Science | The Guardian

With new variants of coronavirus popping up around the world, what do the latest studies tell us?

Everyone in top four categories has been offered first vaccine dose, says first minister

Reproduction number estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9, suggesting epidemic is shrinkingThe reproduction number, or R value, of coronavirus has fallen below one for the first time since July and is estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9 across the UK.In a sign that lockdown restrictions may be having an impact and the epidemic is shrinking, scientists advising the government gave their most optimistic outlook for the R number since cases fell last summer. Continue reading...

The society has announced the winners of its 2021 science photographer of the year competition. An exhibition of the winning images is the headline attraction at the Manchester science festival, which is taking place digitally from 12 to 21 February. A climate change category was introduced to the competition to reflect the theme of this year’s festival Continue reading...

Find backs theory that bluestones first stood at Waun Mawn before being dragged 140 miles to WiltshireAn ancient myth about Stonehenge, first recorded 900 years ago, tells of the wizard Merlin leading men to Ireland to capture a magical stone circle called the Giants’ Dance and rebuilding it in England as a memorial to the dead.Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account had been dismissed, partly because he was wrong on other historical facts, although the bluestones of the monument came from a region of Wales that was considered Irish territory in his day. Continue reading...

Researchers say tocilizumab could also help patients on general wards and relieve pressure on NHS

Study finds patients have strong T-cell response after one jab, and second boosts antibody response

Prostagram found to be almost twice as effective at detection as standard blood test in trials, say scientistsScientists say they have developed a prostate cancer scan accurate enough to potentially replace current invasive examination techniques and save thousands of lives each year.Prostagram, developed by experts at Imperial College London, employs MRI scanning and is modelled on breast cancer screening, where women are routinely offered a mammogram scan every three years as part of a national programme. Continue reading...

Millions of pet cats are estimated to kill billions of animals a year but grain-free food can change cat behaviourFeeding pet cats meaty food and playing with them to simulate hunting stops them killing wildlife, according to a study.Eating grain-free food led to the cats depositing a third fewer mouse and bird corpses on doorsteps, while just five to 10 minutes of play with a toy mouse cut the killing by a quarter. Continue reading...

The epidemics of the 1800s left Britain with healthier, better-ventilated public spaces. After Covid, we’ll need more of themOver the last year, the pandemic has transformed how we think of the spaces around us. Common activities such as going to the supermarket or inviting friends into our homes pose new risks to our health. As we learn to live with the threat of Covid-19, we’ll also need to make changes to our spatial environments. But we can breathe a sigh of relief: it’s not the first time societies have had to transform their environments after a public health crisis.Related: Amid the gloom of lockdown, I have taken solace in nature | David Lindo Continue reading...

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and for many couples this year will feel very different. Lockdowns, social distancing, and self-isolation have forced those in relationships to choose whether to be together all the time, or stay apart for potentially months on end. Linda Geddes speaks to Dr Deborah Bailey-Rodriguez about how couples have navigated their relationships during the pandemic Continue reading...

Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm’s profits rise to $7.4bn as main business ‘remains strong’

Study found pigs were able to move a cursor to hit a wall on a screen and earn a treatThey’ve long been thought of as smarter than your average animal, but now researchers claim they have taught pigs to use a joystick, suggesting they are even cleverer than previously thought.Pigs have previously been found to be capable of a host of tasks, including solving multiple-choice puzzles, and learning commands such as “sit”. Continue reading...

WHO recommends AstraZeneca jab ‘even if variants present’; Israel to open hotels and gyms to those who have had vaccine or recovered from virus. This blow is now closed – follow our new one belowCoronavirus live updates

Researchers detected water emanating high up in thin atmosphere of red planet while Tianwen-1 probe entered orbit on WednesdayResearchers have observed water vapour escaping high up in the thin atmosphere of Mars, offering tantalising new clues as to whether the red planet could have once hosted life.The traces of ancient valleys and river channels suggest liquid water once flowed across the surface of Mars. Today, the water is mostly locked up in the planet’s ice caps or buried underground. Continue reading...

Inhaled budesonide could become first treatment in early stages of infection if study confirmed

Conch, unearthed in cave in Pyrenees in 1931, had been carefully drilled and shaped to make musicA 17,000-year-old conch shell that lay forgotten for more than 80 years in a museum collection has been discovered to be the oldest known wind instrument of its type, after researchers found it had been modified by its prehistoric owners to be played like a horn.First unearthed in a richly decorated cave in the Pyrenees in 1931, the large shell was initially overlooked by archaeologists, who assumed it was a communal “loving cup” used by the Palaeolithic people whose wall art adorns the space. Continue reading...

