A puzzle about trust, secrets, and the world’s weirdest proofUPDATE: The solution can be read hereToday’s puzzle is based on a ground-breaking mathematical concept which last week won one of its pioneers the Abel Prize, considered the Nobel Prize of maths.The concept is the zero-knowledge proof, and it has many applications in digital cryptography. Let me briefly explain. Continue reading...
I got the gig at a school by stressing my people skills. It turns out I meant I can’t keep my mouth shutI am coming to the end of my tenure as a lateral flow test volunteer at a secondary school. I got the gig by stressing how well qualified I was at public-facing endeavours.This turned out not to be true. It went OK when the kids were off school and we were just testing the teachers, but then all these adolescents swarmed in. They are quite self-conscious, aren’t they? I feel sure there has been literature about this. They absolutely hate to be recognised. If I see the son of a friend, I’ll halloo him mightily: “Hi, Johnny, it’s ME! Under my mask, I’m your mum’s friend!” as if it’s the world’s greatest coincidence, as if I have just fetched up at a petrol station at the end of the universe and, look, there is my cousin drinking a Frappuccino. Continue reading...
With a dark sky and some patience you should be able to see an open star clusterThis week is all about tracking down a faint, open star cluster with the unaided eye. You will need a dark sky and some patience, but once successful you will feel like you have found some buried treasure up there.The star cluster in question is known as the Beehive cluster, or Praesepe, the Latin word for manger. It sits in the faint constellation of Cancer, the crab. Praesepe is an open star cluster, a former stellar nursery whose stars are gradually moving apart to merge with the background of stars in the galaxy. Continue reading...
Researchers will test several drugs at once to speed up identification of those that slow or reverse symptomsDoctors in the UK are to launch a world-first clinical trial to assess whether drugs already on the market can prevent multiple sclerosis (MS) from worsening over time and even reverse the disabilities it causes.The groundbreaking Octopus trial, so named because of its various arms, will allow researchers to investigate the potential benefits of several drugs at once, in the hope of identifying effective new treatments three times faster than if the medicines were trialled separately. Continue reading...
My father, Benjamin Abeles, who has died aged 95, was a renowned physicist whose research led to the technology used to power the Voyager spacecraft. An incredibly hard-working man, he overcame tremendous obstacles in his youth.Born in Vienna, the youngest of two children of Selma (nee Kronberger), a leather artisan, and Ernst Abeles, a businessmen, Benjamin arrived in the UK from Prague as a child refugee on the Kindertransport organised by Nicholas Winton in 1939. He took odd jobs in London, often living in bomb shelters, until in 1943 he enlisted in 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron of the RAF. Continue reading...
It’s not enough now for science to move in a stately fashion with great cautionThere’s nothing like living through a global pandemic to engender a dawning realisation that real-world science is a different beast from the “hypothesise, test, repeat” science we learn at school. And that just because a claim is made by an eminent scientist it is not automatically elevated to a gold standard truth.A year ago, I would have predicted that the role of science in a global pandemic would be fairly straightforward. The scientists do the science. Then they tell the rest of us what to do, and lives get saved. I would have been shocked if someone had told me how politicised the scientific debate would become, that people claiming to be informed by science would be arguing on the basis of the same facts that we should take directly contradictory action, when the stakes couldn’t be higher. Continue reading...
The microscopic animals can withstand extreme conditions that would kill humans, and may one day help in the development of Covid vaccines. How do they do it?On 11 April 2019, a spacecraft crashed on to the Moon. The Israeli Beresheet probe was supposed to land gently in the Mare Serenitatis, a huge plain of basalt rock formed in a volcanic eruption billions of years ago. It would have been the first privately funded mission to land on the Moon. But owing to a last-minute instrument failure Beresheet did not slow down enough and slammed into the surface at 500 kilometres per hour.From the Moon’s point of view, this was a failed alien invasion. Beresheet was carrying animals called tardigrades, which look like stunted, microscopic caterpillars. They may not seem like an obvious candidate for interplanetary travel, but tardigrades are famed among biologists for their ability to survive conditions that would kill almost any other animal. It is possible that some of them survived the crash. Continue reading...
