Science | The Guardian

For some the pandemic has worsened their symptoms, but others say social distancing and hygiene measures have made life easierLuka Buchanan has always been consumed by the fear of contamination and germs, washing their hands until they were raw, and terrified the food they ate would poison them.Diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at age 19, Buchanan, who uses they/them pronouns, spent years in therapy telling themselves over and over that there was nothing to fear – that the chances of a global contagion were minuscule, and that they weren’t infected and dangerous to those around them. Continue reading...

Estrangement is surprisingly common – so how can the injured parties put their differences aside?Harry and Meghan have apparently severed links with the royal family and moved halfway across the globe. Nicole Kidman has been allegedly snubbed by her two eldest Scientologist children. Angelina Jolie has a difficult relationship with her father Jon Voight – it probably doesn’t help that he’s Donald Trump’s favourite actor… We hear about these high-profile estrangements and assume it’s either media hype or that these family fallouts are unique to the rich and famous. But Karl A Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University, says it’s actually rare to find a family that has never been touched by a deep and painful rift.“Estrangement is strikingly and surprisingly common,” says Pillemer. He conducted a random survey of 1,340 individuals. He found that “more than a quarter reported that they themselves were estranged from a close family relative”. He defined that as having no contact with the relative whatsoever. The figure was much higher than he had anticipated. “For most of that 27% it was not a case that they had simply drifted apart, it was a significant estrangement about which they felt upset.” Continue reading...

Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, praises the agency as it begins a search for 26 recruitsHelen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, has welcomed the European Space Agency’s decision to improve diversity among crew as an “exciting time for human space flight expansion”.Esa announced earlier this week that as part of its bid to recruit up to 26 new astronauts it was casting its net wider than ever and that diversity – across gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs and physical disability – will be at the heart of its recruitment efforts. Continue reading...

Adam Steltzner, the chief engineer on the Perseverance project, said his team was ‘overwhelmed with excitement and joy’ as he revealed new colour photographs beamed back from Nasa’s Perseverance rover

Car-sized vehicle designed to seek signs of life is pronounced ‘healthy’ after dramatic descent to surface of the red planetNasa scientists have said the Perseverance Mars rover is “healthy” and is beaming back many stunning new images from the surface of the planet, promising significant scientific discoveries ahead.Related: Perseverance’s mission to Mars – in pictures Continue reading...

Team of experts answer questions about mission following safe landing on the red planet on Thursday – follow the briefing live

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Nasa’s rover, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, landed safely on the floor of a vast crater on Thursday, the first stop on its search for life on the red planet

Royal Society says issues such as certifying immunity and data protection need to be considered

German politicians voice support for jab after only 17% of doses delivered to country are administered so far

Radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zoneNasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.Mission managers at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed. Continue reading...

Hope mission is to study Martian atmosphere to help understand how water has been lostThe first photograph of Mars taken by the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope spacecraft has been released by the UAE Space Agency and Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre .Captured at 20:36 GMT on 10 February 2021, one day after the Hope probe successfully entered orbit around the red planet, the image shows sunlight creeping over the giant volcanoes of the Tharsis region. Continue reading...

Critics say President Daniel Ortega is attempting to distract from his dismal human rights record and poor response to the pandemicNicaragua has created a new National Ministry for Extraterrestrial Space Affairs, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, prompting scorn from critics in a nation experiencing a steady erosion of human rights since a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests three years ago.The new space agency was approved by 76 legislators Wednesday in the country’s congress, which is dominated by the Sandinista party of Daniel Ortega, the president. Fifteen opposition legislators abstained. Continue reading...

Nasa's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars' Jezero Crater to search for ancient microbial life after a journey of almost seven months from Earth, beaming back an image of the surface of the red planet

Data shows Covid has taken far greater toll than flu, to which it is often dismissively compared

Event 42,000 years ago combined with fall in solar activity potentially cataclysmic, researchers sayThe flipping of the Earth’s magnetic poles together with a drop in solar activity 42,000 years ago could have generated an apocalyptic environment that may have played a role in a major events ranging from the extinction of megafauna to the end of the Neanderthals, researchers say.The Earth’s magnetic field acts as a protective shield against damaging cosmic radiation, but when the poles switch, as has occurred many times in the past, the protective shield weakens dramatically and leaves the planet exposed to high energy particles. Continue reading...

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Spacecraft will descend on red planet carrying helicopter and instruments to look for biosignaturesA rover and a tiny helicopter are preparing to land on Mars, aiming to offer an opportunity to answer an enduring question: has life ever emerged on another planet?Nasa’s ninth mission to descend on the cold, dry, red planet will be steered by a $2.7bn (£2.1bn), car-sized, six-wheeled rover christened Perseverance, which is expected to touch down on Thursday following a seven-month journey. Continue reading...

Suspicion of authority and worries about what is halal must be balanced by the fact that protecting others is an obligation

The health service needs modernising if it is to maintain its position at the forefront of patient care and medical research

The pandemic has demonstrated why humans are ultimately an impressive species. From monitoring the genetic evolution of Sars-CoV-2 to devising vaccines in record time, we have put our minds together to reduce the impact of Covid-19. Yet, the global spread of a new disease is a reminder that we are not invincible, and remain at the mercy of our biology and the natural world. Speaking to author Melanie Challenger about her new book How to Be Animal, Madeleine Finlay asks how we can come to terms with ourselves as animals and why it might do humanity some good Continue reading...

Experts urge care over opening schools as children aged 5-12 now in one of most common groups for virus

University of Cambridge researchers identify potentially effective interventions to help peopleRobotic dogs, laughter therapy and mindfulness could help people cope with loneliness and social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at the University of Cambridge have found.The team at the university’s School of Medicine, led by Dr Christopher Williams, reviewed 58 existing studies on loneliness and identified interventions that could be adapted for people living in lockdown or under pandemic-related social distancing measures. Continue reading...

