Science | The Guardian

Covid has put academics like Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance at the heart of government, but smart politicians are essential tooHow many lives would have been saved in the pandemic if the UK government had truly “followed the science”? The question is unanswerable but hardly academic. We cannot accurately quantify how many lives were lost by the politically driven delays to lockdown in the first and second waves, but the number is not small.So would we have done better simply to put scientists in charge of pandemic policy? Might we hand over climate change policy to them, too? In fact, would their evidence-based methods make them better leaders all round? Continue reading...

Vast collection of a trillion stars is farthest celestial object that can be seen with the unaided eyeAs the nights continue to draw in, we can put those darker evenings to good use. It is the beginning of observing season, and for stargazers in the northern hemisphere, there is a celestial jewel to track down: the Andromeda galaxy. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Researchers believe such antibodies could be used to treat people with severe coronavirus

Naomi Kori Pomat, the first female doctor in her province, died in country’s first government-confirmed death of a health worker from virusTributes have poured in for a doctor in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province who died last week, in the country’s first death of a healthcare worker from Covid-19 confirmed by the government.Dr Naomi Kori Pomat, 60, the director for curative health services at the Western Provincial Health Authority (WPHA), was medevaced to Port Moresby after contracting the virus and died on 19 September. Continue reading...

Pandemic behind biggest fall in life expectancy in western Europe since second world war, say researchersThe Covid pandemic has caused the biggest decrease in life expectancy in western Europe since the second world war, according to a study.Data from most of the 29 countries – spanning most of Europe, the US and Chile – that were analysed by scientists recorded reductions in life expectancy last year and at a scale that wiped out years of progress. Continue reading...

Thanks for following along – this blog is now closed. You can catch up with the latest coronavirus coverage here.11.45pm BSTAn estimated 2.5 million blood tests to diagnose diabetes were missed during the first six months of the pandemic, according to a study by The Benchmarking Partnership.The research group also said a further 1.4 million routine blood tests which enable diabetic people to manage their condition were missed or delayed from the day of the first national lockdown on March 23, until September 30 2020.11.44pm BSTThanks for following along – this blog is now closed. You can catch up with the latest coronavirus coverage here. Continue reading...

Pioneering psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who specialised in studying the effects of stillbirth on women’s mental healthThe psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Stanford Bourne, who has died aged 92 of congestive cardiac failure, broke the silence in the 1960s surrounding the anguish of stillbirth. His work opened up discussion, addressed medical bias, and guided doctors and midwives towards a more compassionate approach.In the 60s, 18,000 women a year had a stillborn baby, but it was cloaked in secrecy. Well-meaning staff quickly removed babies before parents could see, name or hold them, and they were “disposed of” – cremated or buried with nothing to mark the spot. Parents were expected to stifle their grief and often urged to “try for another”. 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 conceptsIf the Earth were flat, how would our lives be different?

Adolescents always liked hanging out together, as new evidence of human activity from more than 20,000 years ago revealsThe White Sands of New Mexico have been a popular tourist attraction for a remarkably long time. Modern travellers come to gaze at the vistas of glistening, pure dunes of gypsum that stretch for miles in all directions.But previous visitors had very different goals. Thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens came here to hunt giant sloths, mammoths and other megafauna. In doing so, they left signs of their presence whose analysis now promises to transform our understanding of the populating of our planet. Continue reading...

The biotechnology is comparable to traditional breeding methods and vital to create livestock resistant to disease, droughts and heatwaves, says groupLeading UK researchers, vets and farmers have urged ministers to free livestock science of unnecessary legal curbs as the country prepares, post-Brexit, to ease gene-editing rules. Such a move would allow the creation of new breeds of animals resistant to disease, heat and drought, they argue.The government is expected to propose easing gene-editing restrictions in the near future to enable the creation of new generations of crops. However, the group – which has written to the environment secretary, George Eustice – worries there is less interest in using the technology to create new breeds of pigs, cows and poultry. Continue reading...

