Coronavirus patients with high-risk comorbidities are being given a newly approved antibody drug, which limits the virus’s ability to replicate in the body

A team of medics hiked in the mountains for hours to take supplies to the small village of Nakida

The space cemetery, named for the fictional captain in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, is where the International Space Station is likely to end upAt the furthest point from any landmass on earth, and 4km under the sea, lies the space cemetery.When their outer space journeys come to an end, old satellites, rocket parts and space stations are sent to this desolate spot in the Pacific Ocean to rest on the dark seabed forever. Continue reading...

Analysis: The JCVI would not back vaccination of all 12 to 15-year-olds, but the impact on schools will now have to be considered

House in southern France yielded find of outstanding wall paintings dating from 1st century BCOn the right bank of the Rhône in the Provençal town of Arles, the Roman-built House of the Harpist is being hailed as a remarkable record of ancient architecture and interior decoration.Now, experts have opened their workshop to reveal their painstaking attempts to piece together the vast jigsaw of magnificent and never before seen frescoes discovered in the property thought to date back more than two millennia. Continue reading...

Readers respond to an editorial about understanding quantum theory and defining the laws of physicsYour editorial on quantum physics (30 August) starts with a quote from Richard Feynman – “nobody understands quantum mechanics” – and then says “that is no longer true”. One of us (Norman Dombey) was taught quantum theory by Feynman at Caltech; the other (John Charap) was taught by Paul Dirac at Cambridge. Quantum theory was devised by several physicists including Dirac, Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg in the 1920s and 1930s, and Dirac made their work relativistic.It is absurd to say that quantum mechanics is now understood whereas it was not 50 years ago. There have of course been advances in our understanding of quantum phenomena, but the conceptual framework of quantum physics remains as it was. The examples you give of nuclear plants, medical scans and lasers involve straightforward applications of quantum mechanics that were understood 50 years ago. Continue reading...

As living creatures, we are exquisitely evolved to interact with the world through perception, says David HughesGaia Vince, reviewing Anil Seth’s Being You: A New Science of Consciousness (The exhilarating new science of consciousness, 25 August), extols the thesis that because our perception of the world is a complex physical process, perception is itself a “hallucination” and “a big lie created by our deceptive brains”. But when we consider that dogs hear sounds we don’t, flies look through compound eyes, birds navigate using inbuilt GPS, it does seem perverse to claim that the very physicality of being alive downgrades perception to spontaneous fakery.Does, for example, the complex biochemistry of our arm and shoulder muscles make striking a tennis ball a hallucination? Are all our sensations of touch illusory? A Wimbledon winner and someone who has a burn would surely disagree. We are, as living creatures, exquisitely evolved to interact with the world through perception. Our survival depends on it. It is not dying of thirst that is a hallucination, it is the dehydration that accompanies such a death that causes hallucination: the misperception of reality. Continue reading...

This new class of planet hoped by scientists to harbour alien life is a hot waterworld. Let’s stop Earth turning into oneAstronomers have begun scrutinising a new class of planet that might support alien life: the hycean. This is a portmanteau coinage combining “hydrogen” and “ocean”, since the planets are hot waterworlds with hydrogen-rich atmospheres.In ancient Greek, Oceanus was the great river encompassing the disc of the Earth, personified as the son of Uranus and Gaia. Hydrogen, meanwhile, is Greek for “water-generating”, as H indeed is when combined with O. Continue reading...

Successor to Hubble has been hit by delays and a ballooning budget since work began on it in 1996Nasa has completed the final tests of the James Webb space telescope and is now preparing it for transportation to the launch site in Kourou, French Guiana.Webb is Nasa’s successor to the ageing Hubble space telescope. Work on it began way back in 1996. Back then, it was called the Next Generation space telescope. It was forecast to cost $500m (£363m) and was set for launch in 2007. Continue reading...

Arctic change increased chances of tightly spinning winds above North Pole, authors say, boosting chances of extreme weatherThe climate crisis has not only been leaving deadly heatwaves and more destructive hurricanes in its wake, but also probably creating extreme winter weather events, according to a new report released on Thursday by the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s journal Science.Related: ‘Fire weather’: dangerous days now far more common in US west, study finds Continue reading...

