Dart rocket, which is just 3.4m long, is part of Australia’s $7bn investment in space technologiesA small commercial rocket has been launched from Australia to the edge of space for the first time.The Dart rocket, carrying an air force radio prototype, was launched from the Koonibba rocket range in South Australia on Saturday. Continue reading...
Research suggests that changes in air pressure can cause changes in brain volume, in humans as well as in animalsA study by New England researchers looks at how weather and season influence brain size, comparing over three thousand MRI scans and finding small but distinct effects. “Basically, on a stormy day or in the winter, the cerebellum is larger than normal, while the rest of the brain is smaller than normal,” says researcher Gregory Book, of Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Centre. “In summer, the opposite happens.”The cerebellum regulates voluntary movement as well as balance and co-ordination. Previously, changes in brain volume were assumed to be due to hydration, but the real cause may be air pressure. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah, Aamna Mohdin and Amelia Hill on (#589HX)
PM warns it is ‘inevitable’ coronavirus will hit UK again; R number increases to between 1.1 and 1.4; 4,322 new cases recorded. This live blog is now closed: please follow the global coronavirus live blog for updates
Test, which is only offered to children in British Columbia, involves gargling saline solution and spitting it into a tubeAuthorities in Canada have unveiled a new non-invasive coronavirus test that avoids the need for intrusive nasal swabs, in a development which they hope will making testing easier and more accessible for students as they return to schools.The new testing method, unveiled Thursday, is a significant departure from the standard – and often painful – nasopharyngeal swab, which remains the most common method of detecting Covid-19. Continue reading...
Up to half the world’s population may have natural immunity to coronavirus, writes Prof Moin Saleem. Plus Dr David Grimes on the evidence that vitamin D provides some protectionYour article (‘Confounding’: Covid may have already peaked in many African countries, 16 September) hints that there may be natural immunity in African countries where Covid-19 has settled down. This is likely to be true, and not just in Africa. If the evidence is closely examined, up to half of the worldwide population may have natural immunity. In none of the natural “experiments” of Sars-CoV-2 exposure within a closed group has the infection rate risen above 50%. In Lombardy, a study of 5,484 individuals who had been exposed by close contact with an infected individual were tested for antibody positivity, with 51.5% testing positive.This hints at pre-existing natural immunity in the population. This has been convincingly demonstrated, with a study in Nature showing that 35% of a population cohort using historical samples had demonstrable CD4 T cell activity against Sars-CoV-2, never having been previously exposed to the new virus. Continue reading...
Neuropharmacologist who searched for new gateways for drugs to treat the brain and mindAfflictions of the mind and brain, from stroke to schizophrenia, remain among the most challenging to treat, even after more than half a century of discoveries about the brain’s biochemistry and how it responds to drugs. The neuropharmacologist Leslie Iversen, who has died aged 82, devoted his career to making sense of the interplay of signalling molecules in the nervous system that might provide sites where drugs could act.After directing laboratories in both the public sector and the pharmaceutical industry, in his later years Iversen chaired the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). He favoured a harm-reduction approach to substance use, supporting both the decriminalisation of the recreational use of cannabis and research into its possible medicinal benefits. Continue reading...
by Graham Readfearn (now), and Naaman Zhou and Calla on (#5891M)
NSW, WA and Qld to raise cap on international arrivals; Victoria reports 45 new cases and five deaths and NSW reports six cases; Queensland to reopen ACT border from 25 September. This blog is now closed
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#589HY)
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...
Physicist Ivan Maksymov and applied mathematician Andriy Pototsky placed worms on subwoofer in ‘what if’ momentBlasting a speaker to move garden worms in a regional Victorian backyard might sound more like a high school science experiment than a breakthrough in neuroscience.What started as an exercise in curiosity of two academics from Melbourne’s Swinburne University has found vibrations cause earthworms to form patterns in the same way water droplets react to vibrations. Continue reading...
Experts say discovery of 120,000-year-old prints could shed new light on spread of Homo sapiens out of AfricaA set of seven footprints made at a lake about 120,000 years ago have been hailed as the earliest evidence of modern humans on the Arabian Peninsula – a discovery experts say could shed light on the spread of our species out of Africa.The path by which Homo sapiens spread around the world was full of twists and turns. Genetic studies suggested it was not until 60,000 years ago that a migration of modern humans out of Africa led to a successful spread across Europe. Continue reading...
Deal worth £118m covers design, manufacturing and testing of ESA’s first planetary defence missionThe European Space Agency has awarded a €129m (£118m) contract to the German space company OHB. The deal covers the design, manufacturing and testing of Hera, the ESA’s first planetary defence mission.Hera is the European contribution to an experiment called the asteroid impact and deflection assessment. The other component is Nasa’s double asteroid redirection test (Dart). Both spacecraft are designed to visit the double asteroid Didymos. Continue reading...
