Stanford University scientists determine sequences of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from vials set to be discardedScientists have determined the “recipes” for two Covid-19 vaccines using leftovers in vials bound for the trash and published the mRNA sequences on Github, the online repository for software code.The group of scientists from Stanford University were able to determine the sequences of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and included the mRNA sequences in a post they published on Github last week, tech news site Motherboard first reported. Continue reading...
Two separate clusters of UK variant spread in Brisbane when unvaccinated health workers contracted coronavirusThe Queensland hospital system was already “stressed” before the latest Covid outbreak partly because everyone with the virus is moved from hotel quarantine into hospital, but not all hospital workers have been vaccinated yet, experts say.There are now two separate clusters of the infectious UK variant of coronavirus in Brisbane that spread when unvaccinated health workers contracted the virus. The cases have forced Brisbane into a snap three-day lockdown. Continue reading...
Last August, Pape and his family went on a city break to Birmingham, making the most of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s discount scheme. The day after he arrived home, his symptoms beganAmanda Pape didn’t want to go on a city break to Birmingham during a pandemic, but her husband, Bob, a 53-year-old lawyer, insisted. “Bob was convinced that the government would not allow people to travel if it wasn’t safe,” says Amanda, a 56-year-old former teacher. Bob was persuasive – he was a lawyer, after all – so she relented. Along with her daughter, Jazzy, 19, one of Jazzy’s friends and a child Bob and Amanda were fostering, they booked three nights in a Holiday Inn from 2 August 2020.The family, from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, stayed from Sunday to Wednesday, to make the most of the government’s “eat out to help out” (EOTHO) scheme, which offered food and soft drink discounts on Mondays to Wednesdays in August. Right until they left for Birmingham, Amanda was uneasy. She was on the verge of cancelling. It felt wrong. Continue reading...
Adults can enhance their empathy but successful patients need ‘a certain base level’ to begin with, according to psychologists• Former branch secretary surprised Laming revelations ‘didn’t happen sooner’Experts have warned “there is no quick fix” for improving empathy, as besieged Coalition MP Andrew Laming takes leave to undertake an empathy training course the government has ordered him to complete.Psychologists from Monash University and the University of Western Australia have said that any meaningful behavioural change requires prolonged and “intense” therapy with a specially trained psychologist. “You can’t just walk into a workshop and come out with empathy” following a six-week course, they said, although this is the length Laming has suggested he hopes his will take. Continue reading...
Cambridge researchers find prevalence varied by ethnicity and levels of deprivation in largest data analysis yetAutism is more common among children in England than previously thought, with rates higher among Black pupils than their white peers, researchers have revealed.Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects communication and behaviour and is thought to affect 1-2% of people around the world, with diagnoses more common among males than females. However, there has been little large-scale research into its prevalence, and whether it differs with ethnicity. Continue reading...
Increased use of psychiatric language means ordinary distress is being medicalised, while the seriously ill are not being heardMany years ago, in the fading hours of a house party, I sat outside in the garden with an old friend. From inside came the distant thud of music and pockets of laughter – a thousand miles from the conversation we were having. My friend’s relationship had ended a few weeks previously, and that night his heartbreak was palpable and raw. He told me how disconnected he felt from the people inside the house, from his life, and then he said something that made my heart sink. “When I look into the future,” he said, avoiding eye contact, “I can’t see anything ahead of me.” At that moment – I thought – something became clear: he was clinically depressed.Over the following days and weeks, I told my friend what I knew about the disorder, and the benefits of therapy and antidepressants, and encouraged him to go to the doctor. Even though he was reluctant, I was sure of how much he would benefit, so I persisted. But then, after about a month of checking in with him, something strange happened: he started to feel better, without any professional help at all. I distinctly remember the moment, a disintegration of what I thought I understood about mental health. Evidently, since my friend’s acute distress passed within a few weeks, he didn’t sit clearly in the territory of what we might call “mental illness”. But he certainly wasn’t mentally healthy for those weeks either. Instead, I realised, he sat somewhere in the vast grey plains between the two. Continue reading...
Now is the best time of year to see glow caused by sunlight scattering off dust particles in spaceNow is the best time of the year to see the zodiacal light in the evening sky from the northern hemisphere. It’s a subtle glow that takes some effort to notice, but is always worth your time because of its gossamer beauty. Continue reading...
