Science | The Guardian

One explanation for virus not behaving as expected could be previous exposure to other infections, experts tell MPs

Scientific American says Trump has damaged US ‘because he rejects evidence and science’In a break with its 175-year tradition, the prestigious US magazine Scientific American has for the first time endorsed a candidate in a US presidential election – the Democratic party nominee, Joe Biden.The magazine has taken the line because, it says, “Donald Trump has badly damaged the US and its people – because he rejects evidence and science.” Continue reading...

Robert Buckland admits government faces ‘real challenges’ over testing

Strides are being made towards an open access atlas that could predict where dangerous animal-borne viruses will next appear

Challenger: The Final Flight, a four-part docuseries produced by JJ Abrams, retells an infamous tragedy from those who were thereThe fourth and final episode of Netflix’s Challenger: The Final Flight, a JJ Abrams-produced documentary series on the defining space shuttle disaster, opens with anonymous home footage from a yard in Florida on 28 January 1986. A bright pillar of rocket combustion slices through the crisp blue of an unusually cold morning, then splits, forking outward. Like the thousands watching on the ground miles away at the Kennedy Space Center, the shaky cameraman at first can’t understand what he’s seeing – “Is that trouble, or not?” he asks. But as the paths keep winding upwards, divergent, arcing like two bug antennae, it’s apparent that something in the launch – a news event by then semi-routine to Americans, supposedly so safe a non-astronaut was onboard – had gone horribly awry. “They got trouble,” he concludes.Related: Breaking the color barrier: behind the long fight to diversify space Continue reading...

Chief epidemiologist puts low number of cases down to light-touch ‘sustainable’ approach

Concerns India figures don’t give full picture; Trump says Covid-19 will ‘go away’ because of ‘herd mentality’; pandemic only beginning, says WHO

Cabinet colleagues had earlier been told to restrict movements as a precaution; WHO chief warns of school closures’ effect on children. This blog is now closed

Project to revive climate-boosting wonder plant in Pembrokeshire could spur similar schemesSeagrass is a wonder plant but unrecognised and sorely neglected. This is a flowering plant with long ribbon-like leaves that often grows in the sea in lush underwater meadows.It is an unsung hero in the fight to clean up carbon dioxide and the climate emergency. Its credentials are astonishing: it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, stores 10% of the annual ocean carbon storage across the globe and locks up that carbon in sediments that can stay out of harm’s way for millennia. Continue reading...

Readers express their frustration with the utter shambles of England’s test-and-trace regimeDespite what Matt Hancock says, there just aren’t enough tests available (Report, 15 September). There are still no routine tests for medical professionals and other frontline services. Paramedics I have spoken to in Liverpool have been tested only once in the past six months and attend emergencies not knowing whether they are virus-free. They have colleagues who have caught Covid and some have died. It is unacceptable to put them at risk like this.

Responding to coronavirus with an over-centralised and semi-privatised design was never going to turn out well

Experts warn the long-term effects of virus are causing an ‘epidemic in primary care’

The discovery of phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere is part of our long search to understand our place in the universeThe recent detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, the excitement around several spacecraft currently bound for Mars and discoveries of distant rocky Earth-sized exoplanets fuel an optimism about extraterrestrial life. However, despite the promise, there are good reasons to be cautious. We should be ready to embrace the possible discovery of a lack of alien life as a scientific triumph in our understanding of our place in the universe.Related: Scientists find gas linked to life in atmosphere of Venus Continue reading...

Covid has got experts thinking urgently about the risk of diseases passing from farmed animals to humans. We examine the major outbreaks of the past two centuries Continue reading...

