Agency is being urged to rescind an ‘unworkable’ change that bans preprint material citation, resulting in 32 applicants being deemed ineligible

As back to school looms and in-person teaching returns, there is an expectation that Covid-19 cases will rise, especially among children. In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children aged 12 to 17, but they are still not available to most people in this demographic. Shivani Dave speaks to the Guardian’s science correspondent, Natalie Grover, about why that is the case

Cambridge astronomers identify new hycean class of habitable exoplanets, which could accelerate search for lifeSigns of life beyond our solar system may be detectable within two to three years, experts have said after rethinking the kinds of planets that may be habitable.Researchers have mostly looked for planets of a similar size, mass, temperature and atmospheric composition to Earth. But University of Cambridge astronomers believe there may be more promising possibilities after recent work suggested that a “mini-Neptune” more than twice the radius of Earth and more than eight times as massive may also be habitable. Continue reading...

Remarks follow reports US intelligence study unable to conclude if virus came from animals or a Wuhan lab

‘Eco-friendly’ lights found to be worse than sodium ones – but both contribute to insect decline, says study“Eco-friendly” LED streetlights produce even worse light pollution for insects than the traditional sodium bulbs they are replacing, a study has found.The abundance of moth caterpillars in hedgerows by rural roads in England was 52% lower under LED lights and 41% lower under sodium lights when compared with nearby unlit areas. Continue reading...

Skeleton of hunter-gatherer found in Leang Panninge cave sheds light on ancient human migrationArchaeologists have discovered ancient DNA in the remains of a woman who died 7,200 years ago in Indonesia, a find that challenges what was previously known about migration of early humans.The remains, belonging to a teenager nicknamed Bessé, were discovered in the Leang Panninge cave on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Initial excavations were undertaken in 2015. Continue reading...

Our world and the self are constructions of the brain, a pioneering neuroscientist arguesFor every stoner who has been overcome with profound insight and drawled, “Reality is a construct, maaan,” here is the astonishing affirmation. Reality – or, at least, our perception of it – is a “controlled hallucination”, according to the neuroscientist Anil Seth. Everything we see, hear and perceive around us, our whole beautiful world, is a big lie created by our deceptive brains, like a forever version of The Truman Show, to placate us into living our lives.Our minds invent for us a universe of colours, sounds, shapes and feelings through which we interact with our world and relate to each other, Seth argues. We even invent ourselves. Our reality, then, is an illusion, and understanding this involves tackling the thorny issue of consciousness: what it means to, well, be. Continue reading...

Hospitals received letters threatening large fines after they installed their own onsite O2 plants in response to shortagesIn March 2020, Benjamin Espinoza Zavala saw an entire floor of his small hospital in Guanajuato, central Mexico, converted into Covid-19 wards. The hospital’s need for oxygen soared.Deliveries from CryoInfra, part of the Grupo Infra group, occasionally slowed to once every couple of days, and he had to buy in extra to cover the sudden gaps in supply. Prices increased. Continue reading...

Covid response minister says it would be a waste to stop aiming for elimination after plan was questioned by foreign media

This blog is now closed. You can find all of our coverage of the pandemic here.4.22am BSTThis blog is closing now but thanks very much for reading. We’ll be back in a few hours with more rolling coverage of the pandemic from all around the world.

Scientists are comparing the profiles of those who are dying with previous waves – here’s what they know

Prof J Kiley Hamlin from the International Congress for Infant Studies calls into question a study showing impaired cognition in children, and says there is reason to be optimistic about their resilienceResults from a scientific paper have been racing around the internet like wildfire, perhaps because they confirm parents’ worst fears: infants born during the pandemic show a large and significant reduction in scores on a standard battery of cognitive development tests. Your report (Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds, 12 August) refers to these infants as having “shockingly low” scores, at levels not typically seen “outside of major cognitive disorders”. These are attributed to “lack of stimulation and interaction at home”, and it is suggested that children’s “ability to course-correct” may be limited.The executive board of the International Congress for Infant Studies (ICIS) believes that drawing these sorts of conclusions from this unpublished article is premature and ill-advised. Without denying that there may be negative effects of being born in a pandemic, what we know about infant development suggests that the observed reduction in scores on the cognitive tests is not only implausible, but is also likely to stem from causes that have nothing to do with the main claim. Instead, infants may have performed less well on the test because it was administered by a stranger, wearing a face covering, in an unfamiliar environment – all of which would differentially impact the performance of babies born during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Taiwanese company TiSPACE is planning three launches from South Australia in 2021, amid hopes the event will provide a boost to Australia’s space industry

In mid-June this year, some brands of cat food were recalled as a precaution after a sudden increase in cases of feline pancytopenia, a rare blood disease that can be fatal. Shivani Dave speaks to Daniella Dos Santos, a practicing small animal and exotic pet vet and the senior vice-president of the British Veterinary Association, to understand what the food recall means for cat owners, and to find out how best to feed our feline friends Continue reading...

