Science | The Guardian

NSW police fine 67 people in south-west Sydney and expand Covid operation to Sutherland, Hurstville and Miranda

Increase in cases of bronchitis and common colds attributed to people mixing after easing of lockdown

If the idea of small talk at a crowded happy hour sounds terrifying to you, you’re not alone. Nearly half of Americans reported feeling uneasy about returning to in-person interaction regardless of vaccination statusWith Covid vaccines working and restrictions lifting across the country, it’s finally time for those now vaccinated who have been hunkered down at home to ditch the sweatpants and re-emerge from their Netflix caves. But your brain may not be so eager to dive back into your former social life.Social distancing measures proved essential for slowing viral spread worldwide – preventing upward of an estimated 500m cases. But, while necessary, 15 months away from each other has taken a toll on people’s mental health. Continue reading...

Team continues to investigate after computer responsible for science instruments malfunctionedNasa continues its efforts to diagnose the problems on the Hubble space telescope and return the veteran space mission to full operation. Science operations were suspended on 13 June when the computer responsible for the specific instruments began to malfunction.The science instruments themselves were automatically placed into safe mode, and the rest of the telescope continued to function normally. Tests of the payload computer indicated the problem was not in the computer’s memory as originally thought, but somewhere else in the science instrument command and data handling unit (SI C&DH). The team is investigating a unit that formats commands and data within the telescope, and a power regulator designed to ensure a steady voltage to the payload computer’s hardware. Continue reading...

Analysis, showing 4% of 5,830 children hospitalised in 12 months to February entered ICU wards, could inform vaccine policyDuring the first year of the pandemic 25 children and teenagers died as a direct result of Covid-19 in England and about 6,000 were admitted to hospital, according to the most complete analysis of national data on the age group to date.Children seen to be at greatest risk of severe illness and death from coronavirus were in ethnic minority groups, and those with pre-existing medical conditions or severe disabilities. Continue reading...

For too many, Johnson’s ‘freedom day’ will bring fear rather than release“The purpose of the state is freedom,” the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote. Its aim is to liberate everyone from fear, he argued, “so that they may live in security so far as is possible, that is, so that they may retain, to the highest possible degree, their right to live and to act without harm to themselves and others”.Boris Johnson might nod in approval at the first part of the statement. But the plans for axing Covid restrictions in England, which the prime minister set out this week, fall far short of Spinoza’s fuller formulation. A more cautious relaxation would have been widely welcomed. Charging ahead in this gung-ho manner, scrapping almost all legal restrictions and failing to introduce mitigation measures (such as air purifiers in schools), or even uphold existing ones (such as compulsory masking), maximises the risk. The government is freeing some to return to aspects of life that they have sorely missed. But in doing so, those people risk serious harm to themselves and others. Continue reading...

Animal Resource Centre decision catches many researchers off guard as others urge Australia to phase out animal research

• Tokyo’s fourth state of emergency will begin on Monday• Kath Grainger: ‘Sense of loss for athletes at empty stadiums’For 125 years they have been an integral part of the world’s largest sports event, inspiring athletes to be faster, higher, stronger. But, for the first time in history, spectators have been barred from most Olympic events after a fourth state of emergency was declared in Tokyo.Organisers had been planning to allow up to 10,000 spectators at venues, despite fears it could lead to the Olympics becoming a super-spreader event. However on Thursday they were forced to perform a U-turn after a spike in cases of the Delta variant. Continue reading...

Research combines data from fossils with climate models, revealing the effect of climate on body and brain sizeA well-known pattern in human evolution is an increase in body and brain size. Our species, Homo sapiens, is part of the Homo genus and emerged about 300,000 years ago. We are much bigger than earlier Homo species and have brains three times larger than humans who lived a million years ago.There has been debate over the factors causing humans to evolve in this way, prompting a research team led by Cambridge University and Tübingen University in Germany to combine data on more than 300 human fossils from the Homo genus with climate models to establish the role the climate played in driving evolution. Continue reading...

Fibromyalgia sufferer Vicky Naylor was successfully managing her condition – until she developed Covid-19. In the second part of our exploration of chronic pain, the Guardian science correspondent Linda Geddes tells Anand Jagatia what we know about the connection between chronic pain, Covid and mental health, and why it affects women more than men Continue reading...

The fossil-fuel multinationals fund ‘thinktanks’ and ‘research institutes’. But it’s gullible public service broadcasters that give them credibilityYes, we should rake over the coals. And the oil, and the gas. Democratic accountability means remembering who helped to stoke the climate crisis. We should hold the fossil fuel companies to account.In 1979, an internal study by Exxon concluded that burning carbon fuels “will cause dramatic environmental effects before the year 2050”. In 1982, as the Guardian’s Climate Crimes series recalls, an Exxon memo concluded that the science of climate change was “unanimous”. Then it poured millions of dollars into lobby groups casting doubt on it. Continue reading...