Major research projects will be cancelled, including those designed to head off future disease threats, warn scientistsThe government’s drastic cut to overseas aid risks damaging the world’s ability to fight the next global health disaster and keep Britain safe, some of its own scientific advisers on Covid are warning.In a significant escalation of the backlash against the cut, which will see major research projects cancelled this year, current and former members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) are among thousands of academics to confront the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, over cuts affecting projects that target the main threats to human health. Continue reading...
It’s been the hardest four years of my life but now I know my son will always be a part of meIt’s 9 March 2017. I am sitting in an ambulance, holding a plastic cup which contains tea from a machine. I’ve just been told my son is dead. I’m in a kind of paralysis. I feel the cold, smooth vinyl of the trolley I’m sitting on beneath me and look vacantly at the equipment and signs around me. Mind Your Head. Sharps Bin. No Smoking. Clinical Waste.I am alone, apart from a paramedic who is with me. At this particular moment my world has shrunk to the inside of the ambulance. An alienating sense of shock and horror has taken over and reduced me to a stiff and silent state. After a while I am helped out of the vehicle and taken to a nearby Victorian building. I am led into a wood-panelled room where I sit on a sofa. Continue reading...
Charles Oti should be in his NHS job fighting the virus. Instead, the Home Office wants to send him to NigeriaAn infection control specialist who has been offered a job as a senior NHS biomedical scientist to help tackle the pandemic is facing deportation by the Home Office, prompting fresh calls for a more “humane” approach to skilled migrants.The government has refused Charles Oti, 46, from Nigeria the right to remain in the UK even though the job he was offered is among the government’s most sought-after skilled positions. Continue reading...
In China, scientists have turned vast swathes of arid land into a lush oasis. Now a team of maverick engineers want to do the same to the SinaiFlying into Egypt in early February to make the most important presentation of his life, Ties van der Hoeven prepared by listening to the podcast 13 Minutes To The Moon – the story of how Nasa accomplished the lunar landings. The mission he was discussing with the Egyptian government was more earthbound in nature, but every bit as ambitious. It could even represent a giant leap for mankind.Van der Hoeven is a co-founder of the Weather Makers, a Dutch firm of “holistic engineers” with a plan to regreen the Sinai peninsula – the small triangle of land that connects Egypt to Asia. Within a couple of decades, the Weather Makers believe, the Sinai could be transformed from a hot, dry, barren desert into a green haven teeming with life: forests, wetlands, farming land, wild flora and fauna. A regreened Sinai would alter local weather patterns and even change the direction of the winds, bringing more rain, the Weather Makers believe – hence their name. Continue reading...
The government promised to increase funding for vital scientific R&D to 2.4% of GDP – but its target is already slippingEarlier this week, the government put science at the heart of its strategy for the UK’s place in the world. In its integrated review, it argued that cutting-edge science and strong leadership from the UK could make a huge difference for humanity. Researchers in the UK could benefit both the UK and the wider world by working to solve global problems such as climate change, antimicrobial resistance and pandemics.This is completely right – scientists in the UK absolutely can do this. And I’d like to be celebrating the fact that the government has set out this ambitious vision. Unfortunately, the rhetoric doesn’t match the reality. Continue reading...
‘Chance discovery’ near the temple of Zeus was probably used as votive offering, Greek ministry saysRain has helped uncover a small bull idol at ancient Olympia in what the Greek culture ministry said on Friday was a “chance discovery”.It said the bronze idol, found intact, was spotted by an archaeologist at the sprawling ancient site that inspired the modern Olympic Games during a scheduled visit by ministry officials. Continue reading...
The UK’s chief scientific adviser loves good food, enjoys a Scandi drama – and has been called ‘the richest civil servant in history’Sir Patrick Vallance spent his 60th birthday at a podium in Downing Street, flanking Boris Johnson.Whatever plans he had were scrapped. Continue reading...
