Digital giant issues strike after channel posted videos denying the existence of disease and encouraging people to use discredited medication

Disease will circulate alongside flu and other seasonal viruses and become part of accepted winter illness

Forget the stereotypes – getting inked can be a powerful means of reclaiming your body and processing grief or traumaIf one thing has become obvious in the summer heat and the inevitable baring of flesh, it’s the degree to which body art is now the norm. At the pool, the park, or the pub beer garden, you’ll find an enormous variety of designs inked on the skin representing the breadth of human creativity.About 20% of adults in the UK now have at least one tattoo, and that proportion is likely to grow. Cynics might argue that the increased uptake is a superficial fad, based purely on the aesthetic appeal of tattoos. In this view, they might be the result of a momentary impulse to follow a passing trend followed by years of regret, rather than something that holds deep meaning. Continue reading...

Inspired by a desire to be good and help others during the pandemic, novelist Sarah Perry trained to vaccinate people. But what does it mean to be good when there is so much bad faith?Earlier this year – lockdown three: no sign of spring – I travelled to an airport to try to be good. Dogged for months by the sense of my own uselessness, and having wept with relief and accumulated sorrow when the first Covid-19 vaccine was approved, I’d joined an organisation training volunteers to deliver vaccinations, and so arrived at a desolate Stansted shortly after dawn. Here I sat in the basement of a hotel fallen almost out of use, and in the company of a hundred strangers – though alone and masked in a square of carpet marked out with black tape – learned how to treat fainting fits, panic attacks and anaphylactic shock. In our number were a circus performer, a firefighter, a consultant of some kind; and having been starved of unfamiliar faces for so long we were all, I think, happy to be there (putting a woman in the recovery position I apologised for what seemed a shocking intimacy; but she said what a pleasure it was, after all that time, to be touched). Then we attached sponges to our upper arms, and learned how to insert the needle at 45 degrees, stretching the skin to avoid a bleed; how to depress the plunger, and then remove the needle without doing ourselves a mischief. Then, observed by the nurse, who’d hurried out of retirement to train us, we demonstrated our prowess, were awarded a certificate, and went home to await deployment.Related: Sarah Perry: what good are books, in a situation like this? Continue reading...

New South Wales records 210 new locally acquired cases of coronavirus – two-thirds in people under 40 – as police set up exclusion zone over anti-lockdown protest; Queensland locks down 11 LGAs from 4pm today after six new cases. Follow the latest news

Man in his 60s dies at home in south-west Sydney as state reports new locally acquired cases

Eleven LGAs locked down from 4pm on Saturday as deputy premier says state must ‘go hard and go early’

Transmission beams can be reconfigured from the ground, whereas most commercial satellites are hard-wired before launchThe world’s first commercial fully reprogrammable satellite has been launched, ushering in a new era of more flexible communications.Unlike conventional models that are designed and “hard-wired” on Earth and cannot be repurposed once in orbit, the UK-engineered Eutelsat Quantum allows users to tailor it almost in real-time. Continue reading...

Figure same as before legal requirement relaxed, while most still feel that complying with other Covid safety measures is important

Government will not say they believe worst is over, but cases fell for seven consecutive days this week

Russia’s troubled Nauka laboratory module caused a fright when its rockets accidentally fired after docking the with the International Space Station, briefly throwing the station out of position.A few hours after docking, Nauka’s propulsive devices came on unexpectedly, forcing personnel onboard the ISS to launch thrusters on the Russian segment of the station to counter the effect

Exclusive: small changes in conference design can make big difference to female inclusion, say researchersWomen are less likely to participate in proceedings at medical and scientific conferences, even with gender-balanced delegates, although simple interventions in conference design sparked a significant improvement in female inclusion, a study has found.Medical and scientific conferences are imperative to the professional visibility of clinicians and academics, and researchers conducted this latest analysis based on data gleaned from the Society for Endocrinology’s annual national conferences. Continue reading...

Announcement makes Israel the first country to offer a third dose of a western vaccine to its citizens on a wide scale

After several ‘hiccups’ on the journey to the ISS, the Nauka lab module accidentally fired its rockets after dockingRussia’s troubled Nauka laboratory module has caused a fright when its rockets accidentally fired after docking the with the International Space Station, briefly throwing the station out of position.A few hours after docking, Nauka’s propulsive devices unexpectedly fired, forcing personnel aboard the ISS to fire thrusters on the Russian segment of the station to counter the effect. Continue reading...

