Science | The Guardian

Nasa’s Artemis mission to send a crewed vehicle to the moon set to further partnership between the two countries

World Health Organization’s director general hails ‘historic day’ in fight against parasitic diseaseThe World Health Organization has recommended the widespread rollout of the first malaria vaccine, in a move experts hope could save tens of thousands of children’s lives each year across Africa.Hailing “an historic day”, the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that after a successful pilot programme in three African countries the RTS,S vaccine should be made available more widely. Continue reading...

New laws require prescriptions for nicotine vaping products; sellers are offering links to doctors they say can prescribe their products

Benjamin List and David MacMillan’s findings revolutionised development of drugs and hi-tech materialsTwo scientists have won the 2021 Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery of a new class of catalyst that has revolutionised the development of drugs and hi-tech materials.The winners, Scottish-born David MacMillan, and Benjamin List from Germany, will share the award, presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and worth 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000). Continue reading...

Chilblain-like inflammation causes redness on hands and feet and can last for months

Cooling impact of very explosive eruptions could be amplified while moderate eruptions have less effectIt’s well known that volcanic eruptions alter the climate but can human-made climate change alter volcanic eruptions? Curiously, the answer appears to be yes.When the Philippine volcano Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, the resulting sulphuric acid haze suppressed global temperatures by 0.5C for more than a year. Very explosive eruptions like this are rare – they occur once or twice a century on average – but their cooling impact could be amplified by as much as 15% as the world becomes warmer. Continue reading...

With queues outside petrol stations and claims that selfish punters are using jerry cans to stockpile fuel, one word has become synonymous with the supply chain crisis that has hit the UK in recent weeks: panic. But the social psychologist Clifford Stott says something different is going onThe fuel crisis that began last month was precipitated by a shortage of HGV drivers – but in newspaper headlines and ministerial interviews ever since, it has largely been blamed on “panic buying”. Whatever the original cause, the argument goes that it is the irrational response of the public, who are buying petrol they do not need, that is responsible for how big the problem has become – and if we would all calm down, it would just melt away. As the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, who described the crisis as a “manufactured situation”, told Sky News: “If everyone carries on buying it when they don’t need it then you will continue to have queues … We appeal to people to be sensible.”That argument is so commonly accepted as to be unremarkable. But there is another view – and it has significant evidence to support it. Prof Clifford Stott, a social psychologist at Keele University and member of Sage’s advisory subcommittee on public behaviour, has spent his career examining the behaviour of crowds, both in person and acting collectively online. He argues that the tendency to describe a large group’s urgent response to difficult circumstances as a “panic” misrepresents the reality – and says that, in fact, people tend to work together and think rationally about how best to combat the situation. Continue reading...

Russia has sent an actor and a director to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of plans to make the first film in orbit. Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko joined cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov on a flight to the ISS where they will spend 12 days filming The Challenge. The film crew spent four months training for the mission and will complete the final scenes back on earth. The Russian film is likely to beat a proposed Hollywood project announced by Tom Cruise, Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX into cinemas

Head of the Waikato Mongrel Mob chapter Sonny Fatupaito was asked to encourage gang members and their families to get tested

Pendraig milnerae was related to T rex and likely to have been apex predator despite its size, say expertsA dinosaur distantly related to Tyrannosaurus rex – but with a body the size of a chicken – that would probably have ruled the roost about 200m years ago has been discovered.The diminutive but fearsome creature, whose fossilised remains were found in a quarry in south Wales, is the oldest theropod – a group that includes T rex and modern birds – found in the UK. Continue reading...

Six canines, all border collies, have proved some possess a remarkable grasp of human languageYour dog might follow commands such as “sit”, or become uncontrollably excited at the mention of the word “walkies”, but when it comes to remembering the names of toys and other everyday items, most seem pretty absent-minded.Now a study of six “genius dogs” has advanced our understanding of dogs’ memories, suggesting some of them possess a remarkable grasp of the human language. Continue reading...