Anxiety, boredom, claustrophobic relationships... characters from Jane Eyre to Mrs Dalloway can provide vital insights into how to live in these anxious times, writes Josh CohenShould we be suspicious of the idea that fiction can help us to live meaningful lives? After all, as Plato observed (via a fictionalised Socrates), Homer’s stories were composed to stir and entertain rather than to instruct us. They may be a lot of fun, but they have nothing to tell us about living well. How could fictional characters, shadowy beings who exist only in words, offer any meaningful purchase on the all too solid problems of our daily lives?If we try to enlist the help of novels by extracting rules and hacks and counsel from them, we will probably prove Plato right. Novels, or at least the ones worth reading, draw us in not by offering moral instruction or practical guidance, but by helping us to see ourselves in all our strangeness and complexity. Continue reading...
More than 350 clinicians report suspicions of Covid-induced diabetes, both type 1 and type 2A cohort of scientists from across the world believe that there is a growing body of evidence that Covid-19 can cause diabetes in some patients.Prof Francesco Rubino, from King’s College London, is leading the call for a full investigation into a possible link between the two diseases. Having seen a rise in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes in people who have caught coronavirus, some doctors are even considering the possibility that the virus ‒ by disrupting sugar metabolism ‒ could be inducing an entirely new form of diabetes. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5FHMV)
University College London’s Marcel Levi talks openly about what he loves and loathes about the health serviceA service so underfunded that hospital roofs leak, is worryingly reliant on overseas staff and with an “insular” culture that repels fresh ideas – but which has also performed superbly to save lives during the Covid pandemic. After four years running one of Britain’s biggest hospitals Prof Marcel Levi has some strong views on the NHS and the government’s stewardship of the nation’s most venerated institution.Levi feels able to speak candidly because he is about to step down as the chief executive of University College London Hospitals trust and return to his homeland in the Netherlands to become its chief scientific officer so no longer fears upsetting NHS bosses. His views offer a counterpoint to the relentless positivity of the government’s airy promises to hire 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more GPs, build 40 new hospitals and put in record funding. Continue reading...
Astroscale hopes its Elsa-d satellite will demonstrate a system to remove unwanted pieces of junkElsa-d, the world’s first commercial mission to demonstrate a space debris removal system, is scheduled to launch at 06:07 GMT on 20 March from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.Developed by Astroscale, a Japanese-UK company, the mission will be operated from the UK’s in-orbit servicing control centre (IOCC) at Satellite Applications Catapult in Harwell, near Oxford. The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale demonstration mission (Elsa-d) is a small satellite designed to find, rendezvous and clamp on to an unwanted satellite. It will then push it into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up. Continue reading...
New species were discovered in the International Space Station – but they probably didn’t come from outer spaceFour species of bacteria – three of them previously unknown to science – have been discovered onboard the International Space Station (ISS), begging questions about how they got there, and how they have managed to survive.Their discovery may also bolster future efforts to cultivate crops during long spaceflight missions, since related species are known to promote the growth of plants and help them fight off pathogens. Continue reading...
PM welcomes vaccine safety vow, then spots new offshore home for folk trafficked here under false pretence – of getting a welcomeAfter a morning spent painting flowers at a primary school in his Uxbridge constituency, Britain’s prize clot returned to Downing Street to lead a press conference on clots. Blood clots to be precise.Following the decision of some countries to suspend their Oxford AstraZeneca vaccination programmes over concerns of blood clot side-effects, Boris Johnson was happy to report that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had declared the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to be absolutely safe. Continue reading...
PM says vaccine supply issues will not affect roadmap; MHRA says no evidence AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots but issues new advice. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for further updates
My colleague Alan Clements, who has died aged 93 of Covid-19, was a medical entomologist whose research was dedicated to investigating novel methods of mosquito control.Mosquitoes get a bad press. They transmit tropical pathogens that lead to 700,000 deaths per year and their persistent bites can be unbearable. However, their role in the spread of diseases such as malaria is entirely passive. In addition, mosquitoes are a key source of food for a wide range of birds, bats, insects and fish. The more we learn about mosquito biology, the greater our chances of reducing or even eliminating mosquito-borne diseases. Continue reading...
