Pill can be taken twice daily at home and priority will be given to elderly patients and those with health vulnerabilities

Two people tell us about their experiences with CBT and how it changed their livesThe psychotherapist Aaron Beck, known as the father of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), died on Tuesday aged 100 at his Philadelphia home. CBT is a form of treatment that helps patients to analyse and manage negative thinking patterns rather than focusing on past conflicts. Here, two people tell us about their experiences with CBT and how it changed their lives. Continue reading...

Among under-18s, vaccine uptake is low, and there is a growing issue with misinformation spread on social media and at school. Is there anything a concerned caregiver can do?Throughout the pandemic, Anna has worked for the NHS. She has seen the effects of Covid-19 first-hand and, although she worked remotely because she was in a vulnerable group, other colleagues – she is a physiotherapist – were deployed to Covid wards at the height of hospital admissions. “At the trust I work for, they’re setting up a long-Covid service,” she says. She comes home and her son Sam, 16, listens to her talk about it – and yet he is adamant that the coronavirus isn’t happening or that, if it is, it’s not serious. “You know: ‘Covid is a load of rubbish – it’s all about control’,” she says. “It’s all very conspiracy theory, a lot of his stuff.” He was adamant from the start that he wouldn’t be having the vaccine if and when it became available for his age group, and he has stuck to it. “He is very resistant,” says Anna. “He is pretty determined not to conform anyway. Part of it, I think, is him being a teenager, and the other bit of it is conspiracy theory: ‘It’s all a big con.’” His main source of information since the start of the pandemic has been social media, says Anna. “He watches a lot of YouTube.”Just over a month ago, YouTube announced it would remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, and would ban the accounts of anti-vax activists; it had already banned content with false claims about Covid vaccines last year. Facebook did the same in February this year, though a quick search reveals misinformation is still easy to find (one post I found within minutes claimed 80% of vaccinated women had miscarriages). On TikTok, “unvaxxed” content racks up hundreds of thousands of views. Last month, NewsGuard, an organisation that rates the credibility of news organisations and monitors misinformation, found Covid conspiracy theories were being viewed by millions on TikTok, and, in its research, children under 13 – the lower age limit – were able to access the app. Continue reading...

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow, where we are bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, host Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s biodiversity and environment reporter, Patrick Greenfield, and shadow Cop26 president Ed Miliband about the announcements from finance dayOn Wednesday, hundreds of the world’s biggest banks and pension funds, with assets worth $130tn, committed to a key climate goal. The finance pledge, known as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), will mean that by 2050 all assets managed by the institutions will be aligned with net zero emissions. But experts cast doubt on the significance of the move, pointing out that the banks are still free to pour cash into fossil fuels in the next decade. Rishi Sunak announced that London would become the world’s “first net-zero finance centre”, but environmentalists reacted with scepticism.Today, Science Weekly host Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s biodiversity and environment reporter, Patrick Greenfield, about these announcements from finance day, plus they catch up with Ed Miliband, who discusses whether the proposals amount to much – or are just more greenwashing from the financial industry. Continue reading...

Researchers say leaves of the matalafi plant could also potentially be used to treat cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseasesLeaves from a plant which can be found “in back yards across Samoa” could be as effective as ibuprofen in lowering inflammation and could even be used to treat illnesses such as Parkinson’s and cancer, a new study has found.For centuries, the leaves of the psychotria insularum plant, known locally in Samoa as matalafi, have been used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation associated with fever, body aches, swellings, elephantiasis, and respiratory infections. Continue reading...

Microsoft founder says research and development budgets should focus on weaknesses exposed by rapid spread of Covid

Oxford researchers arrive at virus’s toll in 31 countries by looking at deaths and age they occurred

My friend, Hester McFarland Solomon, who has died aged 78, dedicated her professional life to the treatment of psychological illness, as a noted Jungian psychoanalyst of the developmental school. She rose to the heights of her profession as an analyst, author, teacher and administrator, and in 2007 became only the second female president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).Hester was American by birth. She came from a modest background in New Haven, Connecticut, and was a war baby who started life in a garage, later upgraded to a log cabin on a hillside dotted with virgin forest. She was the elder of two children born to Emily Tutak, a nurse, and Orrin McFarland, who was in the building trade. Continue reading...