Official figures show 348 in every 100,000 people have Covid in the UK; less than 90% of pupils are currently at school in England

Actor and director on International Space Station push ahead of Hollywood project led by Tom CruiseThe list of “firsts” in orbit under the Soviet space programme is legendary: first satellite, first dog, first man, first woman.Now another looms after Russia sent an actor and a director to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of plans to make the first film in orbit – and once again put one over on the Americans. Continue reading...

Prof Neil Ferguson calls for booster rollout and teenagers’ second jabs to be accelerated to ease NHS pressure

Pair likely to beat Hollywood project announced by Tom Cruise, Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceXA Russian actor and director have arrived at the International Space Station in an attempt to beat the US and film the first movie in orbit.The Russian crew are likely to beat a Hollywood project announced last year by Tom Cruise, Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Continue reading...

Sykuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi share award for advancing climate knowledgeThree scientists have won the 2021 Nobel prize in physics for their groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex physical systems – including how humanity influences the Earth’s climate.The winners, Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi, will share the award, announced on Tuesday, presented by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and worth 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000). Continue reading...

Welcome to our monthly roundup of the biggest issues in farming and food production, with must-read reports from around the webWe’ve been running a startling investigation into Europe’s multibillion-pound meat industry, revealing how it has become a global hotspot for outsourced labour, hiring thousands of workers through subcontractors, agencies and bogus co-operatives on inferior pay and conditions. Continue reading...

Meeting the Paris agreement’s goal of keeping global temperature rises to below 2C by the end of the century requires drastic cuts to fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. The problem is, even if we do this we’ll still need to draw down the carbon dioxide that’s emitted in the meantime. To find out how, Shivani Dave speaks to Phoebe Weston and Damian Carrington about the natural and synthetic ways of pulling COout of the atmosphere Continue reading...

Only 31% of pregnant Americans are fully vaccinated. I felt responsible for this bean-like bundle forming in my body. But the conflicting advice made it hard for me to decideThese are the first three things I did when I found out I was pregnant in February. I took about six more tests. Then, I called the doctor’s office to make an appointment. A few days later, I signed up for a Covid-19 vaccine. I stood in line, freezing, at a high school in Coney Island to get my shot.Deciding to get the vaccine that same month was not easy – even as a former health reporter accustomed to deciphering medical journals. I felt a very visceral and personal responsibility toward this bean-like bundle forming in my body. There were only preliminary studies about vaccine safety – saying the vaccine was likely safe – based on participants who didn’t know they were pregnant during trials. Gynaecologists and family physicians had not yet achieved full and public consensus on their recommendations as most have now. Continue reading...

Study shows protection against severe illness stays high, but scientists say boosters key to stopping spread of infectionTwo doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine are “highly effective” at preventing hospitalisations for at least six months, a large-scale study shows, but protection against infection nearly halves over the same period.Effectiveness against all Covid infections fell from 88% within a month of having two doses to 47% after six months, according to the research. However, effectiveness against hospitalisations remained high at 90% overall – and crucially across all variants, including delta. Continue reading...

Russia’s daily cases at highest levels since January; EMA says people with weakened immune systems should get Pfizer or Moderna booster

Lacks, whose cells were used in multiple medical advances, is honoured by the city’s universityThere were tears of joy and pride as the first statue of a black woman created by a black woman for a public space in the UK was unveiled in a sunlit garden at the University of Bristol.Three generations of of Henrietta Lacks’ family travelled from the US for the unveiling of the bronze statue of her, sculpted by the Bristol artist and campaigner Helen Wilson-Roe. Continue reading...

The UK public health community, along with the government, ignored the evidence that Covid could be suppressed, writes Dr Greg PhiloLaura Spinney offers a defence for the worst public health disaster in a hundred years, saying that “scientists were in the dark” (Covid lawsuits and inquiries are looming – but blame won’t prevent future pandemics, 29 September).In fact, a section of the UK public health community had embraced the deeply flawed approach of herd immunity, and, along with the government, flatly ignored the evidence coming from abroad that the virus could be suppressed. Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following puzzles, designed by the South Korean puzzle master Han Dongkyu. The first two are a slow build up to what is one of the most fiendishly brilliant geometrical puzzles I have ever seen.If you want a print out of the puzzles, click here. Continue reading...

