by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#56Z2E)
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 region’s enviable record of controlling the virus is at risk from complacency over social distancing, scientists warnCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageNorthern Ireland’s chief scientific adviser has warned of the risks of complacency after Covid-19 cases in the region increased rapidly last week. Professor Ian Young said it was “inevitable” that there would be a significant increase in coronavirus cases if people stopped following social-distancing rules designed to prevent the spread of the disease.The reproduction rate of the virus is estimated at between 1.2 and 2.0, according to Northern Ireland’s Department of Health. There were 242 cases last week, with 74 positive tests announced on Friday alone – only 237 people tested positive during the whole of July. Continue reading...
by Jedidajah Otte (now), Aamna Mohdin, Aaron Walawalk on (#56Y1F)
Mexico hails a recovery in jobs but will need up to 200m coronavirus vaccine doses; Algeria and South Africa start to relax lockdown restrictions; Malta reports highest-ever one-day rise in cases
The Nobel prize-winning scientist on Covid-19, the burden of Brexit, his astonishing upbringing and terrible failures at FrenchSir Paul Nurse is a geneticist who won the Nobel prize in 2001 for his work on the cell cycle. He is director of the Francis Crick Institute and was head of Cancer Research UK. He has also been president of the Royal Society. What Is Life? is his first book and it seeks to explain biology in five steps.Your book is a reminder of the fundamental importance of cells. Do you think cells have been overshadowed by genes in the public imagination?
Threadneedle Street’s forecasting has been faulty. But it must still play its central role in protecting jobs and the economyThe UK is performing better than expected. That was the message from the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, following its latest review of the economy.It was a message he almost muttered under his breath, as if knowing that almost anyone listening would yell back: “Oh no it isn’t!” Continue reading...
My love of gardening is a constant comfort and has a deep resonance with my family’s historyWhen lockdown began, the forget-me-nots were blooming in the garden, a sea of pale blue. The lilac tree, too, was flowering, and the clematis I’d planted. They filled the air with scent as I sat outside on an unusually sunny April day, feeling fortunate to have this rented outdoor space, and thinking about my family, not knowing when I would next see them. These flowers all hold some significance for me – a lilac tree grew in the garden of my childhood home, as did clematis. There’s a photograph of me, aged about six, in a puff-sleeved dress, in front of a mass of pale pink blooms. In these strange times, the emotional resonance of plants has never felt more powerful.The forget-me-nots came from my 86-year-old maternal grandmother Jean, my last remaining grandparent. They were the first thing I planted in this garden, four years ago. I have lived in the flat for almost a decade, but it was only in the summer of 2016 that we finally found the energy and enthusiasm to clear the 8ft-high knot of brambles. I was suffering from agoraphobia as a result of post- traumatic stress disorder, and my world had shrunk. So my then boyfriend, now husband, built me a garden. During that year, when I was frightened all the time, this sanctuary became my entire world. And so, during the pandemic, it has come to be again. Continue reading...
From ‘Covid-secure’ offices to healthcare ‘heroes’ bracing for a new ‘wave’, the language around coronavirus is infected with political rhetoricThe word “alert” comes from the Italian “all’erta”, literally “at a high place”, describing a military watch or guard duty. The UK government’s advice to “stay alert” in order to “control the virus” therefore implied that it would be easier to spot an invisible microbe if one were standing on a hill. Perhaps the underlying motivation for this much-ridiculed slogan was that it set the rhetorical scene for future spikes in deaths to be blamed on the people themselves. Did you die of Covid-19? Too bad: you weren’t alert enough. Survival of the fittest, and all that. Continue reading...
by Clea Skopeliti (now); Caroline Davies, Sarah Marsh on (#56WP5)
This blog is closed. You can find further developments here at our latest live blog1.42am BSTThis blog is closed. You can find further developments here at our latest live blog12.48am BSTThe Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has just been talking to Sydney radio station 2gb about the findings of that Ruby Princess special commission of inquiry, which cleared federal agencies of wrong-doing in the saga.“It is as we said it was,” Morrison said. “We were being straight with people about what happened and I think the inquiry has borne that out.” Continue reading...
