Science | The Guardian

Climate scientists believe that if Greenland continues to rapidly melt, tens of millions of people around the world could face yearly flooding and displacement by 2030Many people believed he couldn’t do it. Ski across the Greenland ice sheet, a vast, unmapped, high-elevation plateau of ice and snow? Madness.But Fridtjof Nansen, a young Norwegian, proved them wrong. In 1888, he and his small party went light and fast, unlike two large expeditions a few years before. And unlike the others, Nansen traveled from east to west, giving himself no option of retreat to a safe base. It would be forward or die trying. He did it in seven weeks, man-hauling his supplies and ascending to 8,900ft (2,700 meters) elevation, where summertime temperatures dropped to -49F (-45C). Continue reading...

A couples therapist told me: ‘It can be very shocking to encounter a person you’re unfamiliar with, especially if we don’t like that version’“Daddy, you workin’?” my two-year-old daughter asks throughout the day, as my husband saunters around the living room in a fugue state conducting back-to-back business calls, AirPods locked and loaded, eyes fixed to the middle distance.Charlotte turned one a couple months after New York City entered pandemic lockdown, so for the majority of her life, her parents have been around. Work-life boundaries are so blurry that unless Dave removes his AirPods, which he rarely does during most daylight hours whether or not he’s on a call, she assumes he’s “doing da business”, as she calls it. When she wants to get his attention – like when he’s, say, talking passionately about robots who mow the lawns of commercial spaces and not reading her the book Yummy, Yucky – she’ll occasionally take his AirPods out of his ears, put them in her own, backwards, so she looks like she’s trying to commune with Little Green Men, then walk around the room saying: “Nice to do da business with you!” Continue reading...

Neil Ferguson says immunity levels falling behind other countries that have jabbed 12- to 15-year-olds

£200m project to eliminate avoidable blindness and disfigurement in Africa ends after funding is prematurely axedA chandelier sparkling in the background, the grandeur of Downing Street gleaming behind him, Boris Johnson looks into the camera and speaks with solemnity. He is marking World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, he says, to raise awareness of these “terrible afflictions … which impose an immense burden of suffering in developing countries”.Huge progress has been made, he says, in the fight against the diseases, not least as a result of British aid to some of the poorest parts of the world. But there is more – much more – to be done: more than a billion people are still at risk, he warns, and that is why the UK “fully supports” the World Health Organization’s big elimination push over the next decade. Continue reading...

Autumn in the northern hemisphere is a good time of the year to see Perseus in the evening sky. But rather than simply searching out the constellation, how about watching the star Algol change in brightness? Continue reading...

More than 100,000 volunteers aged between 50 and 77 sought to take part in Galleri blood screeningThe NHS has launched the world’s largest trial of a potentially gamechanging blood test that aims to detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.More than 100,000 volunteers are being sought to provide blood samples at mobile test clinics in regions across England from Monday to assess how well the test works in the health service. Continue reading...

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Exclusive: Labour says analysis exposes ‘gaping flaw’ in PM’s plan to resolve social care crisisNearly 70,000 people in England are likely to die waiting for access to adult social care before the changes revealed this week by Boris Johnson come into force, reveals analysis that Labour says “exposes a gaping flaw” in the plan.Criticism has continued to mount after the prime minister announced a 1.25% tax to be paid by workers and businesses aimed at finally resolving the social care crisis he promised he had a strategy to fix more than two years ago on the steps of Downing Street. Continue reading...

The Covid-induced lockdown is amplifying disadvantage in areas already struggling from poor long-term health outcomes

The calculations behind filling supermarket shelves are dizzyingly complex – but it all starts with the x and y you know from schoolNando’s put it succinctly on its Twitter feed last month: “The UK supply chain is having a bit of a mare right now.” Getting things on to supermarket shelves, through your letterbox or into a restaurant kitchen has certainly become problematic of late. It’s hard to know exactly where to pin the blame, though Covid and Brexit have surely played a part. What we can do is give thanks for algebra, because things would be so much worse without it.It’s likely that you have mixed feelings about algebra. Even if you could knuckle down and manage it in school, you probably wondered why it was important to solve an equation involving x raised to the power of 2 or why you should want to find a and b when a + b = 3 and 2a – b = 12. You might even feel that your scepticism has been vindicated: the chances are that you have never done algebra in your post-school life. But that doesn’t mean that the jumble of letters, numbers and missing things that we call algebra is useless. Whether it’s supermarket groceries, a new TV or a parcel from Aunt Emily, they all reach your home through some attempt to solve an equation and find the missing number. Algebra is the maths that delivers. Continue reading...