Guardian readers share their frustrations at trying to obtain a third coronavirus vaccinationHaving read your report (No 10 concerned as 4.5 million eligible people fail to get Covid jab boosters, 2 November), I wonder how many people’s experience mirrors mine? I received a letter from the NHS advising me to contact my GP about a booster, as I am it seems clinically vulnerable, as well as being elderly. My GP could not take action, having run out of vaccines and not knowing when there would be a further supply. The NHS letter told me that – presumably because of my medical condition – I am not able to book a vaccination via the NHS website or phone. Doubtless the same applies to the new walk-in centres. I am not sitting on my hands and ignoring the call. If the government is serious about getting people like me a third jab, perhaps it should look closer to home for the reasons for delay, rather than seeking to shift blame.

Exclusive: study raises hopes that Covid-related damage to sense of smell may be more superficial than previously feared

AXA1125 targets cell power plants that may be dysfunctional in long Covid patients with severe fatigue

Fast food boxes and wrappers contain toxic chemicals known to interfere with our reproductive systems and contribute to attention and learning disordersIt’s no surprise that fast food is generally bad for your health. But now there’s a new reason to worry: according to a new study out of George Washington University, fast-food containers (such as wrappers used for burgers and burritos) contain toxic chemicals known to interfere with our reproductive systems and contribute to attention and learning disorders. Put simply, our hamburgers and burritos are wrapped in toxic waste.Many convenience foods come with an ingredient list showing consumers what went into the product they’re eating or drinking. Of course, this list doesn’t include the chemicals used to make the box, bag or wrapper encasing the food, or other materials that come into contact with our meal – like the plastic gloves used to handle the sandwich toppings. But these compounds make their way into our food and we ingest them.Norah MacKendrick is an associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University and the author of Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Everyday Toxics Continue reading...

Parents alarmed as children held overnight before some sent to centralised quarantine for two weeks

Holmes honoured for ‘transformative role’ in Covid response, while Prof Anthony Weiss takes innovation prize for work on biomaterials to assist wound healingProf Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney has won the prime minister’s prize for science, for his “transformative role in the scientific response to Covid-19”.Holmes, an expert on the evolution of viral diseases, publicly shared the genome sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus for the first time in January last year, publishing it on behalf of a consortium of Chinese scientists. Continue reading...

Curious report suggests calm thousand millennia of ‘Boring Billion’ was more lively than thoughtToday our planet is a lively place: the climate swings from greenhouse to icehouse and back again, while earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain ranges and ocean trenches are all signs of its restless surface. But if you go back far enough, you reach a period where Earth was a very dull place. Nicknamed the “Boring Billion”, the period between 1850m and 850m years ago appears to have had hardly any plate tectonic movement, very little change in climate and a stalling of biological evolution. But was this period more interesting than we think?Geologists have been studying the geochemistry and makeup of continental rocks from the Boring Billion. The geochemistry suggests that the continental crust was hot and thin (40km or less) – not suitable for plate tectonics or building mountain ranges. But curiously the structure and composition of continental rocks indicate that crust did shimmy around and that low mountain ranges existed. The findings are published in Geophysical Research Letters. Continue reading...

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, host Madeleine Finlay, talks to Jon Watts about a significant announcement made by global leaders on forest and land use, and we hear from an indigenous leader in Guyana about why it might not be enough.The third day of Cop26 was dominated by what some are saying is a very positive announcement on forests and land use – the so-called Glasgow Agreement. Host Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts about what world leaders have pledged. She also speaks to indigenous leaders and rights activists from Guyana and Indonesia about their thoughts on the new deal.Plus, senior Guardian reporter for the US, Nina Lakhani reports from a memorial acknowledging the lives of those who have died trying to save their communities and the forests which they live in and that we all so crucially depend on. Continue reading...