What better time than the UK’s hottest-ever week for ministers to commit to bold climate action?The hottest week in the UK since records began offers further proof that our weather is changing. Climate change and global heating are not predictions, but facts of life that we must deal with now. Ten of the UK’s warmest-ever years have been since 2002, while the temperature of 36.4C recorded at Heathrow airport last week made it the hottest August day since 2003.Links between climate and weather must always be made with caution. But scientists already have evidence that 2020’s record temperatures are the consequence of human-caused climate change. According to researchers, the heatwave in the Siberian Arctic between January and June, which caused permafrost to melt and buildings to collapse, was made at least 600 times more likely by greenhouse gas emissions. While this summer has seen no repeat of 2018’s devastating wildfires in Greece, which killed more than 80 people, records have been broken in the Middle East as well as Europe and 2020 is likely to be the hottest year globally on record. On 29 July Baghdad recorded a temperature high of 51.7C, leading to protests about electricity and goods shortages. Continue reading...
There is no future in narrow nationalism. The only way out of this crisis is by working together• Time to reset: more brilliant ideas to remake the worldMake no mistake, we are still only at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. My hope is that the world is now finally waking up, and will do all that is needed to bring the crisis to an end, and be better prepared for inevitable future outbreaks.For many years, scientists have warned of the likelihood of a rapidly spreading new virus, crossing from animals to humans – and the urgent need for governments to prepare. Unfortunately, the world ignored these warnings. In a matter of months, this virus has disrupted every aspect of life, in every part of the world. The IMF predicts this will cost the global economy $12tn. Complacency is no longer an option. Continue reading...
It is difficult for lefty snails to mate with normal snails because they have genitals on the opposite side of their headIt began when a retired scientist at the Natural History Museum in London told me that he had found a rare garden snail with a left-coiling shell. In 20 years of researching the genetics of snails at universities around the world, I had never found a “lefty” garden snail. My first thought was that this snail could be used to discover what makes most other snail shells coil clockwise. As with our previous work, in which we showed that snails and other animals may use the same genes to define left and right, perhaps the new snail might contribute to understanding human asymmetry. For example, we usually have our heart to the left, but rare individuals are reversed.The problem was that it is very difficult for lefty snails to mate, because they not only have a reversed shell but also genitals on the opposite side of their head to normal snails. Imagine trying to shake hands with your right hand with someone who insists on using their left. It doesn’t work. How could we understand the genetics if we could not get offspring from the lefty? Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#56X23)
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...
Mystery had enthralled skywatchers since the star began to lose luminosity last October – with some suggesting it could explodeThe sudden dimming of one of the Milky Way’s brightest stars, Betelgeuse, could be due to a dust cloud spewing up from its surface, astronomers have said.The mystery has enthralled skywatchers since the star – part of the Orion constellation – began to lose luminosity last October, with some experts suggesting it could herald its explosion into a supernova. Continue reading...
by Lucy Campbell (now); Jessica Murray, Sarah Marsh a on (#56VBR)
UK move takes effect as of 4am BST on Saturday; Pandemic has killed three quarters of a million people; Germany case jump shows ‘unsettling trend’; Iraq reports record daily Covid-19 cases. This blog is closed
Analysis of ancient DNA from Siberia finds human hunting probably not to blameThe woolly rhino may have been wiped out by climate change rather than human hunting, researchers have revealed.Enormous, hairy and with a huge hump, the woolly rhino roamed northern Eurasia until about 14,000 years ago. The cause of its demise has been much debated, with remains found near prehistoric human sites raising the question of whether they were hunted to extinction. Continue reading...
Rob Delaney’s frank and funny account of his vasectomy revives memories for readers including Mike Cashman and the Rev Trevor SmithRob Delaney’s article about having a vasectomy (‘Could I feel what they were doing? Yes’, 12 August) brought back memories from when I had one because my wife and I did not want more children.The surgeon gave me a local anaesthetic and I was cut above my penis. All went well and I thought it was all over and how brave I had been when I realised he had only done one side and I was only halfway through the operation. Continue reading...
More than 900 healthcare workers have died in this pandemic. Many of those deaths could have been preventedHealthcare workers usually bear the brunt of an epidemic. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel are in constant contact with people who may be infected. The cruel math of such potential exposures, multiplied over and over, inevitably takes a toll.Covid-19 is no exception. Lost on the Frontline, a new database from the Guardian and Kaiser Health News, shows that more than 900 American healthcare workers have already paid the ultimate price in the battle against coronavirus. Continue reading...
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#56VMZ)
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...
