Several countries tell the WHO annual meeting that a new inquiry with new terms of reference must be launchedThe United States and other countries have called for a more in-depth investigation of the pandemic origins, after an international mission to China earlier this year proved inconclusive.Addressing the World Health Organization’s main annual meeting of member states in Geneva, representatives from several countries stressed the continued need to solve the mystery of how Covid-19 first began spreading among humans. Continue reading...
The government’s shambolic presentation of new guidelines for certain areas undermines the fight to control the B.1.617.2 variantDuring the first phase of the Covid pandemic, councils were driven to despair by the government’s failure to consult with them adequately or utilise local public health expertise. Last May, for example, as infection rates spiralled in the north-east, numerous northern councils defied Whitehall’s decree that all primary school reception classes should reopen. A dysfunctional relationship between Whitehall and local government undermined the national response to the crisis.One year on, as concerns continue to grow over the B.1.617.2 variant of the virus, first detected in India, it is astonishing to see the same mistake being made all over again. On Monday night it emerged that new government guidance was issued last week for eight areas affected by the new variant, where surge testing and vaccinations have been taking place. The fresh advice, which would have major implications for millions of people, recommended that all non-essential travel in and out of the places concerned should be avoided, and people should meet outside rather than inside. But this major policy shift, which appeared to amount to a form of light local lockdown, was not communicated to local public health directors, council leaders or businesses. It simply appeared, unannounced, on the government’s Covid guidance website. The public health director of North Tyneside had spent the early part of this week reassuring regional media that it was “certainly OK” to visit the area. In Leicester, also on the list, 8,000 people attended a Premier League football match on Saturday. Yasmin Qureshi, the MP for Bolton South East, found out about the guidance from a local journalist. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Anand Jagatia with Linda on (#5J87Z)
This week, a study has added to the evidence that specially trained dogs could be used to sniff out people with Covid-19, showing that canines are faster than PCR tests and more accurate than lateral flow tests at detecting infections. Anand Jagatia speaks to the Guardian’s science correspondent Linda Geddes, who went to see the dogs in action
Scans show some brains have a stronger link between the part that processes sound and that which controls the mouth and throatScientists have shed light on why everyday sounds such as chewing, drinking and breathing can be so maddening to some people that it drives them to despair.While the familiar munching and slurping of the dinner table are innocuous enough to most, those with misophonia – literally a hatred of sound – can find them profoundly irritating, to the point that they become disgusted, anxious, angry and even violent. Continue reading...
Man regains ability to recognise objects in first example of successful optogenetic therapy in humansA blind man has had his sight partly restored after a form of gene therapy that uses pulses of light to control the activity of nerve cells – the first successful demonstration of so-called optogenetic therapy in humans.The 58-year-old man, from Brittany in northern France, was said to be “very excited” after regaining the ability to recognise, count, locate and touch different objects with the treated eye while wearing a pair of light-stimulating goggles, having lost his sight after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa almost 40 years ago. Continue reading...
‘Getting to No 1 was a high – but I wouldn’t for one minute compare it with going into space’I’d had quite a few jobs to pay the bills while writing music – including working in the front kiosk at Leeds magistrates’ court, collecting fines and doing a bit of admin – and I was helping out at Flexible Response Studios when an engineer introduced me to my future bandmates, John Beck and John Hughes. Continue reading...
by Written by Rowan Hooper, read by Nana-Adwoa Mbeutc on (#5J6HB)
Could such a large amount of money end the Covid pandemic? Eradicate disease? Provide universal healthcare and fund vaccine research? By Rowan Hooper Continue reading...
Although the full supermoon will be easily seen from Europe and Africa, sadly the eclipse will not beThe moon will be full on 26 May. This will coincide with the largest supermoon of the year, and also the first total lunar eclipse since January 2019.Although precise definitions vary, a supermoon is said to occur when the full moon takes place near the closest point in its orbit to the Earth. This week, the centre of the moon will be 357,462km away from the centre of the Earth. This is roughly 48,000km closer than the furthest full moon of the year, which will occur in December 2021. Continue reading...
From veganism to fundraising, psychologists have found acts of altruism often attract mistrust and even angerIn 2014, the word “humblebrag” was added to the Oxford online dictionary, along with the following definition: “An ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud.”In the wild, humblebrags often present as false complaints (“I’ve lost so much weight I have nothing to wear!” or “So stressed: I applied for six jobs and got all of them!”) or as a boast cloaked in humility (“I can’t believe my book became a bestseller!”). Continue reading...