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#5FGNM)
Nanoparticles found in foetal brains and hearts, but impact on human health is as yet unknownTiny plastic particles in the lungs of pregnant rats pass rapidly into the hearts, brains and other organs of their foetuses, research shows. It is the first study in a live mammal to show that the placenta does not block such particles.The experiments also showed that the rat foetuses exposed to the particles put on significantly less weight towards the end of gestation. The research follows the revelation in December of small plastic particles in human placentas, which scientists described as “a matter of great concern”. Earlier laboratory research on human placentas donated by mothers after birth has also shown polystyrene beads can cross the placental barrier. Continue reading...
By the time mental ill health is visible, it’s probably very bad. The best risk assessment is to listen rather than lookIn my everyday life, when I see someone who looks happy, I expect them to feel like that, too. I don’t think about it particularly – it’s a reflex. I glance casually at a smiling face and am reassured that all is well. It takes a conscious effort to remind myself of a fact that psychiatrists know very well on an intellectual level but should perhaps recognise more: a cheerful demeanour can be profoundly misleading.The concept of the “happy” depressive is familiar in art and life, with examples ranging from Pagliaccio to Robin Williams. It seems strange to think that people can be very depressed – with all the debilitating symptoms that entails – yet manage to hide this, sometimes even from family. Is their depression as real, or as valid, because they manage to go to work, to smile, even to crack a joke? I think it is. There may come a point when even the happy depressive will crack, unable to maintain that facade any longer. But does that mean they suffer less when smiling? No: in fact, the strain of keeping up appearances, the weight of a misplaced sense of responsibility to others, can be one of the most onerous aspects of mental ill health. The loss of the smile may even be a relief. Continue reading...
Perseverance could perhaps do with a service as Nasa experts investigate unexpectedly high-pitched scratching noiseNasa’s newest Mars rover has sent back the first-ever sounds of driving on the red planet – a grinding, clanking, banging affair that by Earth standards would be pretty worrisome.The noises made by Perseverance’s six metal wheels and suspension on the first test drive two weeks ago are part of a 16-minute raw audio feed released on Wednesday by Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Madeleine on (#5FG6P)
From electrons behaving as both particles and waves to a cat in a box that’s both dead and alive, the consequences of quantum physics are decidedly weird. So strange, that over a century since its conception, scientists are still arguing about the best way to understand the theory. In the second of two episodes, Ian Sample sits down with the physicist Carlo Rovelli to discuss his ideas for explaining quantum physics, and what it means for our understanding of the world Continue reading...
$15m grant comes despite TGA’s failure to reschedule MDMA and psilocybin from a prohibited substance to a controlled medicineThe use of magic mushrooms, ecstasy and other psychedelic drugs to treat mental illnesses, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, may be a step closer in Australia, with clinical trials given a $15m grant.Despite international evidence suggesting the medicinal effectiveness of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health conditions, the Australian Therapeutic Drug Association last month made an interim decision against rescheduling MDMA and psilocybin from a prohibited substance (schedule 9) to a controlled medicine (schedule 8). Continue reading...
Nasa's latest Mars rover, Perseverance, has sent back the sounds of its six metal wheels driving across the planet's surface. The recording was captured by one of its two onboard microphones, with Nasa releasing 16 minutes' worth. Engineers are investigating whether a high-pitched scratching noise is caused by electromagnetic interference or the rover's movement. Perseverance will continue to look for somewhere to launch the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a drone that it is carrying Continue reading...
Interstellar visitor likely made of frozen nitrogen, cookie-shaped rather than cigar, and not a comet or asteroid – while some stick to alien theoryOur solar system’s first known interstellar visitor is neither a comet nor asteroid as first suspected and looks nothing like a cigar. A new study says the mystery object is likely a remnant of a Pluto-like world and shaped like a cookie.Arizona State University astronomers report the strange 45-metre (148ft) object appears to be made of frozen nitrogen, just like the surface of Pluto, and Neptune’s largest moon, Triton. Continue reading...
