Nasa's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who flew Starliner amid technical failures, will remain at ISS until FebruaryBoeing's Starliner spacecraft landed in a New Mexico desert late on Friday, months after its original departure date and without the two astronauts it carried when it launched in early June.Starliner returned to Earth seemingly without a hitch, a Nasa live stream showed, nailing the critical final phase of its mission. Continue reading...
by Kat Lay, Global health correspondent on (#6QHES)
Jab not yet approved for children, who make up most cases, while officials warn millions more doses will be requiredThe first donation of mpox vaccines arrived in Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, but officials say millions more doses will be needed.The announcement came amid warnings that the geographical spread of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, was increasing, and swift action was needed across the continent to contain the outbreak. Continue reading...
Research says outdoor light exposure in evening increases prevalence of the disease, especially in people under age 65New research claims that exposure to outdoor light at night may increase the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease, especially in people under the age of 65.The researchers who conducted the study, funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience on Friday, said they have found correlations between areas of the US with excessive exposure to artificial light at night and the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease. Continue reading...
Neuroimaging studies have shown that the amygdala, the tiny almond-shaped brain structure that mediates fear, is larger in people with more rightwing viewsAny attempt to understand the attraction which fascism exercises upon great nations compels us to recognize the role of psychological factors," the German-Jewish social psychologist Erich Fromm asserted in 1941. Such factors are not specifically German or, say Italian, nor were they the manifestations of a unique historical era, now safely in the distant past. Not only can the malignant political-economic-ideological climates required for the flowering of fascism develop anywhere, so are its emotional dynamics present in the psyche of most human beings.We each have a Nazi within," the Auschwitz survivor Edith Eger has written - pointing, in my observation, to a near-universal reality. Many of us harbor the seeds for hatred, rage, fear, narcissistic self-regard and contempt for others that, in their most venomous and extreme forms, are the dominant emotional currents whose confluence can feed the all-destructive torrent we call fascism, given enough provocation or encouragement.Gabor Mate is a public speaker and the author of five books published in 41 languages, most recently The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in Toxic Culture Continue reading...
My hands were shaking. It was the first time a person had touched it and the first time it had been seen in 66 million yearsI have loved dinosaurs since Iwas a little kid. I have loads of model dinosaurs, books about dinosaurs and I've watched all the Jurassic Park movies. My dad, Sam, is buddies with the paleontologist Tyler Lyson, and I've been able to visit his lab a few times.The area where we live in North Dakota is well known for dinosaur fossils. I like to go out and look for them, but normally find only chunksof rock. Continue reading...
Researchers say procedure not yet tested on people could eventually be used to help locate injuries or tumoursResearchers have peered into the brains and bodies of living animals after discovering that a common food dye can make skin, muscle and connective tissues temporarily transparent.Applying the dye to the belly of a mouse made its liver, intestines and bladder clearly visible through the abdominal skin, while smearing it on the rodent's scalp allowed scientists to see blood vessels in the animal's brain. Continue reading...
Weeks after revelation that megalith came from Scotland, researchers make surprise discoveryThe plot has thickened on the mystery of the altar stone of Stonehenge, weeks after geologists sensationally revealed that the huge neolithic rock had been transported hundreds of miles to Wiltshire from the very north of Scotland.That discovery, described as jaw-dropping" by one of the scientists involved, established definitively that the six-tonne megalith had not been brought from Wales, as had long been believed, but came from sandstone deposits in an area encompassing the isles of Orkney and Shetland and a coastal strip on the north-east Scottish mainland. Continue reading...
Up to 19% of dementia cases in older people could be attributed to vision impairments, research suggestsUp to one in five cases of dementia in older people might be avoided if problems with eyesight are prevented or treated, research has suggested.According to the World Health Organization, there are about 55 million people living with dementia globally. Continue reading...
