work well against Omicron. The real problem is that production is insufficientWhat if there was a pill you could take as soon as you test positive for Covid, that stopped the virus in its tracks? A pill that reduced the viral number of copies in your upper airway (known as viral load) by more than tenfold, markedly reducing contagiousness to others? And that reduced the chance of hospitalization by nearly 90%?There is such a pill, called Paxlovid, which was developed specifically for the Sars-CoV-2 virus, derived from a molecule that was effective in the lab against the original SARS virus, and is a potent inhibitor of the main protease of the virus, called Mpro. It’s the chokepoint for preventing the virus from replicating. It has been tested in two randomized clinical trials compared with a placebo, and not only was its potency established, but it proved to be as safe as the placebo.Eric Topol is the founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of molecular medicine, and executive vice-president of Scripps Research Continue reading...

Largest ever specimen, a 2.7 metre-long creature known as Arthropleura, discovered by ‘fluke’ on UK beachGiant millipedes as long as a car and weighing 50kg once hunted across northern England, experts have revealed, following the discovery of a 326m-year-old fossil.The largest fossil of a giant millipede was found by a “fluke” on a Northumberland beach at Howick, after a section of cliff fell on to the shore. Continue reading...

Home-brewed yoghurt on International Space Station may be just a small leap for a group of budding scientists

Having long Covid made me reassess my health and wellbeing, and the benefits have been profoundAt the start of 2021, I was diagnosed with long Covid. It was a huge relief to finally know why I had been struggling so much with my health – extreme fatigue, continuous coughing and, most distressing of all, brain fog and panic attacks. The diagnosis was also the beginning of a journey that would take me – of all places – to a life-changing decision about what I eat.After further tests, I was told it was very likely that I had caught Covid a while ago, possibly at the start of the pandemic, before tests were available. I’m very fortunate to have a brilliant and caring GP who listens to me and provides me with support. He signed me off work for two months and helped me understand that I needed real rest to assist my recovery. Continue reading...

Reaction comes after Boris Johnson announces there will be no additional measures put in place for now

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says Omicron is infecting people who have been vaccinated and could double its infections every 1.5 to three days