Health secretary says vaccine supply is always ‘lumpy’ after NHS warns first vaccine dose volumes ‘significantly constrained’. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Pioneer of perinatal medicine who brought about dramatic improvements in the survival chances and wellbeing of babiesThe paediatrician and perinatologist Peter Dunn, who has died aged 91, introduced many innovations and developments that contributed to the dramatic improvements seen over the last half century in the survival, with no increased long-term impairment, of pre-term (and term) babies.Largely due to his influence, newborn care emerged from its previous neglect to become a key specialty in paediatrics and child health; teamwork between obstetricians, midwives, neonatal paediatricians, nurses and others also benefited. Continue reading...
Cultured stem cells turn into blastoid ‘balls’, like natural blastocysts after egg fertilisationScientists have made clumps of human tissue that behave like early-stage embryos, a feat that promises to transform research into the first tentative steps of human development.The clumps of cells, named blastoids, are less than a millimetre across and resemble structures called blastocysts, which form within a few days of an egg being fertilised. Typically blastocysts contain about 100 cells, which give rise to every tissue in the body. Continue reading...
Presenter Johnny Vaughan, producers and participants remember the Channel 4 series that pretended to send participants into orbit from a Russian bootcamp, but mainly took place on an airbase in SuffolkIn December 2005, a group of outgoing twentysomethings were gathered in front of cameras on a remote airstrip. They had signed up for a reality TV series called Thrill Seekers and, after five months of auditions, they were about to find out the exact premise of the show. The host, Johnny Vaughan, told the excited gang: “You are about to become … the very first televised British space tourists.” They started screaming, jumping up and down and hugging each other. They were going into actual space!Except, they weren’t. Despite now lingering forgotten, Space Cadets, launched 15 years ago by Channel 4, was one of television’s biggest ever pranks. A meticulously executed televised stunt (costing a reported £5m) that wanted to test how far the limits of reality could be pushed. Could they convince a few members of the public that they had blasted off from a Russian space camp into the galaxy on a five-day orbit of the Earth? Continue reading...
Public safeguarder of patients’ confidential information following a career as a mental health consultantThe invasion of information technology into healthcare brought the ancient principle of confidentiality between doctor and patient into conflict with opportunities to store and share data collectively.Fiona Caldicott, who has died aged 80, devoted the last 25 years of her life to resolving this issue within the UK National Health Service. She chaired three government reviews of information governance and in 2014 became the first National Data Guardian, appointed to “advise and challenge the health and care system to help ensure that citizens’ confidential information is safeguarded securely and used properly”. Continue reading...
Why does South Africa pay twice as much for vaccines as European countries? Why has Africa - home to 1.3bn people – been allocated just 300m doses?Last year, European and North American countries managed to ignore warnings of a highly contagious pandemic – dragging their feet in setting protocols in place, delaying mandatory mask-wearing, and giving mostly miserly handouts to the millions struggling to survive in lockdown. Though the virus originated in China, not the west, western countries imagined that the virus would not touch them in quite the same way: Europe and the US entertained the fantasy that they alone were the captains of a more sophisticated political and bureaucratic system that could not only withstand a global pandemic but also remain largely immune to its threats. This year, these same countries have managed to outdo themselves by vacating their role on the international stage – hoarding vaccines and practicing only the most expedient, shallow pretenses of vaccine diplomacy. The wealthiest western nations have wiped their hands clean of any responsibility to slow a pandemic they helped magnify and spread.Rich countries with 14% of the world’s population have secured 53% of the best vaccines. Almost all of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines will go to rich countries. The Moderna vaccine will go to rich countries exclusively; it is not even being offered to the poor. In fact, nine out of 10 people in poor countries may never be vaccinated at all. Washington is sitting on vaccines, making sure no one gets any while the US needs them. The European Union has exported 34m doses to, of all places, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong – countries that have no problem sourcing or paying for vaccines. In fact, the EU sent about 9m doses to the UK, a country which, no longer in the EU, also has what amounts in practice to an export ban of its own, official denials notwithstanding. Continue reading...
Finding raises questions about virus’s ability to lurk long term in outwardly healthy bodiesAn Ebola survivor is likely to have triggered the current outbreak in Guinea, scientists have said, in a shock discovery that means the virus may remain dormant for five years.The finding, which comes after 29 cases and 13 deaths, raises fresh questions about the ability of Ebola to lurk in the body long term even while the survivor remains outwardly healthy. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian