Anxious moment for scientists in US, China and UAE as spacecrafts enter crucial stages of long journey to red planetThe skies above Mars will witness some startling aeronautical displays in the next few days when three rival space robot probes reach the red planet after journeying for millions of miles across space.Related: US billionaires vie to make space the next business frontier Continue reading...
The Anglo-Swedish firm already had a strong lineup of cancer drugs when vaccine success gave it a further boostBefore the pandemic, AstraZeneca was highly regarded in the business and pharmaceutical world – seen as one of the UK’s best companies. Now, thanks to Britain’s successful vaccine programme, it is a household name.The Anglo-Swedish firm, which publishes annual results on Thursday, has sprung to prominence as maker of one of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines, approved for use in the UK, EU and India. Inevitably, headlines have followed. AstraZeneca has been the focal point of the vaccine supply wars between the UK and the EU and has, as part of that row, faced questions over the effectiveness of the jab in the over-65s. Continue reading...
London-based photographer and designer Tim Easley has spent the past few years taking emotive monochrome photographs of the moon. “I’ve always loved it,” he says, “and, being from the city, it’s often the only celestial object that you can see.” The 60 or so images have now been collected in a book, The Moon, available from his website.“The moon invokes so much wonder and awe, so I wanted to reflect that,” he says. Continue reading...
Elon Musk, Steven Spielberg and Nicolas Cage among those who collect rocks that can cost millionsThey really are from out of this world, and the prices are astronomical. For those who have everything they need on Earth, what they now want is a little bit of space. Meteorites are attracting the attention of celebrity collectors who have pushed the price of the rocks – which have hurtled through space for hundreds or even thousands of year before crashing into this planet – tenfold over the past decade.More than 70 of the most spectacular meteorites ever found will go under the hammer at Christie’s auction house next week in a sale that is expected to generate millions of pounds. Included in the Deep Impact auction are meteorites embedded with gem stones and others have suffered such an impact from blasting through the atmosphere at up to 160,000mph that they resemble sculptures by Alberto Giacometti or Henry Moore. Continue reading...
Chinese spacecraft aiming to enter orbit in days before putting down lander and rover months laterChina’s Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first picture of Mars, the Chinese space agency has said, as the mission prepares to touch down later this year.The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as a US mission, is expected to enter Mars orbit around 10 February. Continue reading...
Health secretary says NHS still under pressure; Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine as effective against UK variant as original virus, research suggests. This live blog has now closed – please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
My grandfather lost his life to TB, but his brother would go on to be part of the scientific team that coined the term ‘coronavirus’When my grandfather’s lungs finally collapsed, so did my family. He spent his final weeks receiving oxygen to help keep him alive, his body having been eaten away by disease. My dad, allowed in to say goodbye for the final time, was horrified to see his father reduced to a thin wisp of a man, surrounded by medical equipment.The compassion shown towards him by NHS staff was extraordinary, even if it took some pressure from my ever-watchful great uncle to make sure my grandfather got the care needed. Everyone did what they could. It wasn’t enough. Continue reading...
Three more European service modules will be made for use as part of Nasa’s Artemis programmeThe European Space Agency has contracted Airbus Defence and Space to build three more European service modules (ESM) to be used as part of the Artemis moon landing programme. The new contract adds to the three ESMs already in production. All three of the new modules will propel astronauts to the moon.The ESM provides power, propulsion and life support to Nasa’s Orion crew capsule. Each ESM is 4 metres in diameter and height. Its four solar arrays span 19 metres when unfurled and can generate enough energy to power two households. The ESM’s 8.6 tonnes of fuel powers its main engine and 32 smaller thrusters. Continue reading...
Only 30-50% of melanoma patients given immunotherapy respond to it but research suggests gut could helpFaecal transplants could help patients with a dangerous form of skin cancer respond to immunotherapy, research suggests.Faecal transplants involve stool and the microbes it contains being taken from one individual and introduced into the gut of another person. Continue reading...
We have excellent and capable people in the fields of infectious diseases, epidemiology and public health who understand the problem, writes Dr Aamir AhmedIt is a remarkable admission of failure that after a year of Sars-CoV-2 community transmission, the UK does not have a functional and efficient test-and-trace system (MPs urge test and trace chief to prove system curbs spread of Covid, 3 February). This is galling, as we pride ourselves on a long tradition of scientific excellence, particularly in the fields of virology, epidemiology and public health. An excellent example of research-led policy to mitigate infectious diseases was through the work of Sir Sheldon Francis Dudley, a physician, epidemiologist and administrator, in the early 20th century.Sars-CoV-2 is a virus and a public health problem that will be with us for the foreseeable future. We need effective testing and tracing strategies in place, not just for immediate protection, but also future mitigation. We have excellent and capable people in the fields of infectious diseases, epidemiology and public health who understand the problem and can implement informed and effective policies around testing and tracing. The government must take the issue of testing and tracing seriously. One way of showing seriousness is to put knowledgable experts in charge.