Too often the prevailing attitude seems to be: ‘They’re knackered and lonely – what do you expect?’When I was a kid, I couldn’t understand why old people weren’t in a constant state of panic. I would look at my grandad, sitting there quietly reading the Birmingham Evening Mail, and wonder how he could stay so calm. How come he wasn’t as horrified as I was at the prospect of him dying before too long? If I was him, I thought, I would be running around the garden screaming in despair and terror. I just didn’t get it, and to some extent I still don’t, which is a considerable worry since I’m a good deal closer to old age than childhood myself.Sorry to sound so miserable. Do read on; there are some positive thoughts further down. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Exscientia to use AI in proposed fast-track development of ‘low-cost’ pill for Sars viruses

Doctors say children haven’t been exposed to range of bugs due to lockdowns, distancing and sanitiser and their immune systems are sufferingNew Zealand hospitals are experiencing the payoff of “immunity debt” created by Covid-19 lockdowns, with wards flooded by babies with a potentially-deadly respiratory virus, doctors have warned.Wellington has 46 children currently hospitalised for respiratory illnesses including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. A number are infants, and many are on oxygen. Other hospitals are also experiencing a rise in cases that are straining their resources – with some delaying surgeries or converting playrooms into clinical space. Continue reading...

More than 8 million women globally have taken the BGI test, which the US sees as a national security threatA prenatal test taken by millions of pregnant women globally was developed by Chinese gene company BGI Group in collaboration with the Chinese military and is being used by the firm to collect genetic data, a Reuters review of publicly available documents has found.The report is the first to reveal that the company collaborated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to develop and improve the test, taken in early pregnancy, as well as the scope of BGI’s storage and analysis of the data. The United States sees BGI’s efforts to collect and analyse human gene data as a national security threat. Continue reading...

More than 100 scientists and doctors say move risks creating a generation with problems due to long Covid

Rising temperatures may be hitting faster and harder than forecast, say climate scientists in wake of heatwave in US and CanadaThe world needs to step up preparations for extreme heat, which may be hitting faster and harder than previously forecast, a group of leading climate scientists have warned in the wake of freakishly high temperatures in Canada and the US.Last week’s heat dome above British Columbia, Washington state and Portland, Oregon smashed daily temperature records by more than 5C (9F) in some places – a spike that would have been considered impossible two weeks ago, the experts said, prompting concerns the climate may have crossed a dangerous threshold. Continue reading...

Health experts say ending most Covid rules on 19 July will affect certain groups disproportionately

Researchers said risk factors also include human encroachment on wildlife habitatsThe risk of pathogens spilling over from wildlife trade and farmed animals into humans should be key considerations in efforts to prevent the next pandemic, research suggests.Researchers have been assessing the risks of the different ways that disease-causing organisms jump from animals to humans in an effort to characterise and address the risk of the next pandemic. Continue reading...

Readers respond to a series on chronic pain with their experiences of either struggling with pain or difficulties in treating patientsIn regard to your excellent piece (Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told it’s all in their head. We now know that’s wrong, 28 June), I am writing to say how glad I was that the mainstream media are bringing attention to the pervasive lack of understanding that chronic pain is a neither “all in the mind” or “proper pain” that reflects tissue damage.The charity Pain Concern was established in 1995 to help people living with chronic pain to better understand, and to live with, their condition, as well as to work with clinicians and service providers to ensure that patients’ voices are heard. Since then, we have produced many information leaflets and podcasts to further this aim. Continue reading...

Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in low coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal storms. That number could reach a billion by 2050A few years ago, after I gave a talk on water and climate change, I had an Arizona rancher come up and ask me if there would be enough water in the future for their livestock or if they should sell out and move north. This week, I received an email from a retiring doctor, who, acknowledging both their privileged economic situation and the personal nature of the decision, nevertheless asked if it “would it be more advantageous/safe to consider moving to coastal Oregon or Washington, rather than staying in southern California” because of rising seas, extreme heat and the growing threat of wildfires. At an Independence Day party this weekend, a couple asked me if they should move from Colorado to Michigan because of growing drought and water shortages in the western US.Related: My new climate reality? Packing a ‘firebag’ so I can flee at the drop of a hat | Michelle Nijhuis Continue reading...

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, many countries have brought in rules, and even laws, requiring people to wear face masks to help contain the spread of the virus. But as restrictions are being lifted globally, many governments are loosening the rules around mandatory face coverings.With the requirements due to be dropped in England on 19 July, the Guardian's science correspondent Natalie Grover looks at why masks are more about protecting others than ourselves, and where we still might want to wear them

WHO reports measles outbreaks in eight African countries amid huge fall-off in jabs during CovidKenya has restarted its vaccination programme in an effort to tackle the re-emergence of measles, which has surged in the country during the Covid restrictions.A 10-day campaign against highly contagious measles and rubella has begun to target 4 million children aged nine months to five years in 22 of Kenya’s 47 counties where outbreaks are highest. Continue reading...