Exclusive: head of key research into third dose says it may be better to prioritise vulnerable first

From playing word games to using a memory palace, there are many ways to train your brain as we start to socialise in greater numbersSay what you will about the rule of six: at least it was easy to keep up with everyone. Now that most restrictions in the UK have been lifted, we might not only be catching up with acquaintances we have not seen for well over a year, but meeting new people – and our brains might be struggling to keep up. Here are 10 tips for priming your mind. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson’s passport plan sets the vaxxers against the anti-vaxxers without necessarily making anything saferVaccinations are the high point of human reason. Devised under clinical conditions by scientists interested only in what works, they represent the mastery of the rational world over chaotic nature; and also, of course, they save lives. Vaccine passports, then, should in theory be no more than the rubber stamp of reason. So why does the policy, not to mention the discussion surrounding it, look so irrational?In late July, shortly after nightclubs had reopened for the first time in over a year, Boris Johnson appeared to go against his previous approach – let’s call it, for brevity, “loosey goosey” – and announced a plan to make “full vaccination the condition of entry” to nightclubs and other crowded indoor events. The prime minister didn’t have the experience of Boardmasters, the Cornish festival in mid-August, which seeded so many Covid infections that the county, had it been abroad, would have been placed on the red list. Yet he did have that data by this week, when he restated this intention. Continue reading...

When we find it difficult to say ‘no’ at work or at home, our responsibilities can quickly become overwhelming. For good mental health, focusing on our own needs and capabilities is crucialNo. A tiny, yet mighty word. To hear it can make us feel childlike; sheepish or in trouble. How does it make you feel to say “no”? Strong? Nervous? Guilty? Do you say it often enough?In July, when the gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from most of her Olympics appearances, citing emotional exhaustion that was affecting her ability to perform, her “no” was a thunderbolt. Reactions were largely supportive, but opinions were divided along political lines in the US. White, male sports pundits (and, predictable as the arrow of time, Piers Morgan) used the word “selfish”. It was a similar story when the tennis player Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open in May, speaking of “long bouts of depression” and “huge waves of anxiety” before her pre- and post-match press conferences. Continue reading...

Getting trees into the ground isn’t simple. Reforestation often involves trade-offs and challenges. Phoebe Weston checks in on two projects where people are planting trees, and one where it’s not humans doing the planting at all. She and Patrick Greenfield from The age of extinction are back with two new episodes Continue reading...

Health groups say move would leave many patients in England unable to afford medication, intensifying existing health inequalitiesScrapping free prescription charges for people over 60 and raising the qualifying age to 66 could have a devastating impact on the health of tens of thousands of older people, new analysis by Age UK suggests.In a joint open letter urging the government to reconsider proposals to scrap free prescriptions for over-60s in England, 20 healthcare organisations expressed “deep shared concerns” that the move would leave many patients unable to afford medication, intensifying existing health inequalities and having a devastating impact on some older people’s health. Continue reading...

Researchers also find no difference in mental health scores between children who test positive or negative

Health officials say shots are not boosters but part of vaccination schedule for half a million patients

South of UK was duller and wetter than usual, while extreme weather hit hard across the worldGlasgow, the host city of the crucial Cop26 UN climate summit in November, has experienced its hottest summer on record, the Met Office has said. Continue reading...

Bones found in 2014 in what is now South Dakota described as ‘miracle of nature and work of art’In its time, approximately 66m years ago, the triceratops, with its massive collared skull and three attacking horns, was one of the most dangerous and daunting of dinosaurs.Now the remains of one of the giants of the Cretaceous period, a herbivore despite its fearsome appearance, have gone on display in Paris before they are auctioned next month. Continue reading...

From sending a quick check-in message to getting vaccinated for their benefit, there are many ways to make your high-risk friends feel loved, even if they are still having to isolateNow that almost all pandemic restrictions have been lifted in the UK, many of us are enjoying getting our social lives back. But if you are clinically vulnerable, you might still be living with self-imposed rules, such as avoiding the indoors or crowds. With more than 3.8 million people in the UK previously told to shield in lockdown, statistically, most of us will have friends or family who are in this boat. It can be a hard thing to navigate. How can you support them and keep relationships going? Here are 10 ideas. Continue reading...

