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When Harvard professor Avi Loeb discovered possible signs of extraterrestrial activity, it caused a scandal in the research community. Is fear and conservatism stopping science from considering plausible evidence that there are aliens out there?By the time humanity noticed the object, it was already leaving the solar system. 19 October 2017. Astronomers at the University of Hawaii notice an odd shape tumbling away from Earth, a bright speck hurtling through the deep dark. Informally, they name it ‘Oumuamua, from the Hawaiian for “scout”, and classify it an interstellar asteroid, the first known to visit our solar system. Really, nobody could be sure what it was. Asteroids are rocky and dull and commonly round, but ‘Oumuamua was shiny and elongated. Astronomers had first thought it a comet, but comets have bright gassy tails, and here there wasn’t one. The more data was collected, the more mysterious the object seemed. “Time after time it looked unusual,” says the astrophysicist Avi Loeb, over Zoom. “At some point it crossed a threshold for me. And at that point you say, ‘OK, come on!’”Loeb is the Frank B Baird Jr Professor of Science at Harvard and, until recently, the longest-serving chair of Harvard’s department of astronomy. When we speak, he is in his home office – big old fireplace, books about the cosmos, a remarkable quantity of dark wood – preparing to discuss his new book, Extraterrestrial, in which he argues an exotic hypothesis: that ‘Oumuamua was “designed, built and launched by an extraterrestrial intelligence”. Loeb is 59, but energised like a child. “I should tell you,” he warns, gently teasing, a few days after the US Capitol is stormed. “Today I’m supposed to be interviewed by Fox News. Some people said, ‘Avi, don’t do it. How could you do that?’ And I said, ‘Look, science doesn’t have a political agenda – we should speak to everyone!’” Continue reading...

A new trend has emerged – public figures posting ‘vaxxies’ showing the moment they received their jab

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Tory MPs use short-lived announcement of export ban to call for overhaul of trade deal, as EU chief is attacked over U-turn

Government advisers say it would be ‘politically, socially and ethically unacceptable’ not to inoculate older people first

As countries begin an age of Martian exploration, planetary protection advocates insist we must be careful of interplanetary contaminationNext month, three new spacecraft arrive at Mars. Two represent firsts for their countries of origin, while the third opens a new era of Mars exploration. The first is the UAE’s Emirates Mars Mission, also known as Hope, which enters orbit on 9 February. Shortly after, China’s Tianwen-1 settles into the red planet’s gravitational grip and in April will deploy a lander carrying a rover to the surface.Both of these missions are groundbreaking for their countries. If they are successful, their makers will join the US, Russia, Europe and India in having successfully sent spacecraft to Mars. However, it is the third mission that is destined to capture the most headlines. Continue reading...

Graves found under demolished student halls are providing valuable insight into life in a post-Roman settlementAn early medieval graveyard unearthed beneath student accommodation at Cambridge University has been described as “one of the most exciting finds of Anglo-Saxon archaeology since the 19th century”.King’s College discovered the “extensive” cemetery, containing more than 60 graves, after demolishing a group of 1930s buildings which had recently housed graduates and staff in the west of the city, to make way for more modern halls. Continue reading...

You have to look – and sometimes very closely – but discovering small patches of woodland or flowers bursting through concrete makes me appreciate nature all the moreOne Friday morning last October, when we still could, I drove down from Brixton in south London to Somerset. It was one of those autumn days people anticipate in the midst of a sticky summer, with pillowy mist and low-lying sun trying to get through it. Even hurtling down the M3 was gorgeous; trees filling in the shade card between chartreuse and maroon, buzzards circling overhead.I spent the rest of that weekend mentally checking off an autumnal bingo card. Woodsmoke from chimneys in chocolate-box villages; hedgerows on the cusp of change; woodpeckers flying over trees; that perfect nip in the air. It was delightful, and it was bittersweet. For the first time, I realised why people gave up the rat race to live more rurally. After a soggy few weeks in the greyest of Londons, autumn just seemed better out here. Continue reading...

Early trial data shows Novavax and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have much less efficacy against new variant

If nations make vaccine delivery equitable, step up testing and study variant genomes, the pandemic could be under control by January 2022

PM pens letter recognising ‘unique challenges’ faced by those looking after children during the pandemic

Flash of light detected on planet, about 10 times more energetic than lightning on Earth, reopens debateDoes lightning strike on Venus? It’s a question that has perplexed planetary scientists for decades. Given that lightning has been detected in the clouds of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, you’d expect lightning to occur on Venus, too, but the planet’s dense clouds ensure that any lightning remains well hidden. Now a tantalising flash has reopened the debate.On 1 March 2020 a camera on the Japanese Akatsuki spacecraft, which is orbiting Venus, detected a flash of light which, if it was lightning, was about 10 times more energetic than lightning on Earth. But bizarrely there was only one flash: lightning normally occurs in clusters. It’s possible the bright flash was caused by a large meteor exploding in the planet’s atmosphere, but this is seen as an unlikely explanation; such events are very rare. Continue reading...