Analysis of 400 studies found risk of secondary cancer ranges from 6% to 22% depending on different factorsWomen diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 35 face a higher risk of it spreading, according to the first global study of its kind.Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer, with 2.3 million people diagnosed every year. Survival rates are generally good, which is largely because of screening, early diagnosis and improved treatment. Continue reading...

Cop26 countries must take action to stop record heat becoming an annual event, say experts

Dutch physicist who helped to identify the links between human-induced climate change and extreme weather disastersGeert Jan van Oldenborgh, who has died aged 59 of multiple myeloma, was co-founder and member of a team of scientists who identified — at speed and while politically a hot topic — the links between human-induced climate change and forest fires, heatwaves, drought, flood and other specific meteorological catastrophes.This is trickier than it sounds. Extreme events have always happened, and for decades most climate scientists were not willing to say that this or that flood or heatwave was directly powered by ever-higher greenhouse gas emissions driven by profligate fossil fuel use. If they did, it was usually long after the event. Continue reading...

In focusing on the stories of recovery this documentary, following patients participating in stem cell research trials in the US, allows the optimism to outshine the controversyHere is a film that tugs at the heartstrings as it painstakingly covers the lives of 10 patients participating in stem cell research trials in the US. From a quadriplegic high-school basketball star to a mother with recurring cancers, the subjects experience remarkable recoveries thanks to this medical revolution. One of the most moving moments is when Ryan, the teenage athlete, returns home four months after his initial treatment and raises his hand to greet his loved ones at the airport, a progress that would have been unimaginable without the advent of stem cell therapy.While the treatment has proved extraordinarily successful in combating incurable diseases, the research remains controversial as it involves the use of human embryos, which is inevitably intertwined with the abortion debate hotly contested in US politics. Furthermore, pharmaceutical corporations are hostile to a medical technology that would significantly reduce the traditional reliance on medications. Indeed, in the case of cancer patients, as stem cells can multiply into healthy cells to repair damaged areas from within, the research aims to reach a point where chemotherapy would no longer be needed. Once banned by George W Bush, federal funding for stem cell studies has gradually increased, though it remains mostly awarded for non-embryonic research. Continue reading...

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, host Madeleine Finlay hears why the Bahamas are under imminent threat from the climate crisis and what Guardian environment reporter Fiona Harvey makes of India’s commitment to be net zero – by 2070.Today the world leaders arrived in Glasgow for Cop26, the critical climate conference. Alarm, anger and a few significant promises featured during speeches made by dozens of world leaders.Host Madeleine Finlay talks to Guardian environment reporter Fiona Harvey who reflected on the tone of the summit, which was set by Boris Johnson, who opened the Cop26 talks with a stark warning that “the anger and impatience of the world will be uncontainable” if the talks fail to get the world on track to avoid disastrous global heating of more than 1.5C. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, noted governments’ lack of progress in cutting planet-heating emissions. There were some significant announcements, too, such as Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, promising that his country would get to net zero emissions by 2070 and Johnson unveiling new climate aid for vulnerable developing countries. Continue reading...

The popular theme park became the site of a suspected Delta outbreak, with authorities mass testing tens of thousands in the pursuit of Covid zero

Beck’s work revolutionised the diagnosis and treatment of depression and other psychological disorders and continues to have a resounding influenceDr Aaron T Beck, a groundbreaking psychotherapist widely regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, died on Monday at his Philadelphia home aged 100.Beck’s work revolutionised the diagnosis and treatment of depression and other psychological disorders. He died peacefully early in the morning, according to a statement issued by the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which he co-founded with his daughter, Dr Judith Beck. Continue reading...

It is the first such delay by Nasa since 1990 when the mission commander of Space Shuttle Atlantis fell illNasa has announced a rare health-related delay in its SpaceX rocket launch of four astronauts to the international space station, the second postponement of the mission in a week, citing an unspecified medical issue with one of the crew.The space agency on Monday described it as a “minor medical issue” that was “not a medical emergency and not related to Covid-19”, but it declined to elaborate on the nature of the problem or say which astronaut was involved. Continue reading...