University College hospital allows access to its new facility and staff to show how the health service is trying to tackle backlogs

New centre in Berlin aims to make it easier for governments to compare notes on emerging infectious diseases

As a Black scientist in a traditionally white field, the Brown University professor has often been ostracized. But to move forward, he says, science must embrace diversityAs a Black physicist, Dr Stephon Alexander has been doubted, spoken over and met with intentional silence. The tenured Brown University professor has even faced this treatment from his students.This is par for the course for many Black professionals in traditionally white environments, but Alexander happens to excel in an especially insular field that was once thought to be too advanced for people like him. In the 70s, the American Physical Society, the country’s most recognized organization of physicists, remained silent as some members claimed that people of African heritage were incapable of engaging in physics because of their inferior intellect – a damning assertion in a field that requires supporting colleagues as they make huge conceptual leaps. Continue reading...

Canines seem to understand whether actions are deliberate or accidental, ‘theory of mind’ study suggestsFrom a canny look to a quizzical grumble, dogs have long conveyed the impression they know more about what their owners are up to than what might be expected. Now researchers have found fresh evidence of canine savviness, revealing dogs seem to be able to tell whether human actions are deliberate or accidental.While theory of mind – the ability to attribute thoughts to others and to recognise that can result in certain behaviours – is often thought to be uniquely human, the study suggests at least some elements may be common to canines. Continue reading...

Health body says Mu, or B.1.621, first identified in Colombia, has been designated as a variant of interest

Models of how the Earth could look in 250m years, with huge land masses and longer days, can help exoplanet huntersIt’s unlikely humans will be around to see it, but in about 250m years Earth’s land masses will have moved together to form the next supercontinent. By this time the sun will be a little brighter and the Earth’s rotation will have slowed down, making a day about 30 minutes longer than now. So how will it feel to live on this future Earth?Michael Way, from the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and colleagues have used computer models to travel forward in time. They investigated two plausible scenarios: Aurica (a low latitude supercontinent developing around 250m years from now) and Amasia (a high latitude northern supercontinent plus a smaller Antarctic subcontinent about 200m years from now). Continue reading...

Doctors say inclisiran will prevent tens of thousands of deaths from heart attack and strokePatients in England are to start receiving a “gamechanger” drug that doctors say will protect tens of thousands of lives by cutting the number of people who have a heart attack or stroke.The treatment, inclisiran, works by boosting the liver’s ability to reduce the body’s level of “bad” cholesterol, even in those who have already tried using statins. Continue reading...

Concerns raised that some people may be cancelling their second AstraZeneca dose hoping to obtain a shot of Pfizer instead

Seán Boyle suspects that the Gaelicised spelling of ‘craic’ may be a more recent ploy to attract touristsAndrew Poole (Letters, 26 August) is of course correct that “crack” has a long history in Scots and north-eastern English. But it also existed in Ireland well before its late 20th-century emergence as “craic”. Growing up in south Ulster, it was in regular use by young and old – “Sure, he’s great crack”; “Was there any crack in town last night?”; “She’d go anywhere for a bit of crack”. We seldom had recourse to spelling it out, but wouldn’t have considered any spelling other than “crack”.I agree that the adoption of the Gaelicised “craic” is of fairly recent origin. I have no recollection of its use among Gaelic speakers and I suspect that it’s a tourism marketing man’s invention, circa 1980. Gaelicising it suggests that there’s something unique about Irish fun and distances it from other meanings of the word. Otherwise, a slogan such as “Come to Ireland for the crack” might well attract the wrong sort of tourist.

There is scant evidence that ivermectin can treat or prevent Covid - but that hasn’t stopped rightwing pundits and conservative politicians from promoting itYou are not a horse. You are not a cow. You are, I’m afraid, a homo sapiens living in a world so deranged that people would rather poison themselves with worm medicine meant for farm animals than take a vaccine meant for human beings.Related: Australian imports of ivermectin increase tenfold, prompting warning from TGA Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhat evolutionary advantage comes from women having considerably less body hair than men? Mal Jones, CardiffPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published on Sunday. Continue reading...

