SpaceX launches and successfully lands its futuristic Starship SN15 for the first time. The previous four test flights for the rocketship had ended in explosions for the vehicle that SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes will eventually transport humans to Mars. This latest upgraded version of SpaceX’s full-scale, stainless steel, bullet-shaped rocketship reached a maximum altitude of over six miles (10km) before flipping and descending horizontally, and then going vertical again just in time for touchdown
Previous test flights of the rocketship, which Elon Musk plans to use for future missions to the moon and mars, ended in explosionsSpaceX launched and successfully landed its futuristic Starship on Wednesday, finally nailing a test flight of the rocketship that Elon Musk intends to use to land astronauts on the moon and send people to Mars.The previous four test flights ended in fiery explosions before, during or soon after touchdown at the south-eastern tip of Texas, near Brownsville. Continue reading...
Communist party newspaper claims Long March 5B should easily burn up in atmosphere but expert warns pieces will reach EarthThe White House has called for “responsible space behaviours” as a debris from a Chinese rocket, thought to be out of control, is expected to crash back to Earth on Saturday, US time.The US Space Command is tracking debris from the Long March 5B, which last week launched the main module of China’s first permanent space station into orbit. The roughly 30-metre (100ft) long stage would be among the biggest piece of space debris to fall to Earth. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah (now); Yohannes Lowe' Kevin Rawlins on (#5HEQG)
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by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#5HF5G)
Exclusive: playlist based on listeners’ backgrounds and tastes found to lower heart rate, agitation and distressBob Marley knew it when he sang on Trenchtown Rock: “One good thing about music when it hits you, you feel no pain.”Now trials are under way at an NHS trust to see if an algorithm can curate music playlists to reduce suffering in Alzheimer’s patients as well as in stressed medical staff. Continue reading...
by Ian Hickie, Hazel Dalton and Tegan Carrison on (#5HEPN)
Australia needs to start flattening the mental health curve urgently. The coming budget is an opportunity for actionThe 2021 federal budget has been heralded as the point at which the Morrison government will respond, at scale, to the many failings of the mental health system. We spend only $10.6bn a year providing mental health services to over 4 million people. Importantly, there is an increasing divide between the federal government’s reporting and the independent accounting of what monies are spent on mental health. The responsible ministers claim that federal spending has already substantially increased, up from $3.5bn five years ago to $5.9bn in 2020-21. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Madelein on (#5HETF)
On 22 June 1918, the Manchester Guardian reported that a flu epidemic was moving through the British Isles. It was noted to be ‘by any means a common form of influenza’. Eventually, it took the lives of more than 50 million people around the world. In a special episode to mark the Guardian’s 200th anniversary, Nicola Davis looks back on the 1918 flu pandemic and how it was reported at the time. Speaking to science journalist Laura Spinney, and ex-chief reporter at the Observer and science historian Dr Mark Honigsbaum, Nicola asks about the similarities and differences to our experiences with Covid-19, and what we can learn for future pandemics Continue reading...
Analysis of remains of crew on Henry VIII’s favourite warship sheds light on diversity in Tudor EnglandOne is thought to be an archer raised in the Atlas mountains in north Africa, and another may have been a carpenter who grew up in south-west Spain. Others hailed from closer to home, possibly the bustling ports of the English west country or the Thames estuary.The most in-depth study yet of a group of men who drowned when Henry VIII’s favourite warship, the Mary Rose, sank off Portsmouth has provided fresh insight into the makeup of the crew, and the diverse nature of society in Tudor England. Continue reading...
Archaeologists say findings at Old St Mary’s church in Stoke Mandeville will shed light on life dating back to Norman timesHS2 contractors are planning to disinter 3,000 bodies discovered in a churchyard in Buckinghamshire that lies in the path of the new high-speed rail link.Archaeologists excavating a site at Old St Mary’s church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, which was built shortly after the Norman conquest in AD1080, discovered the ancient burial site in the churchyard. The burial ground at St Mary’s was in use for 900 years, with the last recorded interment in 1908. Around 3,000 burials are expected when the graveyard is fully excavated. Continue reading...
Chemist who made a breakthrough in developing the anti-cancer drug cisplatin and brought about advances in spectroscopyAndrew Thomson, who has died aged 80 after a stroke, played a crucial role early in his career in the discovery of a widely used anti-cancer drug, cisplatin, before going on to do pioneering work in the field of spectroscopy, enhancing our understanding of the functioning of substances vital to life, such as haemoglobin.As an Oxford research chemist with a background in platinum chemistry, in 1967 Andrew was invited to Michigan State University by a group of biophysicists who had found that passing an electric current, using platinum electrodes, through a culture of the bacterium E coli had an inhibiting effect on the cell replication. They needed a chemist to determine the active substance. Andrew solved their problem by suggesting and synthesising two potential inhibitors and identifying the active one – now known as cisplatin. Continue reading...