Sortie will not take place until after SpaceX cargo run this weekend and Russian spacewalks in SeptemberNasa is delaying a spacewalk at the International Space Station because of a medical issue involving one of its astronauts.Officials announced the postponement on Monday, less than 24 hours before Mark Vande Hei was supposed to float outside. Continue reading...

Findings may help explain why incidence of bowel cancer is rising among younger adults in developed regionsChildren of women who were overweight or obese when pregnant have a higher risk of developing bowel cancer in later life, research suggests.Obesity in women has previously been linked to health problems in their offspring. Among them, studies have suggested women who are overweight when trying to conceive are more likely to have a baby with serious birth defects. Continue reading...

Study reinforces the hard evidence that carbon emissions are the main cause of worsening extreme weatherThe record-shattering rainfall that caused deadly flooding across Germany and Belgium in July was made up to nine times more likely by the climate crisis, according to research.The study also showed that human-caused global heating has made downpours in the region up to 20% heavier. The work reinforces the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s landmark report this month that there is “unequivocal” evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main cause of worsening extreme weather. Continue reading...

Researchers are worried the ban on preprint materials in grant proposals will diminish the nation’s scientific potentialThe Australian Research Council says it is “looking into” a controversial rule change that affects academic grant applications, amid growing political pressure and criticism from the Australian research community.More than 600 “concerned members of the Australian research community” have called on the Australian Research Council (ARC) to reconsider a rule that bans applicants from citing preprint material in proposals for funding. Continue reading...

Food and Drug Administration is trying to finish its licensing process for the drugMonday update: FDA gives full approval to Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19Full federal approval of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will empower businesses and universities to require vaccinations and tip hesitant Americans toward getting the jab, the surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, said on Sunday.Related: Breakthrough infections and booster shots: what you need to know Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following three puzzles.1. Late Wittgenstein Continue reading...

As the pace and ambition of space exploration accelerates, preventing Earth-born organisms from hitching a ride has become more urgent than ever. By Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley Continue reading...

PM repeatedly cites the institute’s modelling of 70-80% Covid vaccination rates as Australia’s path to freedom. But what do those numbers really mean?

Five existentialists walk into a bar.Update: solutions can be found hereToday’s three puzzles are mini-dramas featuring well-known philosophers.1. Late Wittgenstein Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. You can find all of our coverage of the pandemic here.12.09am BSTThis blog is closing now but thanks very much for reading. We’ll be back in a few hours with more rolling coverage of the pandemic from all around the world.In the meantime you can catch up with all our coverage of the pandemic here.10.51pm BSTIt started out well enough, writes Rob LeDonne.In the heart of New York City, on Central Park’s Great Lawn, the weather was overcast leading up to We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert, a genre-spanning spectacle produced by the city itself.Related: The show did not go on: storm thwarts Central Park concert celebrating city’s Covid comeback Continue reading...

UK scheme could also illuminate reinfection rates and immunity across different variants, say experts

A simple breakfast with a friend presented a serious dilemma and pointed to both the need and precedent for actionOn Saturday morning I met a friend for breakfast at a local diner. We weren’t sure whether to sit outside because of the surging Delta variant of Covid, or inside because stinging smoke from wildfires consuming northern and western California had spread into the Bay Area.Related: Our Own Worst Enemy review: a caustic diagnosis of America after Trump Continue reading...