Food and water were thought to be the main ways humans are exposed to PFAS, but study points to risk of breathing them inToxic PFAS compounds are contaminating the air inside homes, classrooms and stores at alarming levels, a new study has found.Researchers with the University of Rhode Island and Green Science Policy Institute tested indoor air at 20 sites and detected the “forever chemicals” in 17 locations. The airborne compounds are thought to break off of PFAS-treated products such as carpeting and clothing and attach to dust or freely float through the indoor environment. Continue reading...

Country to press ahead with school openings as it encourages all over-12s to get third jab

In an era of divisions over the climate breakdown, tree planting seems to bring everyone together. But are there situations where tree planting can cause more harm than good? And how much can it help us counteract global heating? Patrick Greenfield leads you through the science and controversy behind the decisions we’re making and how those decisions could shape our future environment. He and Phoebe Weston from The age of extinction are back with two new episodes Continue reading...

The drug, used to deworm livestock, has been touted among rightwing media as a Covid treatment, prompting the US FDA to tweet ‘You are not a cow’

UK and international studies show the impact pandemic has had on health services and patients

A coin toss could give me two completely different lives. But once I know the result there’s no going backI’ve spent most of my life knowing I may have inherited a faulty gene that would cause Huntington’s disease, a neurodegenerative disease that can be fatal. My grandad had the disease, my mum has it, and I am yet to take the test to find out if I have it too. It’s a 50/50 chance of inheritance. Right now, I am happily ignorant of whether I carry the mutation or not. A coin toss could give me two completely different lives. Once I know the results, there’s no going back. So far, everyone who has been tested in my family has tested positive. It seems the odds are against me. I’m 27 years old, and I’m starting to think seriously about my future, whether that is moving overseas or contemplating having children. Whatever big decisions I am facing now, I can’t help but wonder, could this disease overshadow them? I explore this tension in a newly released short documentary, Fifty Percent.Related: After the Nobel, what next for Crispr gene-editing therapies? Continue reading...

Six countries removed from EU ‘white list’ of countries with restriction-free travel; South African scientists trying to establish potency of ‘new variant’

Pupils to return to classrooms in England, Wales and Northern Ireland amid warnings of infection surge

A leading scientist explains why the fundamental truth is that it is impossible to know everything about the universeThe American physicist Richard Feynman thought that “nobody understands quantum mechanics”. That is no longer true. Smartphones, nuclear plants, medical scans and laser-operated doors have been built with insights from the physics that governs the subatomic level. What perplexes many is that the quantum world is governed by rules that run counter to classical notions of physical laws.In quantum mechanics, nature is not deterministic. Subatomic particles do not travel a path that can be plotted. It is possible only to calculate the probability of finding these specks at a particular point. Where such calculations leave physics, that hardest of the hard sciences, has troubled its greatest minds. Albert Einstein thought the idea that an element of chance lay deep in science was absurd. “God does not play dice,” he famously declared. Continue reading...

Ian Harvey urges the JCVI to vaccinate teenagers as schools return from the summer break, and Austen Lynch says the Covid death toll is still highScientific advice to the government has mostly been good during the pandemic, but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) is showing unhelpful signs of procrastination over the vaccination of teenagers and the use of adult boosters (Report, 27 August). It is also playing out its discussion via the media rather than in a timely fashion in private. Its doubts about vaccinating teenagers are said to centre on concerns about side-effects, the ethics of indirect benefit and of using vaccines here rather than overseas. The mRNA vaccines that would be used in this group have an excellent safety profile, and are the least suitable for use in developing countries because of storage temperature requirements. Boys are already vaccinated against rubella for the benefit of others (ie pregnant women). The debate is reminiscent of the early hesitation about mask wearing, where some scientists swerved away from their use on the plausible but unlikely grounds of other unintended effects on behaviour. These were not realised, and most of us now regret the delay in mask wearing. I would urge the JCVI to realise that time is not on its side if an autumn campaign is to be organised.

Machines to be used to clean up after Covid outbreaks part of £5.9m initiative to improve air quality

Health body previously stated that boosters in Europe are unnecessary and will increase vaccine inequality

Deemed ‘astrology for businessmen’ for some, lauded as life-saving by others, the personality tests are a ‘springboard’ for people to think about who they areI am a born executive. I am obsessed with efficiency and detached from my emotions. I share similarities with Margaret Thatcher and Harrison Ford. I am among 2% of the general population, and 1% of women.People like us are highly motivated by personal growth, and occasionally ruthless in the pursuit. We make difficult partners and parents, but good landscape architects. We are ENTJs: extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging – also known as the executive type or, sometimes, “the Commander”. Continue reading...