My shyness was seen as a drawback at school – but now I know it’s a strength and I’m proud of itWhen I was eight, I moved to a new primary school. I’d spent the summer holidays writing an appeal to my mum, putting forward an argument for staying at the old school – that I loved – rather than starting at this strange new school. But to no avail. September came and I found myself in a new classroom, with a new teacher, surrounded by 30 new faces. As a shy child, this was fairly terrifying. And so when I was asked to stand up and introduce myself, I was trembling.That first day, as I walked into the school hall for assembly, I didn’t know which hymn book to take so I copied the boy in front of me. When we sat down, cross-legged, on the floor, the head teacher spotted my error. “You were meant to take the blue book, not the green!” she shouted. I hadn’t realised and as a result it meant I messed up the whole line. I felt my cheeks burn as all heads turned to me. Continue reading...
by David Spiegelhalter & Anthony Masters on (#5J5HS)
We need local data to keep on top of local outbreaksIt’s a myth that statisticians are obsessed with averages. We learn most from examining variability and the current concern with variants hammers home the importance of local data.Across the United Kingdom, confirmed cases of Covid-19 are stable, at 22 per 100,000 people in the week up to 17 May. Six local authorities recorded less than two cases per 100,000; while in Bolton there were 385 per 100,000, over 17 times the national rate. Continue reading...
The new Global Pandemic Radar is a welcome step towards comprehensive sequencing of the Covid-19 genome“Nun’s office Tivoli safe!” When I was a child, we used to play a game where several of us whispered a message to one another in sequence. The fun of the game is when errors pop up along the way – and the final listener announces with glee something quite different from the original message.As Covid-19 spreads through a population, it undergoes similar changes, or “mutations”. Every time a new virus is built, errors are made when its genome is copied, just like with the whispered message. This has led to Covid-19 variants popping up all over the globe: in the UK, Brazil, the US and now India. Detecting these variants and monitoring their spread is crucial to protect people from being put at risk, and helps inform public health decisions. Which is why we so enthusiastically welcome the news of the Global Pandemic Radar, a pathogen surveillance network that will track developments in the Covid-19 virus. It will also ensure a global infrastructure is in place to better help humanity understand and protect itself from future pathogens. Continue reading...
Solar-powered Zhurong rover is expected to be deployed for 90 days to search for evidence of lifeChina’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the planet, China’s space administration has said.The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10:40am on Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), the China National Space Administration said. Continue reading...
Australian and international scientists publish open letter defending Dr Elisabeth Bik and calling for science whistleblowers to be protectedA world-renowned Dutch expert in identifying scientific misconduct and error, Dr Elisabeth Bik, has been threatened with legal action for questioning the integrity of a study promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19.The case, filed with the French state prosecutor by controversial infectious diseases physician Dr Didier Raoult, has prompted hundreds of scientists from across the world to publish an open letter calling for science whistleblowers to be protected. Continue reading...
Academics suspect papers with grabby conclusions are waved through more easily by reviewersScientific research findings that are probably wrong gain far more attention than robust results, according to academics who suspect that the bar for publication may be lower for papers with grabbier conclusions.Studies in top science, psychology and economics journals that fail to hold up when others repeat them are cited, on average, more than 100 times as often in follow-up papers than work that stands the test of time. Continue reading...
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing aims to reduce distress that some memories bring onIn a new mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry is seen undergoing a form of therapy known as EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) to treat unresolved anxiety stemming from the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when he was 12.EMDR was developed in the 1980s by a US psychologist, Francine Shapiro. While walking in a park, Shapiro suspected that her eye movements were lessening the distress of her own traumatic memories. She tested the approach on others and over time built up a standardised psychological therapy for treating people with traumatic memories. Continue reading...
University of Sheffield’s archaeology team argue vital work will be lost if threatened closure goes aheadImportant research on Stonehenge could be put in jeopardy if the threatened closure of one of the UK’s most renowned university archaeology departments goes ahead, leading experts on the prehistoric monument have warned.Current and former members of the University of Sheffield’s archaeology department are at the forefront of some of the most intriguing work at the Wiltshire site and argue that if it is closed, vital work will be lost. Continue reading...
by Robert McLachlan and Paul Callister on (#5J346)
Climate politics is a long game but people must see more positive changes to really appreciate the benefits of ending fossil fuelsThe New Zealand emissions trading scheme (ETS), now in its fourteenth year of operation and much criticised for (so far) failing to cut emissions, is the centrepiece of the government’s climate action. Judging from Budget 2021, it will remain that way for years to come.Auctioning of emissions units began in March, and 2022 will see the introduction of a falling cap on net emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases. (The precise level of the cap will be announced later in the year.) Continue reading...