Key government adviser cautioned PM against setting 10m daily testing target

You can’t just ‘solve’ big complex problems like coronavirus, they need steady and unshowy work. This narrative is just a distractionThere are some words that, when used with respect to technology, bring about a collective groan, slump of the shoulders and eye-roll from the broader tech community. It’s normally on stage at a big conference, or in a newspaper headline, or in an elevator pitch at the latest demo day. Such words and phrases include: “We are the Uber of [insert industry here]”, “growth-hacking”, “[coding / design / business] ninja”, and, of course, “moonshot”.They are shortcuts, they are hyperbolic, they are used to try to impress. But they also signify something unspoken to those in the know looking on. Something unintended by those making big claims. They signify laziness of thought and a lack of originality. Most of all, they suggest a complete lack of engagement with the current state of the science and technology industries. Continue reading...

More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progressResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

Mobile testing unit fails to show up in Bolton, despite highest infection rate in UK

Pandemic could result in a ‘lost decade’ for developing countries says co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in stark report

Would you be willing to have a dose of Sars-CoV-2 sprayed up your nose for medical research? For thousands around the world, the answer is yes. Eager volunteers have already signed up to take part in human challenge trials, where participants would be deliberately infected with the virus in order to better understand the disease, and rapidly develop a treatment or vaccine. But should such studies go ahead with a dangerous and relatively new virus?In the first of two episodes, alongside a panel of experts Ian Sample delves into some of the ethical questions of human challenge trials and asks where the balance of risks and benefits currently lies Continue reading...

Jordan to shut schools and places of worship; Panama allows men and women out on same day; 14 refugees test positive after Lesbos fire. This blog is now closed

Trials on mice show how sterile animals can produce sperm deriving from elite breedersScientists have used gene-editing to create pigs, goats and cattle that can serve as so-called “surrogate sires” – male animals providing sperm that carry the genetic traits of elite donor animals – in a bid to tackle global food insecurity.For thousands of years, farmers have selectively bred livestock to champion superior traits such as disease resistance and heat tolerance, but techniques such as artificial insemination are often limited by technical and logistical challenges. Continue reading...

Unlike endemic species, An. stephensi is adapted to urban areas, putting another 126 million people in dangerAlready grappling with the highest incidence of malaria with more than 90% of global cases, Africa should be wary of an Asian mosquito species that has the potential to spread the disease into the continent’s urban areas – subjecting an additional 126 million people to risk – a new analysis suggests.Unlike endemic mosquito species in Africa, which have made themselves at home in warm and wet climes in largely rural areas, this particular mosquito – An. stephensi – has made an appearance in African cities in recent years. Continue reading...

Phosphine, released by microbes in oxygen-starved environments, was present in quantities larger than expectedTraces of a pungent gas that waft through the clouds of Venus may be emanations from aerial organisms – microbial life, but not as we know it.Astronomers detected phosphine 30 miles up in the planet’s atmosphere and have failed to identify a process other than life that could account for its presence. Continue reading...

The doors of our surgeries may be locked but many have better access than ever. Let’s ensure this includes vulnerable people

More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progressResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

India reports more than 94,000 new cases; Israel the first to reimpose national lockdown; encouraging signs in Australian state of Victoria

Cost would be billions, but represents a huge saving on $11tn response to Covid-19, estimates show

More than 307,000 cases in 24 hours to Sunday; Israel imposes second national lockdown; Cases hit daily record in Czech Republic. This blog is closed

How to find the pole star, not the brightest star in the sky, but the closest to the pole – for now

Leaked documents reveal backlog of 185,000 swabs and tests sent abroad for processing

Managers say there have been delays in receiving test results for staff

Seeing meaning in the unexpected can help turn mistakes into opportunities, says researcher Dr Christian BuschDr Christian Busch has had a lucky life. He narrowly escaped a catastrophic car accident at the age of 18. The car was wrecked but he walked away without a scratch. It was just the wake-up call he needed. “I turned my life around. Before that I’d been a reckless teenager who lived in the moment, having fun. The accident instilled a sense of urgency to try to find meaning.”Luck continued to play a positive role in his life. An accidental coffee spillage in Starbucks led to romance and though the person in question is no longer his girlfriend they are still close. In his work as an entrepreneur, researcher and community-builder, he co-founded several social enterprises and teaches at both New York University and the London School of Economics – enjoying plenty of lucky breaks along the way. But Busch noticed that he wasn’t the only “lucky” one among his friends and colleagues. In fact, many of the most successful and happiest people he encountered also seemed to be on a permanent lucky streak. Continue reading...