Whistled languages exist on every inhabited continent – now some scientists think similar dialects could have preceded the spoken wordFor centuries, shepherds from the small village of Aas in the French Pyrenees led their sheep and cattle up to mountain pastures for the summer months. To ease the solitude, they would communicate with each other or with the village below in a whistled form of the local Gascon dialect, transmitting and receiving information accurately over distances of up to 10 kilometres.They “spoke” in simple phrases – “What’s the time?”, “Come and eat,”, “Bring the sheep home” – but each word and syllable was articulated as in speech. Outsiders often mistook the whistling for simple signalling (“I’m over here!”), and the irony, says linguist and bioacoustician Julien Meyer of Grenoble Alpes University in France, is that the world of academia only realised its oversight around the middle of the 20th century, just as the whistled language of Aas was dying on the lips of its last speakers. Continue reading...

Neither actor nor Blue Origin has commented on mission as some point out report appears same day as promotion for his new albumHe was once Starfleet’s youngest captain, a fearless explorer leading the USS Enterprise on an intergalactic odyssey. Now the actor who famously portrayed Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek for four decades is reportedly set to boldly go on a real-life space adventure – at the age of 90.Related: ‘Take it easy, nothing matters in the end’: William Shatner at 90, on love, loss and Leonard Nimoy Continue reading...

Finding a humorous angle to some of my darkest episodes – and sharing them with strangers – was strangely cathartic“Have you gone mad?” asked one friend. “You’re so brave. I could never do that. Wouldn’t meditation be wiser?” said another. For someone with a long history of depression and anxiety, plus a morbid fear of public speaking, taking up standup comedy might seem like a masochistic decision. Yet to me it makes perfect sense. Excruciating fear of failure is at the heart of most people’s aversion to attempting to make a room full of strangers laugh. But controlling that fear, and not succumbing to it, is the central reason I’ve chosen to expose myself in this very public and potentially humiliating way.I grew up in comfortable, middle-class suburban Hertfordshire in the 1970s and 80s, but my upbringing was a complex one of emotional uncertainty. Years of therapy have lent me an understanding of how I learned to cope over the years. To avoid facing difficult issues during my childhood and teenage years I buried my emotions, and that evasion only escalated in adulthood. By my early 20s, I was mentally ill-equipped to deal with life’s thornier challenges. Continue reading...

Astrophysicist Jacco van Loon on the hunt for alien life, why logic can solve the climate crisis and what happens when the sun becomes a red giantFor years, astrophysicists have been saying that alien life must exist, but finding out where and in what form has proved elusive. We may be edging closer: a team from the University of Cambridge has discovered a new class of habitable planets they claim will lead to evidence of life in the next three years. Is ET out there? Or is this search, like that for the holy grail, more about us than them? I asked Jacco van Loon, astrophysicist and director of Keele Observatory in Staffordshire, for his opinion.Hi Jacco! Explain your job as though I were five years old.

Studies suggesting ivermectin is an effective Covid treatment relied on evidence ‘that has substantially evaporated under close scrutiny’, fresh research shows

Scientific community is outraged, saying charges of organised crime are an attempt by Mexico’s president to silence themMexico’s scientific community has reacted with outrage after the country’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for 31 scientists, researchers and academics on accusations of organised crime, money laundering and embezzlement – charges that could land them alongside drug cartel kingpins in one of the country’s most notorious lockups.A judge at the maximum security Altiplano prison – from which Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán escaped in 2015 – denied granting the arrest warrants on Wednesday. But the federal prosecutor immediately announced plans to pursue arrest warrants for the third time. Continue reading...