Clinicians tend to pay less attention to how patients with severe illness do once they are out of mortal danger, or once symptoms extend beyond an arbitrary time frameIn recent months, long Covid has received a great deal of media and public attention. Research has found that as many as one in four of those infected with Covid – perhaps millions of people in the US alone – suffer from chronic long-term symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, abdominal pain, heart problems, fatigue, anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment and other conditions.Related: When it comes to breakthrough cases, are we ignoring long Covid once again? | Hannah Davis Continue reading...

Novelist campaigns for statue of terrier experimented on by scientists to regain its place in a London parkAn animal in peril can inflame British public opinion like nothing else. Nearly 120 years ago, the fate of one small brown dog caused rioting in the streets of London, to say nothing of the protest marches to Trafalgar Square and questions asked in parliament.Now the astonishing, little-known story – involving anti-vivisectionist campaigners, an eminent doctor, a legal battle and a controversial memorial statue in a park – is the subject of a new book and of a fresh campaign to honour the lowly terrier at the heart of it all. Continue reading...

The Pentagon has been quietly investigating unidentified flying objects since 2007. The fact that they think they might exist is good news to those who claim to have seen themIn June, the US government published a long-awaited report into UFOs. Although the report did not, as many had hoped, admit to the existence of little green men, it did reveal that not only were objects appearing in our skies that the Pentagon – which controls the US military – could not explain, but some clearly pose “a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security”.The Pentagon also revealed that it has been taking UFOs so seriously that in 2007 it discreetly set up the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which has been gathering data on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) ever since. Continue reading...

Stock schemes are a nice perk but they inevitably link workers’ happiness with the fluctuating priceInvestor types like to pretend that trading shares is an emotion-free science. Apparently, it’s a serious business and definitely not a socially acceptable form of gambling for the upper-middle class. Back in the real world, it’s called playing the stock market for a reason, and lots of emotion was involved this year when Redditors sent shares in GameStop soaring (and the mood of regulators and hedge funds plummeting).Now it’s common knowledge that a rising stock market improves public wellbeing – everyone perks up during a boom. Unsurprisingly, the impact is biggest for those with lots of shares, for good or ill: big shareholders saw the biggest rise in depression and antidepressant use during the great recession. Continue reading...

Experts say screening smokers and ex-smokers would significantly reduce mortality rate from diseaseScreening smokers and ex-smokers could dramatically reduce deaths from lung cancer – Britain’s biggest cancer killer – a major new study has found.Low-dose computerised tomography (CT) scans can detect tumours in people’s lungs early and cut deaths by 16%, according to the UK Lung Cancer Screening Trial (UKLS). Continue reading...

The Liverpool site will work with other international centres to research the threat of emerging disruptive diseasesA new scientific institute which aims to prevent future pandemics might have been able to save thousands of lives by accelerating vaccine development had it existed before December 2019, its researchers believe.Liverpool’s new Pandemic Institute will include a new human challenge facility, where volunteers will test new vaccines and treatments under controlled conditions. Continue reading...

The behaviour geneticist explains how biology could have an influence on academic attainment – and why she takes an anti-eugenics approachKathryn Paige Harden argues how far we go in formal education – and the huge knock-on effects that has on our income, employment and health – is in part down to our genes. Harden is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she leads a lab using genetic methods to study the roots of social inequality. Her provocative new book is The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality.To even talk about whether there might be a genetic element to educational attainment and social inequality breaks a huge social taboo – particularly on the political left, which is where you say your own sympathies lie. The spectre of eugenics looms large, and no one wants to create a honeypot for racists and classists. To be clear, it is scientifically baseless to make any claims about differences between racial groups, including intelligence, and you are not doing that. But why go here?