Foreign secretary says he ‘can understand’ why businesses would want to adopt a tough stance

Men in tears | Resilience | Supper | Olympic winners | Spelling namesAn excellent article by Adrian Chiles (Have you cried with despair in public? There is nothing braver or better, 28 July). In medieval France, it was considered very manly to weep copiously about one’s fallen comrades. If you didn’t cry, what was wrong with you? Didn’t you care? Crying is an effective and natural way of releasing tension.

Not-for-profit pledge sees British firm’s sales revenue fall significantly short of US rival Pfizer

The analysis draws on public health studies that conclude that for every 4,434 metric tons of CO produced, one person globally will dieThe lifestyles of around three average Americans will create enough planet-heating emissions to kill one person, and the emissions from a single coal-fired power plant are likely to result in more than 900 deaths, according to the first analysis to calculate the mortal cost of carbon emissions.The new research builds upon what is known as the “social cost of carbon”, a monetary figure placed upon the damage caused by each ton of carbon dioxide emissions, by assigning an expected death toll from the emissions that cause the climate crisis. Continue reading...

New exposure sites from Victoria mystery case; lockdown rules change as NSW’s Delta outbreak death toll rises to 13, with a record 239 local cases reported. This blog is now closed

Analysis of marsquakes captured since probe landed in 2018 shows the Martian crust is between 12 and 23 miles thickNasa’s InSight lander has revealed the depth of Mars’s crust and the size of its central core by using data from dozens of marsquakes captured since the probe landed in 2018.The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) is a dome-shaped instrument that sits on the surface of Mars and can pick up seismic events hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Since its deployment, the mission has recorded 733 distinct marsquakes, about 35 of which were used for the current work. All quakes registered between magnitudes 3 and 4. Continue reading...

Genetic advantages in sport tend to be celebrated, but that isn’t always the case when it comes to women’s athletics. At the start of July, two female runners from Namibia, Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, were told they couldn’t compete in the 400m race in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics unless they reduced their naturally high testosterone hormone levels. Shivani Dave speaks to Katrina Karkazis, a professor of sexuality, women’s, and gender studies, specialising in ‘sex testing’ and sport regulations, about the rules that ban female athletes with naturally high testosterone Continue reading...

Last year was first to be in top 10 for heat, rain and sunshine, as scientists say UK’s mild climate is at an endExtremes of weather will strike the UK more frequently owing to the climate crisis, scientists said after data showed that last year was one of the warmest, as well as one of the wettest and sunniest, on record.Last year was the first to figure in the top 10 for heat, rain and hours of sunshine, in records stretching back more than a century, as moderate British weather is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, according to a report from the Met Office and climate scientists. Continue reading...

UK scientist says gene-drive study rendering female insects infertile may lead to ‘self destruct mosquito’ field tests within 10 yearsScientists have successfully wiped out a population of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes by using a radical form of genetic engineering to render the females infertile – in the most advanced and largest ever test of use of the technology to fight the disease.As well as bringing fresh hope in the fight against one of the world’s biggest killers, the study lays the foundations for further trials of gene-drive technology, which could mean self-destroying mosquitoes being released into the wild within 10 years. Continue reading...

Telescope picks up unexpected ‘luminous echoes’ – smaller, later and of different colour to bright flaresAstronomers have detected light behind a black hole deep in space for the first time.Bright flares of X-rays were spotted bursting from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy 800m light years away, which is relatively normal. Continue reading...

Pioneering biologist and geneticist whose research showed the emptiness of traditional biological concepts of raceThe American scientist Richard Lewontin, who has died aged 92, was intimately involved in some of the most important discoveries, and feuds, of evolutionary biology during the decades in which it passed from knowing that genes existed to specifying them in precise molecular terms.His greatest contribution came in the 1960s, when he demonstrated the existence of very widespread genetic variation within species as well as between them. This research, with John Hubby at the University of Chicago, which had started with grinding up fruit flies, was extended to human beings in a paper published in 1972 that revealed the emptiness of traditional biological concepts of race. Continue reading...

Scientists believe the unusual tubular structures may be the remnants of prehistoric spongesIntricate patterns of tubular structures discovered in giant ancient reefs may be the remnants of prehistoric horny sponges and the oldest known fossils of animal life on Earth.Researchers found the unusual features in vast reefs that were built by bacteria 890m years ago and then pushed up by geological processes to form part of the Mackenzie Mountains in north-western Canada. Continue reading...

