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Trial participants react to news that Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has up to 90% efficacy

Team’s coronavirus work built on decades of research pioneered by Sarah Gilbert and Adrian Hill

Doctors, nurses, hospital leaders and infectious disease experts fear large celebrations will cause an explosion of new Covid casesDoctors, nurses, infectious disease experts and hospital leaders have united in warning Americans against traveling or gathering in large groups for Thanksgiving, a US holiday traditionally marked by bringing extended family and friends around a dinner table.Experts and frontline workers are fearful such events will cause an explosion of new Covid-19 cases, which could overburden hospitals struggling to recruit nurses amid an “exponential” rise in cases. Continue reading...

Quinn credited with boosting ‘greatest social media campaign in history’, raising more than $220m for ALS researchPatrick Quinn, whose personal battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease helped power the Ice Bucket Challenge fundraising campaign, has died aged 37, seven years after his diagnosis, according to the ALS Association and his supporters on Facebook.Quinn, who was born and grew up in Yonkers, New York, was co-founder of the campaign that raised more than $220m for medical research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was diagnosed with ALS on 8 March 2013. Continue reading...

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Proposals include plans to limit self-isolation and to allow household mixing at Christmas

This is a good time to follow the changing relationship between Mars and the waxing gibbous moonOver the next few nights the waxing moon slides past Mars in the eastern sky. If you have yet to find the Red Planet, the moon proves a handy signpost. The chart shows the view looking east from London at 17:00 GMT on 25 November. Continue reading...

Plans for mass immunisation against Covid-19 are developing fast, but concerns must be addressed

Operation Warp Speed chief says if immunization plan goes well enough Americans should be vaccinated by MayAs the United States recorded its 12th million Covid-19 case, the Trump administration’s vaccine program adviser predicted that life in America could be back to normal around May of 2021 as immunization is set to begin.The note of optimism came even as millions of Americans were expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday this week and many appeared to be ignoring warnings from health officials about furthering the spread of the infectious disease. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Four out of five UK intensive care consultants say their unit is stretched by shortage of doctors and nurses

WHO says Europe faces third wave early in 2021 if nations repeat their failures to prepare

No one knew whether mRNA technology would work against this virus – but it does. It’s an extraordinary moment for science

Agencies point finger at state-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea

The states and their hackers that security experts believe are targeting vaccine developers

Despite the promising news from Pfizer and Moderna, other efforts – which may be even more effective – continue around the world

It’s essential for the status quo to be challenged. But those who claim to be bold outliers need to draw on evidence, not cry censorshipDisinformation can be deadly. Tobacco industry propaganda disguising the dangers of smoking; the actions of big oil to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change; corrupt scientists telling parents that life-saving vaccines are unsafe: all have cost lives. And so it goes in a pandemic. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” said the director general of the World Health Organization earlier this year. It was prescient.There are people with a clear motivation to spread disinformation regardless of the human cost. There are the corporate interests such as the Conservative donor and multimillionaire hotel owner Rocco Forte, who was given a primetime BBC platform to spread untruths about Covid-19. Continue reading...

Russia reports record new cases and deaths; South Australia lockdown to end at midnight on Saturday; global cases pass 57.5m. Follow latest updates

PM set to announce end to lockdown before trying to broker national agreement on family gatherings

Doctors behind new Australian guidelines for treatment of the painful disease say they are hampered by a lack of quality scientific evidenceProf Jason Abbott’s interest in gynaecology was piqued in the early 1990s when he treated a significant number of women complaining of troubling symptoms including – but not limited to – pelvic pain, fatigue, heavy bleeding, painful sex and painful bowel movements.And while some of these women would eventually be given a diagnosis of endometriosis – a severe disorder in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing inflammation and pain – Abbott said the identification of the disease often provided no help in treating the symptoms. Continue reading...