I still have the stamped and dated certificates for smallpox and yellow fever that were required for travel in the 1950s and 60s, writes Dr David BoswellJust before the inoculation programme was rolled out, I wrote to my GP pointing out that soon travel agents, airlines and other countries would require certificates of vaccination against Covid-19, and asking what was being done to provide these (Coronavirus vaccine strategy needs rethink after resistant variants emerge, say scientists, 8 February). I got no reply.Now this is a major issue. Yet one is only given a tiny card recording the date and type of vaccine. This is clearly inadequate, and why should GPs be expected to provide, on request, their own versions, which would probably not be recognised internationally, anyway? Continue reading...

President says he is aiming for ‘top league in space race’ as rival UAE basks in Mars successThe Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has unveiled an ambitious 10-year space programme, a first for the country that highlights Ankara’s plans to compete with other countries both on the world stage and beyond.Speaking on Tuesday evening during a live televised event laced with special effects, the president said the first goal of the comprehensive programme was to make contact with the moon in 2023, the centennial of the founding of the Turkish republic. Continue reading...

European commission leader says bloc late to authorise jabs and ‘not where it wants to be’

The vaccine is still a vital weapon against Covid-19, even if it doesn’t stop mild cases caused by the new variant

Bright speck in space near Alpha Centauri A may be evidence of asteroids or dust – or a technical glitchAstronomers have glimpsed what may be a previously unknown planet circling one of the closest stars to Earth.Researchers spotted the bright dot near Alpha Centauri A, one of a pair of stars that swing around each other so tightly they appear as one in the southern constellation of Centaurus. The stars form what is called a binary system 4.37 light years away, a mere stone’s throw in cosmic terms. Continue reading...

Physical closeness isn’t necessary for us to have a profound effect on one another’s biology, for good or illLast week, my whole outlook on the world was transformed by a sheet of blank paper. Not just any paper, but beautifully embossed stationery, silky to the touch and decadent to write on. It was a gift from a dear friend and colleague. We collaborate over Zoom every week, so I could have thanked him on video, but instead I wrote a short note of gratitude and love, and posted it to him. His delight on receipt a few days later mirrored my own, and we shared a moment of emotional connection.Before that moment, I was immersed in yet another “Blursday” full of Covid-saturated, this-will-never-end moroseness, staring alone at a screen that makes my skin look pallid. Afterwards, to my surprise, I was alight in a sprawling web of human connections. But I shouldn’t have been surprised: I am a neuroscientist who studies how the brain creates your mood. In fact, if you understand a bit about your brain’s inner workings, it may help you to cultivate comfort from those around you, whether physically or in spirit, in difficult times. Continue reading...

Japan has secured 144m shots of the vaccine, but it does not have enough of the specialised syringes to be able to draw six shots from each vial

Huge animals abandoned on Colombian drug lord’s hacienda zoo are loved by locals but their sheer numbers threaten environmentHippos imported illegally into Colombia for Pablo Escobar’s private zoo have gone feral in the lush tropical countryside and must be culled before their invasive presence starts to wipe out indigenous flora and fauna, scientists have warned.One of the notorious drug lord’s great extravagances saw him amass a collection of hippos, kangaroos, giraffes, elephants and other exotic animals in his hacienda fortress from where he established the world’s biggest cocaine empire in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Public Health England expert says figure suggests B1351 has not taken hold in Britain

Initial study brings hope vaccine will reduce Covid transmission

Health secretary sets out new measures as Scottish government announces even stricter plans

A new course – the space engineering technician apprenticeship – offers the chance to join an expanding industryFor young people eager to launch into the world of work, career horizons are expanding to infinity and beyond. The next generation of space engineers began training last month through a new apprenticeship scheme.The space engineering technician apprenticeship is the first to be recognised by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and is the result of a collaboration between the University of Leicester, the UK Space Agency and aerospace giant Airbus. The apprenticeship aims to provide young recruits with space-specific technical skills, including spacecraft manufacturing and design, testing and satellite integration. More than 50 apprentices will have started their training by the end of 2021, with plans to ramp up recruitment. Continue reading...

French nun Sister Andrée tested positive in her retirement home in Toulon but had no symptoms

Donations surge during Covid crisis for work by Prof Chris Exley, author of study linking vaccines and autism

From doubts about safety in older people to questions about variants, scientists have faced a battle to convince the public and regulators

Theories including virus jumping from animal to human or via frozen food being explored by team in China

Neuropsychiatrist who brought brain and mind together in studies of mental healthAlwyn Lishman liked to tell people that he wrote his classic textbook Organic Psychiatry (1978) only because the £500 advance would enable him to buy the Bechstein grand piano that he coveted. Yet he put his heart and soul into it, setting the subject of neuropsychiatry on a new footing, and trained generations of successors to approach mental illness with insights from both brain and mind.Trained in neurology and psychiatry, Lishman, who has died aged 89, was not the first to bridge the two subjects. There was a strong tradition among German neurologists of the late-19th century to look for underlying physical causes for conditions such as dementia and schizophrenia. But when he qualified in medicine in postwar Britain, Lishman found that neurology had little to say about the mind, while psychiatry was strongly influenced by psychoanalysis. He made it his mission to build a new discipline that combined the two. While using newly available techniques to explore abnormalities in the brain, he rooted his practice in psychiatry, listening to his patients and taking their circumstances into account. Continue reading...