More than 2bn Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide. Find out which countries are vaccinating the most

PM emphasises positive benefits of having jab and appears to distance himself from vaccine passport plan

Premier indicates rapid tests may be used by year 12 students returning to school as well as some businesses

Trump sycophant Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the ex-president deserves credit for the jab rollout. If that’s the price of herd immunity, so be itForget Pfizer or AstraZeneca, the hottest shot this summer is the Trump vaccine. Hang on, you might cry: there is no such thing. Well, Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a woman who has always had an unusual relationship with facts – begs to differ. Sanders is running for governor of Arkansas, a state with one of the lowest Covid vaccination rates in the US. She seems to want to change that: on Sunday, she published a column explaining her reasons for getting “the Trump vaccine” and arguing that Covid vaccines are safe and effective.Are you wondering whether Sanders, a Trump sycophant, has turned over a new leaf? Is it possible she suddenly cares more about the public good than political gain? I’m afraid not. Sanders, you see, wasn’t content with using her platform simply to encourage her fellow Arkansans to get vaccinated; she also took numerous jabs at Democrats. The reason some people are scared that vaccines are not safe, according to Sanders, is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s fault. If “the left truly care about increasing the vaccination rate … they should admit they were wrong to cast doubt on Operation Warp Speed and give President Trump and his team the credit they are due,” Sanders wrote. Continue reading...

People deserve better than a never-ending stream of unproven practices dangled before them in the guise of hopeTen years ago a desperate young woman walked into my office and declared: “I need your help. I am dying of cancer.”Her story was incredible. At an integrative medicine seminar she had won a special blood test as a door prize. Thinking of having some bloods done anyway, she had taken advantage of the free offer, only to receive a call telling her she had cancer. It was only after an expensive course of intravenous vitamins that her sceptical cousin asked why no one had at least ordered a CT scan to find the cancer. She convinced her GP to order the scan, which detected two tiny lung nodules. The GP sent her to a surgeon who ordered a different scan, by which time the benign nodules had disappeared. The surgeon told her she did not have cancer but she did not believe him. Then she saw me. Continue reading...

Childhood poverty and health issues before adulthood all factors in decline in mid-life wellbeingMore than one in three middle-aged British adults are suffering from at least two chronic health conditions, including recurrent back problems, poor mental health, high blood pressure, diabetes and high-risk drinking, according to research that warned that health in midlife is on the decline.The study of “generation X” adults born in 1970 found that those who grew up in poorer families were 43% more likely to have multiple long-term health conditions than their peers from wealthier households. Those who had been overweight or obese as children, who had lower birthweight and who had experienced mental ill-health as teenagers were also at increased risk of poor health in midlife. Continue reading...

Team will search for evidence of extraterrestrial life by looking for advanced technology it may leave behindA team of scientists will embark on a new international research project led by Harvard University to search for evidence of extraterrestrial life by looking for advanced technology it may leave behind.The Galileo Project is led by the Harvard astronomy professor Avi Loeb. Loeb co-founded the project with Frank Laukien, CEO of Bruker Corporation, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of scientific equipment. Continue reading...

High-risk individuals were still much more vulnerable to catching virus and dying in first wave of pandemic

Male spending – on petrol and meat – is apparently worse for the environment than women’s. But it’s the system, not individuals, that needs to changeSorry, boys, but it’s all your fault. Melting ice caps, flash floods, rising sea levels: men are to blame for the lot of it. Please don’t drown the messenger, I’m just relaying the results of a Swedish study that found that men’s spending habits cause 16% more climate-heating emissions than women’s. The biggest difference seems to be that men spend more money on petrol. Another big difference: the men surveyed bought more meat than women. So this is the way the world ends, eh? Not with a bang, but with blokes eating too many burgers.I don’t know how many studies published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology go viral, but this paper has had an enormous amount of traction. Of course, this is largely because its findings leant themselves to delicious clickbait such as Men Are Worse for Climate Change Than Women Because They Love Meat and Cars. To be fair, the study didn’t lean into gender war territory in the way you would expect based on the headlines it generated. Gender wasn’t even mentioned in the paper’s title, which was “Shifting expenditure on food, holidays, and furnishings could lower greenhouse gas emissions by almost 40%”. Continue reading...

NSW premier expected to announce Covid roadmap as Blacktown apartment block locked down

In the lead-up to the athletics competitions at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020, Shivani Dave takes look at how advances in running shoe technology are resulting in records being smashed. Talking to Geoff Burns, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan who specialises in biomechanics, Shivani asks how so-called ‘super spikes’ work and if the mechanical advantage they provide is fair Continue reading...

Findings of Office for National Statistics analysis consistent with previous research say expertsPeople from white and mixed ethnic groups had lower life expectancy compared with Black and Asian groups in England and Wales between 2011 and 2014, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).The study linked 2011 census and death registration data to produce estimates of life expectancy and cause of death by ethnic group. Continue reading...

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The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three ‘clueless’ Sudoku and an ‘almost clueless’ Killer Sudoku. For discussion and tips you can read the original column here.For a printable page of all the puzzles click here. Scroll down for the solutions. Continue reading...

