Science | The Guardian

Harm included cell death and occurred at levels of plastic eaten by people via their foodMicroplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory at the levels known to be eaten by people via their food, a study has found.The harm included cell death and allergic reactions and the research is the first to show this happens at levels relevant to human exposure. However, the health impact to the human body is uncertain because it is not known how long microplastics remain in the body before being excreted. Continue reading...

Shelled creatures roamed oceans millions of years ago by jet propulsion, suggests innovative 3D imagingAnalysis of an extraordinary fossil discovered in a Gloucestershire gravel pit has given fresh insight into how an ancient sea creature swam through oceans and defended itself from predators millions of years ago.Innovative imaging techniques have allowed scientists to build up a 3D picture of the inner workings of the ammonite, best known by the shell-shaped fossils found on beaches and sea cliffs. Continue reading...

It’s important to know how boosters work, but they must not impede the push towards worldwide vaccinationFirst there was Alpha, then Beta, Gamma and Delta. Now, thanks to the tremendous efforts of scientists in sub-Saharan Africa, the world is getting to grips with the Omicron variant. This new variant of Covid-19 has a number of mutations that distinguish it from previous ones, raising concerns among scientists that the vaccines we are currently using may not remain as effective against it. In response, the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has recommended that all over-18s in Britain should be able to get a Covid booster shot, as long as three months have elapsed since their last vaccine.The logic behind boosters is that ensuring the UK population has a high level of immunity will reduce the number of people requiring hospitalisation or dying as a result of the spread of Omicron. This is based on the hope that it is unlikely the vaccines we are currently using will be totally ineffective against the new variant, but it is too early to be definitive about this.Dr Charlotte Summers is a professor of intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge Continue reading...

Sajid Javid pulls out of interviews amid anger over footage of aides joking about party during lockdown

Yusaku Maezawa fulfils childhood ambition with 12-day trip to International Space StationA Japanese billionaire has fulfilled his childhood dream of travelling to space, as one of two passengers onboard a Russian rocket that blasted off towards the International Space Station.Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of Zozo, a successful online fashion business, and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, on Wednesday became the first space tourists to travel to the ISS for more than a decade. Continue reading...

Prof Neil Ferguson says coronavirus variant likely to be dominant strain in the UK before Christmas

They do what they want, all the time – and can teach us a lot about how to live in the present, be content and learn from our experienceI wanted to know the exact amount of time I spend ruminating on the inner lives of my cats, so I did what most people do in times of doubt, and consulted Google. According to my search history, in the two years since I became a cat owner I have Googled variations of “cat love me – how do I tell?” and “is my cat happy” 17 times. I have also inadvertently subscribed to cat-related updates from the knowledge website Quora, which emails me a daily digest. (Sample: Can Cats Be Angry or Disappointed With Their Owner?)How do I love my cats? Let me count the ways. The clean snap of three-year-old Larry’s jaw as he contemplates me with detached curiosity is my favourite sound in the world. I love the tenor and cadence of my six-month-old kitten Kedi’s miaows as he follows me around the house. (High-pitched indignant squeaks means he wants food; lower-pitched chirrups suggest he would like to play.) I love the weight of Larry on my feet at night and the scratchy caress of Kedi’s tongue on my eyelid in the morning. Continue reading...

A year has passed since the UK became the first western country to license a vaccine against Covid

Watchdog refuses FoI request from Good Law Project to give details of audit

From whoops to purrs, snaps to grunts, and foghorns to laughs, a cacophony of bizarre fish songs have shown that a coral reef in Indonesia has returned rapidly to health.