Total of 3,424 cases of the India variant of coronavirus B1.617.2 have now been confirmed in the UK. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global live blog for updates
by Natalie Grover Science correspondent on (#5J2B3)
Researchers say election may have increased abnormal heart rhythms and worsened high blood pressureHow stressful can an election campaign really be? Potentially life-threatening, researchers say, at least in the case of the 2016 US presidential election. The divisive campaign may have raised the risk of abnormal heart rhythms and worsened high blood pressure in people with underlying cardiovascular disease, two studies suggest.One study focused on nearly 2,500 people (mostly white, with an average age of about 71) with implanted cardiac devices in North Carolina, a swing state in the 2016 election that was subjected to fiercely negative political commercials and campaign events. Continue reading...
Pressure growing for UK and others to follow Biden’s lead at WTO to avoid ‘moral and public health failure’The UK government is in talks about a plan to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents to boost the production of shots in low and middle-income countries, the Guardian can reveal.The discussions come amid growing calls for Britain and other European countries to follow the US in supporting the proposal put before the World Trade Organization (WTO). Continue reading...
Instead of sequencing or data collection, the government is offering patriotic bluster in the face of this deadly second waveThe variant that threatens the British summer has already done far more damage in India. In October last year a sample from the western state of Maharashtra containing what would later be identified as the B.1.617.3 variant was sequenced and uploaded to Gisaid, a global database of Covid-19 samples from across the world. The variant had multiple mutations located on the virus’s spike protein that binds it to receptor cells in the human body. Some of these mutations were present in other variants, or seemed capable of evading immunity. All of this should have set off alarm bells in India and led to increased surveillance across the world.Instead, India’s genome sequencing project continued to flounder through the rest of 2020. For most of last year, India did virtually no genome sequencing, Dr Gagandeep Kang, one of India’s leading virologists, told me. While other countries submitted thousands of sequences to databases such as Gisaid for scientists across the world to study, India submitted only a few hundred. This was partly due to a lack of funding. It was also possibly the result of a lack of interest; last year, India’s Covid curve appeared to be falling. Continue reading...
Prize recognises primatologist’s contribution to work on animal intelligence and humanityThe naturalist Jane Goodall has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Templeton prize in recognition of her life’s work on animal intelligence and humanity.Goodall, 87, built her global reputation on her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania in the 1960s. Her foundation, the Jane Goodall Institute, works with local communities as well as providing safe habitats for chimpanzees and gorillas, and its educational branch, Roots and Shoots, operates in 67 countries. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Anand Jagatia on (#5J1ZP)
Human beings have transformed the planet. Over the last century we’ve disrupted the climate and impacted entire ecosystems. This has led some to propose that we’ve entered another chapter in Earth’s history called the Anthropocene. Anand Jagatia speaks to Dr Simon Turner from the Anthropocene Working Group, given the task of gathering evidence on whether it will become an official unit of geological time Continue reading...
Joint mission next year will try to replicate China’s recent success of landing robotic craft on planetOn Saturday 15 May, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the country had landed a robotic spacecraft on Mars. This is an important moment and it could be a taste of things to come.Until China’s Zhurong rover touched down in the Utopia Planitia region of the Mars, only the US had succeeded in operating on the planet’s surface. Next year, however, a joint mission by the European Space Agency and Russia will attempt to replicate the success. Continue reading...
Helmed by Prof David Nutt, this documentary follows volunteers as they swap antidepressants for psilocybin ... and it’s the closest they’ve come to joy in years
Young men look for an attractive partner and young women emphasise personality but as we age, everyone agrees physical attributes are overratedThe characteristics that attract people to an ideal partner differ between men and women, but become more similar with age, a survey of more than 7,000 Australian online dating users has found.Researchers asked 7,325 Australians aged between 16 and 65 to rate the importance of nine characteristics of potential partners on a scale of 0 to 100. Continue reading...
Health secretary says government will make decision on unlocking on 14 June as cases of Indian variant rise 28% in two days. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Was the explorer from Italy, Spain, Portugal or elsewhere? Researchers hope to find out once and for allSpanish researchers have launched a new attempt to finally settle the dispute over the true origins of Christopher Columbus after various theories have claimed the explorer hailed from Portugal or Spain, rather than Italy as most scholars agree.“There is no doubt on our part [about his Italian origin], but we can provide objective data that can … close a series of existing theories,” said José Antonio Lorente, the lead scientist of the DNA study at the University of Granada. Continue reading...
Study finds burn area from fires that survive winter varies depending on warmth of summersIn the boreal forests of the far northern hemisphere, where the climate is warming faster than almost anywhere else, some wildfires are surviving winter snows and picking up again in spring.Now scientists from the Netherlands and Alaska have figured out how to calculate the scope of those “zombie fires” that smoulder year-round in the peaty soil. Continue reading...