Prof Jonathan Green and Prof Andrew Whitehouse explain some of the implications of their autism therapy trialJames Cusack’s piece on the results of our new autism therapy trial (A new therapy for children who may have autism risks carrying a hidden cost, 22 September) points out some paradoxes of progress, and the need for ongoing conversation.This therapy works with parents (not the infant at all) to help their awareness and responsiveness to infant differences in communication, restoring a “synchrony” in their reciprocal interaction – the theory being that positive developmental outcomes will naturally flow. And this indeed is what we find happens. Contrary to any sense of “opposing” autism, it cherishes neurodiversity by attending to and understanding it, giving equal opportunity to these infants for an adapted and responsive social environment. The positive developmental outcomes we see are simply a consequence of getting this early communication right; the infant is able to benefit like any child from an adapted social environment. The children continued to be neurodivergent with developmental difficulties but these were more likely to be reduced below a clinical autism threshold. Continue reading...

Experiment aims to address a gender gap where most space medicine research has been carried out on menIt may sound like a prolonged spa break but when 20 women tuck themselves into a waterbed in the south of France for five days this week, it will be under the guise of a scientific study into the impact of space flight on the female body.The experiment, by the European Space Agency, will simulate the impact of microgravity on the musculoskeletal system, immune and cardiovascular health and hormone levels. With an increasing number of female astronauts participating in long-duration missions the immersion study is aimed at addressing a gender gap where the vast majority of space medicine research has been carried out on men. Continue reading...

The UK’s first ever cancer research exhibition pairs up patients with researchers to show the creative paths taken on the cutting edge of human discoveryShortly before the pandemic hit, I found myself dressed in a red lab coat, trying to find a cure for blood cancer. Although that might be overstating things a little. It’s Professor Dominique Bonnet who is at the cutting edge of cancer research, whereas I was just tagging along for a day at the Francis Crick Institute, hoping to get a feel for what a career in the laboratory looks like.It was a fascinating experience, especially seeing how Bonnet’s work could be surprisingly hands-on. I learned that she uses sponges of collagen in her research because the material is so similar to the bone marrow in which our blood cells are made. By dipping these tiny sponges into human stromal cells and then inserting them into the backs of mice to develop naturally, scientists are better able to monitor how cancer progresses and reacts to certain interventions. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sponges can be removed afterwards, leaving the mice unharmed, although of course other cancer research is not able to be as humane. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Listen to the experts, says deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam, not the celebritiesThey didn’t ask for the spotlight, and sometimes they didn’t always seem comfortable under the media glare.But the scientists who came into our lives at the start of the coronavirus pandemic became household names. None more so than Prof Jonathan Van-Tam. Continue reading...

Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein attempt to show how human nature is at odds with modern society, but their science, and style, gratesImagine discovering a fence in the middle of a desert. Not immediately seeing its purpose, you might think: “Let’s get rid of this useless fence!” But are you sure about that? Maybe you’re at the edge of a field of angry wildebeest, and by removing the fence you’ll leave yourself vulnerable to be crushed, Mufasa-style, in a stampede. Better to first find out why the fence is there before attempting to tear it down.So goes the argument made by GK Chesterton in 1929: you should try to understand things before changing them. The evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein – whom some readers might remember from 2017, when they resigned from Evergreen College in Washington State after a dramatic culture-war flareup – have written a book that takes Chesterton’s fence as its central metaphor. By disregarding the facts of evolved human nature, they argue, the modern world in all its novelty has destroyed the proverbial fence, leaving us unhealthy, miserable and heading for societal collapse. Continue reading...

After 18 months of social distancing, scientists believe people’s immune defences have weakenedThe return of schools and the arrival of autumn means common colds and other respiratory infections are firmly on the rise, spreading coughs and sneezes, more severe illnesses, and prompting some to report their worst colds ever.According to Public Health England, there is no particularly nasty new virus doing the rounds, but as cases rise, experts warn that people can expect more frequent infections and more serious symptoms now the UK is emerging from lockdown. Continue reading...

Ancient tracks found in New Mexico are believed to be between 21,000 and 23,000 years old, study saysNew scientific research conducted by archaeologists has uncovered what they believe are the oldest known human footprints in North America.Research done at the White Sands national park in New Mexico discovered the ancient footprints, with researchers estimating that the tracks were between 21,000 and 23,000 years old, reported Science. Continue reading...