‘Stunning’ neuroscientific advance gives hope to those with mental illness not helped with drugsA woman with severe depression has been successfully treated with an experimental brain implant in a “stunning” advance that offers hope to those with intractable mental illness.The device works by detecting patterns of brain activity linked to depression and automatically interrupting them using tiny pulses of electrical stimulation delivered deep inside the brain. Continue reading...

90-year-old actor who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek will become the oldest person to reach spaceWilliam Shatner, who played Captain James T Kirk in Star Trek, has confirmed that he will go to space this month on the second launch staged by the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space travel company, Blue Origin.Shatner, 90, will take off from West Texas on 12 October, making him the oldest person to travel to space. Continue reading...

David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian share 10m-kronor prize for discovery of receptors for temperature and touchTwo US researchers have won the 2021 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for work that unlocked the secrets of the sense of touch.Prof David Julius, a physiologist at the University of California in San Francisco, and Prof Ardem Patapoutian, a neuroscientist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, were honoured for their discovery of receptors in the skin that sense heat, cold and touch – making them crucial for survival. The work paves the way for a range of new medical treatments for conditions such as chronic pain. Continue reading...

Covid experts warn against complacency after transport secretary hails lack of face coverings at Tory conference event

Prodigies such as Emma Raducanu spend thousands of hours honing their skills, but could anyone deliver a world-class performance with enough dedication?At the end of every edition of his children’s TV show Record Breakers, Roy Castle used to sing: “If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, dedication’s what you need.” But is it all you need? Tennis star Emma Raducanu seemingly came from nowhere at 18 to triumph at this year’s US Open, prompting much speculation as to what in her early life could have seeded such prodigious success. Or perhaps it could all be summed up in the old joke: “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice!”One thing most people have heard about practice is that you need to do 10,000 hours of it to get really good at something. This claim was widely popularised by Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers (2008), which cited a study suggesting that the best violinists at a conservatoire were those who had done thousands of hours more solitary practice than their peers. But the author of that study, the psychologist K Anders Ericsson, said Gladwell had misrepresented it. “First, there is nothing special or magical about 10,000 hours,” Ericsson writes in his own book about his research, Peak (2016). “Gladwell could just as easily have mentioned the average amount of time the best violin students had practised by the time they were 18 – approximately 7,400 hours – but he chose to refer to the total practice time they had accumulated by the time they were 20, because it was a nice round number.” Moreover, he points out, the figure of 10,000 hours for the best 20-year-old violinists was “only an average”: half of the best players had not actually accumulated that much practice. Continue reading...

Will you make the cut?Today’s three challenges are from Han Dongkyu, a talented young puzzle designer from South Korea. The first two will warm you up for the third, which is probably the most stunning example of a dissection puzzle I have ever seen. Prepare to be awed – and have your brain twisted inside out.1. Librarian’s Nightmare Part I Continue reading...

Constellation represents boastful woman punished by Poseidon, and shares mythical roots with its neighboursThis week, search out the constellation Cassiopeia. For northern hemisphere observers it is going to be high in the sky throughout the coming winter months. Indeed, for much of the northern hemisphere, it is a circumpolar constellation visible all year round.For most southern hemisphere observers, the constellation is never visible. Only those in the southern tropics stand a chance of seeing the star pattern. It will appear low in the northern sky during this month. Continue reading...

As temperatures rise, one family hopes to establish the world’s northernmost coffee plantationFor more than 30 years the Morettino family had been trying to produce their own coffee on a small piece of land in Sicily. And for 30 years they had failed.But last spring 66 seedlings produced about 30kg of coffee, in a development that could turn the Italian island into the northernmost coffee plantation in the world. Continue reading...