Caseworkers made to turn on ‘geo-tracking’ over concerns about personal data leaving UK

People from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds faring worse than black people in second wave of pandemicEvidence that ethnic minorities are at elevated risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19 compared with their white counterparts is well established. But a new sweeping analysis in England shows that between the first and second waves of the pandemic in 2020, death rates in black communities improved, but continued to remain high in people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani backgrounds.The analysis – which is yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a medical journal – suggests that while the public health messaging focused on ethnic minorities has had a beneficial impact on some communities, others need customised outreach, the authors said. Continue reading...

Turtles have been around for more than 200m years, and can be found almost everywhere on the planet. Yet, they are surprisingly uniform and many species around today are facing an uncertain future – at risk from trade, habitat destruction and the climate crisis. Looking at a new study investigating the evolutionary history of turtles, Age of Extinction reporter Phoebe Weston talks to Prof Bob Thomson about what his work can tell us about the factors shaping their diversity and how we can support turtles’ dwindling numbers Continue reading...

Pollen released by plants is also more intense than in 1990 in bad news for those with allergies, research in US and Canada findsThe climate crisis is multiplying the miseries faced by people with allergies, with new research finding that the pollen season in North America is now an average 20 days longer than it was three decades ago.Related: How urban planners' preference for male trees has made your hay fever worse Continue reading...

There is a race between viral variants and vaccines – and for humanity’s sake the latter must win

Health secretary tells over-70s in England to contact NHS through the online national booking service if they have not had vaccine offer. This live blog has now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates

The solution to today’s Q&A puzzleEarlier today I asked you the following puzzle.Ask Johnny Continue reading...

Drugmakers are looking at ways to improve their vaccines so they are ready for mutations of the virus

Oxford vaccine shown to have only limited effect against South African variant of coronavirus

A new twist on the all time classic maths trickUPDATE: the solution can now be read here.“Think of a number” tricks are such a puzzle staple that the BBC even named a kids show after them. (To readers under the age of 40, Think of a Number was hosted by Zoe Ball’s dad Johnny, and to many Britons, this one included, it was an indelible cultural highlight of growing up in the late 1970s/early 1980s.)The following puzzle is a brilliant version of a ‘think of a number’ type problem, which I had not seen until recently. The solution is wonderfully ingenious. If you don’t crack it now, or at all (as it consumes your day, sorry), you will be rewarded when I reveal the answer at 5pm. Continue reading...

A trio of winged constellations can be seen in the east but there are other creatures to spot, including Delphinus and VulpeculaThis week, there are a trio of flying creatures to watch out for in the pre-dawn sky. The chart shows the view looking east from London at about 6am this week. Highest in the sky is Cygnus, the swan. This large constellation falls into the ‘once seen, never forgotten’ category. Its great wings and long neck stretch across the sky. Continue reading...

Mosque serving largest Muslim community in UK seeks to reassure those hesitant about the shot

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsHow do spacecraft manoeuvre in space? Surely, in a vacuum, reaction force will not work?

Researchers say vaccines’ focus must shift to protecting people from hospitalisation and death

At best, vaccines and lockdown could make life more normal by May. But at worst, a new mutation could undo any progress

Rats are clever, resilient, horrifying and yet somehow admirable. And, while we’ve been away, they’ve been colonising our office spacesAn empty office building is a good place to shelter if you’re a rat in a crisis. It will be warm and dry and, if you’re lucky, one of the humans who hastily vacated before the last coronavirus lockdown will have left a half-eaten Pret flapjack in a drawer for you. Not that you’re fussy. The loss of your usual diet of commuter leftovers is a blow, but it’s not insurmountable. “Rats will always find something to eat,” says Richard Ashley, emeritus professor of urban water at the University of Sheffield. “Human waste is ideal, but any natural organic material will do. Houseplants are fine. Leather will do at a push.”You can usually find a way in via the toilets. As a rat, you’re neophobic, which means you don’t like going places where you don’t feel safe. This makes you both hard to trap and unlikely to pop up while a human is actually sitting on the loo, much to the human’s relief. However, if an office is left empty with the central heating on, the water in a U-bend can evaporate and it might be worth risking the vertical migration from cold sewer to warm corporate setting. Continue reading...