In the runup to Cop26, public knowledge about the crisis is shallow, with few understanding the scale of the threatOne of the key lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is that strong policies require strong public engagement: people needed to understand the nature of the virus before they would tolerate constraints on their lives or provide the government with a mandate for action.Yet the world faces another major problem that is already transforming economies, infrastructure and way of life: the climate crisis. And in this case, governments have miserably failed to inform or consult their citizens. Not one of the highest-polluting nations attending Joe Biden’s climate summit last week has a coherent strategy or dedicated national budget for public engagement. Continue reading...
A study of fossilised insects suggests a correlation between their body size and the temperatureMost of us want to run a mile when the midges arrive, but not so for Viktor Baranov, who whips out his microscope to measure the insects. As well as measuring modern midges, Baranov has been looking at fossilised midges, and found that their size can be used to understand the climate going back hundreds of millions of years ago.Baranov, a palaeontologist at Lüdwig Maximilians University in Munich, chose to measure the non-biting Diptera midge. It is already well known that warm-blooded animals become larger as the climate becomes colder – for example, polar bears are much bigger than bears living in the tropics – so Baranov and his colleagues decided to see if the so called “Bergman rule” would hold for insects too. Continue reading...
Minna’s pancreatic surgery was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. By the time treatments resumed, her tumour was too big for doctors to operateWhen Minna Heeraman’s friends knew that she was dying, they made a video for her to watch from the hospital bed she had set up in her living room. It was a goodbye video. One after another, her friends spoke to the camera with tears in their eyes. They shared their memories of times spent together. Wine in the garden on sunny afternoons. Hen dos. Weddings. Christmas meet-ups. “I don’t know what more to say, Minna,” says one friend, choking back sobs. “I love you so much. And you’ll always be with us.”At this point, in September 2020, Minna had been stuck in bed for months. Her one shot at treatment would have been the Whipple procedure. A complex operation to remove the head of Minna’s pancreas – Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, also underwent the procedure – it can extend the life expectancy of pancreatic cancer patients in about one-fifth of cases. But Minna’s surgery had been cancelled in the first wave of the pandemic. By the time hospitals resumed elective surgeries, it was too late. The tumour had grown to the point where it was inoperable. Whether the Whipple procedure would have saved her life, prolonged it or done nothing at all, is impossible to know. Minna was one of the hidden victims of the Covid-19 pandemic. She didn’t die from the virus, but it affected how she died. Continue reading...
Long March 5B is doing 27,600km/h in failing orbit, with eventual crash site unknown, after launching space station hubPart of a huge rocket that launched China’s first module for its Tianhe space station is falling back to Earth and could make an uncontrolled re-entry at an unknown landing point.The 30-metre high core of the Long March 5B rocket launched the “Heavenly Harmony” unmanned core module into low Earth orbit on 29 April from Wenchang in China’s Hainan province. Continue reading...
US pharmacy chains responsible for vast majority of the recorded 182,874 wasted doses, according to Kaiser Health NewsUS pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens are responsible for the vast majority of wasted vaccine doses, which total more than 180,000 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a story from Kaiser Health News.As of late March, the CDC recorded 182,874 tossed doses. CVS and Walgreens combined wasted 128,500 doses – CVS wasted about half and Walgreens 21%. Continue reading...
The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you four puzzles by Paulo Ferro, a Portuguese puzzle maker.1. Trapezium or trap-not-so-easy-um? Continue reading...
Even short, temporary increases in airborne particles can damage brain health, research suggestsTemporary rises in air pollution may impair memory and thinking in older men, according to research that indicates even short-term spikes in airborne particles can be harmful to brain health.Scientists found that the men’s cognitive performance fell following rises in air pollution during the month before testing, even when peak levels remained below safety thresholds for toxic air set by the World Health Organization and national regulators. Continue reading...
by Written by Laura Parker, read by Adetomiwa Edun an on (#5HC8C)
Jeffrey Karp is at the forefront of a new generation of scientists using nature’s blueprints to create breakthrough medical technologies. Can bioinspiration help to solve some of humanity’s most urgent problems? By Laura Parker Continue reading...
The crisis in India forced the west to respond. But without an ambitious global plan, other nations may suffer similar fatesAs the number of Covid-19 cases rose dramatically in Europe and the US during the early part of last year, something strange seemed to be happening in the global south. South Africa’s entire death toll was less than 100 at the same time that Britain was losing more than 1,000 lives a day. India’s death rate during this period was so low that it was termed a “mystery”. More confident conclusions were drawn about Africa’s fate; some thought it had been spared the worst of Covid-19 because it took decisive action early on in the pandemic, while others said the continent had been saved by its warm climate, its low elderly population and its “good community health systems”. There was even brief excitement about the curative potential of homegrown sweet wormwood, a plant that the president of Madagascar claimed was a treatment for Covid-19.Most of this reasoning was speculative. But by the late summer of 2020, two clear trends were emerging. While parts of western Europe were enduring a devastating first wave of Covid-19 cases, Africa and south Asia were experiencing a slow-moving, sometimes stalling rate of infection and a comparatively low death toll. Those trends are now being reversed. Continue reading...