If by 2052 a computer could match the human brain then we need better ways to build it“Progress in AI is something that will take a while to happen, but [that] doesn’t make it science fiction.” So Stuart Russell, the University of California computing professor, told the Guardian at the weekend. The scientist said researchers had been “spooked” by their own success in the field. Prof Russell, the co-author of the top artificial intelligence (AI) textbook, is giving this year’s BBC’s Reith lectures – which have just begun – and his doubts appear increasingly relevant.With little debate about its downsides, AI is becoming embedded in society. Machines now recommend online videos to watch, perform surgery and send people to jail. The science of AI is a human enterprise that requires social limitations. The risks, however, are not being properly weighed. There are two emerging approaches to AI. The first is to view it in engineering terms, where algorithms are trained on specific tasks. The second presents deeper philosophical questions about the nature of human knowledge. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s 3D logic puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following “three-dimensional” logic puzzles, a genre thought to have emerged decades ago in Hungary. (For more details about the Hungarian link here’s the story.) The idea is that the solution is mapped out on a three-dimensional grid.1. Date night Continue reading...

The technology was viewed with scepticism before the pandemic but there is now growing confidence about its useIt is one of the most remarkable success stories of the pandemic: the unproven technology that delivered the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in record time, helping to turn the tide on Covid-19. The vaccines are based on mRNA, the molecule that instructs our cells to make specific proteins. By injecting synthetic mRNA, our cells are turned into on-demand vaccine factories, pumping out any protein we want our immune system to learn to recognise and destroy.Pre-pandemic, the technology was viewed with scepticism – a clever concept, but not guaranteed to deliver. Now there is growing confidence that mRNA vaccines could have far-reaching applications in tackling diseases from flu to malaria. Continue reading...

With millions of followers, the stance of some Apostolic church leaders threatens to undermine fight against CovidHymnal melodies reverberate around the hillside in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb. On a blisteringly hot Saturday, members of the Apostolic church, dressed in white, hum and sing together.Songs, long prayers and a little Bible reading punctuate the outdoor service. It’s a spectacle for passersby. Continue reading...

Logic puzzles in three dimensionsUPDATE: To read the solutions click hereWhen it comes to the world of mathematical puzzles, Hungary is a superpower. Not just because of the Rubik’s cube, the iconic toy invented by Ernő Rubik in 1974, but also because of its long history of maths outreach.In 1894, Hungary staged the world’s first maths competition for teenagers, four decades before one was held anywhere else. 1894 also saw the launch of KöMaL, a Hungarian maths journal for secondary school pupils full of problems and tips on how to solve them. Both the competition and the journal have been running continuously since then, with only brief hiatuses during the two world wars. Continue reading...

Pacific country has made it through nearly two years of the pandemic Covid-free, but a repatriation flight from New Zealand has led to the country’s first caseEarly on Monday morning, the normally quiet capital of the Pacific country of Tonga, Nuku’alofa city, was packed with cars.There were long queues outside vaccination centres, as well as banks, Western Union outlets and shops as people rushed to prepare for the tiny nation’s first proper lockdown. Continue reading...

Archaeological discoveries are shattering scholars’ long-held beliefs about how the earliest humans organised their societies – and hint at possibilities for our own. By David Graeber and David Wengrow. Continue reading...

The Science Weekly podcast is in Glasgow where we will be bringing listeners daily episodes from Cop26. Each morning you will hear from one of the Guardian’s award-winning environment team. Today, environment correspondent Fiona Harvey explains why this climate summit is so criticalFor almost three decades, world governments have met nearly every year to forge a global response to the climate emergency. This year is the 26th iteration, postponed by a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is being hosted by the UK in Glasgow.Guardian environment correspondent Fiona Harvey tells Science Weekly host Madeleine Finlay why this year’s summit is so critical. Under the landmark Paris agreement, signed in 2015, nations committed to holding global temperature rises to “well below” 2C above pre-industrial levels, while “pursuing efforts” to limit heating to 1.5C. To meet those goals, countries also agreed on non-binding national targets to cut – or in the case of developing countries to curb the growth of – greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, by 2030 in most cases. Continue reading...