Described by another expert as a ‘fantastic life-saving idea’, the simple procedure could save lives by stopping catastrophic blood loss from shark bites

Extraordinary ankylosaur remains dating back 168m years a first for AfricaFossil hunters have unearthed remnants of the oldest – and probably weirdest – ankylosaur known so far from a site in the Middle Atlas mountains in Morocco.The remains of the heavily armoured animal are extraordinary in being the first to have defensive spikes that are fused to the skeleton, a feature researchers say is unprecedented in the animal kingdom. Continue reading...

Since the start of the pandemic, face coverings and their ability to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 have been under constant scrutiny by scientists, politicians and the public. More than a year and a half in, what do – and don’t – we know? Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Cath Noakes about how effective different face coverings are, how best to use them, and when we should be masking-up Continue reading...

Hopes that breakthrough marks new era where artificial intelligence can develop treatments for all types of cancerScientists have successfully used artificial intelligence to create a new drug regime for children with a deadly form of brain cancer that has not seen survival rates improve for more than half a century.The breakthrough, revealed in the journal Cancer Discovery, is set to usher in an “exciting” new era where AI can be harnessed to invent and develop new treatments for all types of cancer, experts say. Continue reading...

Study using DNA analysis reveals not only are statues on these distant islands connected, but inhabitants tooEaster Island’s famous megaliths have relatives on islands thousands of miles to the north and west, and so did the people who created them, a study has found.Over a 250-year period separate groups of people set out from tiny islands east of Tahiti to settle Easter Island, the Marquesas and Raivavae – archipelagos that are thousands of miles apart but all home to similar ancient statues. Continue reading...

Researchers say children’s mouthing behaviour and products such as bottles may be to blameInfants have more microplastics in their faeces than adults, a study has found.Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5mm in size that have been released into the environment from the breakage of bigger plastic objects. They are a threat to the environment because they do not easily biodegrade, and recent research has found them in dust, food, fruit, bottled water and, as a result, animal and human faeces. Continue reading...

Support that boosts toddlers’ social development can lead to them missing out on a diagnosis that secures ongoing help

New music download patterns appear to closely resemble epidemic curves for infectious disease, study findsPop music is often described as catchy, but it seems you really can infect friends with your music taste. The pattern of music downloads after their release appears to closely resemble epidemic curves for infectious disease – and electronica appears to be the most infectious genre of all.Dora Rosati, lead author of the study and former graduate in maths and statistics at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada along with colleagues, wondered whether they could learn anything about how songs become popular using mathematical tools that are more usually applied to study the spread of infectious diseases. Continue reading...

While food labels are nothing new, a different type that calculates the environmental cost has had a surprising effect on consumersIt’s lunchtime at a workplace cafeteria in Birmingham, and employees returning to work after months away during the coronavirus pandemic are noticing something has changed. Next to the sandwiches and hot and cold dishes is a small globe symbol, coloured green, orange or red with a letter in the centre from A to E. “Meet our new eco-labels”, a sign reads.Researchers at Oxford University have analysed the ingredients in every food item on the menu and given the dishes an environmental impact score, vegetable soup (an A) to the lemon, spring onion, cheese and tuna bagel (an E). Continue reading...

Study’s lead author says evidence shows ‘type of dietary fat, or the source of dietary fat, is actually more important than the amount’

The idea of reintroducing mammoths to the Arctic to slow climate change isn’t entirely fanciful, but it does raise deeper ethical concernsLast week I woke up to a string of notifications alerting me to the news a biotech company had secured US$15m (A$20.6m) to underwrite a scheme to recreate mammoths with a view to reintroducing them onto the Arctic tundra.The reason for the flurry of emails and messages wasn’t that the story seemed like something out of a science fiction novel, it was that it was something out of a science fiction novel; specifically my novel, Ghost Species, which imagines the consequences of just such a scheme. Continue reading...