JCVI considers lower third jab dosage to release stocks for poorer nations

Whatever this week’s Biden review finds, the cause of the pandemic lies in the destruction of animal habitats

The professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience discusses his work to develop a scientific explanation for how the brain conjures consciousnessFor centuries, philosophers have theorised about the mind-body question, debating the relationship between the physical matter of the brain and the conscious mental activity it somehow creates. Even with advances in neuroscience and brain imaging techniques, large parts of that fundamental relationship remain stubbornly mysterious. It was with good reason that, in 1995, the cognitive scientist David Chalmers coined the term “the hard problem” to describe the question of exactly how our brains conjure subjective conscious experience. Some philosophers continue to insist that mind is inherently distinct from matter. Advances in understanding how the brain functions undermine those ideas of dualism, however.Anil Seth, professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex, is at the leading edge of that latter research. His Ted talk on consciousness has been viewed more than 11m times. His new book, Being You, proposes an idea of the human mind as a “highly evolved prediction machine”, rooted in the functions of the body and “constantly hallucinating the world and the self” to create reality. Continue reading...

Writing a diary is a great way to offload – and, if memory fails, it’s a wonderful window on the pastI still get funny looks from people when I mention that I keep a diary. Maybe the practice strikes them as shifty or weirdly old-fashioned. It’s true that I never feel more furtive than when my wife finds me writing it at our kitchen table – it’s like being spotted entering a confessional box in church. What exactly have I got to tell this black book about a life that we share all day, every day? What secrets can I possibly be keeping?The answer: nothing of any great note, and yet so much of my life is in it. I started writing a journal (as I used to call it) when I went on holiday. Twenty years ago I decided to go full-time and since then I’ve kept it more or less every day. Why? I suppose it began as an experiment – and became an obligation. You can’t hold back time, but you can try to save the past from being completely erased. It often feels trivial to record things as they happen (a stray remark, hearing a song, fleeting moments of doom or delight), but later they may prove useful, or instructive, or amusing. It also maintains the illusion of diligence – that you’re not just pissing away the days. A diary is good exercise for the writing muscle, the way a pianist practises scales or a footballer does keepy-uppies. During lockdown, like everyone else, I got into routines that felt numbing in their repetition and diary-wise left me short of material. I took recourse to discussing the books and box sets I was involved with – not exactly Pepysian, but it got me through. Continue reading...

The lessons top athletes are learning about stress and mental health can help us handle pressure in our own livesIt was going to be the Pandemic Olympics; the cheerless games that would inspire ambivalence at best. And then sport did its thing. Despite the lack of crowds and the looming threat of Covid, Tokyo was amazing. It also became something else: the mental health Olympics.When Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics events, she brought an unprecedented focus on the psychological challenges of elite sport. One of the greatest athletes of all time had decided to prioritise her mind over the will – and enormous pressure – to win. “There is more to life than just gymnastics,” she said. After taking stock in a Tokyo gym, she returned to the beam event, taking a bronze medal in what might have felt like one of her biggest victories. Continue reading...

Gladys Berejiklian reports record high case numbers and Victoria extends lockdown statewide. This blog is now closed

Thousands march through streets of Melbourne and Brisbane, as police try to prevent Sydney rally

This profound meditation on the science of life explores where it has come from and how it evolvesAt a medical research laboratory in California, Alysson Muotri has used chemistry to change skin cells into neurons, which have multiplied to form “organoids” – globes of interconnected brain cells. The organoids can expand to hundreds of thousands of cells, live for years, and even produce detectable patterns of brain waves, like those of premature babies. “The most incredible thing is that they build themselves,” says Muotri. He even wonders whether they could one day become conscious.Such unsettling scientific creations, unknown even 10 years ago, challenge our ideas about life, raising questions for bioethicists and philosophers. As the American science writer Carl Zimmer writes: “Brain organoids are troubling because we feel in our bones that making sense of life should be easy. These clusters of neurons prove that it’s not.” Continue reading...

ACT reports eight new coronavirus cases and cancels Floriade while Queensland records zero

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announces regional lockdown amid 77 new coronavirus cases

This Science Week, Dr Karl encourages parents and children to see ‘the beauty of doing physical experiments right at home’Children and adults alike may be stuck at home during Science Week this year, but that doesn’t mean the pursuit of knowledge has to be put on hold too.Dr Karl Kruszelnicki told Guardian Australia that kids today might have access to a wealth of information with the internet, but getting hands-on takes the next step. Continue reading...

The UK’s most popular expletive has changed after a 27% drop in cursing over 20 yearsSo it’s farewell to bloody Nora. The f-word has become Britain’s most popular swearword, overtaking “bloody”, as the nation’s use of expletives has dropped over the past two decades, a linguistics study has found.Data on the use of 16 swearwords in the 1990s and the 2010s shows the f-word was the most frequently used, taking the title from “bloody” which was beaten into third place by “shit”. Continue reading...

We are in an emergency. Wildfires are raging across the world as scorching temperatures and dry conditions fuel the blazes that have cost lives and destroyed livelihoods.The combination of extreme heat, changes in our ecosystem and prolonged drought have in many regions led to the worst fires in almost a decade, and come after the IPCC handed down a damning landmark report on the climate crisis.But technically, there are fewer wildfires than in the past – the problem now is that they are worse than ever and we are running out of time to act, as the Guardian's global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains

This week ticketless Bravehearts ‘seize’ Edinburgh Castle and scientists grow a Raab replacement in the labToday I disappeared into a lightless, windowless, soundproofed room, four or five feet square, with nothing but myself and a book for company for three days. This would be a lifetime’s ambition fulfilled were it not for the fact the book is one I wrote and I am in this foam-lined oubliette in order to read it aloud while a man in the next room along records it for publishing-in-audiobook-form purposes. Continue reading...

To get the shot, many must overcome their historical memory of unethical medical experimentsBy late June, Yolanda Corbett, who lives in Washington DC with her three children, was certain she would not get the Covid-19 vaccine.She wanted to protect her family more than anything, but while the vaccine is a clear sign of hope for most, Corbett wasn’t convinced. Continue reading...

Sajid Javid says green light for Ronapreve – which was used to treat Donald Trump – is ‘fantastic news’

It has become a term for a general gaffe, but the true joy is in its original formSigmund Freud has his fans and his detractors. My take? A lot of his work was pioneering and has relevance to this day; a lot of it was nonsense.One of Freud’s greatest legacies (no, not the scatology obsession) is the one that bears his name: the Freudian slip. (Or parapraxis, to give it its other name.) When Freud started word association with his patients, he realised that often their immediate answers would reveal things about themselves that they had repressed or were on their mind, lingering beneath the surface. Continue reading...

Researchers say a ban on preprint material citations in funding applications is a ‘remarkably stupid own-goal for Australian science’

Long March 7 rocket will carry Tianzhou 3 into orbit in mid to late SeptemberChina is preparing to launch an uncrewed cargo ship to its Tiangong “Heavenly palace” space station in preparation for the arrival of its second human crew this autumn.The Long March 7 rocket was delivered to the Wenchang space launch site in Hainan on 16 August, where it will undergo final assembly and testing. It will carry the Tianzhou 3 cargo ship into orbit sometime in mid to late September. Simultaneously, at the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in the Gobi desert, the Shenzhou 13 mission is being readied to transport the crew of three astronauts. Continue reading...

Didier Raoult, who promoted hydroxychloroquine treatment, may not be able to continue his researchThe French scientist who promoted the discredited hydroxychloroquine treatment for Covid-19 backed by Donald Trump faces being pushed out of the infectious diseases institute he founded, amid concerns from key members over its role in feeding conspiracy theories and an investigation by regulators into its clinical studies.Didier Raoult has built a worldwide following throughout the pandemic for his support of the malaria drug despite its failure in randomised control trials. Multiple studies, including by the Recovery trial and the World Health Organisation, have found hydroxychloroquine to be ineffective in treating Covid-19. Continue reading...

Evidence about efficacy of additional dose of vaccine is unclear as some raise moral argument

Australian psychologist Steven Taylor published what would turn out to be a prophetic book, and it has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemicIn October 2019, a month or so before Covid-19 began to spread from the industrial Chinese city of Wuhan, Steven Taylor, an Australian psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, published what would turn out to be a remarkably prophetic book, The Psychology of Pandemics.Even his publishers had doubts about its relevance and market potential. But in the 22 months since, the book has become like a Lonely Planet guide to the pandemic, passed around and marked up like waypoints along a new and dreadful global health journey. Continue reading...

New analysis finds chemicals tested on animals in moisturisers, lipsticks, hair conditioner and sunscreen, despite banHundreds of cosmetic products sold in the UK and Europe contain ingredients that have been tested on animals, despite bans that outlawed such testing years ago, a new analysis has shown.Banned tests were performed on ingredients used in products including moisturisers, lipsticks, sunscreen and hair conditioner, the analysis found, with more than 100 separate experiments performed on animals including mice and rabbits. Continue reading...