Everything you need to know about the trial results for the two new coronavirus vaccines

Researchers walk through three negative-pressure chambers before entering the submarine-like structureIn a high security laboratory in Sydney, where a select group of researchers go to extreme lengths to work with samples of blood and swabs containing Covid-19, virologist Stuart Turville found a unicorn.“A beautiful, immunological unicorn,” Turville, an associate professor with the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales, said. Continue reading...

Developmental biologist and science communicator with an enduring fascination for the beginnings of lifeHow does a single fertilised egg divide and morph into an embryo with head, tail, limbs and organs? That question was an inexhaustible source of fascination to the biologist Lewis Wolpert, who has died aged 91. With a twinkle in his eye, he told audiences it was not birth, marriage or death, but gastrulation – the stage in which a uniform ball of cells folds to become differentiated layers with the beginnings of a gut – that was “truly the most important time in your life”.Wolpert combined his interest in fundamental problems of development with a parallel career as a science communicator. He enjoyed performing in public, and brooked no compromise in his quest to persuade people that “science is the best way to understand the world”. He broadcast frequently on BBC radio and TV, and wrote a number of popular books. The best known of these, Malignant Sadness (1999), was a fiercely objective attempt to understand his own experience of a severe depression that he suffered at the age of 65. He gave the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in 1986, chaired the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science from 1994 until 1998, and won the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday prize (for science communication) in 2000. Continue reading...

European Medicines Agency approves jab for use in all age groups above 18, despite German doubts

Pre-ordering of Janssen and Novavax means Britain has procured 247m successfully trialled jabs

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World Health Organization experts conduct on-the-ground research into origins of pandemic in China

UK has bought 30m doses of product that could transform world’s immunisation programmes

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsGiven that we have a naming convention for colours, we all know that blue is blue. So how do we know that if I saw blue through someone else’s eyes, I wouldn’t see it as yellow, or pink etc?

The poorest countries are missing out on adequate doses of vaccines – and the health implications should concern us allNine months ago world leaders were queueing up to declare any Covid-19 vaccine a global public good. Today we are witness to a vaccine apartheid that is only serving the interests of powerful and profitable pharmaceutical corporations while costing us the quickest and least harmful route out of this crisis.I am sickened by news that South Africa, a country whose HIV history should have taught us all the most appalling life-costing consequences of allowing pharmaceutical corporations to protect their medicine monopolies, has had to pay more than double the price paid by the European Union for the AstraZeneca vaccine for far fewer doses than it actually needs. Like so many other low- and middle-income countries, South Africa is today facing a vaccine landscape of depleted supply where it is purchasing power, not suffering, that will secure the few remaining doses. Continue reading...

Unique physiology allows the Australian marsupial to produce square-shaped faeces that may aid communicationHow wombats produce their cube-shape poo has long been a biological puzzle but now an international study has provided the answer to this unusual natural phenomenon.The cube shape is formed within the intestines – not at the point of exit, as previously thought – according to research published in scientific journal Soft Matter on Thursday. Continue reading...

29 January 1986: Millions watch as NASA’s space shuttle Challenger explodes in the skies above Cape Canaveral, Florida, moments after launchWashington

I had resolved to ride my bike to work every day. The quest was a disaster from start to endAs my bike’s front wheel hurtled towards the concrete ledge separating land from lake, two thoughts flashed through my mind.“Oh my God, I can’t destroy another work laptop” and “Well, there goes my new year’s resolution”. Continue reading...

Researchers say the variant that swept Victoria during last year’s second wave was mutating into something more worryingA variant of Covid-19 similar to the one that spread rampantly in the UK would likely have developed in Victoria during last year’s second wave had Melbourne not gone into an extended lockdown, a leading virologist says.Associate Prof Stuart Turville from the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales said when his laboratory examined samples from patients as part of a study called “ADAPT” in Sydney, they started to see key differences in those infected with the virus during the second wave. Continue reading...

Government has ordered 60m doses of jab, which appears to work well against Kent variant

Boris Johnson and head of UK regulator say vaccine produces immune response in all age groups

Mission is politically charged as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in outbreak response

Explainer: Move attributed to ‘insufficient data’ but experts say no evidence vaccine doesn’t work

Archaeologists say foundations excavated in Tiberias are of a mosque built in about AD670Archaeologists in Israel say they have discovered the remnants of an early mosque believed to date to the earliest decades of Islam during an excavation in the northern city of Tiberias.The foundations of the mosque, excavated just south of the Sea of Galilee by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, point to its construction roughly a generation after the death of the prophet Muhammad, making it one of the earliest Muslim houses of worship to be studied by archaeologists. Continue reading...

Swimming pools, cinemas and theatres to be allowed to operate at full capacity from 1 FebruaryIndia’s health minister, Harsh Vardhan, has claimed it has “successfully contained the pandemic” and “flattened its Covid-19 graph” as the country of 1.34 billion people reported just 12,000 new cases in the past 24 hours – a stark contrast to the 90,000 cases a day being reported in September.With more than 10.7m coronavirus cases, India still has the second highest number in the world, but over the past two months it has seen a steady and steep decline in new cases, despite little by way of restrictions to prevent the spread of infection. Continue reading...