The rare document, which records attempts to explain an anomaly in the orbit of Mercury, is ‘a fascinating dive into the mind of the greatest scientist of the 20th century’A crucial series of Albert Einstein’s calculations, scrawled down as the physicist struggled to account for an anomaly in the orbit of Mercury while developing his theory of general relativity, is set to be auctioned for an eye-watering estimate of up to €3m.Christie’s France and auction house Aguttes, who will auction the manuscript in Paris on 23 November for an estimate of €2m-€3m, said it documents a crucial stage in the development of the theory of general relativity, and is “without doubt the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever offered at auction”. Continue reading...

Self-amplifying mRNA jab aims to trigger immune response towards virus’s spike and non-spike proteins

In Germany, flying insects have declined by 76% in 26 years. In the UK, common butterfly populations have fallen by 46% since 1976. We should be alarmed by this insect apocalypseInsects have been around for more than 400m years, their ancestors crawling from the oceans to colonise the land long before dinosaurs appeared. They have been enormously successful, evolving into a staggering diversity of more than 1m known species, with perhaps as many as another 4m yet to be described by science. There are more than 300,000 different types of beetle alone. I have been obsessed by insects for all of my life; they are amazing, are often beautiful, and lead fascinating, peculiar lives.What’s more, the world would not function without these tiny creatures: they pollinate our plants; control pests; recycle all sorts of organic material from dung to corpses, tree trunks and leaves; keep the soil healthy; disperse seeds, and much more. They are a vital source of food for many larger creatures such as birds, bats, lizards, amphibians and fish. Continue reading...

Current modelling informing national reopening plan was conducted before all aspects of deadlier variant were known

Moccas Park, Herefordshire: One of Britain’s finest woods illustrates that nature cannot be easily measured by net gainI’m wary of the way that the new government formula of net gain is being bandied to justify all manner of pet projects. It’s intended to ensure developers leave more nature than they subtract, but the value of landscape isn’t easily measured in simple metrics. Oliver Rackham best illustrated the point when he suggested that 10,000 century-old oaks were not equal to one 500-year-old tree.By this equation, Moccas Park would be worth a good portion of the rest of this county because it is full of veteran trees. It is one of Britain’s oldest, finest wood pastures and the moment you step through the gates you’re aware of the element that invariably determines real value in nature – time. Continue reading...

Medical research and practice have long assumed a narrow definition of the ‘default’ human, badly compromising the care of anyone outside that category. How can this be fixed?I met Chris in my first month at a small, hard-partying Catholic high school in north-eastern Wisconsin, where kids jammed cigarettes between the fingers of the school’s lifesize Jesus statue and skipped mass to eat fries at the fast-food joint across the street. Chris and her circle perched somewhere adjacent to the school’s social hierarchy, and she surveyed the adolescent drama and absurdity with cool, heavy-lidded understanding. I admired her from afar and shuffled around the edges of her orbit, gleeful whenever she motioned for me to join her gang for lunch.After high school, we lost touch. I went east; Chris stayed in the midwest. To pay for school at the University of Minnesota, she hawked costume jewellery at Dayton’s department store. She got married to a tall classmate named Adam and merged with the mainstream – became a lawyer, had a couple of daughters. She would go running at the YWCA and cook oatmeal for breakfast. Then in 2010, at the age of 35, she went to the ER with stomach pains. She struggled to describe the pain – it wasn’t like anything she’d felt before. The doctor told her it was indigestion and sent her home. But the symptoms kept coming back. She was strangely tired and constipated. She returned to the doctor. She didn’t feel right, she said. Of course you’re tired, he told her, you’re raising kids. You’re stressed. You should be tired. Frustrated, she saw other doctors. You’re a working mom, they said. You need to relax. Add fibre to your diet. The problems ratcheted up in frequency. She was anaemic, and always so tired. She’d feel sleepy when having coffee with a friend. Get some rest, she was told. Try sleeping pills. Continue reading...