Icelanders have been treated to a spectacular geological phenomenon with the Fagradalsfjall eruptionCovid has disrupted many forms of entertainment, but for Icelanders the Earth has stepped in and provided a spectacular Covid-safe show. Just over three months ago a volcano burst into action and its fiery fountains – a 45-minute drive south from Reykjavík – have attracted hundreds of spectators every day since. And for geologists this eruption is turning out to be like nothing they have seen before.Related: Iceland volcano: eruption under way in Fagradalsfjall near Reykjavik Continue reading...

Anthropogenic warming of climate has been a factor in extreme precipitation events globally, researchers sayHuman activity such as such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use change were a key factor in extreme precipitation events such as flooding and landslides around the world, a study has found.In recent years, there have been numerous instances of flooding and landslides: extreme precipitation, an amount of rainfall or snowfall that exceeds what is normal for a given region, can be a cause of such events. Continue reading...

University of Sydney researchers find humans detect and react to illusory faces in the same way they do real facesWhether in a cloud, the front of a car, or a $28,000 toasted sandwich supposedly resembling the Virgin Mary, seeing faces in inanimate objects is a common experience.According to new research by the University of Sydney, our brains detect and respond emotionally to these illusory faces the same way they do to real human faces. Continue reading...

The drive for more women and greater diversity in the space sector will lead to new ideas and innovations, from spacesuits to toilets and beyond

Close contacts of people in England who test positive will not have to self-isolate if they have had both vaccinations

Chronic pain affects about 40% of the UK population. While there is growing recognition that pain can be an illness in and of itself, there is still a lot we don’t know. Anand Jagatia hears from fibromyalgia sufferer Vicky Naylor on what it’s like to live with chronic pain, and the Guardian’s science correspondent Linda Geddes about the causes for these sometimes debilitating conditions Continue reading...

The PM says he will keep his covering in crowded places after England’s rules change but what do his ministers and experts think?

Kevo in Lapland recorded a temperature of 33.6C after Finland registered record heat in JuneNordic countries have registered near-record temperatures over the weekend, including highs of 34C (93.2F) in some places.The latest figures came after Finland’s national meteorological institute registered its hottest temperature for June since records began in 1844. Continue reading...

Black patterns used to attract mates can cause the insects to overheat in hotter climatesMale dragonflies are losing the “bling” wing decorations that they use to entice the females as climates get hotter, according to new research.The results have led to the scientists calling for more work on whether this disparate evolution might lead to females no longer recognising males of their own species in the long run. Continue reading...

England’s medical chief gives three situations in which it would be important to wear face covering

My friend Tony Black, who has died at 89 of pneumonia and emphysema, was my predecessor as chief psychologist at Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.The son of Walter, a civil servant, and Rose (nee Foster), a former nurse, Tony was born between the wars in Sanderstead, Surrey, into a secure, loving family. Early experiences of growing up with a mentally and physically disabled sister, and counselling members of his battalion while on national service with the Royal Artillery, set him on the pathway for life as a psychologist. Continue reading...

Endurance22 will launch early next year with aim of locating and surveying wreck in the Weddell SeaThe location of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance has been one of the great maritime mysteries since the ship became trapped in ice and sank in 1915. Finding this symbol of the “heroic age” of polar exploration at the bottom of the Weddell Sea was long thought impossible because of the harshness of the Antarctic environment – “the evil conditions”, as Shackleton described them.Now a major scientific expedition, announced on Monday, is being planned with a mission to locate, survey and film the wreck. Continue reading...

At the furthest point in its orbit, Earth is now 5m kilometres more distant from the sun than in JanuaryToday the Earth reaches the furthest point in its orbit around the sun. We are about 5m kilometres more distant from our central star than we were in early January.This happens because Earth’s orbit is mildly elliptical in shape. The point at which Earth is furthest from the sun is known as aphelion, and the precise moment of its occurrence this year is 23.27 BST on 5 July. It may seem illogical to us in the northern hemisphere that we are closer to the sun in mid-winter than we are in the summer, but this is because the tilt of Earth’s axis determines the seasons, not our distance from the sun. During northern summer that hemisphere is tilted sunward, meaning the sun appears higher in the sky, which concentrates the incoming rays. Continue reading...

