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Leading doctors are urging the government to keep ‘sensible, cautious’ measures in place to minimise spread of virusCoronavirus latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLeading doctors are urging the government to keep some measures in place in England after 19 July in a bid to help control the spread of Covid amid the “alarming” rise in cases.The British Medical Association (BMA) said that keeping some protective measures in place was “crucial” to stop spiralling cases numbers having a “devastating impact” on people’s health, the NHS, the economy and education. Continue reading...

From the first race to the moon to the plutocrats’ search for the next Earth, a story of great risks offers rewardsAt the end of July the second richest man in the world, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, plans to blast himself into space, a project that has prompted a satirical global petition asking him to stay there. If the history of human space exploration ended at that moment, with the phallic self-launch of a narcissistic tax avoider, it would be a bathetic endpiece to a remarkable story that began with Nazi weaponry and has encompassed arguably the greatest achievement to date of human civilisation.It is nearly 50 years since people last walked on the surface of the moon – the moon! – in an age with no internet or smartphones, driven there in rattling tin cans at unimaginable speeds by huge controlled explosions. Boosters of the modern app economy love to claim that right now the pace of technological change is the fastest it has ever been, but they are somehow forgetting the period between 1957, when the USSR put the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, into orbit, and 1969, when three men flew to the moon and two of them descended in a separate spacecraft, walked around collecting rocks, and then blasted off again, docking with the original spacecraft, before flying back to Earth and splashing down safely in the ocean. Continue reading...

Health authorities reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight dayHealth authorities in Thailand reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day, as concerns mounted over shortages of treatment facilities and vaccine supplies.Officials also reported 41 deaths, bringing the total to 2,181. Continue reading...

Disparity is a ‘thorny problem’ as citations are a key metric in job evaluations and promotionsWhile more women are entering the field of academic medicine, they are less likely to be recognised as experts, receive prestigious awards, hold leadership roles or author original research in major journals.Research has now shown that papers written by women as primary and senior authors have roughly half as many median citations as those authored by men in high-impact medical journals. Continue reading...

Virgin Galactic founder has announced he will take off on board the next test flight on 11 JulyRichard Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days.

Experts’ discoveries lie at the heart of two dozen lawsuits that hope to hold the industry accountable for devastating damage

Scientists find micro-organisms from the bovine stomach have ability to degrade polyesters in lab settingBacteria found in one of the compartments of a cow’s stomach can break down plastic, research suggests.Since the 1950s, more than 8bn tonnes of plastic have been produced – equivalent in weight to 1 billion elephants – driven predominantly by packaging, single-use containers, wrapping and bottles. As a result, plastic pollution is all-pervasive, in the water and in the air, with people unwittingly consuming and breathing microplastic particles. In recent years, researchers have been working on harnessing the ability of tiny microscopic bugs to break down the stubborn material. Continue reading...

Repeat surgeries for endometriosis could be exacerbating pain symptoms, experts sayIt has long been believed that the best way to treat endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory condition that affects one in 10 women globally, is by performing laparoscopic surgery to remove damaged tissue from the body.But experts now say the surgery may not be as effective as once thought in relieving symptoms, and could actually be making things worse for some patients, including those who have developed separate pain conditions as a result of their endometriosis. Continue reading...

2 July 1925: The eminent astronomer from Harvard Observatory is conferred an honorary doctor of science degreeThe long double file of scarlet-robed doctors which “processed,” at this year’s brilliant Commemoration at Oxford, from Wadham, the vice-chancellor’s College, to the Sheldonian Theatre was, from the feminist’s point of view, less interesting from its inclusion of the prime minister, the chancellor of the exchequer, Lord Jellicoe, and the archbishop of Canterbury, than from the unique event that it contained a woman.Miss Annie Cannon, the eminent astronomer from Harvard Observatory, on whom, on June 10, Oxford conferred an honorary Doctor of Science degree, walked in procession with her host, Professor Turner, Oxford’s Savilian professor of astronomy, and the crowd which had come out to look at the prime minister found its sensation instead in this startling precedent of a woman in a procession consecrated to academic masculinity and distinguished “male” service. Continue reading...