Frank Land touches on the new opportunities provided by technology for exploration and novel experiences, while Ya’ir Klein says the pandemic has given us time for reflection, and Louise Smith uses science to explain strange happeningsI can appreciate Richard Friedman’s concerns about the damage lockdown can do to our brains and mental states (If you’re ecstatic after a trip to the shops, it’s your brain thanking you for the novelty, 25 March), but am surprised that he does not mention the new opportunities provided by technology for exploration and novel experiences.Each day brings an array of conferences, discussions and debates, bringing people from around the globe together in ways undreamed of only a short while ago. Using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, I have been able to attend, learn and contribute to a range of topics, some totally new to me, but fascinating – and opening new interests. Continue reading...
Twins unravel their family history when their mother dies; myths, science and the origins of the universe; and a harrowing account of postpartum psychosisClaire Fuller
The professor of environmental medicine explains how chemicals in plastics are causing our fertility to decline – and what we can do about itShanna Swan is a professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York City, studying fertility trends. In 2017 she documented how average sperm counts among western men have more than halved in the past 40 years. Count Down is her new book.You’ve spent more than 20 years examining the effects of hormone disrupting chemicals on reproductive health. Are you now sounding the alarm?
A new book celebrates the trailblazing work of the English aristocrat, who successfully inoculated her daughterIt was a daring and dangerous experiment that paved the way for the development of the first safe vaccine and saved countless lives. Yet when Lady Mary Wortley Montagu deliberately infected her own daughter with a tiny dose of smallpox – successfully inoculating the three-year-old child in 1721 – her ideas were dismissed and she was denounced by 18th-century society as an “ignorant woman” .Three hundred years later, on the anniversary of that first groundbreaking inoculation on English soil, a new biography will aim to raise the profile of Wortley Montagu and reassert her rightful place in history as a trailblazing 18th-century scientist and early feminist. Continue reading...
The company has struggled, like its rivals, to keep up with demand. But it has achieved great things at low pricesAstraZeneca is one of the shining stars of the pandemic. Not only did it produce a vaccine where other big players failed, the UK-Swedish company has pledged to sell it at cost until it is able to declare the pandemic over.Because the vials that contain Astra’s vaccine can be kept in a normal refrigerator, it has managed to keep the cost down to about $3 (£2.20) a shot, compared with the $35 charged by US firm Moderna for its vaccine outside the States. Continue reading...
by David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters on (#5FWDJ)
For more than a year the Recovery programme has used the NHS to test many Covid treatments, saving lives worldwideAs it is a novel disease, inevitably there have been numerous suggestions for treatments for Covid-19, ranging from herbal tonics to the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, as advocated by the former US president. The question is: what treatments work best?It is not enough just to compare what happened to people who did or did not have the treatment, which may, for example, have been given to healthier patients. The only reliable method is to allocate volunteers at random to either receive the novel treatment or a control, and, if possible, neither they nor the medical team know which. Randomised trials reduce statistical biases and, if they are large enough, researchers can robustly say whether the intervention helps. Continue reading...
Sid Jhamat, six, from Walsall came upon a horn coral while using his fossil-hunting kit to find wormsA six-year-old boy has found a fossil dating back millions of years in his garden after receiving a fossil-hunting kit for Christmas.Siddak Singh Jhamat, known as Sid, said he was excited to find the fossil in his garden in Walsall after digging for worms. Continue reading...
The importance of a beacon and having fortitude are key for lighthouse keepers – clues for us all when there’s little else aroundImagine being a lighthouse keeper. Before I dropped beneath the surface of this secluded, often secretive, occupation, the idea brought to mind wind-blown seagulls, or a bearded sea dog chewing his pipe. Such is the romantic notion many of us have about lighthouses. The reality is (or was, because the staffed lighthouse is now extinct) quite different.Land lights – those charming beacons you’ll find on the coast, the distinctive red stripe of Portland Bill or the thimble-shaped watchpoint at Llanddwyn – are appealing, but for me the sea towers hold the greatest allure. I’m talking about those majestic, improbable stations rising audaciously up out of the ocean – the Bell Rock, the Bishop, the Longships. The famous Eddystone, south of Plymouth, is the fourth built on that reef, in an effort that spanned almost 200 years. Its neighbouring “Smeaton’s Stump”, the remains of a third manifestation, serves as a stark reminder that water is not meant to hold buildings. Continue reading...
