My friend and colleague Liz Hall, who has died aged 71 of cancer, was a psychotherapist whose work with survivors of sexual abuse helped to develop therapeutic practice significantly in that area.Over the years Liz was involved in devising and delivering multidisciplinary training on sexual abuse, starting in 1987 when she co-authored, with me, Surviving Child Sexual Abuse: A Handbook for Helping Women Challenge Their Past, which was the first book in the UK for women who had been abused as children. She was often ahead of her time, both in her thinking and her therapeutic practice. Continue reading...
China has successfully landed a probe on the moon's surface, according to state media. The Chang'e-5 spacecraft drilled into the surface of the moon to collect soil early on Wednesday, the first probe to collect lunar samples in four decades.If the return journey is successful, China will be only the third country to have retrieved samples from the moon, following the US and the Soviet Union in the 60s and 70s
Detailed analysis of a buried extinct volcano in the Faroe-Shetland Basin reveals some surprisesIf you were to slice a volcano in half, what would it look like inside? For most volcanoes it’s assumed that there is a large magma chamber which is connected to the surface by a narrow conduit: a structure referred to as the “balloon and straw” model. But detailed analysis of a buried extinct volcano in the Faroe-Shetland Basin reveals that volcano plumbing isn’t as straightforward as first thought.Erlend last erupted 55m years ago and today lies buried under more than a kilometre of sediment. Using 3D seismic images and data from oil exploration wells, Faye Walker, from the University of Aberdeen, and colleagues have pieced together the plumbing system inside the fossilised volcano. Their images, published in the journal Geology, reveal a “Christmas tree” structure inside, suggesting that the magma chamber grew like a tree, with each fresh batch of magma adding a new set of gently downward sloping branches. Continue reading...
by Presented by Chris Watson and produced by David Wa on (#5B40Y)
Wildlife recordist Chris Watson and spatial audio sound artist Prof Tony Myatt continue on their three-part journey to the Sea of Cortez fishing for the song of the blue whale. Chris speaks to blue whale expert Dr Diane Gendron, and artists Diana Schniedermeier and Ina Krüger, who produce ocean sound installationsIn episode two of this three-part series, the pioneering nature sound recordist Chris Watson continues his journey in Mexico to learn more about the songs of blue whales.Chris is joined on his journey by the spatial audio sound artist, engineer and academic Tony Myatt with whom he is collaborating on a special sound installation for Oceans 21, a project series on the fascination and endangerment of the oceans. Their installation, Seaphony, will premiere in Berlin in May 2021 to mark the beginning of United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Continue reading...
Unlike the ‘dime a dozen’ T-Rex, there are only a handful of near-complete triceratops skeletons in the world – and one is coming to AustraliaMelbourne Museum will become permanent home to the world’s most complete triceratops skeleton, with the “immense and unprecedented” $3m acquisition of a 67m-year-old dinosaur fossil.After two years of negotiation and due diligence, the Victorian government and Museums Victoria have brokered a deal to bring the triceratops horridus – which was discovered on private land in the United States in 2014 – to Melbourne next year where it will go on display for the first time. Continue reading...
The unmanned Chang’e-5 spacecraft has landed on the moon to pick up lunar rock samples, something not attempted since the 1970sChina has successfully landed a probe on the moon. There, the unmanned Chang’e-5 will prepare to collect the first lunar samples gathered since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976. Here is everything you need to know: Continue reading...
Chang’e-5 spacecraft completes 112-hour journey from Earth, according to Beijing’s space agencyA Chinese probe sent to the moon to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades has successfully landed, according to Beijing’s space agency.China has poured billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to the moon. Continue reading...