Update to long-running study finds screening from age of 40 rather than 50 could save livesScreening women from the age of 40 for breast cancer has the potential to save lives, according to a study that will reopen the debate over the timing as well as the risks and benefits of routine mammograms.A group at Queen Mary University of London looked at data on 160,000 women between the ages of 39 and 41 who were randomly assigned either to annual breast screening or to wait until they were eligible for the usual NHS screening, offered every three years from the age of 50. Continue reading...
I use a ventilation machine at night and by early March, I could see that if I were to catch coronavirus, I’d be in serious troubleTowards the end of last year, I’d just got my life back on track after a long stay in hospital. I was discharged with round-the-clock care that transformed my life.I am disabled and the care package I was on before I was admitted to hospital didn’t provide enough support; I was admitted to a ward with problems associated with a lack of care, including malnutrition and serious pressure sores. But then I was given a personal health budget from my local authority, with responsibility for employing care workers, rotas, management, training and everything else you can think of. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Max Sand on (#56VFP)
The Science Weekly team are taking a summer break – well, some of them – and so we’re bringing you an episode from the archive. And not just any episode, one of Nicola Davis’s favourites. Back in 2017, Nicola sat down with with Dr Kathryn Harkup to discuss a shared love of crime fiction and the chemistry contained within their poisonous plots Continue reading...
Inconsistencies in how fires are measured across the states leads to confusion over how much of the country actually burned, experts sayA group of bushfire scientists have used an article in one of the world’s leading scientific journals to call for Australia to establish a national agency to monitor the scale, severity and impacts of fires.The eight scientists from Australia and Spain say inconsistencies in how the scale and severity of bushfires are measured across the states had led to confusion over how much of the country actually burned. Continue reading...
Russia said on Wednesday the first batch of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine would be ready within two weeks and rejected safety concerns over its rapid approval as 'groundless'. The health minister, Mikhail Murashko, said the vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, would be administered on a voluntary basis. The vaccine has not yet completed its final trials. Only about 10% of clinical trials are successful and some scientists fear Moscow may be putting national prestige before safety
by Niko Kommenda and Frank Hulley-Jones on (#56TAP)
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 actor and comedian decided it was time to have the procedure after he and his wife had had four children. Here he writes candidly about the experience, and why it was the kindest cut
New Zealand to conduct ‘tens of thousands’ of tests; 21 deaths recorded in Australian state of Victoria; US health secretary sceptical of Russia vaccine
by Helen Sullivan (now and earlier); Lucy Campbell, K on (#56RMC)
Coronavirus updates: New Zealand records first new local cases in 102 days; global deaths likely to pass 750,000 this week, says WHO. This blog is now closed
by Damian Carrington Environment editor on (#56SH4)
Research could pave way for cheap supercapacitor storage of renewable energyThe humble house brick has been turned into a battery that can store electricity, raising the possibility that buildings could one day become literal powerhouses.The new technology exploits the porous nature of fired red bricks by filling the pores with tiny nanofibres of a conducting plastic that can store charge. The first bricks store enough electricity to power small lights. But if their capacity can be increased, they may become a low-cost alternative to the lithium-ion batteries currently used. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Madelein on (#56S0T)
Central to infectious disease control is tracking the spread of a pathogen through the population. In Cambridge, UK, researchers are looking at genetic mutations in samples from Covid-19 patients to rapidly investigate how and where hospital transmissions are occurring. Dr Estée Török tells Nicola Davis what this real-time pathological detective work can reveal about the origins of an outbreak Continue reading...
by Helen Sullivan (now and earlier); Lucy Campbell , on (#56QG3)
Finland imposes 14-day quarantine on those arriving from high-risk countries; Pakistanis flock to reopened gyms and restaurants; US halts upward trend in deaths. This blog is now closed
Ceres, believed to be a barren space rock, has an ‘extensive reservoir’ of brine beneath its surface, images showThe dwarf planet Ceres – long believed to be a barren space rock – is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission showed on Monday.Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, massive enough to be shaped by its gravity, enabling the Nasa Dawn spacecraft to capture high-resolution images of its surface. Continue reading...
Physician who created the UK’s first liver transplant programme and worked with George Best to highlight the dangers of alcoholThe six-decade career of Roger Williams, who has died at the age of 88 after suffering a heart attack, lay at the heart of an astonishing transformation in liver medicine.In 1968, while a hepatologist at King’s College hospital in London, he teamed up with the Cambridge surgeon Roy Calne to form the Cambridge-King’s transplant programme and carry out the UK’s first liver transplant. Continue reading...