The renowned fossil hunter on the anti-African prejudice in palaeontology, her dream discovery, and bathing her daughter beside a baby hippoFor over 50 years, British-born palaeoanthropologist Meave Leakey has been unearthing fossils of our early ancestors in Kenya’s Turkana Basin. Her discoveries have changed how we think about our origins. Instead of a tidy ape-to-human progression, her work suggests different pre-human species living simultaneously. Leakey’s new memoir, The Sediments of Time: My Lifelong Search for the Past, co-written with her daughter Samira, reflects on her life in science and pieces together what we now understand about the climate-driven evolution of our species.Leakey is part of a famous family of palaeoanthropologists. Her husband, Richard Leakey, and his parents, Louis and Mary, are known for their discoveries of early hominins. Continue reading...

For many, baking is therapeutic. But is cooking along with Bake Off really such a good idea?An acquaintance speculated recently that we would only realise after the fact what kind of mad we went during the pandemic, but I already know: I became Bake Off mad.I used to love baking, especially the showy kind where you produce something slightly flashy to a chorus of coos of admiration. Mine almost never elicited that reaction – I lack skills, attention to detail and artistic flair – but for a few brief, glorious years when my sons were little, I was a cake magician to them. Anything a bit creative filled them with wonder. I made dragons, cartoon characters and even a giant spider crab. Continue reading...

Sir David King’s temporary organisation, formed in response to government’s Covid policy failings, will fight onIt began in the summer when a group of scientists decided to give the government a short, sharp lesson on how to use scientific advice in a transparent manner when tackling Covid-19. Once they had done that, the men and women of the Independent Sage organisation intended to disband.But now the group, led by former government chief scientist Sir David King, is considering a move six months after its formation that would allow Independent Sage to fight on for years to come – but with an expanded agenda. This time it is considering a plan to hold ministers to account over a range of issues, including the UK’s attempts to tackle the climate crisis. Continue reading...

In 1978, a photographer at a Birmingham lab fell ill with smallpox, prompting a race against time to prevent an epidemic. Does the outbreak carry lessons for Covid-19? Sally Williams reportsOn Friday 11 August 1978, Janet Parker was getting ready for work when her head started to pound. She thought she was coming down with flu: she felt sore all over. But she had lots to do that day, so her husband, Joseph, drove her to Birmingham University, where she worked as a photographer in the medical school’s anatomy department.At 40, Parker’s life was steady. She and Joseph, a Post Office telecoms engineer, lived in a modest house in Kings Norton, a quiet suburb of Birmingham. They had two dogs, and were close to her parents, who lived nearby. Parker was an only child, and her father worked for a small family firm in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter. She got into a grammar school and stayed on beyond 16, unlike many children from her background. Her first job was to photograph crime scenes for the West Midlands police, being summoned, often in the middle of the night, to photograph the aftermath of brutal murders, bodies with alarming injuries and blood-spattered walls. Continue reading...

Eva Green’s career-best performance as a single-mother astronaut is an ideal launchpad for a look at cosmic adventurers from Jane Fonda to Juliette BinocheFor too long in the movies – as in life – space exploration was presented as a boy’s realm: brave, lantern-jawed men soaring off to the final frontier while their wives waited and fretted on terra firma. A recent spate of films and TV series have redressed the balance, putting women at the centre of their stargazing narratives – few more stirringly than Proxima (multiple platforms), a superb astronaut character study from the French director Alice Winocour that gives Eva Green the role of her career.Proxima got a UK cinema release in July, but amid pandemic uncertainty never found the audience it deserved. Now, VOD should serve as a reintroduction to a film that combines compelling space-station activity with a frank, straightforward feminist message. Green plays Sarah, an ambitious astronaut and single mother surprised to receive a last-minute invitation to join a European Space Agency mission to Mars – the realisation of a lifelong dream, but one that necessitates a year spent apart from her eight-year-old daughter Stella (the delightful Zélie Boulant). Continue reading...

Katalin Karikó’s mRNA research helped pave way for Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna’s successful work

Obrador rejects criticism as political attacks; Canada fears big rise in cases could overwhelm hospitals; Italy records 37,242 new cases

Scientists say jab could be used to protect those who cannot be given vaccines

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News about potential vaccines has been encouraging – but when will they be ready?