Chunk of space rock was once the ‘poster child for hazardous asteroids’ but it will be a while before humans need to worry about it againNasa has given Earth the all clear on the chances of an asteroid called Apophis hitting our planet any time in the next century, having worried space scientists for over 15 years.The 340-metre (1,100ft) chunk of space rock hit the headlines in 2004 after its discovery led to some worrying forecasts about its orbit. It became a “poster child for hazardous asteroids”, according to one Nasa expert. Continue reading...
New tools could help predict extent and severity of hay fever and allergy-related asthma months aheadThe climate emergency could increase future allergy season severity by up to 60%, a new pollen forecasting system suggests, while a separate system could predict the severity of grass pollen seasons months in advance.Such tools could help health professionals prepare for an increase in hay fever cases, or hospital admissions for allergy-related asthma. Seasonal pollen forecasts could also enable some hay fever sufferers to avoid particularly severe seasons by, for example, travelling abroad. Continue reading...
Residents in the Portland area of Oregon report sightings of strange lights streaking across the sky, which turned out to be debris from a SpaceX rocket launched in Florida 22 days ago. The rocket re-entered the atmosphere at the wrong angle, causing it to burn up
‘Cure-alls’ such as vitamin D and ivermectin seem appealing. But the truth is, specific diseases demand specific medicinesIf the coronavirus had struck in the middle ages, there would have been a cure. You could have got it at all good apothecaries, though not cheaply. It was called theriac, and it also cured epilepsy, indigestion, heart trouble and swellings and fevers of all kinds. The recipes were often secret but were said to include the roasted flesh of vipers – it was the original snake-oil remedy. Sugar may have been a common ingredient, too, as the name is the root of the English “treacle”.Theriac dates back at least to Roman times: Marcus Aurelius allegedly took a precautionary dose every day. Of course, it was totally useless – apart, perhaps, from giving a sugar rush in those times of calorie deprivation. But it attests to the longstanding wish for a cure-all. No historian of medicine will have been surprised by the bogus or questionable remedies being touted for Covid-19, from zinc supplements to hydroxychloroquine. Even Donald Trump’s proposal of bleach injections sounds mild compared with some of the medical interventions attempted in the past, which included concoctions of mercury and sulphuric acid. Continue reading...
A skilled storyteller reflects on the genius of Werner Heisenberg, who developed the theory that explains the evolution of stars and makes computers possibleThere are two kinds of geniuses, argued the celebrated mathematician Mark Kac. There is the “ordinary” kind, whom we could emulate if only we were a lot smarter than we actually are because there is no mystery as to how their minds work. After we have understood what they have done, we believe (perhaps foolishly) that we could have done it too. When it comes to the second kind of genius, the “magician”, even after we have understood what has been done, the process by which it was done remains forever a mystery.Werner Heisenberg was definitely a magician, who conjured up some of the most remarkable insights into the nature of reality. Carlo Rovelli recounts the first act of magic performed by Heisenberg in the opening of Helgoland, his remarkably wide-ranging new meditation on quantum theory. Continue reading...
Southern Launch facility on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula gets go-ahead to send up suborbital satellitesAustralia is one giant leap closer to becoming a space-faring nation again, with the first licence granted to establish a civilian rocket launch facility.The federal industry minister, Karen Andrews, announced on Thursday that South Australian company Southern Launch will be able to launch suborbital satellites from its Koonibba test range site. Continue reading...
A new £50 note featuring Alan Turing, the scientist best known for his codebreaking work during the second world war, has been unveiled by the Bank of England and will go into circulation on 23 June, the date of his birth.Turing was prosecuted for homosexual acts in 1952, and an inquest concluded that his death from cyanide poisoning two years later was suicide.The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, said: “I’m delighted that our new £50 features one of Britain’s most important scientists ... He was also gay and was treated appallingly as a result. By placing him on our new polymer £50 banknote, we are celebrating his achievements and the values he symbolises."
MPs vote to renew Coronavirus Act by 484 votes to 76; NHS England chief says decision due to lower infections and vaccine impact. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Scientists pinpoint gene necessary for animals to adopt a typical gait by studying breed of rabbit that can’t hopIt sounds like a conundrum that Rudyard Kipling would have tackled in his Just So stories, but it turns out the reason why rabbits hop is rooted not in fables but genetics.Researchers say that by studying an unusual breed of bunny that walks on its front paws, they have pinpointed a key gene that is necessary for animals to adopt a typical gait. For rabbits, as well as animals such as hares and kangaroos, that is the ability to hop. Continue reading...