More heatwaves even worse than those seen recently in north-west of America forecast in research“Record-shattering” heatwaves, even worse than the one that recently hit north-west America, are set to become much more likely in future, according to research. The study is a stark new warning on the rapidly escalating risks the climate emergency poses to lives.The shocking temperature extremes suffered in the Pacific north-west and in Australia 2019-2020 were “exactly what we are talking about”, said the scientists. But they said the world had yet to see anything close to the worst impacts possible, even under the global heating that had already happened. Continue reading...

The trajectory of the pandemic might look more like a range of hills rather than a single mountainWhile the government’s decision to remove most lockdown measures in England was widely expected to result in a large wave of infection and disease, the number of new cases of Covid-19 has been falling over the last five days. Many hope this could mean that we’re past the peak. Yet the reality is more complicated. This is the first time an epidemic has taken place in a highly vaccinated population without control measures in place, so we are in uncharted territory. There is considerable uncertainty about what the next two months hold.The big questions are how high the current wave will get and how long it will last. The number of people in hospital and dying of Covid-19 is directly linked to the number of infections. It’s impossible to accurately predict when we’ll reach the peak of infections, or how long it will take to come back down from this (if I had a pound for every time I’m asked “are we there yet?”, I’d be able to give away a lot of money). Continue reading...

Believing others have fixed traits which don’t change yields defensiveness, failure to listen, and failure to set boundariesOver the past few years I’ve noticed a rise in the label “toxic” as a response to difficult or destructive behavior. Media outlets from Psychology Today to Harvard Business Review run articles on how to identify or avoid toxic people. Politicians like Mitch McConnell use the term to describe their adversaries. Even academic psychologists have begun to take up the language.Related: It’s time to rethink what loneliness is | Miriam Kirmayer Continue reading...

Puzzles where less is moreUPDATE: Solutions now available here.Sudoku is an extremely elegant puzzle, and this crucial to its appeal. The rules are simple to understand and the grid – with given numbers usually presented in a symmetric pattern – is striking. Yet perhaps Sudoku is not elegant enough. Perhaps the numbers on the starting grid are an unforgivable blemish, a needless sullying of the page.Or so argue a group of mathematicians, who have come up with a new puzzle genre: ‘clueless Sudoku’, which are Sudoku-style puzzles with a pristine starting grid. These puzzles literally don’t have a (numerical) clue. Continue reading...

From Syrians helping in Germany’s floods to Russian CrossFitters fighting fires, ordinary people helping to tackle the climate crisisWhen Anas Alakkad, a Saarland-based translator and paramedic from Damascus, saw pictures of the flooded German towns on his Facebook feed on Sunday night, he fired off messages to Syrian friends around Germany. Continue reading...

Now is the chance to find Ophiuchus, which some view as the 13th sign of the zodiacThis time of year offers the opportunity to track down the large but faint constellation of Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer – literally a man holding a snake. One of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in the second century, there is no definitive association between the constellation and a myth, but several have been suggested. It could be Apollo grappling with the serpent that guarded the oracle of Delphi; or Apollo’s son Asclepius, who witnessed one serpent heal another by feeding it herbs; or maybe Laocoön, who was slain by sea serpents after he tried to warn the Trojans that the famous horse was a trap. Continue reading...

It would be easy enough to get home quickly if we had money to burn

Researchers say cases linked to products claiming to promote muscle growth or weight loss are rising and more rigorous oversight is neededThe number of patients being admitted to hospital with severe liver injuries caused by herbal and dietary supplements claiming to promote muscle growth or weight loss is increasing, with some people harmed so severely they required a liver transplant.A study led by Dr Emily Nash from the Royal Prince Alfred hospital examined hospital records of 184 adults admitted to the AW Morrow Gastroenterology and Liver Centre with drug-induced liver injury between 2009 and 2020. She and her co-authors found liver injury cases linked to herbal and dietary supplements increased from two out of 11 patients (15%) during 2009–11, to 10 out of 19 patients (47%) during 2018–20. Continue reading...

Visionary biochemist who was appointed head of the Medical Research Council in 1987As its head from the late 1980s, the research scientist Sir Dai Rees, who has died aged 85, revolutionised the way the Medical Research Council (MRC) interacted with industry. In this respect, he was a visionary: he understood the importance of a successful interface between basic research and industry, including its impact on attracting public funds.Under his leadership, centres were established with strong industrial links, with the aim of encouraging the practical application of MRC research and inventions. The work of these centres contributed to the development of the “blockbuster” Keytruda antibody for cancer treatment, and of the world’s top-selling pharmaceutical drug, the antibody Humira, which treats rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. Continue reading...