by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Madelein on (#5358S)
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to be our focus on Science Weekly, we also want to try look at other science stories. In this episode, Nicola Davis speaks to Dave Krause about the 66-million-year-old fossil of a cat-sized mammal dubbed ‘crazy beast’. A giant in its day, we hear how this now extinct branch of mammals – known as Gondwanatherians – offers new insights into what could have been Continue reading...
Smartphones can be used to digitally trace Covid-19. But not if the public don’t download an app over privacy fears – or find it won’t work on their deviceThe idea of the NHS tracing app is to enable smartphones to track users and tell them whether they interacted with someone who had Covid-19. Yet this will work only if large proportions of the population download the app. No matter how smart a solution may appear, mass consent is required. That will not be easy. Ministers and officials have failed to address the trade-offs between health and privacy by being ambiguous about the app’s safeguards.Instead of offering cast-iron guarantees about the length of time for which data would be held; who can access it; and the level of anonymity afforded, we have had opacity and obfuscation. It is true that we are dealing with uncertainties. But without absolute clarity about privacy the public is unlikely to take up the app with the appropriate gusto. Continue reading...
Object found in HR 6819 system is the closest to Earth yet known – and is unusually darkAstronomers say they have discovered a black hole on our doorstep, just 1,000 light years from Earth.It was found in a system called HR 6819, in the constellation Telescopium. Continue reading...
Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported near you
Elon Musk reportedly involved in the production, which if confirmed would be first feature film ever made in spaceTom Cruise is in talks with Nasa about working on a movie shot in outer space, according to the head of the space agency.“Nasa is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station!,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Max Sand on (#533B9)
As hay fever season approaches, Nicola Davis asks Prof Stephen Durham about the differences between the immune response to an allergen, such as pollen, and a pathogen, like Sars-CoV-2. Should those with allergies should be concerned about Covid-19? Continue reading...
Australian photographers Jacob Vlatko from New South Wales and Christian Bowman from Queensland were both waking up before the sun rose to capture images of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower
Space agency tests design that is billed to replace current Shenzhou module, a copy of Russia’s SoyuzChina has successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft, according to state media, in a major test of its ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon.A Long March 5B rocket took off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan and eight minutes later an unmanned prototype spacecraft successfully separated and entered its planned orbit, Xinhua reported. A test version of a cargo return capsule also successfully separated from the rocket, Xinhua said. Continue reading...
Asian otters’ playfulness with rocks a mystery but Exeter study links juggling to hungerWhether tossing pebbles between their paws or rolling stones on their chest and even into their mouth, otters are experts at rock juggling. Now researchers say the behaviour largely appears to be linked to a rumbling tummy.Many species of otters are known to toss pebbles around, often while lying on their backs, in what appears to be an example of animals playing with inanimate objects. Mari-Lisa Allison, of the University of Exeter, said: “[I have seen] an otter at the fence putting a pebble through the mesh and then catching it underneath and rolling it round, round the fence”. Continue reading...
If an ice age took hold, the Himalayas might have even taller mountains, a study findsWould Alaska’s Mount Denali – the highest peak in the US – be as tall if it was situated on the equator instead? Might the Himalayas be even taller if an ice age took hold? Every mountain range is sculpted by rain and wind, but some mountain belts are also sliced by glaciers, producing the classic horn-shaped peaks, knife-edge ridges and amphitheatre-like valleys, known as “cirques”. A new study shows that by lightening the load, glacial erosion helps to create higher mountains than might otherwise be expected.Jörg Robl, from the University of Salzburg in Austria, and colleagues analysed 16,000 of the world’s highest mountains, comparing their overall height, their steepness and the thickness of the underlying crust supporting them. They found that some of the steepest mountains are found at the highest latitudes, where glacial sculpting predominates. And because glaciers create such “skinny” mountains, they show that the underlying crust (like icebergs, mountains have extensive crustal roots) does not need to be as thick as it would for a non-glacial peak. Continue reading...
Figures prompt renewed calls to ensure health and social workers have PPE neededThe number of key workers and members of their families who are testing positive for Covid-19 has overtaken the number of sick people testing positive in hospitals.Figures showing that 2,067 key workers had tested positive at a new daily count prompted calls for a greater focus on how and why health and social workers were contracting coronavirus and for assurances that they were continuing to get the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed. Continue reading...
Tracing the path of the virus is vital, but so is people’s continued willingness to cooperate and isolate if necessaryYour country needs you. Or to be specific, it needs your phone.The new NHS coronavirus tracing app is to be trialled from this week on the Isle of Wight and ministers are pushing it with all the fervent appeal to moral duty they can muster. Since it’s being sold as the nearest thing to a safe way out of this nightmare, unsurprisingly early surveys suggest most islanders are willing at least to try something that promises to alert them when they’ve been in contact with other app users who later show symptoms of Covid-19. Throughout this epidemic the British have proved more willing than anyone imagined to do whatever’s asked of them, to protect the NHS or their own loved ones. But can it really be that simple? Continue reading...
Recent deaths have stood out, but scientists say they must be interpreted with cautionAmid the steady stream of stories on the lives lost to coronavirus are cases that stand out as remarkable. In the past month, at least two pairs of twins have died in Britain and two pairs of brothers, all within hours or days of each other. But do the deaths point to genetic factors that make some more likely than others to succumb to the disease?Most scientists believe that genes play a role in how people respond to infections. A person’s genetic makeup may influence the receptors that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells. How resilient the person is to the infection, their general health, and how the immune system reacts will also have some genetic component. Continue reading...
This will be a good meteor show to see from the southern hemisphere, but you’ll need to be up early, experts say. See where, when and how to watch in AustraliaIf you want to see what happens when a piece of dust from the tail of a comet hits the earth’s atmosphere at about 60km per second, then look roughly east in the early hours of Wednesday.Between about 2am and 5am, the annual Eta Aquarids meteor shower will peak during the Earth’s journey through the orbit of Comet Halley and the trail of dust it leaves behind. Continue reading...
It’s clear from a recent litany of disasters – from the coronavirus pandemic to America’s deadliest wildfire in a century – there are forces that cannot be domesticated
Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported near you
by Presented by Ian Sample and produced by David Wate on (#531RQ)
With false information linking the coronavirus to 5G telecoms or Chinese labs being widely shared on social media, Ian Sample speaks to social psychologist Dr Daniel Jolley about why the pandemic is such fertile ground for conspiracy theories Continue reading...
Deprivation, age, gender and obesity will also feature in review of thousands of health recordsA review will analyse how factors such as ethnicity, obesity and gender can affect people’s vulnerability to coronavirus, health leaders have said.Public Health England (PHE) said thousands of health records of people who have had Covid-19 will be examined to establish more “robust” data on what can have an impact on the number of cases and health outcomes for different groups within the population. Continue reading...
Loved by their 41 grandchildren, the men died within 17 days of each other. Their loss highlights the virus’s brutal toll on minoritiesIn photographs together and with their families, the five men smile, or hold their loved ones close. All 50 or older, their friendships ranged over decades, their passions running from philanthropy to cycling, their duties from activism to business. A little over two weeks ago, they were pillars of the Pakistani community in the small pocket of Birmingham in which they all lived, with 41 grandchildren between them. Now they are all dead, victims of coronavirus.“We will be lost without them,” said Amer Awan, 44, whose 67-year-old father Nazir is among the dead. “They were our backbone – the keepers of our history. It is phenomenal that they have all gone.” Continue reading...