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...
The legacy of a successful battle is now helping combat Covid, but we must stay vigilant, says WHO’s Africa regional directorAfrica has declared victory over a virus that once paralysed 75,000 children on the continent every year.Four years have now passed since wild polio was last detected in Africa. After a year of rigorously evaluating polio data from all 47 countries in the WHO’s African region, an independent body of experts announced during a virtual ceremony on Tuesdaythat the continent was free of wild polio. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray (now); Lucy Campbell, Amy Walker, A on (#579SF)
Turkey records highest number of new cases since mid-June; India worse than US and Brazil in number of daily new cases; European re-infections add to immunity concerns prompted by Hong Kong case
Her 200 days in orbit turned the first female Italian astronaut into a celebrity – and the model for a Barbie doll. Back on Earth, she says, it was hard to find authentic relationshipsThere’s something surreal about talking to someone who’s been to space. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti might be at home in Cologne while I’m Zooming her from London – but there’s still an awareness: those eyes have seen what only a handful of people will ever see. Those hands have been without gravity travelling at 28,000 kilometres an hour.Loved ones gave Cristoforetti trinkets to take to the space station, where she spent 200 days between November 2014 and June 2015. The way she sees it, the rationale is that not many things have ever been to space and “you’re going to see a picture of it floating in front of Earth – it’s a symbolic meaning, added value”. Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#57AB1)
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...
Experts raise concern over compound that has not been proven safe but could reach public as dietary supplementAllies of Donald Trump have promoted a plant extract called oleandrin to people seeking to ward off Covid-19. The plant the extract is derived from, oleander, is poisonous and there is no proof the compound is either safe or effective to treat or prevent Covid-19, experts say.But unlike other unproven and potentially dangerous Covid-19 “cures” pitched by Trump and his supporters, including the prescription antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, experts fear this compound could easily reach the public as a dietary supplement. Continue reading...
There’s still a long way to go to prepare for a winter surge. But the country is no longer as vulnerable as it was in MarchNo one knows what the next months hold, but suggestions that Britain will be back to normal by Christmas seem unlikely. Already, Leicester, Greater Manchester and Preston have enforced local lockdowns after registering rises in Covid-19 cases, while increases in Spain and Germany are an alarming reminder of the difficulty of controlling this virus. Cold weather could potentially boost the spread of coronavirus and make social distancing outdoors more difficult. The dangers are clear – so is England ready?“We’ve got to up our game for the autumn,” says Ewan Birney, deputy director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. “We’ll be inside more. Universities and schools will be running. There will be a whole bunch of contacts we don’t have now.” England has made significant progress over the summer on some of the problems that made the first wave of coronavirus so disastrous. But this still may not be enough, and outcomes depend on factors that are hard to predict. Continue reading...
Star calls for live music to challenge social distancing rules, but faces fan backlashVan Morrison has denounced the supposed “pseudoscience” around coronavirus and is attempting to rally musicians in a campaign to restore live music concerts with full capacity audiences.The 74-year-old Northern Irish singer launched a campaign to “save live music” on his website, saying socially distanced gigs were not economically viable. “I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up,” he said. Continue reading...
Empingham, Rutland: The effects of mass-flowering crops are complex and there is often a twist in the tail for pollinatorsMost of our 24 British bumblebee species follow the familiar stripy, mousy or red-tailed formats, but a few beautiful and rare ones are more distinctive. Darting between the honeysuckle flowers in an Empingham garden is a big bumblebee, sooty black from frons to tail. Bombus ruderatus subsp. perniger is a special form of the large garden bumblebee, its blackness never seen outside Britain.When I first got to know this dark beauty, 25 years ago on south Cambridgeshire chalk, it was a rare beast heading towards extinction, but the species has since recovered a little, probably due to clover and vetch planted along arable field margins. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by Max Sander on (#579ZA)
While the Science Weekly team take a summer break, we’re bringing you an episode from the archives – one that seems particularly pertinent as the pandemic continues and governments take a more prominent role in our day-to-day lives. Back in 2017, Ian Sample investigated how we’re constantly “nudged” to change how we act. Exploring the psychology, history and ethics of nudge theory, Ian spoke to the Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein and Dr David Halpern, one of the field’s founders, who is currently advising the UK government on nudging during the coronavirus outbreak Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray (now); Helen Pidd Sarah Marsh, Hele on (#578BN)
New border restrictions leave Americans waiting at Mexico border; France to impose reciprocal quarantine on travellers returning from UK; ‘very low evidence’ for plasma therapy authorised by Trump – WHO. This blog is closed
Researchers find that even exposure to levels below EU limits has an impactInfants exposed to even low levels of air pollution experience reduced lung function as children and teenagers, researchers have found.Their study found that exposure to air pollution in the first year of life reduced lung function development from the ages of six to 15, even at pollution levels below EU standards. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#579QS)
Cut out caffeine to help avoid miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirth, paper advisesPregnant women should cut out coffee completely to help avoid miscarriage, low birth weight and stillbirth, according to a study of international evidence about caffeine and pregnancy.In contradiction to official guidance in the UK, US and Europe, there is no safe level for caffeine consumption during pregnancy, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. Continue reading...