The UK vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, says volunteers are being sought for a world-first trial giving a first dose of one vaccine type and a second dose of another. Run by the University of Oxford, it will recruit 820 people over the age of 50 to receive a first dose of either the Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
Using animation, archive and clips from the movie franchise, Rodney Ascher’s genre-bending doc gives philosophers and kooks space to explain why we are living in a synthetic worldWith Room 237, a deep dive into theories about Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, writer-director-animator Rodney Ascher practically invented a new sub-genre of documentary: the fathoms-five-low inspection of fandom theories and nuttery. Tonally blending sympathetic dispassion and ever-so-slight amused mockery over a fast-shuffling montage of clips that just fit under the bar of fair use, Ascher’s technique created a fascinating brainstorm essay equally about cinema, spectatorship and the ability of works of art to generate interpretations well beyond the intentions of their makers.His latest, A Glitch in the Matrix, pulls off the trick again, appropriately enough on an even bigger scale. This time the subject is simulation theory: the hypothesis that we are all living inside a synthetic world, like the human beings in The Matrix movies who are kept in pods, jacked into a giant supercomputer that injects a delusion straight into their brainstems. The film interviews individuals with differing opinions on simulation theory: some philosophers, some journalists and some likable kooks who fervently believe they’re living in a simulacrum, a few of whom appear disguised in digital avatar get-ups that add a bizarre comic layer. Continue reading...
by Presented by Kevin Fong and Nathalie Nahai, produc on (#5DQQ7)
For many people infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus, the first sign of contracting the disease is a loss of smell and taste; something we reported on last May. Studies have now shown that months later an unlucky minority will still be lacking these senses – while for others they may have returned somewhat distorted. While scientists try to fathom what exactly causes this and what treatments could help, we return to the archives to explore what it’s like to live without a sense of smell. The episode was part of a special series from the Guardian called Brain waves exploring the science and emotion of our everyday lives Continue reading...
Donating your jab would undermine the rationale behind the prioritisation scheme, writes John Main. Plus letters from Ruth Eversley and Linda MurgatroydIt would be noble to give your vaccine slot to others (Letters, 2 February), but it would undermine the rationale behind the prioritisation scheme. The elderly and vulnerable are hugely more likely to get seriously ill if they catch Covid and require hospitalisation. The chief aim of the strategy is to prevent the NHS being even more overwhelmed. So your morally responsible readers would, as well as forgoing vaccination, also need to refuse hospitalisation should they catch Covid.Incidentally, that is also the unstated corollary of any “libertarian” strategy that argues that the toll of shutdown will outweigh the toll of unrestricted Covid. That argument might even be true, but only if you think it is acceptable for every hospital bed in the country to be filled with a Covid sufferer. Or, more probably, think it would be OK to refuse hospital admission to Covid sufferers deemed to have had their good innings.
Companies hope to have next generation of vaccines against emerging variants by next yearGlaxoSmithKline and Germany’s CureVac have reached a €150m (£132m) agreement to develop a next generation of Covid-19 vaccines targeting new emerging variants in the pandemic.The two companies said they plan to work jointly to develop a shot next year that can address “multiple emerging variants in one vaccine”. Continue reading...
by Natalie Grover Science correspondent on (#5DNV5)
Traffic noise affected zebra finches’ foraging habits and field crickets’ matingWorking from home during Covid-19 has brought noise pollution close to home, whether it’s your partner making calls within earshot or grinding coffee during your Zoom interview. Now research suggests the animal kingdom is also disturbed by the noise of humans and our gadgets.As humans proliferate, we have penetrated deeper into wildlife habitats, creating a pervasive rise in environmental sound that not only directly affects the ability of animals to hear but indeed communicate. Emerging research suggests noise pollution, caused, for instance, by traffic, interferes with animal behaviour, including cognition and mating. Continue reading...
Danish team predict possible 1.35m rise by 2100 and highlight issues with previous modellingThe rise in the sea level is likely to be faster and greater than previously thought, according to researchers who say recent predictions are inconsistent with historical data.In its most recent assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the sea level was unlikely to rise beyond 1.1 metre (3.6ft) by 2100. Continue reading...
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 spacecrafts manoeuvre in space? Surely, in a vacuum, reaction force will not work?
The federal government failed to develop a surveillance system that would allow researchers to watch for dangerous mutationsAs researchers around the world scramble to understand the dangers of several newly discovered variants of the deadly coronavirus, the US remains woefully behind in its ability to track the mutations, scientists say. Continue reading...