Swedish researchers measure the scale of peatlands, and the amount of carbon stored in themHow much of the Earth’s landmass is made of peat? We know that peatlands store as much as a quarter of all soil carbon, and if this were to be released we would face climate havoc. Until now, however, no one had made a comprehensive map of where peatlands occurred and how deep they were.Related: Ultimate bogs: how saving peatlands could help save the planet Continue reading...
Shift led to local extinctions and could have important implications for species todayGenetic diversity could shrink as animals venture into new territories because of global heating leaving them vulnerable to extinction, scientists have warned after tracking the impact of climate change on the American mastodon.Huge, hairy and with a pair of fearsome tusks, mastodons resembled stocky, hirsute elephants. The earliest fossils of American mastodons date to about 3.5-4m years ago with the creatures commonly found in wooded and swampy areas where they browsed on trees and shrubs. Continue reading...
Italian scientists warn Marmolada has shrunk 80% in 70 years due to global heatingThe largest and most symbolic glacier in the Dolomites could vanish within 15 years because of global heating, Italian scientists have warned.The 3,343m Marmolada, located on the border of the Trentino and Veneto regions and known as the Queen of the Dolomites, has already lost more than 80% of its volume over the last 70 years. Continue reading...
by Produced and presented by Madeleine Finlay with Da on (#57KRG)
According to a recent study, obesity increases the risk of dying of Covid-19 by nearly 50%. Governments around the world are now hoping to encourage their citizens to lose weight. But with so much complex and often contradictory dietary advice, as well as endless fads, it can be hard to know what healthy eating actually looks like. How many pieces of fruit and vegetables should you eat a day? Will cutting out carbs help you lose weight? Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?Speaking to Tim Spector, a professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London about his new book, Spoon-Fed, Madeleine Finlay asks why we’re still getting food science wrong, and explores the current scientific evidence on snacking, calorie labels and ultra-processed foods Continue reading...
Pieces of bone were turned into ornaments, and may have been placed on displayBronze age Britons remembered the dead by keeping and curating bits of their bodies, and even turning them into instruments and ornaments, according to new research on the remains.Archaeologists found that pieces of bone buried with the dead were often from people who had died decades earlier, suggesting their remains had been kept for future generations, as keepsakes or perhaps for home display. Continue reading...
Researchers found ‘nice, generous’ people advanced at work just as much as bulliesThe question has puzzled humans from the earliest philosophers to the ranks of home workers who have swapped water cooler gossip for rants on Zoom: does being a jerk help people get to the top?Now, after a study lasting more than a decade, researchers believe they finally have the answer. Nasty colleagues are no more likely to reach positions of power than those who are nice, they conclude. Continue reading...
This common condition can lead to relationship breakdown and unnecessary surgery. So why is treatment still so poor and underfunded?I was just a few weeks into a new relationship when the pain started. Whenever my boyfriend and I started to have penetrative sex, it felt as if there were razor blades inside me. At first I laughed it off, but soon I became terrified of intercourse. My body would freeze with fear as my clothes came off. By the time we said: “I love you,” even kissing made me feel anxious. I would spend entire day trips and holidays with him worrying about the pain.When I first went to my GP, the advice I got was to “try and relax”. It was about as helpful as telling someone having a panic attack to “just chill out”. Without a real solution, I started to question whether I was imagining the pain. Or if maybe, somehow, I was to blame for it. My boyfriend was kind and supportive but I felt I was letting him down. Some days, I would feel so ashamed that it was hard to think about anything else. Other days, I’d feel an overwhelming sense of loss for the carefree woman I had been. Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#57HX1)
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...
by Jedidajah Otte (now); Amy Walker, Helen Davidson a on (#57GQ1)
India records world’s highest single day rise; Ghana reopens air borders; fears over reopening schools in France. This blog is now closed. Follow our new blog below
The close encounter will be seen all around the world, and in much of South America the moon will actually pass in front of MarsThis week, the moon and Mars come together for a close encounter. So close, in fact, that from certain parts of the world, the moon will actually obscure the planet. The pairing takes place in the zodiacal constellation of Pisces, the fish. Continue reading...