New research challenges widely held view of the condition and could pave way for better treatmentFibromyalgia – a poorly understood condition that causes widespread pain throughout the body and extreme tiredness – may be caused by be an autoimmune response that increases the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, challenge the widely held view that the condition originates in the brain, and could pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected. Continue reading...

Weakened lungs and immune systems make people increasingly vulnerable, warn scientists

Funk, who was denied the job of astronaut in the 1960s over her gender, will be the oldest person ever to travel into spaceWally Funk, a trailblazing female pilot denied the job of astronaut in the 1960s over her gender, will finally get the chance to fulfill her dreams of going into space.Billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced Thursday on Instagram that Funk will be part of a four-person crew set to be launched into space by Blue Origin during a 10-minute flight on his rocket New Shepard later this month. Continue reading...

Software in use at an NHS trust could prove a breakthrough in diagnosing one of the deadliest forms of cancerOne of the NHS’s leading hospital trusts has begun using artificial intelligence to help detect cancer in the gullet, which kills 8,000 Britons a year. It is hoped the technology will increase the number of cases of cancer in the oesophagus that doctors spot.Oesophageal cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. It is hard to detect, particularly in its early stages, and many people who get it die soon after their diagnosis. Fewer than one in five of those diagnosed are still alive five years later. Continue reading...

Potential risk domestic animals could act as ‘reservoir’ for virus and reintroduce it to humans, study shows

I hate it when language is used to exclude and obscure. But it takes guts to resistMy first job in journalism was in business news. This wasn’t my first choice; in truth it would probably have been my last, but it was the only place that would have me. I was as bewildered as the next work experience bod but, since I had three weeks there, I thought I might as well try to get to the bottom of the stuff they were talking about. At school, no teacher had ever had to encourage me to put my hand up if I didn’t understand something. Invariably, my hand was raised already. My powers of concentration, severely limited at the best of times, diminish to zero if I hear words and phrases I am unfamiliar with. I have to put my hand up and seek clarification. I’m sure my teachers got tired of this, but not half as tired as the staff in the BBC’s Business Programmes department.“What’s RPI?” I would ask. Continue reading...

Bulk of Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines expected to arrive in third quarter of this year, despite widespread lockdownsAustralia’s finance minister has said the country is at the “back of the queue” for Pfizer vaccines, contradicting assurances from the prime minister Scott Morrison and the health minister that “our strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue”.Simon Birmingham on Thursday said Australia has had supply challenges “because European countries and drug companies have favoured those nations who’ve had high rates of Covid for the delivery of vaccines like Pfizer”. Continue reading...

The neurological disease affects up to 20% of people, but research funding is sorely lacking. Women are more than three times likely to suffer from it than menMy first experience with migraine was when I was a child, pressing a flannel to my mum’s head and bringing her a bucket to vomit in, stroking her head as she lay still on her bed in the dark in excruciating pain. These memories are so clear to me decades later because they were so unusual. My mum never stops and barely sleeps, so seeing her so wiped out by migraine was frightening.At first, mine were similar to hers. A sudden onset of blinding, stabbing pain on one side of my head, an overwhelming nausea, eventual forceful vomiting, dehydration, intolerance of light, exhaustion and fatigue. But while the frequency of Mum’s migraines have waned over the years – and her symptoms, although debilitating, have remained similar – mine have changed, and become worse. Continue reading...

When new treatments are announced, patients are often unaware of the strength of the evidence used to grant regulatory approvalOne of my most uncomfortable professional moments occurred some years ago when I cared for a successful business owner with advanced cancer. Following a stable period for years, her illness eventually entered a rapid trajectory when successive therapies began failing. It was around this time that I broached my concern that treatments were causing more harm than good, and the way to stop feeling so awful was by eschewing further toxic therapies in favour of symptom management.With the help of an intuitive sister, she was beginning to come around to an acceptance of her mortality, which is why I was surprised to see her in the chemotherapy chair, supervised by a dejected nurse who told me the patient had been prescribed a “Hail Mary”. Hail Mary, a Christian utterance of holy intervention, crossed into the realm of oncology when pressured doctors began prescribing futile treatments to desperate patients. Continue reading...