Delivering doses to other countries will reduce chance of virus coming back in new forms, say experts

Experts also studying similarities with lasting effects of Chikungunya virus in hope of finding new treatments

Bottled water is atrocious for the environment. You’re better off buying a water filter for healthier, tastier water

As we head into yet another month of lockdown in the UK, with hospitals overwhelmed, how do we cope with the monotony, isolation, boredom and stress? Science Weekly gets inspiration from the people who choose to put themselves through extreme situations – including astronauts, arctic research scientists and submariners Continue reading...

We risk creating healthcare apartheid, where the virus still rages in poorer nations. Ultimately, this will harm all of us

Could such a large amount of money end the Covid pandemic? Eradicate disease? Provide universal healthcare and fund vaccine research?You know that daydream where you suddenly come into a vast fortune? You could buy a castle or a tropical island hideaway, help out all your friends, do a bit of good in the world. But what if it was a truly incredible sum? What if you had $1tn to spend, and a year to do it? And what if the rules of the game were that you had to do it for the world – make some real difference to people’s lives, or to the health of the planet, or to the advancement of science.A trillion dollars – that’s one thousand billion dollars – is at once an absurdly huge amount of money, and not that much in the scheme of things. It is, give or take, 1% of world GDP. It’s what the US spends every year and a half on the military. It is an amount that can be quite easily rustled up through the smoke and mirrors of quantitative easing, which is officially the mass purchase of government bonds, but which looks suspiciously like the spontaneous creation of money. After the 2008 financial crash, more than $4.5tn was quantitatively eased in the US alone. All the other major economies made their own money in this ghostly way. Continue reading...

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Beetles donated to Natural History Museum found to be 4,000 years old indicating climate used to be warmerRarely is finding a pair of wood-eating beetles in a dusty cabinet a cause for celebration. But when Natural History Museum curator Max Barclay chanced upon the dead insects, in one of the museum’s specimen drawers, he spotted an opportunity to solve a decades-old mystery: why a pair of foreign beetles had been submerged in an East Anglian bog. The answer sheds light on the state of the UK’s climate almost 4,000 years ago.The beetles were donated to the collection in the 1970s, by an East Anglian farmer who found them inside a piece of old wood he had dug up in one of his fields, and was splitting for firewood. Alarmed by their size, and curved long, threadlike antennae, and concerned that his farm might be infested with wood-boring insects, he contacted the museum for advice. Continue reading...

The terrible scale of the tragedy cannot be attributed to misfortune. It is a product of negligent governmentIn Soho, central London, stands a replica of a 19th-century public water pump without a handle. The missing part is not a result of vandalism but a tribute to John Snow, the physician who correctly surmised that the pump, supplying contaminated water, was a super-spreading device for cholera. Snow mapped case data and lobbied the local parish authorities for the pump’s deactivation.The coronavirus is a different kind of pathogen (cholera is a bacterial infection), but our understanding of today’s pandemic owes a debt to Snow’s methods. Boris Johnson and his ministers claim to have been led by science over the past year, and mostly they have, but often too late, as well as grudgingly and inconsistently. When evidence has clashed with ideology, the latter has frequently prevailed. Mr Johnson’s fear of upsetting Tory MPs has often seemed stronger than his care for good public health policy. Continue reading...

ONS survey finds people more likely to have cough compared with old variants, though loss of taste or smell less likely

Research finds people stay up later and sleep less before full moon, and do the opposite before new moonFolklore has saddled the moon with major responsibilities: moods, spikes in crime and even psychosis are blamed on the Earth’s only constant natural satellite. But could the “lunar effect” interfere with sleep?Scientists have long understood that human activity is facilitated by light, be it sunlight, moonlight or artificial light. But a study suggests our ability to sleep is distinctly affected by the lunar cycle, even when taking into account artificial sources of light. Continue reading...

The latest research into the fans of rival football teams indicates what I’ve long suspected – adversity has a surprisingly powerful bonding effect

Scientists say temperatures globally at highest level since start of human civilisationThe planet is hotter now than it has been for at least 12,000 years, a period spanning the entire development of human civilisation, according to research.Analysis of ocean surface temperatures shows human-driven climate change has put the world in “uncharted territory”, the scientists say. The planet may even be at its warmest for 125,000 years, although data on that far back is less certain. Continue reading...

Healthcare and police chiefs also say online activity is channelling hatred against NHS staff

Scientists are working to find out how to stop the transmission of mutations that started in England, South Africa and Brazil

Doctors call for extra efforts amid signs black people and those in poor areas are less likely to receive jabs

The UK needs to learn from the lessons of the past year and come up with a concrete plan to avert a disastrous third wave

Method can increase detection rate among infected people, senior Beijing doctor tells state TV