While Covid sent many firms to the wall, others prospered by spotting opportunities, from test kits to mask coatingsThe pandemic has taken a heavy toll on business, gutting high streets as familiar names fell into receivership. But for some less well-known firms, the past 18 months have been transformational. Those that have thrived did so by carving out a new niche – with products as varied as Covid sequencing technology kits and surgical masks with virus-killing coatings. We asked some of them about the year everything changed. Continue reading...

Coming to terms with the loss of my friend Amy Winehouse, amid the media frenzy that surrounded her death, has taken me 10 yearsGod knows what I must have looked like: a bedraggled 25-year-old dressed as a psychedelic game hunter with glitter smeared across my face crying hysterically in a Cambridgeshire field. It was 4pm on 23 July 2011, and a friend of mine had broken the news to me: Amy was dead. I was totally inconsolable, while around me fellow-revellers danced.It was the Saturday of Secret Garden Party and my friends had been deliberating among themselves how best to tell me. Their hands were forced when they realised it was about to be announced on the festival stage. In the end, a guy called Jamie opted for directness: “Amy Winehouse is dead.” Continue reading...

NSW records 1,599 new coronavirus cases and eight more deaths, while ACT chief minister Andrew Barr reports 15 new infections

US researchers say teenagers are more likely to get vaccine-related myocarditis than end up in hospital with Covid

The Ig Nobels are a reminder that Jonathan Swift was wrong about reason. Without research driven by curiosity, there would be far fewer breakthroughsIn Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift mocked the assumption that the scientific revolution had transformed European culture for the better. The satirical novel, published in 1726, has its eponymous hero stumbling upon “the Academy” in the fictional city of Lagado, and pokes fun at the idea that a scientific temperament could be useful. Swift describes pointless experiments to extract sunbeams from cucumbers and to build houses from the roof downwards. His book is laced with sardonic wit. But unorthodox, even absurd, thinking is necessary for science to progress.That point has been underlined by this week’s winners of the Ig Nobel prize, established in 1991 by an American magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research. One of the honoured investigations this year was by Robin Radcliffe, of Cornell University, who looked at whether it was safer to transport an anesthetised rhinoceros upside down airborne or lying on its side on a sledge. Prof Radcliffe showed animals’ health would not be jeopardised by being hung by their legs beneath a helicopter, a technique becoming more popular in African conservation. Continue reading...

Mark Drakeford, first minister, insists it is possible to avoid further lockdowns if people behave sensibly

The multi-national International Space Station gets it story told through the men and women who worked on itWith such strong base-level material, you could hardly go wrong, and so it proves with this history of the International Space Station, which has been orbiting the Earth 250 miles up since 1998. This is very much the authorised version, told largely through interviews with a select multi-national group of the over 200 astronauts who have spent time on it. With copious footage of rockets blasting off, the ISS streaking along above the atmosphere, and many God-shots of Earth itself, this has the awe-generators turned up to 11.The interviewees are of perhaps slightly less dramatically impressive character, despite their undoubted achievements – possessing a workable sense of humour doesn’t seem to be high on astronaut qualification lists. They are not especially well-served by the film-makers’ embellishments, with over-produced childhood-memory sequences, distracting musical choices on the soundtrack, and bland segment-introduction quotes. Still, they are empathetic enough, especially when the accent is on their personal and family experiences: standout, surely, is Cady Coleman, who went to the ISS in 1995, and her glass-blower husband Josh Simpson, who both speak movingly of the crisis of separation. Continue reading...

Prof Katalin Karikó of BioNTech says she endured decades of scepticism over her work on mRNA vaccines

Gilbert suggests extra doses should go instead to countries with low vaccination rates

Groundbreaking studies into how well beards soften punches to the face, the benefits of transporting rhinoceroses upside down, and orgasms as a nasal decongestant have taken one of the most coveted awards in science: the Ig Nobel prize. Not to be confused with Nobel awards, the Ig Nobels celebrate the quirkier realms of science, rewarding research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think

Leaked supply document reveals clauses to protect US pharma company from legal action in the event of serious side-effects

The US diseases expert has been spoofed by Brad Pitt and lauded as the ‘sexiest man alive’. Now the pop culture phenomenon is the focus of a documentaryBeer and bobbleheads. Candles, colouring books, cupcakes and cushions. Dolls, doughnuts, hoodies, mugs and socks. T-shirts and yard signs that declare “Dr Fauci is my hero” and “In Fauci we trust”.Anthony Fauci, an 80-year-old scientist, doctor and public servant, has become an unlikely cult hero for millions of people during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

Patients in England first to benefit from Sotorasib after drug proven to halt growth of tumours for seven monthsLung cancer patients in England will become the first in Europe to benefit from a “revolutionary” new drug that can halt the growth of tumours by targeting the so-called “Death Star” mutation.The medication, Sotorasib, will be fast-tracked to NHS patients after it was proven in clinical trials to stop lung cancer growing for seven months. Continue reading...