The majority of those dying of Covid-19 in the UK and the US are have not been vaccinated. Bereaved relatives are telling their stories to try to convince others to get their jabsPhil Valentine was a Tennessee-based conservative talk radio host who was sceptical about the US government’s response to the coronavirus crisis. He was not completely ‘anti-vax’, but he did not think he was vulnerable to Covid and talked on air about his decision not to be vaccinated. He even performed a song called Vaxman, a parody of the Beatles’ Taxman. Shortly after the song was released, he contracted the virus.Before Valentine died, he sent a message to his brother Mark from hospital about his regret. He asked him to tell others to get the vaccine to make amends for the message he had spread on his show. Continue reading...

Accolade reflects how use of the short form of ‘vaccine’ rose by 72 times in a year and spread across societyIn a year when talk over the virtual garden fence has focused on whether you have been jabbed, jagged or had both doses yet, and whether it was Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna you were injected with, Oxford Languages has chosen vax as its word of the year.After deciding last year that it was impossible to sum up 2020 in one word, the company that produces the Oxford English Dictionary said the shorthand for vaccine had “injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language” this year during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

A scientist and gifted speaker makes a convincing case for calm, informed discussions in the race to avert catastropheIt’s not an exaggeration to say that Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World is one of the more important books about climate change to have been written. Much of the literature to date feeds the appetite of readers who are already interested in the issue, but this book by Katharine Hayhoe, an internationally renowned climate scientist, could result in a massive expansion of interest in the subject.Hayhoe is a gifted public speaker and Saving Us is a follow-up to her terrific Ted Talk in 2018, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it”. It is an entertaining masterclass on the science of communication, which pulls no punches about the threat that humanity faces or the size of the task to avoid catastrophic consequences. Continue reading...

Evidence from animal remains shows Norse seafarers settled on the islands centuries before Portuguese explorersThey came from the land of the ice and snow and the midnight sun – but still ended up in some balmy destinations. This is the conclusion of researchers who have discovered evidence to support the idea that the Vikings settled on the clement shores of the Azores several hundred years before the Portuguese arrived in 1427.Given that the Vikings are usually associated with the frozen north, the claim is startling. Nevertheless, it is based on solid science, says a group of international researchers who recently analysed lakebed sediments in the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands of people are turning to the drug to treat a range of conditions – but the evidence is patchy and costs can be highWhen Helen was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in her early 40s, her doctor prescribed her a range of opioids. She tried morphine, meperidine and a few others, but none helped ease the constant pain her chronic condition caused.Long before medicinal cannabis was legal in Australia, while Helen was travelling across North America, a doctor at a dispensary suggested she try cannabidiol oil. “He gave me this bottle of tincture and taught me to use one or two drops under my tongue,” Helen says. “My pain decreased dramatically. I was stunned.” Continue reading...

Losing weight may be tough, but keeping it off, research tells us, is tougher – just not for the reasons you might thinkAs the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University, Massachusetts, Susan Roberts has spent much of the past two decades studying ways to fight the obesity epidemic that continues to plague much of the western world.But time and again, Roberts and other obesity experts around the globe have found themselves faced with a recurring problem. While getting overweight individuals to commit to shedding pounds is often relatively straightforward in the short term, preventing them from regaining the lost weight is much more challenging. Continue reading...

My debut novel is full of the brothers and sisters who were absent through my childhoodPeople often ask me about my brothers and sisters. They have read my debut novel, Girl A, and they expect to find my own family, encrypted in the fiction. There are seven siblings in the Gracie family in my book and between them there is caustic rage, begrudging respect, tenderness and cruelty. Too much love and too little.I don’t have any brothers and sisters. That’s the thing about writers, I would like to reply, bolder than I really am. They make things up. Me, I’m nowhere to be found. Although that isn’t quite the case. Continue reading...