More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progressResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

Despite a big rise in infections, particularly among younger people, there is no sense of panic on the streets around Madrid

Human milk grown from mammary cells could liberate breastfeeding women – but it’s a controversial sellOne of the saddest things about being diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago (it was fortunately treatable) was having to stop breastfeeding my 10-month-old baby. Unceremoniously she was shunted on to an early diet of pure solid food, which I reasoned was probably just as nutritious as infant formula and the best solution in the absence of donor milk from a breast-milk bank, which is reserved for premature and ill babies, and dispensed by prescription.Baby Agnes thrived, but what if there were another option? What if we could make human breast milk in the lab? Enter startups Biomilq and TurtleTree Labs, founded in 2019 and based in the US (North Carolina) and Singapore respectively. The companies believe they can provide a more nutritious alternative to infant formula by inducing human mammary cells in a bioreactor to lactate, then harvesting the product. “The end goal is a product that is as close to breast milk as we can produce,” says Michelle Egger, Biomilq’s co-founder and CEO. Continue reading...

Charlie Russell, 27, is one of an estimated 600,000 people with post-Covid illness, a condition that may give an insight into ME

Number of new cases in California falls; Cuba restricts internal travel; English hospitals stress test for a second wave. Follow all the developments

Miniature satellites open up a world of technological possibility. But experts say they degrade the astronomical landscapeThe natural serenity of the night sky is a touchstone for all of us. Everyone alive today looks at the same stars no matter where they are located on the planet. But the connection is more profound because, next to our brief lives, the stars are immortal. Shakespeare saw the same stars in the same patterns that we do. So did Galileo, Columbus, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and the first human ancestor to look up in curiosity. The night sky is nothing short of our common human heritage.Last year, however, something happened that might change that view for ever. On 23 May 2019, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX launched 60 small satellites from a single rocket. The satellites were the first in what is planned to be a “megaconstellation” of thousands of satellites that will bring internet coverage to the entire planet. Continue reading...

Complaints only available tests are hundreds of miles away despite Matt Hancock’s pledge

Trials of vaccine being developed with AstraZeneca had been paused after participant fell ill

Federation chairman says people may take advantage of situation ahead of restrictions

The climate crisis is a factor, but so are efforts to fight fires - which have had the opposite effect

About 100 people attended the protests, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home ordersVictoria police have arrested 14 people at illegal anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne, with 51 fines issued for breaching stay-at-home orders.About 100 people attended the protests at various locations in the city, with a large police presence outnumbering those taking part in the so-called “freedom walk” at the popular running track the Tan and Fitzroy Gardens. Continue reading...

Premier Daniel Andrews announces 37 new Covid-19 cases and six more deaths

Doherty Institute says the eight devices for rapid testing shouldn’t be used in acute stages of the illnessRapid Covid-19 testing devices rushed onto the Australian market are far less accurate than their manufacturers have claimed, and the expert leading a government-initiated review says they should not be used to detect acute cases.In the early stages of the pandemic, the federal government allowed a large number of rapid Covid-19 testing devices onto the market with relatively little scrutiny. Continue reading...

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Exclusive: Public health experts say it is ‘incomprehensible’ NSC not consulted on £100bn rapid mass testing project

A huge amount of work will be required to convince a sceptical public fatigued by talk of ‘world-beating’ new systemsAs summer turns to autumn, Covid-19 cases have been increasing in the UK, and England has registered an increase in hospitalisations. The virus has already shown it can cause havoc for the NHS while infecting a relatively small proportion of the population.Related: Mass weekly Covid-19 testing of population to be trialled in England Continue reading...