After 18 months of life being at a near standstill, Science Weekly’s Shivani Dave found a lot of their conversations with friends turned to the severity of hay fever this year. Many claimed their allergies had never been worse. Shivani Dave asks horticulturist, Thomas Ogren, whether hay fever symptoms have become more severe in recent times Continue reading...

UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste

Omega-3 fatty acids linked to reduction of headaches in women, study findsEating a Mediterranean diet containing lots of oily fish could help to reduce the frequency of migraines in people who suffer from them, data suggests.Roughly 10 million adults in the UK suffer from migraines, with women three times more likely to be affected than men. Although several new treatments have become available in recent years, many people continue to experience pain. Continue reading...

Campaigner for better treatments for people with brain cancerThe communications consultant Jessica Morris did much to give a voice to people who lacked one. In the years up to her death at the age of 57 from brain cancer, she made her illness the basis of a campaign to find treatments for others.In January 2016 she was hiking in a valley north of New York when she found herself trying to speak: “Sounds came out of my mouth, but they weren’t words,” she said later. That seizure led to a diagnosis of glioblastoma (GBM), the most aggressive form of brain cancer, for which the median survival rate is 14 months. Only 5% of patients survive for five years. Continue reading...

Research finds number of recorded cases is nearly 100 times smaller than adults estimated to have had condition

Prof Iain Buchan, the principal investigator for the Events Research Programme at Liverpool, explains how the trial events generated a large amount of valuable data about Covid transmissionAs lead researcher for the Liverpool pilots in the Events Research Programme (ERP), I would like to set out some important facts in response to your article regarding the phase one report (Covid event pilots compromised by low uptake of PCR tests, experts say, 25 June). The ERP is exploring how events with larger crowd sizes can return without social distancing, while minimising the risks of Covid-19 outbreaks. The programme comprises environmental studies of air quality and crowd movement in venues; epidemiological studies of virus spread at and around events; behavioural studies of audience experience; and economic and operational studies of running such events with risk-mitigation measures in place. The work has generated a large amount of valuable data, early analysis of which was reported last week.People participating in the pilots consented to take part, answered questions, took tests, allowed their data to be linked for study and reported high levels of satisfaction. It is also worth noting that: Continue reading...

David Curtis says publisher of Annals of Human Genetics blocked call for protest at treatment of UyghursThe editor of a long-established academic journal has said he resigned after his publisher vetoed a call to boycott Chinese science in protest at Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.Prof David Curtis, from University College London’s Genetics Institute, says his resignation as editor-in-chief of the Annals of Human Genetics is an issue of freedom of speech in the face of the science community’s increasing dependence on China. Continue reading...

Prof Stephen Reicher says restrictions may have to be reimposed if reopening leads to surge in infections

This is serious enough for the 1% to start building bunkers ready for environmental collapseA few years ago, the author and academic Douglas Rushkoff got invited to a swanky private resort to talk to a bunch of obscenely rich hedge fund guys about the future of technology. He thought they were going to ask him how technology was going to improve the world, but they were far more interested in discussing the “Event”, their cutesy term for the collapse of civilisation. “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the Event?” one CEO, who had just finished building an underground bunker system, reportedly asked. The rest of the conversation, detailed by Rushkoff in a Guardian feature, continued in that vein.That Rushkoff piece was published in 2018, but I’ve found myself thinking about it a lot over the past few days. Why? Because the Event is starting to feel imminent. If that sounds alarmist, just take a look at the weather. Severe storms have caused extensive flooding in Detroit. Canada just set its highest temperature on record: a village in British Columbia reached 46.1C (115F) on Sunday. The US’s Pacific north-west also broke heat records over the weekend, with Portland, Oregon, reaching 44.4C (112F). Seattle, which isn’t exactly known for its sunshine, just had triple-digit temperatures for three days straight, breaking another record. The US National Weather Service in Washington has called the current heatwave “historic, dangerous, prolonged and unprecedented”. Continue reading...