The veteran scientist on Trump’s limited impact, Russia’s ruthless climate stance and on the urgency of COP26 in GlasgowProf Peter Stott is a forensic climate detective who examines the human fingerprint on extreme weather. A specialist in mathematics, he leads the climate monitoring and attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services at the Met Office in Exeter and was part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that won the Nobel peace prize in 2007. Since he started in the field more than 25 years ago, Stott has often found himself on the frontline of the battle against the fossil fuel lobby, petrostates and sceptical rightwing US politicians, which he details in his new book. Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial. He is also exploring new forms of scientific expression and is co-founder, with his wife, of the Climate Stories initiative, which brings artists, scientists and members of the public together to respond to the climate emergency by creating new poems, songs and pictures.You have spent a quarter of a century in climate science. On a personal level, how does that feel?

Scientists say keeping temperature rises to 1.5C is vital physical threshold for planet that cannot be negotiatedThe 1.5C temperature limit to be discussed by world leaders at critical meetings this weekend is a vital physical threshold for the planet’s climate, and not an arbitrary political construct that can be haggled over, leading climate scientists have warned.World leaders are meeting in Rome and Glasgow over the next four days to thrash out a common approach aimed at holding global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, the lower of two limits set out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Continue reading...

Melbourne and Victoria’s regions reunited and major events being held at Flemington Racecourse and Sidney Myer Music Bowl. This blog is now closed

Foraging bees keep away from centre of colony when infested with mites, find researchersIn the past 18 months humans have become all too familiar with the term “social distancing”. But it turns out we are not the only ones to give our peers a wide berth when our health may be at risk: research suggests honeybees do it too.Scientists have found that when a hive of honeybees is under threat from the mite Varroa destructor – a parasite linked to the collapse of honeybee colonies – the bees respond by changing the way they interact with one another. Continue reading...

Prof Stuart Russell says field of artificial intelligence needs to grow up quickly to ensure humans remain in controlA scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb.Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, said most experts believed that machines more intelligent than humans would be developed this century, and he called for international treaties to regulate the development of the technology. Continue reading...

Coronavirus-induced parosmia is surprisingly common and the sensory confusion can have profound effects

How to save the world, by counting to zero: the Guardian's Phoebe Weston breaks down all the climate jargon we have been hearing in the run-up to Cop26, the make-or-break climate summit starting on Sunday, and explains what we – and most importantly, our governments – need to do to help protect our planet and its future

The virus won’t disappear – it will just become endemic. But it could still put pressure on health systems in years to comeAs Cop26 gets under way in Glasgow this weekend, one collective action problem is taking centre stage against the backdrop of another. Covid-19 has been described as a dress rehearsal for our ability to solve the bigger problem of the climate crisis, so it seems important to point out that the pandemic isn’t over. Instead, joined-up thinking has become more important than ever for solving the problem of Covid-19.The endgame has been obvious for a while: rather than getting rid of Covid-19 entirely, countries will get used to it. The technical word for a disease that we’re obliged to host indefinitely is “endemic”. It means that the disease-causing agent – the Sars-CoV-2 virus in this case – is always circulating in the population, causing periodic but more-or-less predictable disease outbreaks. No country has entered the calmer waters of endemicity yet; we’re all still on the white-knuckle ride of the pandemic phase.Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World Continue reading...

Final preparations begin for Nasa’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to moonNasa’s Orion crew capsule has been secured to the top of the Space Launch System rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Final preparations are beginning for the first uncrewed launch in Nasa’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to the moon.The fully stacked rocket stands at 322ft (98 metres), about 6ft taller than Big Ben in London. The European Space Agency has provided the critical service module that gives the Orion capsule electricity, air, water, communications and propulsion. Continue reading...

Species was direct ancestor of early humans in Africa and discovery has led to reassessment of epochResearchers have announced the naming of a newly discovered species of human ancestor, Homo bodoensis.The species lived in Africa about 500,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene age, and was the direct ancestor of modern humans, according to scientists. The name bodoensis derives from a skull found in Bodo D’ar in the Awash River valley of Ethiopia. Continue reading...