Rise in infections attributed to young people who have yet to be fully vaccinated and older citizens who have not received boosters

Adam McKay’s laboured satire challenges political indifference to looming comet catastrophe but misses out on the comedyHaving long complained that movies aren’t engaging with the most vital issue of our time – the climate crisis – it’s perhaps churlish of me not to be glad when one comes along that does exactly that. But Adam McKay’s laboured, self-conscious and unrelaxed satire Don’t Look Up is like a 145-minute Saturday Night Live sketch with neither the brilliant comedy of Succession, which McKay co-produces, nor the seriousness that the subject might otherwise require. It is as if the sheer unthinkability of the crisis can only be contained and represented in self-aware slapstick mode.With knockabout hints of Dr Strangelove, Network and Wag the Dog, Don’t Look Up is about two astronomers discovering that a Mount Everest-sized comet is due in six months’ time to hit planet Earth and wipe out all human life. The scientists urgently present their findings to the White House, but find that the political and media classes can’t or won’t grasp what they are saying: too stupefied with consumerism, short-termism and social-media gossip, and insidiously paralysed by the interests of big tech. Leonardo DiCaprio plays nerdy, bearded astronomer Dr Randall Mindy, nervous of human interaction and addicted to Xanax. Jennifer Lawrence is his smart, emotionally spiky grad student Kate Dibiasky. Meryl Streep is the panto-villain president, Jonah Hill her son and chief-of-staff, and Mark Rylance is the creepy Brit tech mogul Sir Peter Isherwell. Continue reading...

Technology a ‘gamechanger’ for forensic science but raises privacy and racial profiling issues

Variant lacks feature that allows probable cases to be distinguished among positive PCR tests

Curator puts monument in context of era, with loaned objects including 3,600-year-old Nebra sky discA bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols and two gold cone-shaped hats decorated with solar motifs are among objects from the Stonehenge era that will go on show for the first time in the UK at a landmark exhibition at the British Museum.The objects are among more than 250 being loaned to the nation’s flagship museum by institutions in six European countries and across the UK. In total, more than 430 objects will be on display at the British Museum’s first ever big exhibition on the story of Stonehenge, which opens in February. Continue reading...

The travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has published its annual northern lights photographer of the year collection with stunning images from 25 photographers. Coinciding with the northern lights season at the end of the year, it aims to share the beauty of this natural phenomenon Continue reading...

Yusaku Maezawa to become first space tourist sent to space station by Russia in more than a decadeThe Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has said he can barely contain his excitement on the eve of blasting off to the International Space Station in a prelude to a more ambitious trip around the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX planned in 2023.The 46-year-old fashion magnate and art collector has been training at a space centre outside Moscow before becoming the first space tourist to travel to the ISS in more than a decade. Continue reading...

Using astroseismology, researchers have calculated that the bright blue giant Beta Crucis is 11m years oldOne of the more striking constellations of the southern hemisphere’s sky, the Southern Cross, can claim a new accolade – its bright blue giant Beta Crucis star has been revealed as a heavy-weight champion.An international team of scientists have discovered that Beta Crucis, also known as Mimosa, is 14.5 times heavier than Earth’s sun and is just 11m years old, making it the heaviest of the thousands of stars to have their age determined by astroseismology. Continue reading...

Etruscan bronze attachments in Sotheby’s sale and and Bonhams’ Sardinian lamp said to match items in convicted dealers’ archivesThe auction houses Sotheby’s and Bonhams are facing a call to withdraw two antiquities from sale in London today from an archaeologist who raised “serious suspicions” that the items came from illicit excavations.Lot 68 in the Sotheby’s sale is a pair of decorative Etruscan bronze attachments, dating from circa early fifth century BC, expected to fetch between £50,000 and £70,000. Lot 83 in the Bonhams sale is a Sardinian bronze boat-shaped lamp, circa eighth century BC, estimated between £2,000 and £3,000. Continue reading...

The mother-of-two carefully shielded until the government said it was safe to see friends and family. She had no idea how her existing conditions could affect herThe feeling of relief was immense as 58-year-old Michele Brown returned home from the vaccine centre. Her husband, Terry, 61, had taken time off from his job as a supervisor at a heavy machinery factory to drive her to her second Covid-19 vaccination at a Gateshead community centre. In the car, Michele told her partner of 40 years that she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “She said: ‘At least we’ve got that done,’” Terry remembers. “‘We’ll be OK.’”It was 28 April 2021. Michele, who had rheumatoid arthritis, an underactive thyroid and diabetes, had spent the last year and a half shielding indoors, on government advice. She was careful. She had a Covid station set up on the breakfast counter: lateral flow tests, bottles of antibacterial gel and disposable face masks. When family came to visit, a mask-wearing Michele would banish them to the furthest corner of the living room. “We couldn’t kiss her,” remembers her daughter, Kim Brown, 41, who lives in Durham. “She would say: ‘You might have the coronies! I don’t want no coronies. You’re not giving me that crap.’” Continue reading...