Fritillaria delavayi, used in traditional medicine, turning grey to blend into rocksFor thousands of years, the dainty Fritillaria delavayi has grown slowly on the rocky slopes of the Hengduan mountains in China, producing a bright green flower after its fifth year.But the conspicuous small plant has one deadly enemy: people, who harvest the flower for traditional Chinese medicine. Continue reading...

Sinopharm chairman claims there has not been a single case of infection after inoculation of officials, students and workers heading overseasAlmost a million people in China have taken an emergency Covid-19 vaccine that is still in its testing phase, the company that developed the vaccine has said.Chinese authorities released the vaccine, developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), to select groups of people in July including Chinese government officials, students, and workers travelling overseas, before the vaccines had been proven to work. Continue reading...

With potential injectable vaccines estimated to be out of reach for two-thirds of world’s population, scientists hope to find less-heat-sensitive formulationsNews that one of the potential coronavirus vaccines had at least a 90% efficacy rate was a “victory for science”, said K Srinath Reddy, a cardiologist and president of the Public Health Foundation of India. But it meant little to his country’s 1.3 billion citizens.“For us, the Pfizer vaccine is more of a scientific curiosity than a practical possibility,” Reddy said. Continue reading...

The observatory has played a key part in space exploration – and a few movies – but two accidents have rendered the 305m-wide instrument unsafeA huge US space telescope nestled deep in the Puerto Rican jungle will be shut down after suffering two destructive mishaps in recent months, ending 57 years of astronomical discoveries.Operations at the Arecibo observatory, one of the largest in the world, were halted in August when one of its supportive cables slipped loose from its socket, falling and gashing a 30-metre (100ft) hole in its 305m-wide (1,000ft) reflector dish. Continue reading...

Agency says no evidence the intravenous antiviral works for severe infections

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Long March-5 rocket has been rolled into position for ignition expected this monthChina is preparing to launch its lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-5. On Tuesday the 57-metre Long March-5 rocket was rolled into position at the Wenchang spacecraft launch site in south China’s Hainan province.This will be the fifth launch of the Long March-5. According to the China National Space Administration, ignition is likely to take place sometime in later November. Chang’e-5 was originally planned for launch in 2017, but the failure of the Long March 5’s second flight delayed the schedule as a rocket engine was redesigned. Continue reading...

Trial suggests that tocilizumab improves outcomes for critically ill patients, say researchers

Putting mass Covid testing in place before financial support for those required to self-isolate is putting the cart before the horse

Further trials required but ‘delight’ after early data reveals strong immune response in over-70s

Study says efforts to prevent spread of disease, such as social distancing, reduce virulence

There’s now evidence that ignoring social distancing rules could help more lethal strains of Covid-19 to win out

Request will be made at WTO meeting in order to allow mass production of treatments

Phase 2 trial data shows strong immune response in over-70s and better tolerance in older adults

Exclusive: Retired doctors, district nurses and physios recruited to administer jab in England’s biggest programme of its kind

The second part of Ian Sample’s 2016 interview with Prof Sir Roger Penrose, which includes a quantum theory of consciousness and the age-old question of whether mathematics is invented or discoveredListen to the first part of the conversation here.We’ll be back next week with two new episodes – see you then! Continue reading...

The CSIRO research vessel, Investigator, has captured vision of a meteor breaking up over the ocean off Tasmania's southern coast. The meteor was filmed at 9.21pm AEDT on November 18 on the ship's 24/7 livestream camera. The ship is currently mapping the ocean floor 100km south of Tasmania, near the Huon Marine Park Continue reading...

Cases and deaths surge in Italy; new Pfizer vaccine data better than first reported; Swiss intensive care beds at full capacity

Costs and overruns on key technology have hit schedule of Artemis programme, says report

Sexual orientation gap for men larger than gap between white and black men, study showsMen in same-sex relationships are significantly less likely to have a degree in a Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) subject than their heterosexual male peers, according to research.Until now, studies have focused largely on the gender gap in Stem, where women are still hugely underrepresented in higher education and make up less than a quarter of the Stem workforce in the UK. Continue reading...

Denmark has already launched a nationwide cull of its farmed mink herd after concerns for vaccine efficacy