After Matt Hancock was forced to resign when a secret relationship was exposed, the couples therapist Orna Guralnik explores the cocktail of ego and vulnerability that leads some senior figures to risk it allThe images of Matt Hancock and Gina Coladangelo splashed across newspaper front pages in June were shocking enough to cause a scandal, and the breach of his own social distancing rules ended Hancock’s tenure as health secretary. But while affairs are not unique to powerful men, many observers will struggle to understand why those with so much to lose from public exposure , from Boris Johnson to Bill Gates, are nonetheless willing to live a double life.Anushka Asthana speaks to Dr Orna Guralnik, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and star of the acclaimed US series Couples Therapy, about the desperate need for approval and affirmation that can lead those whose careers depend on a reputation for probity to seek excitement beyond the boundaries of their marriages. And Guralnik argues that the risks of infidelity that lurk in any settled relationship cannot be resolved by communication alone, but by a commitment to finding the space to preserve our identity as individuals, as well as as part of a couple. Continue reading...

Consultation shows positivity towards screening programme to spot those at heightened risk of certain health conditionsPlans to sequence the whole genome of every newborn in the UK in order to spot those at heightened risk of certain health conditions have been given a boost, with consultations suggesting the approach could have public support.The potential for genomics to improve health was at the heart of the chief medical officer annual report of 2016, with a group of experts convened by Genomics England – a government-owned genetics service – subsequently recommending a research programme to sequence the whole genome of all newborns. Continue reading...

Our hospital psychiatry team comprises doctors, nurses and allied health – no elbow patches or Sigmund Freud beard in sight

Experts react with dismay to ‘frightening’ attitude of Sajid Javid towards removing protections

Examining every aspect of a question can be exhausting, but the most amazing insights can be gained that wayThe first time I remember someone telling me not to overthink was when I was trying to suss out breastfeeding. “Don’t overthink it,” said my friend, “just go with it.”“Just going with it” is not something I do. I have to really understand what I’m doing and then I think through almost every possibility and eventuality, like a mind map on steroids. And I plan. When people say things like: “Who could have imagined XYZ would happen?” about some entirely predictable outcome, my most common response is “I could”. I have realised that for most people I am an overthinker, but for me, it is others who underthink. I just think. Continue reading...

Two astronauts work for seven hours outside Tiangong station, in first of two spacewalks planned for missionChinese astronauts have performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk, working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.Tiangong’s construction is a significant step in China’s ambitious space programme. China has previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the moon. Continue reading...

If under-18s are vulnerable, let’s jab straight away. Then we need a wider plan that doesn’t leave teenagers as the unvaccinated ‘class apart’The UK vaccination programme has been an extraordinary success. However, as most adults become “double jabbed”, it is the unvaccinated who are left to catch and spread this virus. This throws the spotlight on to children, teenagers and schools. We can see this already, with infection rates rising in teenagers and young adults (who are only starting to be vaccinated) but staying low among the doubly-vaccinated middle-aged and elderly.What to do? Should we vaccinate teenagers (and, later, younger children)? I asked my own in-house expert, my teenage son. He felt he didn’t need a vaccine but would have one “if it made things go back to normal”. Just one view, but it made me think that one answer to our dilemma is to seek the views of teenagers; it strikes me as both puzzling and remiss that their voices have been largely absent. We would never consider vaccinating other minority groups without seeking their opinion, and yet almost all surveys report the views of parents rather than young people. Continue reading...

With a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus has been left alone by space agencies for a decade. Now we are about to learn more about its climate – and the chances of life on other planetsA fleet of robot spaceships is to descend on Venus in a few years and begin probing the most inhospitable world in the solar system. One craft will drop through the planet’s crushingly dense – and searingly hot – atmosphere while two others will orbit over the thick, acidic clouds that cover Venus and use sophisticated radar telescopes to survey the terrain beneath them.Such scrutiny represents a remarkable renewal of interest in Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. For more than a decade, American and European space agencies have ignored the planet – only for three new Venus missions to be announced within days of each other at the beginning of June. Continue reading...

South Africa hits record cases for second day in a row; Brazilians take to the streets to protests against their president

Calls for president’s impeachment grow amid claims government sought to profit from Covid jabs

Proposals to extend Covid jabs to children in west would delay worldwide rollout, say experts, and allow deadly variants to develop elsewhere

The immunology professor on the personal data which will shape our future and how the pandemic has fired everyone’s interest in the immune systemDaniel M Davis is a professor of immunology at the University of Manchester. He has published over 130 academic papers and two lauded popular science books, The Compatibility Gene and The Beautiful Cure. His third, The Secret Body, describes the forthcoming revolution in human health.As an immunologist, when you overhear conversations about antibodies or T-cells in the pub (when regulations permit), is it pleasing to you that these aspects of science have entered the public domain?

Gladys Berejiklian says nine of the 35 locally acquired cases were infectious in the community. This blog is closed

The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US in 2018, makes its world debut at Nottingham museumThe first ‘real’ Tyrannosaurus rex to be exhibited in England for more than a century will go on show in Nottingham on Sunday.The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US state of Montana in 2018, will make its world debut at the Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum as part of a new exhibition on the dinosaur’s life and environment. Continue reading...