The Eta Aquarids may not be the most spectacular meteors of the year but they are fun to seeThis week, keep an eye open for the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Shooting stars from this annual display can usually be seen between 19 April and 28 May. This year they are expected to peak in the pre-dawn sky of 5 May, but the morning before and after are worth a try too. Continue reading...
Custard tarts for the brainToday, four tasty treats from Paulo Ferro, a puzzlesmith from Porto.1. Trapezium or trap-not-so-easy-um? Continue reading...
Readers reflect on the role of chance, randomness and responsibility in their own livesWhat high-quality letters (29 April) on free will. My A-level psychology students always found this fascinating and usually thought that free will was obvious until they had examined their own lives and realised that “soft determinism”, well-expounded by Robert Dimmick, was the likely answer. However, there is a big role for chance.For example, I probably wouldn’t have been born in 1949 if my father hadn’t dropped a large tin of paint and shattered his foot while painting the cruiser that he was on during the second world war. His ship sailed without him and was sunk by Japanese bombers with massive loss of life. My father didn’t choose to drop the paint pot, but thereafter there were broad deterministic tramlines to his and my life.
Covid crisis spurs growing interest in drugmakers, diagnostics and medical equipment firmsUK drugmakers, diagnostics, medical equipment and other life sciences companies have raised £10.6bn from private funding rounds and stock market flotations in the first three months of the year, more than half of last year’s record total, according to a report.Last year, investment into life sciences companies, including mergers and acquisitions, public listings, venture capital, and private equity, amounted to a nearly £20bn. Continue reading...
It’s taken 17 years, with many setbacks and some deaths, and still Richard Branson’s space mission is yet to launchRichard Branson was running almost 15 years late. But as we rode into the Mojave desert on the morning of 12 December 2018, he was feeling upbeat and untroubled by the past. He wore jeans, a leather jacket and the easy smile of someone used to being behind schedule.Branson hadn’t exactly squandered the past 15 years. He’d become a grandfather, moved to a private island in the Caribbean and expanded Virgin’s business empire into banking, hotels, gyms, wedding dresses and more. But he was staking his legacy on Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company he formed in 2004. The idea was to build a rocketship with seats for eight – two pilots, six passengers – that would be carried aloft by a mothership, released about 45,000ft in the air and then zoom just beyond the lower limit of space, float around for a few minutes, before returning to Earth. He was charging $200,000 a seat. Continue reading...
SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot in 1968. The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3am, ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company
Capsule parachutes into Gulf of Mexico at 3am, the first night-time US crew splashdown since 1968SpaceX safely returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first US crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3am, ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company. It was an express trip home, lasting just six and a half hours. Continue reading...
by David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters on (#5HB2T)
Vaccinated people can still get infected, but they are less likely to pass it onThere are two ways that getting vaccinated can slow the spread of the virus. First, it can help prevent you getting infected. Second, even if you are unlucky and catch the virus, it may reduce the risk of passing it on. It is crucial to understand how big these benefits are.Two huge new studies have taken advantage of the successful UK vaccine rollout. An Oxford-ONS analysis of more than 370,000 survey participants found infections were reduced by 65% after a single dose. For protection against the virus, one dose was similar to having had a prior infection. There was no major difference between the two available vaccines. Continue reading...
Care and repair is an invaluable mantra for your wardrobe, your mental health, your wallet and the planetIn today’s society, many of us go through our whole lives without ever working with our hands; we live, we work, we eat, we buy, we repeat. Everything is made and delivered at a blistering rate, from fast food to fast fashion and, although this may keep the economy buoyant, it’s not necessarily good for our mental health, or for our planet.But during the past year of lockdown, we have been forced to stay still. The hamster wheel has stopped, and for some of us – without young children to keep entertained – this has provided a unique moment of quiet contemplation. We have suddenly found ourselves with time to spare; time to tackle those half-finished projects and abandoned hobbies – and an increasing desire to be creative, and make things with our hands. Continue reading...
Rate of coronavirus is decreasing across the UK, according to latest ONS figures. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Small number have died after being vaccinated, mostly having caught virus before dose could take effectA small number of people vaccinated against Covid have been admitted to hospital with the disease and died, researchers have found, but most were frail and elderly and caught the virus before the jab could take effect.Scientists say their findings are reassuring. They bear out the conclusions of trials of the vaccines in use in the UK, which showed that the jabs are highly effective but do not protect everyone. Continue reading...
My husband, Nicholas Britton, who has died aged 67 of bone cancer, was a pioneering mathematical biologist whose research covered a huge range of subjects, from how malaria is transmitted to the growth of tree rings, and dialects in bird song.His teaching and work on modelling techniques made an important contribution to inspiring and training the generation of researchers who are currently applying these skills and knowhow to solving the problems of the Covid-19 pandemic. Continue reading...