People with ME/CFS face debilitating symptoms but often feel dismissed by doctors. The focus on long Covid could help change thatIn the fall of 2016, Ashanti Daniel, a nurse in Beverly Hills, California, went to an infectious disease physician looking for answers about a weird illness she couldn’t shake. After falling sick with a virus four months earlier, she still felt too tired to stand up in the shower.The appointment lasted five minutes, she said. The doctor didn’t do a physical exam or check her vitals. His assessment: her illness was psychogenic, resulting from something psychological. Continue reading...

This is an economic issue, and a ‘torture device’ that stops you opening your mouth properly isn’t the solutionWant to hear a weight-loss idea so ingenious it’s guaranteed to make your jaw drop by exactly 2mm? Introducing the DentalSlim Diet Control: a terrifying contraption that uses magnets cemented to your teeth to stop you opening your mouth by more than a couple of millimetres. That makes eating pretty difficult, causing you to shed weight along with your dignity. The device was developed by a team of researchers from the UK and New Zealand to “to help fight the global obesity epidemic” and is designed to be fitted by dentists. Which reaffirms all my worst suspicions about dentists.Related: New weight-loss tool prevents mouth from opening more than 2mm Continue reading...

Remains of man found in Latvia had DNA fragments and proteins of bacterium that causes plagueA hunter-gatherer who lived more than 5,000 years ago is the earliest known person to have died with the plague, researchers have revealed.Stone-age communities in western Europe experienced a huge population decline about 5,500 years ago, an event that is thought to have subsequently enabled a huge migration of people from the east. Continue reading...

Researchers say that people who can come up with convincing explanations for concepts they don’t understand are more intelligentName: Blaggers.Age: Any age. Continue reading...

Nearly 400,000 pupils absent within a week as scientists raise concerns about plan to replace isolation with tests

No date agreed for planned reopening as health officials warn of risks of a Delta-driven new wave

Spacetime-altering shock waves came from massive neutron stars crashing into black holes millions of years agoThere are moments when life as an astrophysicist is like hanging around at the bus stop. You wait ages for a cataclysmic cosmic event to send shock waves through the fabric of spacetime and then two come along at once.Years after scientists began their search for quivers in spacetime anticipated by Albert Einstein, gravitational wave detectors in the US and Europe have detected the first signals from two neutron stars crashing into black holes hundreds of millions of light years away. Continue reading...

Hospital infection study shows use of FFP3 respirators at Addenbrooke’s ‘may have cut ward-based infection to zero’

Long Covid is highlighting conditions that have been around much longer than the pandemic. Ten readers share their experiences“The endless cycle of seeing doctors and never seeing any change or improvement” is how one 43-year-old woman from the US described what it’s like to live with chronic overlapping pain conditions. Long Covid has helped highlight issues surrrounding chronic illness but many people around the world have had to cope with debilitating symptoms of chronic pain for years, often without receiving adequate professional help.A 2011 report by the US Institute of Medicine recognised a cluster of chronic pain conditions that predominantly affect women and frequently co-occur. They were dubbed “chronic overlapping pain conditions” by the US Congress and include: vulvodynia, temporomandibular disorders, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, chronic tension-type and migraine headache and chronic low back pain. Continue reading...

Fears of a possible fifth wave as Tokyo reported 317 infections on Monday and the ninth week-on-week riseA rise in daily cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo has triggered fears of a possible fifth wave of infections, less than a month before the city is due to host the Olympics.Tokyo reported 317 infections on Monday – an increase of 81 from the same day last week and the ninth week-on-week same-day rise in a row. Continue reading...

Before Covid, dementia was the biggest killer in the UK and Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type. A controversial new drug for Alzheimer’s, aducanumab, is the first in nearly 20 years to be approved in the US, which will trigger pressure to make it available worldwide. The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Bosley, talks Shivani Dave through the mixed evidence of its efficacy Continue reading...

Fishermen alerted authorities to ‘suspicious’ items floating in the seaThe Algerian coastguard has seized almost half a tonne of cocaine after fishers alerted authorities to “suspicious” items floating off the north-west coast.The coastguard fished out 490kg (1,080 pounds) of cocaine split up into 442 packages from the water six nautical miles (11 kilometres) off Oran’s Cap Carbon on Saturday evening, a defence ministry statement said on Monday. Continue reading...