Research from the more unusual realms of science is recognised every year at this alternative awards ceremonyGroundbreaking studies into how well beards soften punches to the face, the benefits of transporting rhinoceroses upside down, and orgasms as a nasal decongestant were honoured on Thursday night with one of the most coveted awards in science: the Ig Nobel prize.Not to be confused with the more prestigious – and lucrative – Nobel awards, to be announced from Stockholm and Oslo next month, the Ig Nobels celebrate the quirkier realms of science, rewarding research that first makes people laugh and then makes them think. Continue reading...

Government awaits JCVI decision as MHRA says third jab of Pfizer or AstraZeneca would be safe

Business founded in 2005 has won contracts worth £144m from the UK government during pandemicOxford Nanopore, whose Covid-19 technology was snapped up by the UK government and used to track variants of the virus globally, has unveiled its plans to float in one of the biggest London debuts this year.The company, a startup spun out from Oxford University, hopes to exceed a £2.4bn valuation achieved at a fundraising round in May. It has laid out plans to tap into the growing genomic sequencing market, estimated to be worth $5.7bn globally. Its revenues more than doubled to £114m last year, from £52m in 2019. It is aiming to reduce its losses to break even in the next five years. Continue reading...

Research shows there is a ‘sweet spot’ and subjective wellbeing drops off after about five hoursThe lesson of Goldilocks, that one can have too much of a good thing, even when it comes to the size of a chair, has applied in fields from astrobiology to economics. Now, it seems it may even govern our free time.Researchers have found that while levels of subjective wellbeing initially rise as free time increases, the trend does not necessarily hold for very high levels of leisure. Continue reading...

Covid vaccine production is now so high that millions of doses risk going to waste while poorer countries struggle for supplies

Creators of next-generation genome sequencing take science’s most lucrative awardTwo British researchers have won the most lucrative prize in science for work that dramatically improved the speed and reduced the cost of reading DNA, the molecular instructions for life.Sir Shankar Balasubramanian and Sir David Klenerman, both professors at the University of Cambridge, share the $3m (£2.2m) Breakthrough prize in life sciences with Pascal Mayer, the founder of the French firm Alphanosos, for creating next-generation genome sequencing, or NGS. Continue reading...

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is recommending that a third jab be offered to people with weakened immune systems but the programme and rollout are different to the Covid vaccine boosters expected to be discussed by the JCVI later on Thursday. Shivani Dave speaks to Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, and the Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis about the distinctions between booster jabs and third jabs

Crew in Russian segment report smoke and smell of burnt plastic possibly linked to battery rechargeFire and smoke alarms went off at the Russian segment of the International Space Station in the early hours of Thursday, and the crew reported noticing smoke and the smell of burnt plastic.Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the incident took place in the Russian-built Zvezda module and occurred as the station’s batteries were being recharged. Continue reading...

How contagious is the Delta Covid variant? Take charge of this interactive and watch how small changes in isolation or reproduction rates of Covid-19 can affect our battle against it.One important characteristic of viruses and other pathogens is how contagious or infectious they are. One key measure of this is the R0, or basic reproduction number, which indicates how many new cases one infected person generates.

I thought these delicacies were just a well-kept Croatian secret, but it seems ‘the chicken of the woods’ has been growing nearer to home all the timeI have an excellent mushroom supplier in Croatia. Her name is Meri and she is well into her 70s. It’s really good gear she gets me, I promise you. I would put you in touch, but I want to keep this precious source to myself. These aren’t magic mushrooms, by the way, but these mushrooms are magic. They have a texture as meaty as any meat I remember eating back when I ate meat. They are known as vrbovača after the (willow) tree they grow on. She buys them in the spring in Osijek, in eastern Croatia, freezes them and brings them to the coast in the summer.I always assumed these were a little-known local secret, but it turns out these devastatingly delicious things are everywhere, which begs the question: why aren’t we eating them all the time? Laetiporus sulphureus is, strictly speaking, a bracket fungus, and it is more commonly known as chicken of the woods. I have only ever come across it once in the UK, as a starter in a fancy restaurant in west London. I was disappointed with the tiny threads I was served; my Meri’s Laetiporus sulphureus are bigger than the plate this starter was served on. Continue reading...