At least 12,000 women are still abducted and forced into marriage every year in Kyrgyzstan. But pressure is growing to finally end the medieval customAisuluu was returning home after spending the afternoon with her aunt in the village of At-Bashy, not far from the Torugart crossing into China. “It was 5 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday. I had a paper bag full of samsa [a dough dumpling stuffed with lamb, parsley and onion]. My aunt always prepared them on weekends,” she said.“A car with four men inside comes in the opposite direction to mine. And all of a sudden it … turns around and, within a few seconds, comes up beside me. One of the guys in the back gets out, yanks me and pushes me inside the car. I drop all the samsa on the pavement. I scream, I squirm, I cry, but there is nothing I can do.” Continue reading...

Skills and reasoning are more vital than ever and the internet is taking the place of memorising by roteLet’s start with the good news: we’re getting brighter. Sadly, not individually as we age, but IQs have risen over time, with new generations having higher reasoning skill scores than their predecessors. This progress on abstract reasoning is in contrast to plateauing or declining scores for retained knowledge such as vocabulary.Better nutrition or healthcare might explain some of this improvement. But there’s also been a greater focus on skills over knowledge by schools and parents. This was what Michael Gove was pushing against with his focus on children needing to learn basic facts. Continue reading...

Councils are struggling to complete children’s education and care plans before the new school year because of a shortage of specialistsCouncils in England are struggling to assess the level of support children with special educational needs require because of a shortage of educational psychologists, with the start of the school year just days away.Education, health and care plans (EHCPs) set out the extra provision that children with high special educational needs and disabilities (Send) are legally entitled to. To decide whether to provide an EHCP, and what should go in it, councils must carry out an assessment, sourcing advice and information from an educational psychologist. Continue reading...

A forensic psychiatrist recalls her attempts to offer therapy to some of society’s most damaged and dangerous peopleDuring my first week as a newly qualified forensic psychiatrist at Broadmoor, I had to visit one of the wards. At the foot of a staircase, I stepped aside to let a group of patients pass. Another staff member joined me, and we waited as the men, mainly in their 40s and 50s, descended in silence, walking carefully, hands skimming or leaning on the bannister for support. One man caught my attention because he looked like a stock image of Father Christmas, with a big white beard. When they’d gone, my companion turned to me. “Do you know who that was?” I shook my head. “Peter Sutcliffe… you know, the Yorkshire Ripper.”I remember thinking, with an intake of breath, “So that’s him.” He was one of the hospital’s most notorious patients, that rarest of offenders, a serial killer. I felt shaken for a moment, and then it dawned on me that the shock was that there was nothing to see. He was just a man, not a monster. When detectives in Yorkshire were desperately trying to solve a series of brutal murders of local women, they interviewed Mr Sutcliffe seven times before he was identified as the suspect. They evidently saw nothing to mark him out from any other man. Continue reading...

Charles Foster’s search for the meaning of human life leads him and his son to become hedgehog-eating hunter-gatherers in a Derbyshire woodCharles Foster’s previous book, Being a Beast, is one of the oddest things I’ve read. In it, the author, a barrister, professor of law, part-time judge and former vet, attempts to live as a series of animals, often in the company of his charming and heavily dyslexic eight-year-old son, Tom. We see Foster eating worms and burrowing into the earth as a badger, swimming naked as an otter, foraging in bins as a fox. Now Foster is back with a follow-up, Being a Human, which acknowledges the charges of eccentricity and even insanity that were levelled at the last book.Foster’s new work continues the project of its predecessor, although this time, rather than seeking to understand the brains and bodies of animals, his question is closer to home: what does it mean to be human? He begins with a contentious argument: far from being a story of progress, the history of humanity is one of disenchantment and loss, one where we have severed our links with other species and the natural world more broadly and in which we live meagre, circumscribed lives. “Few of us have any idea what sort of creatures we are,” he says and embarks on a quest to find out. Continue reading...