Early diagnosis is essential if survival rates are to improve, and the announcement of a trial starting next year is a promising signSubstantial improvement in the early detection of cancers was among the key aims set out last year in NHS England’s long-term plan. Although survival rates have been improving, it has long been recognised that too often they lag behind the best performing countries in Europe. Late diagnosis is widely recognised as being among the causes, since cancers found early are far more susceptible to treatment. Against this backdrop, last week’s announcement that a new blood test is to be trialled on 165,000 people from next year, in the hope that it will help identify early-stage cancers, is an exciting development.The test, known as Galleri, looks for abnormal DNA, and is most likely to have an impact on those cancers – including lung, ovarian and pancreatic – that are typically diagnosed late, and for which there is currently no screening programme. Another UK study using blood tests created by the same US healthcare company, Grail, to detect lung cancer (Britain’s biggest cancer killer), is already under way. As ever with research, there are no guarantees, and NHS England has a mountain to climb: currently just 55% of cancers are diagnosed at stages 1 or 2. The aim is to reach 75% by 2028. But at the end of a year that has placed the NHS under huge strain, it is encouraging that some of the pledges in the long-term plan may be on the way to being met. Continue reading...
by Presented by Chris Watson and produced by David Wa on (#5B2DX)
Wildlife recordist Chris Watson and spatial audio sound artist Prof Tony Myatt begin a three-part journey to the Sea of Cortez hunting for the song of the largest, and possibly loudest, animal that has ever lived – the blue whale. It’s also an animal that Chris has never managed to record. Will this trip change that?In episode one of this three-part series, pioneering nature sound recordist Chris Watson sets off on a journey to record one animal that has so far evaded his microphones – the blue whale.Despite being the largest animals to have ever lived, much of their lives remain a mystery. As Chris travels to Mexico to try to find the whales, he meets scientists, conservationists and others who are also keen to learn more about their behaviour and the ocean environment they inhabit. Continue reading...
Scientists suggest parts of expanse that once connected Britain to mainland Europe survived waves and had settlementsBreaking away from Europe has never been straightforward.Eight thousand years ago, a series of enormous tsunamis swept through the North Sea and struck the coast of what is now Britain, with devastating effects. Continue reading...
Scientists use powerful new instrument in outback WA to map three million galaxies in 300 hours, unlocking deepest secrets of the universeA powerful new telescope developed by Australian scientists has mapped three million galaxies in record speed, unlocking the universe’s deepest secrets.The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Askap) broke records as it conducted its first survey of the entire southern sky, mapping approximately three million galaxies in 300 hours. Continue reading...
Increase in women being diagnosed with depression partly behind rise in useAn increase in women being diagnosed with depression is partly behind a significant rise in prescriptions of the antidepressant sertraline – sold under the brand name Zoloft – which is in the list of Australia’s most commonly prescribed drugs for the first time.On Tuesday Australian Prescriber published its annual list of the 10 most commonly taken drugs – based on standard daily doses for every 1,000 people in the population each day – along with a list of the 10 most costly drugs to government, and the 10 most common drugs by prescription counts. Continue reading...
Puzzles to have you in piecesUPDATE: The solutions are now up hereThanks to the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, chess is having a moment. Today’s three puzzles are in homage to world-class female players, both fictitious and real.1. A quintet of queens. Continue reading...
The brightest star in this ancient constellation is Capella, a yellow giant just 43 light years awayThis week, use one of the most prominent winter constellations to find one of the fainter ones. The constellation we are searching for is Auriga, the charioteer. It is an ancient constellation, having been among the 48 listed by Ptolemy in the second century AD. The easiest way to find Auriga at this time of year from the northern hemisphere is to locate Orion, the hunter. Continue reading...
A retreat for grieving parents provides therapeutic benefits, writes a mother whose daughter was stillborn 22 years agoAfter my daughter Grace died when I was eight months pregnant, my first impulse was to write it all down: the birth, surrounded by candles; the coffin and funeral where there should have been a christening; how her death had been accompanied by snowdrops fighting their way through the frozen ground in the first stirring of spring. I felt I was the only one really to have known her and I wanted her acknowledged. I wrote a diary as a way of making my daughter real, and published it in a magazine. It helped.I’ve since learned that this is a common impulse in the bereaved – especially among bereaved parents, who feel an urgent and deep-seated need to remember and honour their children. Continue reading...