Over 40 countries have now confirmed the presence of Omicron. And, in the UK, scientists have been increasingly expressing their concern about the new variant. Some have speculated there could be more than 1,000 cases here already, and that it could become the dominant variant within weeks.To get an update on what we know about the Omicron variant, and how quickly it might be spreading, Madeleine Finlay speaks to Nicola Davis, the Guardian’s science correspondentArchive: 7News Australia, CBS, BBC Continue reading...

Finding is good news for lower-income countries that have not yet completed their primary vaccination campaigns

US scientists say users of sildenafil – the generic name for Viagra – are 69% less likely to develop the form of dementia than non-usersViagra could be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a US study.Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of age-related dementia, affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Despite mounting numbers of cases, however, there is currently no effective treatment. Continue reading...

Engineer and entrepreneur who founded Oxford Instruments and made the UK’s first MRI body scannerIn 1959 Martin Wood asked his boss at the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University, if he could to start a company making specialist magnets for research. At that time the concept of a spinout was unheard of in that university, but the easy-going Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti offered every support. He asked only that Martin, the physics department’s resident engineer, remain in the lab for another 10 years. Working out of a shed in his back garden, Martin, who has died aged 94, laid the foundations of the global business Oxford Instruments, his wife, Audrey, taking on the administration.Martin’s role in the Clarendon Laboratory was to manage the high magnetic fields facility, designing and making powerful electromagnets that Kurti and his colleagues used to investigate materials at very low temperatures. The generators to power the magnets ran only at night, as they required a substantial fraction of the local power station’s output. As former students left to continue their work elsewhere, they would ask Martin to make magnets for their new labs. Starting a company was the realisation of his long-held ambition to create a productive and rewarding working environment. Continue reading...

I’m stuck in a hotel for 10 days, under a system that is disorganised and shockingly expensiveI am writing this on day zero, having arrived at my government-designated quarantine hotel after 24 hours of travel. I need to isolate in my room for 10 days and 11 nights. It is, to put it mildly, a bit of a dump: a tired, chipped Formica table, sagging curtains, freezing cold. For this, I paid £2,285.So what is that like? Sitting in this room, I just want to burst into tears. My despair is exacerbated by the knowledge that my suitcase was filled with sleeveless summer clothes suitable for the South African summer, not Birmingham in the bleak midwinter. I phone reception, who tell me that they have only just put the heating on; I should be patient, they say. The room will be warm in 20 minutes. Half an hour later my teeth are still chattering so I phone again, demanding a heater. Another phone call and, half an hour later, a heater is produced. I am forced to perch it on the table because the power socket on the floor is broken.Carla Stout is a music teacher who lives near Staines Continue reading...

Omicron’s emergence is no surprise, as richer countries’ broken promises lead to low vaccination rates – and virus mutationThe world is hostage to what’s been called “a cycle of panic and neglect”. The Omicron variant, while we wait for clarification on its many unknowns, has sparked the latest bout of that panic. But it is a panic born directly of selfish insularity: as wealthy nations have amassed enough surplus vaccines to inoculate their entire populations many times over, in low-income countries just a small percentage have received even a single dose.Even with the ambitious booster programmes, there are still plenty of unused doses sitting in the warehouses of western nations. So there’s no need to make a choice between vaccinating low-income countries or offering boosters in wealthy nations: we can still do both. New analysis from the data company Airfinity finds that, even with booster policies taken into account, in the G7 and EU there will still be close to 1.4bn surplus doses by the end of March 2022. It’s bordering on criminal that these are not being urgently airlifted to countries in need. Continue reading...