Analysis: scientists say the Delta variant should make the government think twice about resting all its hopes on vaccinesIf the new health secretary is to be believed, we are about to embark on an “exciting new journey” come 19 July. Sajid Javid, like the prime minister, appears confident that restrictions will be lifted irreversibly on that date. The data, however, is beginning to tell a different story.When Boris Johnson said his government would be guided by “data, not dates”, the scientific community – for the most part – endorsed the cautious approach. Now, the signs are ominous. Driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, cases are once again starting to rise exponentially. Vaccination rates have slowed. An exhausted NHS is seeing a rise in hospitalisations. Over half of all people in the UK are not fully vaccinated. Continue reading...

Oxford researchers say having AstraZeneca then Pfizer jabs is almost as potent as two shots of Pfizer

Experts say scientific advances are making it easier to attribute the damages of climate breakdown to companies’ activitiesBusinesses could soon be facing a fresh wave of legal action holding them to account for their greenhouse gas emissions, owing to advances in climate science, experts have warned.More than 1,500 legal actions have already been brought against fossil fuel companies whose emissions over decades have played a major role in building up carbon in the atmosphere. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following two puzzles, inspired by a money-saving trick devised by Carl Friedrich Gauss. (Click to the original for the explanation of the trick, and what it has got to do with Gauss).1. The double bill. Continue reading...

DentalSlim Diet Control, which uses magnets, has been likened to ‘medieval torture device’A weight-loss tool that uses magnets to stop people from opening their mouths wide enough to eat solid food has been developed by scientists in order to tackle obesity.The device, developed by medical professionals from the University of Otago in New Zealand and scientists from Leeds in the UK, can be fitted by dentists and uses magnetic components with locking bolts. Continue reading...

Technology could be used for patients who need only temporary help to regulate their heartbeatA wireless pacemaker that can dissolve in the body has been created for patients who need only temporary help to regulate their heartbeat.Since the first pacemaker was implanted in 1958, millions of people have benefited from the devices. According to the national audit for cardiac rhythm management, 32,902 pacemakers were implanted for the first time in the UK in the year 2018-19 alone. Continue reading...

Developed countries are seeing the benefits of quickly vaccinating their populations, but concerns remain about the unequal share of global vaccine supplies

Aducanumab’s approval masks the fact that we’re still very far from sure what causes the most common form of dementiaIn June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first Alzheimer’s drug in 18 years: aducanumab (also known by its brand name Aduhelm). At the time of writing, the drug is also under review in the EU, Japan and several other countries.For the roughly 30 million people worldwide who live with Alzheimer’s, this is unprecedented news, and must seem like cause for optimism. Unlike existing drugs, which only feebly suppress cognitive symptoms, aducanumab attempts to get at the underlying cause of the disease, to stop and cure Alzheimer’s. Continue reading...

Take the 2021 envelope challenge!UPDATE: To read the answers click hereFinancially well-informed readers may have recently learned about a money-saving trick that uses a formula supposedly devised by Carl Friedrich Gauss, the 19th century maths colossus. The viral 100 envelope challenge is based on an apocryphal story that Gauss, when a young boy, outwitted his teacher by adding the numbers from 1 to 100 almost instantly.The child genius had realised that if you group the numbers from 1 to 100 in pairs, the sum is equal to (1 + 100) + (2 + 99) + (3 + 98) + … In other words, 101 + 101 + 101 + … Since there are 50 pairs of numbers, the sum is 101 x 50 = 5050. Continue reading...

For years people with conditions such as fibromyalgia or bad back pain – to name just two – have been told the pain is all in their head. With no obvious physical symptoms, nociplastic pain can be difficult to diagnose but its effects are very, very real. Research suggests that the immune system plays a role in nociplastic pain, giving people 'feel bad' symptoms including fatigue, anxiety and nausea

The mighty Draco constellation is perfectly placed for viewing in northern hemisphereAt this time of year in the northern hemisphere, the mighty constellation of Draco, the dragon, is perfectly placed in the evening sky. From mid-northern latitudes, the constellation is visible all year round, but in the summer months Draco is in prime position. Continue reading...