Four-letter words were once rebellious and cool, but the denizens of the finance sector have put paid to thatDoes Prince Charles ever swear at his plants, I wonder. Somehow I doubt it. We all know he talks to them, of course, because he said so in an interview in 1986 when discussing his garden. “I just come and talk to the plants, really,” he said. “Very important to talk to them. They respond.” This much-mocked revelation was supplemented only last year when the panel show QI tweeted that he also shakes hands with trees. At tree-planting ceremonies, he apparently always gives a branch a bit of a waggle to wish it well.This all makes perfect sense to me. It’s no surprise that a man in his position, when presented with an array of silent and quivering organisms, automatically starts chatting and shaking limbs. That’s what almost all royal events must be like. The nervous crowd he’s presented with when he gets out of the Bentley to cut a ribbon isn’t going to be significantly more responsive than your average clump of dahlias. He’s been instinctively filling silences with inane chatter all his life and it’s vital for his self-esteem to believe that, on some level, these mute lifeforms appreciate the effort. Continue reading...
Painting of astrophysicist joins male-dominated collection at organisation’s London HQA British astrophysicist who made one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century but was overlooked by the Nobel prize committee has joined the male-dominated portrait collection of the Royal Society.Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was a 24-year-old graduate student when in 1967 she discovered a new type of star later called a pulsar. It was a sensational find, recognised with the Nobel prize for physics in 1974 that went not to her, but to her male PhD supervisor. Continue reading...
by Matilda Boseley (now), Nadeem Badshah, Damien Gayl on (#5AXDT)
Trudeau previously warned country would not get first doses; Italy to ease measures in five regions; singing and playing wind instruments ‘can increase risk of infection’, say Swiss authorities. This blog is now closed
You’d be forgiven for thinking we would exit lockdown into something better, but the prime minister’s harsh tier system was our destiny“Now is not the time,” gibbered the prime minister, “to take our foot off the throat of the beast.” Its throat? A lot of people feel like they’ve been living in the beast’s colon for most of the year. Still, see you guys in tier 4 in January.Incredibly, the above was not even the worst line of Boris Johnson’s Thursday evening press conference. Johnson is unaccountably celebrated as a brilliant prose stylist but frequently spouts the sort of sub-inspirational shit you might see slapped on a photo of a crossroads on Instagram. This outing was a case in point, as the prime minister intoned: “Your tier is not your destiny – every area has the means of escape.” Wow. I want to say “#makesuthink”, but I’m going to go with: “Then tell us what the means of escape is! Why does everything have to be a bleeding ring quest?” Continue reading...
Pioneered by a Turkish-German couple, its significance exceeds its practical valueThe world took note when the German startup BioNTech announced its breakthrough in the development of a new type of vaccine to combat Covid-19. After testing tens of thousands of people, BioNTech’s vaccine has been shown to be 95% effective in providing protection for those who would otherwise have been infected. The company was the first to apply for emergency use authorisation for a coronavirus vaccine in the US and it has announced it will soon take similar steps in Europe.Antiviral vaccines are usually made with devitalised viral materials fabricated outside the body but BioNTech has pursued a new method of injecting genetically modified RNA into the patient. This prompts the patient’s cells to produce a characteristic protein of the relevant Sars-CoV-2 virus themselves, enabling the body’s immune system to build up an effective response before it encounters the real virus. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray (now); Sarah Marsh, Lucy Campbell, on (#5AW25)
Daily cases continue to fall in France; health campaigners fear Africa will have to wait until mid-2021 for vaccine; weddings banned and cafes closed in Croatia
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5AXD3)
Researchers hopes Galleri trial will be a ‘gamechanger’ for early diagnosis and save many livesThe NHS is to trial a simple blood test that may help identify more than 50 forms of cancer years before diagnosis, in what it hailed as a potential “gamechanger”.If successful the blood test, known as Galleri, could revolutionise early diagnosis of cancer and save many lives by identifying symptoms quickly enough for prompt treatment to make the difference between life and death. Continue reading...