We must curb the power of Silicon Valley and protect those who speak up about the harms of AIA year ago I found out, from one of my direct reports, that I had apparently resigned. I had just been fired from Google in one of the most disrespectful ways I could imagine.Thanks to organizing done by former and current Google employees and many others, Google did not succeed in smearing my work or reputation, although they tried. My firing made headlines because of the worker organizing that has been building up in the tech world, often due to the labor of people who are already marginalized, many of whose names we do not know. Since I was fired last December, there have been many developments in tech worker organizing and whistleblowing. The most publicized of these was Frances Haugen’s testimony in Congress; echoing what Sophie Zhang, a data scientist fired from Facebook, had previously said, Haugen argued that the company prioritizes growth over all else, even when it knows the deadly consequences of doing so.Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). She was formerly co-lead of Google’s Ethical AI team Continue reading...

From ventilation to lateral flow testing, let’s try to minimise the risk of catching Covid

Nigerian high commissioner hits out as arrivals into UK face quarantine in effort to contain Omicron variant

Genetic data will soon be accessible like never before. The implications for our health are hugeWhile at the till in a clothes shop, Ruby received a call. She recognised the woman’s voice as the genetic counsellor she had recently seen, and asked if she could try again in five minutes. Ruby paid for her clothes, went to her car, and waited alone. Something about the counsellor’s voice gave away what was coming.The woman called back and said Ruby’s genetic test results had come in. She did indeed carry the mutation they had been looking for. Ruby had inherited a faulty gene from her father, the one that had caused his death aged 36 from a connective tissue disorder that affected his heart. It didn’t seem the right situation in which to receive such news but, then again, how else could it happen? The phone call lasted just a few minutes. The counsellor asked if Ruby had any questions, but she couldn’t think of anything. She rang off, called her husband and cried. The main thing she was upset about was the thought of her children being at risk. Continue reading...

Prof Dame Sarah Gilbert says this will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods

Analysis: changes to cabinet and public mood from last year make further restrictions less likelyThe date ringed in red in Westminster is 18 December – not the date for Christmas parties but the time by which people should start to know how different their festive plans may look.For this government it is quite an inauspicious date, just a day before soaring cases forced Boris Johnson to finally put the brakes on Christmas mixing plans last year and tell most families they would be spending celebrations apart. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsOn the weather forecasts, they always say: “With the wind, it’ll feel like …” How is the wind-chill factor calculated? Mick Rawlinson, BrightonSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com.Wind chill factor was designed for a limited purpose. It measures heat loss from exposed areas of the human body, like hands and face, in low temperatures and measured wind speeds. With this information, people venturing outside in exceptionally bitter weather would know an approximate time before exposed areas of the body would succumb to frostbite. BijiDog Continue reading...

Suburbia is neither glamorous nor picturesque. But this is precisely what makes it rich terrain for my booksIt’s early December and in my corner of southeast London the Christmas illuminations are going up. Garden gnomes may have fallen out of fashion, but their seasonal equivalent, inflatable Santas, are very much in evidence. There are some pockets of tasteful conformity, where entire streets observe a “house style”, but mostly it’s a delightful free-for-all. If levels of outdoor decoration reflect a state of mind in the way that rising hemlines are said to mirror economic prosperity, then the mood here among us suburbanites is one of grim defiance.Apart from three years at university and a gap year in New Zealand, I have always lived in the suburbs, within a small triangle of southeast London – Croydon in the west, Bromley in the east and Norwood in the north. (I know that for postal purposes Croydon is Surrey, but administratively and spiritually it’s south London.) When you are a child, your own life seems normal, so it was quite some time before I realised that Croydon – fictionalised by PG Wodehouse as Mitching, “a foul hole” – had a reputation for architectural mediocrity, that the suburbs in general with their crazy-paving and curtain twitching were despised by both city and country and that having been born there was something which would need repeated apology over the years. Continue reading...