Radio astronomer who won the Nobel prize for physics for his role in the discovery of pulsarsIn 1967, a team led by the radio astronomer Antony Hewish, who has died aged 97, discovered pulsars, rapidly pulsating radio sources that turned out to be due to rotating, magnetised neutron stars, the ultra-dense collapsed remnants of massive stars.This was one of the most exciting astronomical events of the second half of the 20th century: the precise timing of the pulses from these objects is more accurate than the best atomic clocks and has allowed precision tests of general relativity. Continue reading...

Fears the indoor socialising will spread virus in UK; Israel says people only eligible for green pass if they have received a booster jab. This live blog has closed – for the latest on the global Covid situation, please see our dedicated page

My father, Jim Townsley, who has died aged 85, was a gentle, generous and thoughtful man who spent his working life as an industrial chemist. In retirement, his aptitude for listening, understanding and supporting the emotional needs of others found expression through voluntary work as a trained counsellor.Born in Ilford, east London, to Jim Sr, a post office worker, and Gertrude (nee Knight), a housewife, Jim had a younger sister, Gill; she died in 2016. His earliest memories were of sheltering under the stairs, which were supposed to be the safest part of the house, whilst the Luftwaffe tried to hit the nearby Plessey electronics factory. Continue reading...

Surveys can help us understand how the pandemic is influenced by our choicesRecent queues for fuel have shown the consequences of abrupt changes in behaviour. Almost as sudden were the changes around the first lockdown in March 2020, when close meetings between people plummeted by about three-quarters. We know this through the CoMix contact survey from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), which has continued to ask UK adults about their “direct contacts”, that is any sort of skin-to-skin contact or anyone to whom at least a few words were exchanged in person. Can you remember how many such contacts you had yesterday?Pre-lockdown, people reported an average of 11 such meetings a day, but this fell to three afterwards and stayed low. Some warned of the dangers of “freedom day” on 19 July, with some mathematical modelling estimating more than 100,000 cases a day. But the CoMix survey shows there was no exuberant return to socialising and so no subsequent explosion of cases. Continue reading...

Inoculation programme must be stepped up before the onset of winter

Instead of trying to cosh nature into submission, our farmers should be improving the health of the soil and the diversity of their crops and animalsA quotation leapt to mind when reading “Gene editing ‘would allow us to create hardier farm breeds’ (News): “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong” (HL Mencken). Application of magic bullet “solutions” has got our species into many disastrous situations, from Australian cane toad waves to an explosion in obesity linked to the prescription of low-fat diets.To support environmentally disastrous factory farming by modifying animals to resist one disease would only invite the spread of more pathogens that threaten humans and other animals. Continue reading...

European-Japanese probe swoops in to almost 200km above Sun’s nearest planet, photographing its pock-marked featuresThe European-Japanese BepiColombo spacecraft has sent back its first images of Mercury, as it swung by the solar system’s innermost planet while on a mission to deliver two probes into orbit in 2025.The mission made the first of six flybys of Mercury at 11.34pm GMT on Friday, using the planet’s gravity to slow the spacecraft down. Continue reading...

Developed over the course of five studies, the relationship sabotage scale is designed to give analytical rigour to a term more common in pop cultureDo you feel constantly criticised by your partner? Do you sometimes check their social media profiles? Will you admit to them if you know you’re wrong about something?If you strongly agree or disagree with some of these statements, you might find yourself with a high score on the Relationship Sabotage Scale.1. I get blamed unfairly for issues in my relationship.