Rock core, along with other samples, could one day be destined to Earth for analysisNasa’s Perseverance rover has successfully collected its first rock sample from Mars. If all goes to plan, this sample, along with many others, could one day be brought back to Earth for analysis. Continue reading...

Australian National University researchers find no evidence of airborne transmission for pathogens such as Covid in public bathrooms

In early 2020, we snapped into crisis mode to respond to emerging disaster. Now, 18 months on, some are reaching their limitTasmanian premier Peter Gutwein has just reduced his work commitments to focus on his health and has handed over several portfolios to colleagues. “Basically, after working 46 days straight, which culminated in the finalisation and delivery of the budget, it’s as simple as this – my body’s not a machine. I hit the wall and I was quite unwell,” he said.Last year, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews fronted the media for conferences for 120 days straight. He paused briefly once Victoria entered a swing of doughnut days, and in a more protracted and catastrophic manner after breaking ribs and fracturing vertebrae in a fall. Continue reading...

When Dr Andrew Hill’s team questioned the efficacy of ivermectin, the reaction from the anti-vaccination movement was shockingDr David Bauer reports that the anti-vaccination movement is distorting his scientific results (As a virologist I’m shocked my work has been hijacked by anti-vaxxers, 7 September).My Covid-19 research team is also experiencing serious problems. Recently, our results questioned the clinical benefits of a drug called ivermectin. Anti-vaxxers claim that this drug is effective, and so can be used as an alternative to vaccines. However, several of the clinical trials suggesting benefits appear to be fraudulent. There is no evidence for clinical benefits when only high quality clinical trials are included. Continue reading...

Low-grade ventilation system at indoor carnival in Gangelt leading factor in outbreak among partygoersAirborne viruses recycled through a low-grade ventilation system likely created Germany’s first super-spreader event of the Covid-19 pandemic, a CSI-style analysis of a carnival celebration has found.The event at the town hall of Gangelt, a municipality on the border with the Netherlands, was labelled “Germany’s Wuhan” after it was found to be the driver of a major outbreak in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia last year. Continue reading...

Javid also says decision imminent on jabs for 12- to 15-year-olds, and children would be allowed final say on whether to have it

A 49-year-old man died the day after taking his second shot of the vaccine, though authorities said a causal link has not been identified

The Sars-CoV-2 virus cannot keep going beyond about two metres from its host, writes Martin YuilleProf Paul Davies’s headline-grabbing proposal of an invasion by alien viruses (Viruses may exist ‘elsewhere in the universe’, warns scientist, 6 September) may well raise a scientific eyebrow or two.We can be confident that living cells emerged before viruses (on any planet) because viruses are, by definition, obligate parasites: they can only multiply inside a living cell. Even if you say that viruses were originally cells that then became stripped down, you are merely confirming that cells came first. And whereas the cells of some species of plant and animals have evolved to endure extreme conditions, viruses are, by contrast, rather delicate things. For example, the Sars-CoV-2 virus cannot keep going, after leaving its host, beyond about two metres. Even just two light years of intergalactic space is likely to be a bit of a stretch.

Warm-blooded animals are changing beaks, legs and ears to adapt to hotter climate and better regulate temperatureAnimals are increasingly “shapeshifting” because of the climate crisis, researchers have said.Warm-blooded animals are changing their physiology to adapt to a hotter climate, the scientists found. This includes getting larger beaks, legs and ears to better regulate their body temperature. Continue reading...

The rise to a 55-year limit has been welcomed, but some have concerns about the impact on childrenThe 10-year storage limit for freezing embryos, eggs and sperm will be replaced with a right for individuals or couples to keep them for up to a maximum of 55 years.While being a welcome change for many, there are concerns about whether the process is affordable for all and the impact on children of much older parents. Four women around the UK share their views on the announcement. Continue reading...