Staff at zoo in Belgium investigating cause of infections, which could be first reported cases in species

Caution is sensible when so much is unknownThe race is on to understand the new variant identified by scientists in South Africa and Botswana, dubbed Omicron (the next Greek letter was “nu”, but this could have been mistaken for “new”). Fears include greater spread, worse disease or reduced effectiveness of treatments and vaccines.Increased transmission can arise from two factors. First, there is an intrinsic advantage, with a heightened “basic reproduction number” R0; in a susceptible population, that is the average number of people each case infects, although after 20 months of pandemic this has become a notional concept. It was around 3 for the original wild-type virus, compared to around 6 for Delta and possibly rather more for Omicron. Continue reading...

Our planet’s geology shaped life on Earth. But now scientists reveal it worked the other way around tooThe mighty forces that created our planet’s mountains in ancient days got some unexpected help, scientists have discovered. Their research shows some of Earth’s greatest ranges got a boost from primitive lifeforms whose remains lubricated movements of rock slabs and allowed them to pile up to form mountains.If it had not been for life on Earth, the surface of our planet would have been flatter and a lot more boring, say scientists at Aberdeen and Glasgow universities where the research was carried out. Continue reading...

Scientists are racing to establish the variant’s transmissibility, effect on immune system and chance of hospitalisation or deathThree major issues will determine the magnitude of the impact of the new Omicron variant of the Covid virus will have on the nation and the rest of the planet. What is the transmissibility of this new Covid variant? How good is it at evading the antibodies and T-cells that make up a person’s immune defences? What are the chances it will trigger severe illness that could lead to the hospitalisation, and possibly death, of an infected person?Scientists are struggling to find definitive answers to these critically important questions, although evidence already suggests Omicron has the potential to cause serious disruption. “The situation is very finely tuned and could go in many different directions,” says Prof Rowland Kao of Edinburgh University. Continue reading...

US company faces scrutiny over Covid profits after UK agrees to secrecy clause

People most vulnerable to Omicron would reportedly be offered experimental pill within 48 hours of testing positiveThe first at-home treatment for Covid-19 could reportedly be offered to UK patients before Christmas as an attempt to protect the most vulnerable from the Omicron variant.The Sunday Telegraph reported that Sajid Javid is set to launch a national pilot of the Molnupiravir antiviral pill, marketed as Lagevrio. Continue reading...

Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of Wellcome Trust, suggests emergence of Omicron variant means pandemic is far from over

If we keep allowing this virus to spread through unvaccinated populations, the next variant could be even more deadly

Are dreams a message from the soul or meaningless ‘brain farts’? Groups dedicated to interpretation are thrivingJason DeBord regrets the demise of an old parlour game once much-loved in the 19th century: What Did I Eat Last Night? It involved a player recounting their dreams – recorded in a journal upon waking – as an audience was challenged to guess what dream-provoking food they had consumed for the previous night’s supper, be it stilton, rarebit or undercooked or cured meats (all understood to be culprits when it came to colourful dreaming).“Maybe you had eaten rare beef and then you dream about cows, you know, chasing you,” explains DeBord. “It sounds like a blast, doesn’t it? I’d have loved to have played that game.” Continue reading...

In this quasi-religious programme, ‘working the steps’ is the remedy for any problem, but for me the cracks soon started to showEight of us sat together in a circle in a wooden shed, an outbuilding at a large country house, somewhere in the south of England. The door was ajar, and spring light flooded the room. “Can anyone name any treatment methods for addiction, other than the 12 steps?” asked a counsellor.“Cognitive behavioural therapy?” offered a patient. Continue reading...

We were looking forward to a summer of relative normality, then along came a new coronavirus variant

Government scientists issue stark warning on Omicron as UK reports more than 50,000 cases for second day in a row. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global Covid live blog for further updates

As new strain dampens idea pandemic might be diminishing, what does the future hold for coronavirus?

Rich nations are again raising barriers to ending the pandemic – politicians, globally, must follow the science and act together

Growing number of countries are exploring making jabs compulsory, but is it the right approach?