Earlier this month the government announced it will extend the storage limit for those freezing their egg cells from 10 to 55 years. Over the past decade there has been a rapid growth in egg freezing, reaching 2,400 cycles in 2019, and the new rules will allow more freedom in choosing when to freeze – and unfreeze. But, as an expensive, invasive and often unsuccessful procedure, it certainly isn’t the fertility-preserving guarantee that most wish for. Shivani Dave asks if the process is really worth it for those wanting to conceive at a later date Continue reading...

The answer to today’s teaserEarlier today I set you the following puzzle, which was a challenge Russia’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, gave to a class of Russian sixth formers earlier this month.Construct a perpendicular from the (red) point on the circle to the diameter, without using any measuring devices. Continue reading...

Study suggests tailored therapy could help some children develop social skills before school ageDoctors have shown for the first time that a new therapy aimed at infants can reduce autistic behaviour and the likelihood the children will go on to be diagnosed with autism before they reach school age.Infants who received the therapy after displaying early signs of potential autism, such as avoiding eye contact and not responding to their name, were one-third as likely to have autism diagnosed at the age of three, compared with those who had standard care, the researchers found. Continue reading...

Success of species tails off if more than 80% of an area is ideal habitat, in line with Goldilocks principleWhen it comes to creating the ideal habitat for giant pandas to settle down, it seems experts could do worse than heed the tale of the three bears.Researchers have found there is a sweet spot when it comes to aiding gene flow of the animals: it is greatest when 80% of an area is considered an ideal environment for the bears – for example, containing bamboo forests. After that point, models suggest a rapid decline in the success of individuals in spreading out and reproducing. Continue reading...

They may be vine-smothered ruins today, but the lost cities of the ancient tropics still have a lot to teach us about how to live alongside nature. By Patrick Roberts Continue reading...

A terrifying contagion spreads in this chilling South African eco-horror that takes the fun out of fungiThe mushroom is having a moment. Its magical qualities and deep connection with the Earth have been explored in numerous recent releases, including Louie Schwarzberg’s Fantastic Fungi. Also journeying into the curious kingdom of the fungus, this psychedelic eco-horror directed by Jaco Bouwer reimagines the mushroom as an environmental avenger that awes and petrifies all at once.Deep in the belly of the lush Tsitsikamma national park in South Africa, forest ranger Gabi (Monique Rockman) gets seriously injured after stepping on a makeshift trap. Rescued by Barend (Carel Nel) and Stefan (Alex van Dyk), a father-and-son survivalist duo, Gabi soon finds out, to her horror, that they are not alone. Mushrooms of all colours, shapes and sizes are sprouting, not only on trees and inside darkened hollows but also on Gabi’s own body. The contagion is beautiful and macabre, turning the infected into zombie-like creatures covered in colourful spores, blindly roaming around in the dark. Continue reading...

The ruler with a rulerUpdate: The solution can now be read hereEarlier this month, Russia’s Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, marked the first day of the school year by visiting a sixth form maths class at one of his country’s top science-oriented schools.The class was studying a problem about business. “Why do you guys need to do business projects in [school]?” he asked. “Fundamental knowledge is needed here, right?” Continue reading...

This is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox, the day when the lengths of day and night are equalThis week watch for the beautiful harvest moon to rise above the horizon on Tuesday. The harvest moon is defined as the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox.This year, the equinox falls on the 22 September, and the moment of full moon takes place on 21 September at 00.54 BST. The moon will rise from London that evening at 19.37 BST, with 99.8% of its surface illuminated. The nights either side will also present full discs, with almost 99% of the moon’s surface lit. Continue reading...

New drug combination shrunk tumours significantly in 46% of patients with treatment-resistant form of diseaseThousands of women with ovarian cancer could benefit from a revolutionary drug combination after it was shown to shrink tumours in half of patients with an advanced form of the disease.The pair of drugs – which work together to block the signals cancer cells need to grow – could offer a new treatment option for women with a type of ovarian cancer that rarely responds to chemotherapy or hormone therapy. Continue reading...