Type of stem cell deficiency is common among women who lose pregnancies, and sitagliptin may helpA common diabetes drug may be able to help women who have repeated miscarriages, researchers have found, after they identified that a certain type of stem cell deficiency is common among women who lose pregnancies.A study for the Tommy’s National Miscarriage Research Centre in London discovered that the diabetes drug sitagliptin can boost recruitment of these cells to the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, in women who have experienced repeated miscarriages. Continue reading...
It may sound far-fetched, but a breakthrough in Israel has brought us a step closer to creating artificial wombs for humansA team of Israeli scientists announced the mother of all inventions last week. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science revealed in the journal Nature that they had successfully gestated hundreds of mice inside an artificial womb. They placed newly fertilised eggs inside glass vials rotating in a ventilated incubator, and grew the embryos for 11 days – the mid-point of a mouse pregnancy – outside their mothers’ bodies. The embryos developed normally; their hearts, visible through the glass vials, pounded steadily at 170 beats per minute.The mice were no bigger than sunflower seeds, but what they represent is enormous: the breakthrough brings us one step closer to reproduction without pregnancy. The division of labour in gestation is the most intractable imbalance between the sexes. Men only have to contribute a single cell to make a baby, whereas women carry their children for nine months and give birth, sometimes risking their bodies and often risking their careers, in a world of work built largely by men. An artificial womb would mean complete reproductive parity between the sexes: all anyone needs to do is throw in their gametes and the rest is taken care of. But this equality could come at great cost to women. This is radically disruptive technology, and with every new development we are sleepwalking into a world of tough ethical choices. Continue reading...
Polymer banknote pays tribute to scientist who cracked Enigma code during second world warA new £50 note featuring Alan Turing, the scientist best known for his codebreaking work during the second world war, has been unveiled by the Bank of England and will go into circulation on 23 June, the date of his birth.The Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, was due to reveal the design, which incorporates several features relating to Turing, on Thursday morning. Continue reading...
Mars mission’s next major milestone will be deployment of Ingenuity, a small helicopterWelcome to the first in a new series of occasional Marswatch columns. With the change of administration in America, the moon landings scheduled for 2024 are likely to be moved back to their original target of 2028. So we thought we’d change our focus to Mars.The big news at Mars is the landing of Nasa’s rover Perseverance. It touched down on 18 February and has been successfully exploring the 28-mile-wide (45km) Jezero crater ever since. Continue reading...
A majority of menstruating women have experienced changes to their cycle over the last year, surveys suggest. One of the main culprits? Persistent stress
by Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor on (#5FS09)
12 riddles linked to new £50 note featuring the codebreaker may take seven hours to crackGCHQ has released its “most difficult puzzle ever”, a set of 12 riddles linked to design elements of the new £50 note featuring the mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing.The questions begin with a relatively straightforward crossword-style puzzle that starts by asking where GCHQ’s predecessor agency, where Turing worked, was based during the second world war. A two-word answer, nine letters then four, is required. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Madeleine on (#5FRS2)
In 2019, Ian Sample delved into the mind of a bullshitter, talking to psychologists about what prompts people to spout nonsense and gibberish. Recently, one of the researchers he spoke to, Shane Littrell, published a study asking – can you bullshit a bullshitter? Not being able to resist diving into the dark arts of BS once more, Ian Sample invited Shane back on the podcast to hear the answer and find out what it might tell us about the spread of misinformation Continue reading...
Australian observatory that shared Apollo 11 images reaches deal with US company Intuitive MachinesThe Parkes radio telescope in regional New South Wales, which famously shared Apollo 11’s landing images to more than 600 million people in 1969, will provide support to new commercial lunar missions this year aimed at ultimately creating a “sustainable presence” for humans on the moon.“The Dish”, as it has become known in Australia, will provide ground station support to the Houston-based Intuitive Machines group for the “multiple lunar missions” it is planning with Nasa over the next five years. Continue reading...
Experts discover crucial evidence that could reveal how magnetic fields behave around black holesAn image that captures streaks of polarised light swirling around a supermassive black hole is providing new insight into how galaxies can project streams of energy thousands of light-years outward from their core.Black holes are places where the pull of gravity is so strong that even light cannot escape. Most surrounding matter gets sucked in, but some particles escape just moments before they are captured and are blown far out into space. Continue reading...