DNA from teeth found in Siberia permafrost the oldest yet sequenced, pushing science into ‘deep time’Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have led to the world’s oldest known DNA being sequenced, according to a study that shines a genetic searchlight on the deep past.Researchers said the three teeth specimens, one roughly 800,000 years old and two more than a million years old, provided important insights into the giant ice age mammals, including into the ancient heritage of, specifically, the woolly mammoth. Continue reading...

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Healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to virus in controlled environment

With no agreed naming system, scientists are devising their own nomenclature to fill the gap

Report points to failures to improve availability of PPE and capability of social care after readiness exercises

Human challenge trial will monitor healthy 18- to 30-year-olds given virus to aid vaccine and therapy research

Matt Hancock should spend less time watching Hollywood films and more time studying the Asian country’s innovative approach to misinformationMatt Hancock, we learned recently, got a few pointers on how to shape the UK’s vaccine strategy from the 2011 movie Contagion. I don’t know if that is something I would boast about if I were the UK health secretary, but, look, it is great that the man is not shy about seeking out diverse sources of advice. Still, he might want to think about looking towards Taiwan, rather than Hollywood, for further inspiration.Taiwan has had only nine confirmed Covid deaths so far. The island of almost 24 million people managed to snuff out the virus without having a nationwide lockdown. In October, there was a big Pride parade. Life is mostly back to normal and the economy is doing well. Continue reading...

Plan to buy the BioNTech shot has been delayed amid intervention by ‘outside forces’, says health minister

Fusarium xyrophilum hijacks yellow-eyed Xyris grasses from Guyana to create forgeries made of fungal tissueFungi have been discovered making fake flowers that look and even smell like the real thing, fooling bees and other pollinating insects into visiting them.

The wintry weather that has battered the southern US and parts of Europe could be a counterintuitive effect of the climate crisisAssociating climate change, normally connected with roasting heat, with an unusual winter storm that has crippled swaths of Texas and brought freezing temperatures across the southern US can seem counterintuitive. But scientists say there is evidence that the rapid heating of the Arctic can help push frigid air from the north pole much further south, possibly to the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern said she does not believe community transmission is widespread

Queensland health department says variant B1525 was identified in returned travellers in January

European Space Agency aims to take on 26 people for missions to the Moon and eventually to MarsEuropean space chiefs have launched their first recruitment drive for new astronauts in 11 years, with particular emphasis on encouraging women and people with disabilities to join missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars.The European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday that it was looking to boost the diversity of its crews as it cavassed for up to 26 permanent and reserve astronauts. Continue reading...

The 25m-year-old find that will help fill in the gaps in the record of one of the continent’s most diverse speciesA tiny fossil pulled from the edge of a scorching salt lake in the South Australian outback is the oldest known remains of a skink ever found on the continent and may provide a vital clue to the lizard’s evolution.The team of palaeontologists and volunteers from Flinders University and the South Australian Museum found the 25m-year-old specimen during an excavation in 2017. Continue reading...

Analysis suggests everyone in first nine priority groups could get jab four weeks ahead of schedule

Project aims to identify paleoviruses and study virus evolution using the remains, Siberian lab says

Israeli company Kanabo sees shares almost quadruple as it raises £6m for insomnia treatmentShares in a medicinal cannabis company, referred to as “the cannabis Nespresso”, almost quadrupled in value on their trading debut on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday as investors scrambled to buy into the “wellness weed” market.Kanabo, an Israeli company that makes vaporised marijuana pods, saw its shares rise more than 292% to close at 18.5p. The shares, which launched at 4.75p, hit a high of 20.5p earlier in the day. Continue reading...

Latest government data shows 15,576,107 have received first vaccine dose; Scotland’s first minister sets out details of plan to reopen classrooms. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates

Dr Gillian Tully says lack of capacity is forcing police to limit toxicology tests on suspected drug driversPolice forces are having to ration forensic toxicology work, especially samples from suspected drug drivers, because there is not enough capacity in the system to handle the volume of work, the outgoing forensic science regulator has said.Dr Gillian Tully, who steps down from her post after six years on Tuesday, said the service needed to be treated as critical national infrastructure and given the funding and regulatory powers necessary to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Research could have implications for scenarios from job interviews to court trials, say psychologistsThe longer a person takes to respond to a question the more likely it is they will be perceived as lying – whether it is a question about a crime or a friend’s baking skills.Beyond volume, tenor and the pitch of an answer, response time also appears to play a role in the way people perceive the sincerity of answers, psychologists have found. Continue reading...

Liberal MP, who has continued to use social media to defy conventional medical wisdom, posted three links to unproven views on Covid treatments

Scottish study found problems at certain venues, even taking precautions into account

The Com-Cov trial run by the Oxford Vaccine Group in the UK will be testing the efficacy and safety of a ‘mix and match’ approach to immunisation. By giving some participants either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, and a second dose of the other, the trial aims to find out if combining different jabs offers sufficient protection. Sarah Boseley speaks to Dr Peter English about where this technique has been used in the past, why it could be beneficial, and how mixing vaccines actually works Continue reading...

Boris Johnson has said he wants ‘irreversible’ lockdown but cannot guarantee this will be the last. This live blog is now closed - for coronavirus updates, please follow the global live blog

Researchers say 32 cases of B1525 in Britain, with other cases in countries including Denmark, US and Australia

Antimicrobial resistance won’t race across the world like Covid-19, but its effects will be devastating. Thankfully, we already know what we need to do to defeat it

Arrivals from 33 countries must book stay, but hotel industry source says government may struggle to secure enough beds