Upwards curvature means foot muscles do less work, potentially weakening them over timeThey may feel comfy, but wearing shoes that curve upwards at the front may be weakening your foot muscles and increasing your risk of injury.This curvature, known as a “toe spring”, is a common feature of many shoes, especially trainers. It helps the front part of the foot to roll forwards when walking or running, enhancing the comfort of thick and cushioned soles. But despite their ubiquity, the effect of toe springs on our foot muscles had not been well studied, until now. Continue reading...
Readers are unimpressed by the farcical nature of the UK’s test-and-trace systemThe NHS Test and Trace situation is now quite farcical (UK Covid testing system has ‘huge problems’, admits Boris Johnson, 16 September).It is silly to put so much emphasis on a test. Most infected people are asymptomatic, can’t or won’t get tested, or give a false negative result. The current test-and-trace system will not control outbreaks. Continue reading...
I understand visits must be restricted because of Covid, but why are families the ones to suffer?My husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease eight years ago. I vowed to look after him and never put him in a home.Three years on, after sleepless nights, mental and physical exhaustion, and the sensation that I was disintegrating, I faced the hard truth: I was not the best person to look after my husband any more. After a long and heartbreaking search I found my husband’s present care home, and shed tears of relief. Continue reading...
Tracers express their fears as infected people reveal multiple close contacts in multiple locationsIn the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, Ireland’s contact tracers often made calls to people who were very sick, with some struggling to breathe.“In a lot of cases people were suffering extreme physical distress,” said Eamonn Gormley, a tracer at University College Dublin. “One person collapsed on the floor and we could hear them gasping for air. You got questions like: ‘Am I going to die?’ Some nights I had trouble sleeping.” Continue reading...
Boris Johnson and his ministers chose to ignore scientists and outsource their Covid response to big private companiesA friend texts: his five-year-old daughter is sick. On hearing the symptoms, the NHS helpline adviser says she must be tested for Covid. So he and his wife have been trying for two days straight to book her a test, with almost nothing to show for it. All they are offered is a 120-mile round trip to Gatwick – a long drive for a feverish child. Meanwhile the family stays in the flat, its walls throbbing with their worries about sickness and school and work.
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Madeleine on (#587NN)
Teams around the world are hard at work developing Covid-19 vaccines. While any potential candidate will need to be tested on thousands of volunteers to prove its safety and efficacy, some scientists have argued that the race to the finish line could be sped up by human challenge trials — where participants are infected with a special strain of the virus.Ian Sample delves into some of the misconceptions and hurdles inherent in this kind of research. In the second of two episodes, Ian explores the importance of rescue treatments, what happens if something goes wrong, and whether it would ever be morally permissible to deliberately infect those most at risk of Covid-19, like volunteer octogenarians Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell (now); Kevin Rawlinson, Haroon Siddi on (#585MT)
Average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, says WHO expert; third-highest new caseload in France; local lockdowns in Madrid. This blog is now closed
The estimation runs counter to Donald Trump’s recent messaging that a vaccine will be available ‘in a matter of weeks’The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told a Senate panel that he thinks it will take one year before a coronavirus vaccine will be “generally available to the American public”.That estimation contrasts with recent bullish messaging by Donald Trump, who on Tuesday repeated his assertion that “we’re going to have a vaccine in a matter of weeks” even though a successful vaccine has yet to be unveiled from ongoing US trials, and attacked the CDC director on Wednesday as “confused” about the timeline. Continue reading...
Volcanic eruptions drove global heating, causing mass extinctions and ushering in dinosaur eraA mass extinction event sparked by a sudden shift in climate more than 200m years ago reshaped life on Earth and ushered in the age of the dinosaurs, scientists claim.An international team reviewed geological evidence and the fossil record and found that enormous volcanic eruptions in what is now western Canada coincided with a global loss of plants and animals. Continue reading...
Four decades ago, when I was a researcher getting to grips with the complexities of the politics and physics of plutonium for my PhD, I contacted Frank Barnaby, then director of the peace research organisation Sipri in Stockholm.With characteristic good humour he found time in his busy schedule to share his knowledge. His life’s work has made our planet a better and safer place, and I will be among many who will miss him. Continue reading...
Research reveals Vikings were genetically diverse group and not purely ScandinavianThey may have had a reputation for trade, braids and fearsome raids, but the Vikings were far from a single group of flaxen-haired, sea-faring Scandinavians.A genetic study of Viking-age human remains has not only confirmed that Vikings from different parts of Scandinavia set sail for different parts of the world, but has revealed that dark hair was more common among Vikings than Danes today. Continue reading...
Study of fingerprints left at Los Machos site thousands of years ago reveal age and sex of artistsOne day, perhaps a little over 7,000 years ago, a man in his 30s and a younger companion dipped their fingers in ochre pigment and set about daubing the walls of a shallow cave in southern Spain with anthropomorphic, circular and geometric designs.Today, thanks to the fingerprints they left behind in the natural shelter of Los Machos in the province of Granada, researchers have been able to determine their sexes and ages. Continue reading...
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...
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...
by Lucy Campbell (now); Amy Walker, Jessica Murray, A on (#5840X)
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.
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...