The solution to today’s problemEarlier today I set you the following problem, about a game show where objects are hidden behind three doors. Behind one door is a car. Behind a second door are the car keys. Behind the third door is a goat. The car, the keys and the goat were placed there randomly, meaning that each item has a 1/3 chance of being behind any particular door.Twins Timmy and Tammy, the contestants, are backstage on the game show. They are told the rules: Continue reading...
Radiation physicist at Aldermaston who went on to warn of the dangers posed by the civil and military uses of nuclear energyThe nuclear weapons scientist Frank Barnaby, who has died aged 92, became one of the most effective critics of the international arms race. As the cold war superpowers competed with ever more advanced weaponry to wage a war that could never be won, Barnaby helped amass an arsenal of reliable information and informed argument to keep an anxious public aware of the deadly devices being developed supposedly to keep the world safe.By the close of the cold war and the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 he and others had assembled an informal international bureaucracy of peace and provided the intellectual ammunition to persuade politicians, military and public to accept a dramatic reduction in the nuclear weaponry. Continue reading...
Teenage volunteers on archaeological dig unearth 425 coins dating back to 9th centuryIsraeli teenagers volunteering at an archaeological dig have unearthed hundreds of gold coins that were stashed away in a clay vessel for more than a millennium.The 425 24-carat pure gold coins date back to the 9th-century Abbasid caliphate period and would have been a significant amount of money at the time, said Robert Kool, a coin expert at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#578RM)
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...
A new take on a famous problemIf you are a reader of this column, you have probably heard of the Monty Hall problem. It’s a famous probability puzzle that involves a game show host, Monty Hall, who asks a contestant to open one of three doors. Behind one of the doors is a car, and behind the other two are goats.(If you haven’t heard of this puzzle, or want to read the problem in full, there’s lots about it on the web. It also features in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.) Continue reading...
The moon at first quarter will pass Antares, the heart of the scorpion, a red giant with an explosive futureThis week, the moon will coast past the blood-red northern summer star of Antares in the constellation of Scorpius, the scorpion. The chart shows the view looking south-south-west from London on 25 August at 21:00 BST. The moon and Antares will be low in the sky, but the white brilliance of the moon and the deep red of Antares will make a pleasing contrast to each other. The moon will be at its first quarter phase, with 51% of its surface illuminated. A week from now, it will be full moon. Continue reading...
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent reflects on the humanitarian disaster that has gripped the region in recent monthsWhen I set off from Mexico City for Rio with my family in early March, for what was supposed to be a short holiday, Latin America had not recorded a single death from the coronavirus.Security staff at Mexico’s Benito Juárez airport wore face masks. A blue and red banner warned China-bound travellers to wash their hands, cover their mouths and, ominously, avoid contact with “live or death animals”. Continue reading...
The study of fungi has long been overshadowed by more glamorous scientific quests. But biologist Merlin Sheldrake is on a mission to change thatAs a boy, Merlin Sheldrake really loved the autumn. In the garden of his parents’ house – he grew up a few moments from Hampstead Heath, which is where he and I are walking right now, on an overcast summer morning – the leaves would fall from a big chestnut tree, forming gentle drifts into which he liked nothing more than to hurl himself. Wriggling around until he was fully submerged, Sheldrake would lie there, quite content, “buried in the rustle, lost in curious smells”. As he writes in his wondrous new book, Entangled Life, these autumnal piles were both places to hide and worlds to explore.But as the months passed, they shrank: reaching into them, trying to find out why, he would pull out matter that looked more like soil than leaves. What was going on? Turning to his father for an answer (he is the son of Rupert Sheldrake, the controversial science writer best known for proposing the concept of “morphic resonance”) was how he first came to learn about decomposition, and thus it is to these rotting leaves that we may trace his original interest in the “neglected megascience” of mycology – the study of fungi – even if neglect is a relative term. “In east Asia, fungi have been loved and revered for thousands of years,” he says. “In China, there are temples to the man who worked out how to cultivate shiitake mushrooms. But yes, in the west it has been neglected.” Continue reading...