We are tantalisingly close to eradicating the disease. Things may slip backwards because of science, thugs and exponents of ignorancePolio arrives, if it announces itself at all, as a high temperature. Or a sore throat. Maybe a headache, or an upset stomach. It can go within a week or so, and be mistaken for flu. It is transmitted by poor hygiene, largely affects children under five, and many don’t realise they’ve had it. In 5-10% of cases, however, the virus affects the nerves, paralysing the legs in particular; sometimes it reaches the lungs. For most, this is temporary. For others – 30 years ago, this was 350,000 children a year – paralysis is permanent, and if it is of the lungs, they die. No one who has seen the effects of polio forgets.In the early 20th century epidemics were frequent; in the United States transmission was blamed on everything from cats to blueberries to Italian immigrants. By the early 1950s, the US public ranked it second as its worst fear after nuclear war. When, in 1955, a vaccine was developed, the British held street parties. The numbers of cases dropped immediately. In 1960, Czechoslovakia was first to declare eradication. The last recorded case of naturally occurring polio in the UK was in 1984. Polio was declared gone in the Americas in 1994; in the western Pacific region (including China) in 2000; in Europe in 2002; India and south-east Asia in 2014. Last week, Africa joined their number. Only Pakistan and Afghanistan remain. Continue reading...
I grew up thinking I just didn’t fit it. Now, I immediately tell people I can’t recognise faces – and their response is a good measure of kindness versus egoSunday morning. I walk down to the beach with the dog straining at her lead. I’m already on high alert. It’s the moment in the week when people are most likely to be wandering along the seafront, feeling chatty. I’m mentally priming myself, sorting through the categories I might encounter: parents from the schoolyard (hopefully with their children), people I’ve worked with (increasingly hopeless), neighbours from the surrounding streets (no chance). I should have gone to the woods today. It’s too risky.I cross the road and hear, “Katherine! Hello!” I wonder if I can get away with pretending I didn’t notice. I’m wearing earbuds, which is usually a good precaution, but this woman is determined. She crosses the road diagonally, waving. “How the hell are you?” she says. Straight hair, mousy blonde. No glasses, no tattoos. Jeans, a grey sweatshirt. For God’s sake, why are these people so studiedly ordinary? I fidget with my phone, trying to buy time. Her face is plain. I don’t mean plain as in “ugly”. I mean plain as in vanilla: bland, unremarkable. There’s nothing here that I might have stored in words. Her nose is straight. Her eyes are blue. Her teeth are orderly. And she knows me. Continue reading...
Scientists worldwide are working against the clock to find a viable coronavirus vaccine – but are corners being cut for the sake of political gain and profit?
by Jedidajah Otte (now), Sarah Marsh, Lisa Cox and Na on (#57FVP)
This blog has ended – our latest live coronavirus coverage is here12.00am BSTThis blog has ended – our latest live coronavirus coverage can be found here. Here is a closing summary:11.58pm BST Continue reading...
A previous generation understood the destructive power of humanity. We would do well to heed their insightsMonths after the end of the second world war, Albert Einstein gave an interview to urge Americans to imagine the third one. It was vital, he said, “to recognise that unless another war is prevented it is likely to bring destruction on a scale … even now hardly conceived, and that little civilisation would survive it.”Related: Jeremy Farrar: ‘Viruses know no borders. Until every country is protected, we are all at risk’ Continue reading...
It is unlikely Sunny will ever work again. How could he explain to any potential employer that his only crime was the ‘crime’ of schizophrenia?As a child, his grandmother nicknamed him Sunny because he was always so bright and happy. On leaving primary school, he achieved a “band 6” in both maths and English. His mother was optimistic; perhaps he would be a scholar like his grandfather. It wasn’t until his mid-teens that the signs appeared. At 15, Sunny dropped out of school. At 16, the local mental health crisis team described him as “prodromal”. His mother had to Google the meaning: “relating to or denoting the period between the appearance of initial symptoms of an illness and the full development”.At 17, Sunny decided he was lame in one leg and took to walking with a cane. The doctor could find no physical cause for his sudden disability. He was sent to Westmead for psychiatric testing and found to be sane and sent home again. Continue reading...