Fears of mass exodus as abuse by patients skyrockets over blood tests, jabs and face-to-face consultations

There should be no guilt with cake, only romance – in the making, the display, the history… and, of course, the eatingThe Great British Bake Off is back! Sales of baking utensils skyrocket when the amateur baking show is on. It appears we’re all cake mad. But I’ve always been mad as a box of doughnuts for cake, long before the GBBO started. In fact, it’s one of my loves – not one of my vices.Cake and I are friends; we go back a long way. At school, we’d bake in home economics class and sell our creations in the tuck shop – 10p a fairy cake. The whole process felt like alchemy to me: the creaming of butter and sugar, then the eggs, all beaten into a frenzy of delight. That feeling of magic at my fingertips has not left – it is why I love to bake. It’s a good lesson in life: humble beginnings can have majestic ends. Like an ode to a lover, I feel emotional when writing about it. I can smell its perfume and the tantalising sensation of it touching my lips. Continue reading...

This thoughtful case for mounting a lifelong challenge to our own assumptions focuses on unconscious bias – but leaves overt prejudice largely unexaminedWe often think of bias as a problem that other people have. It’s harder to find someone willing to admit to it in themselves. That was what struck me reading American journalist Jessica Nordell’s thoughtful book, The End of Bias, which I picked up at the same time as being absorbed in the new reality TV series My Unorthodox Life. The show follows Julia Haart, a New Yorker who in her 40s left an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community to transform herself into a global fashion magnate. Her new life is remarkable, but her reflections on her old one are just as fascinating. Haart has spent decades asking herself why her world is the way it is, and the role she plays in making it that way. Today, she has no qualms about striding into her former Orthodox neighbourhood in shorts and a low-cut top, whatever people may think. It’s not as easy for others to make that leap, though.In one scene, Haart’s adult daughter, who has previously only worn skirts, in keeping with Haredi custom, reveals that her husband is nervous about her decision to try jeans for the first time. Haart’s response is that it isn’t a man’s business to decide what any woman wears. But, as her daughter patiently explains, if she is going to move away from some of the values with which she was raised, she would rather do it with the support of the man she loves – even if that means it takes a little longer. Continue reading...

We shuffle patients from cubicle to cubicle, hoping that we can squeeze just one more inI used to play a game with my children. How many ambulances are going to be waiting outside the emergency department today? I used to play it with my kids as I got a lift in for an early shift.“Three, Dad.” Continue reading...

After positive clinical trials for antiviral drug Molnupiravir, it joins other medicines that have shown promise

Governments need to develop more citizen forums for discussing options and making choices in open dialogue with experts, writes Prof Peter CalowThe answer to Philip Ball (Should scientists run the country?, 27 September) is that it is the process, not the people, that should run the country. Science gets things right, despite the biases of its practitioners, by requiring that it be evidence-based, but also that the evidence is repeatable to the satisfaction of the community of scientists. Even so, for complex problems typical of policymaking, the science rarely leads to one answer. What we discover from our observations are cause-effect options – for example, the adverse effects from different exposures to chemicals in the environment, greenhouse gases and viral infections.Making decisions about acceptable options, such as mandating lockdowns in the face of rising infections, is based on values. The science is silent on these. In a democracy, these should reflect the preferences of the public, not those of scientists. When the views of scientists dominate, they appear political and elitist. This kind of technocracy has turned people off and led to populist reactions in both the EU and the US. We surely need more transparency in this process, as Ball suggests, but in a participatory way. Continue reading...

If approved, Merck’s drug would be first simple oral medication shown to be effective against coronavirus

Satellite will capture agricultural productivity, forest health, water quality, coral reefs and glaciersNasa has launched the latest mission in a 50-year unbroken line of satellites that monitor the Earth’s surface.Landsat 9 lifted off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg’s space launch complex 3E at 19.12 BST (14.12 EDT) on 27 September. Continue reading...

Clinical trial on joint flu, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccinations reported only mild to moderate side-effects

There was also a rise in prescriptions for ivermectin being filled, despite no evidence either drug is effective against the virusThe amount of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin dispensed from Australian pharmacies increased significantly in 2020 as the Covid pandemic took hold, according to new research.Analysis of six publicly subsidised drugs – including hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, corticosteroids and the common antibiotic azithromycin – found Covid-related changes in prescription patterns in Australia. Continue reading...