Without global collaboration, the nation would be ‘in really serious trouble’, Universities Australia head saysAustralian scientists have been vilified for working with Chinese researchers even though the nation would be “in really serious trouble” without international partnerships, top representatives of the sector have warned.In an emphatic defence of global research efforts, the Australian Academy of Science said it would be “such a great shame if that was jeopardised because of vilification that has no grounds”. Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell; Alexandra Topping (earlier) on (#57EMX)
Restrictions in Bolton, Stockport, Trafford, Burnley and Hyndburn to be eased; UK cases fall back to 1,276; Shapps insists return to office is safe. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global live blog for latest updates
by Archie Bland; Caroline Davies and Damien Gayle (ea on (#57D25)
UK’s daily cases tally up from 1,048 on Wednesday; transport secretary confirms three countries added to quarantine list; government falls short of contact-tracing target for ninth week in row. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global live blog for latest updates
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Max Sander on (#57CX2)
As the Science Weekly team continue their summer break, we’re digging through the archives. Today’s episode takes us back to 2016, when Ian Sample explored the crisis of melting Arctic sea ice. Recently, this worrying phenomenon hit the headlines once again when a new model found that the Arctic could experience summers completely free of sea-ice as early as 2035. In our episode from the archive, Ian asks a host of experts what some of the potential ramifications might be of the total disappearance of Arctic sea ice Continue reading...
by Zania Stamataki for the Conversation on (#57CV1)
Naturally, people are worried about what the first confirmed case of reinfection means for the pandemicScientists in Hong Kong have reported the first confirmed case of reinfection with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, reportedly backed up by genetic sequences of the two episodes of the 33-year-old man’s infections in March and in August 2020. Naturally, people are worried what this could mean for our chances of resolving the pandemic. Here’s why they shouldn’t worry.Nearly nine months after the first infection with the novel coronavirus, we have very poor evidence for reinfection. However, virologists understand that reinfection with coronaviruses is common, and immunologists are working hard to determine how long the hallmarks of protective immunity will last in recovered patients. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#57CSN)
Infections in Indonesian city plummet after release of mosquitoes injected with Wolbachia bacteriaInfecting mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacteria dramatically reduces their ability to transmit dengue, according to a breakthrough study that could pave the way to eliminating the disease.Research conducted in Indonesia, where dengue is endemic, found that releasing mosquitoes infected with the bacteria Wolbachia into parts of Yogyakarta city reduced the number of dengue infections by 77% compared with untreated areas. Continue reading...
Three African elephants to get liquid doses of the cannabinoid CBD through their trunks. Early trials suggest they like itThe Warsaw zoo has said it will start giving its elephants medical marijuana as part of a ground-breaking pilot project to test how it reduces their stress levels.Medical cannabis has been used worldwide to treat dogs and horses but “this is probably the first initiative of its kind for elephants,” Agnieszka Czujkowska, the veterinarian in charge of the project, said. Continue reading...
Collapse of shelves would accelerate loss of Antarctic ice sheet and increase sea-level riseApproximately 60% of Antarctica’s ice shelves could be vulnerable to fracture, accelerating the loss of the Antarctic ice sheet and increasing sea-level rise, according to a paper.Antarctica’s ice shelves, floating extensions of the ice sheet, help slow the flow of ice into the ocean. But if these shelves fracture and then collapse, the flow of melting glaciers into the oceans accelerates. Continue reading...
The dawn chorus is created by birds chasing their next hit of opioid, according to a US biologist. Which explains why it’s so much like free-form jazzName: Jazz.Age: Much older than you think. Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#57BJ4)
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...
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