In 2011, aid worker Jessica Buchanan was taken captive in Somalia. It was more than three months before she was freed - and every day felt like it might be her lastIn the first moments of her kidnapping, Jessica Buchanan's brain seized up, her mind went blank - but her body knew. Her experience of terror was physical. She struggled to breathe. She somehow turned icy cold, while at the same time she felt roasted alive.I had this very basic rumination: This is so bad, this is so bad,' running through my head and I couldn't move past it," she says. I'd been given some rudimentary training through my work, but there's no course, no book, no movie that's going to prepare you for something like this, because you never in a million years think it will happen to you. It doesn't matter if you're in Somalia, LA or London, we always think we're the exception - that's how human beings survive. And then suddenly it hits like a bat to the middle of your forehead that you're not the exception, you're in the middle of it and completely powerless. I don't think I'd recognised that mentally yet - but my body recognised it." Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample; produced by Madeleine Fin on (#6QG0B)
Last month the World Health Organization declared the recent mpox outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern. As scientists race to find out more about the new strain, Ian Sample talks to Trudie Lang, professor of global health research and director of the global health network at the University of Oxford, to find out what we still need to learn in order to tackle and contain the virusFollow more Guardian reporting on mpox here Continue reading...
Scientist James Lovelock gave humanity new ways to think about our home planet - but some of his biggest ideas were the fruit of a passionate collaborationLove rarely gets the credit it deserves for the advancement of science. Nor, for that matter, does hatred, greed, envy or any other emotion. Instead, this realm of knowledge tends to be idealised as something cold, hard, rational, neutral and objective, dictated by data rather than feelings. The life and work of James Lovelock is proofthat this is neither possible nor desirable. In hiswork, he helped us understand that humans can never completely divorce ourselves from any living subject because we are interconnected and interdependent, all part of the same Earth system, which he called Gaia.Our planet, he argued, behaves like a giant organism - regulating its temperature, discharging waste and cycling chemicals to maintain a healthy balance. Although highly controversial among scientists in the 1970s and 80s, this holistic view of the world had mass appeal, which stretched from New Age spiritual gurus to that stern advocate of free-market orthodoxy, Margaret Thatcher. Its insights into the link between nature and climate have since inspired many of the world's most influential climate scientists, philosophers and environmental campaigners. The French philosopher Bruno Latour said the Gaia Theory has reshaped humanity's understanding of our place in the universe as fundamentally as the ideas of Galileo Galilei. At its simplest, Gaia is about restoring an emotional connection with a living planet. Continue reading...
by Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent on (#6QFWE)
Environmental pollutants may have different effects on male and female reproduction, research in BMJ suggestsAir pollution is associated with a higher infertility risk in men, while noise pollution is associated with a higher risk of infertility in women, a study has found.The study, which has been peer-reviewed and published in the BMJ, looked at whether long-term exposure to road traffic noise and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), a particular form of air pollution, was associated with a higher risk of infertility in men and women. Continue reading...
Fitted with robotic arms and navigation cameras, the rovers are being developed for mooted missions to the moon and MarsTwo space rover prototypes that could be used to help search for life on Mars are being trialled at a quarry in Bedfordshire. The robots are being put through their paces by the European aerospace giant Airbus, which is considering using the technology to aid missions to the moon.A four-wheeled rover, named Codi, features navigation cameras and a robotic arm that it can use to collect rocks sealed in small tubes without the need of a human operator. Continue reading...
Netflix's archival documentary relives the near-fatal explosion of 1970 with remarkable and urgent footageOn paper, the survival of three astronauts aboard Apollo 13, a Nasa spacecraft bound for the moon and imperiled by a near-fatal explosion in April 1970, is nothing short of astounding. The explosion, over two days and 210,000 miles into the mission, nearly drained the three-part spacecraft of oxygen and electrical power. The three astronauts - Fred Haise, Jack Swigert and mission commander Jim Lovell - were forced to spend four harrowing, near-suffocating days in a lunar module meant for just two people and 45 hours, with just a few light bulbs' worth of power. The unprecedented and untested maneuvers to get them home - transferring flight data by hand to the life boat" module, catapulting off the moon's orbit, manually aiming an unpredictable rocket blast at the earth - were each dicey and high-risk, requiring exact precision to avoid certain death. The compounded odds of their survival were slim.As arranged in Apollo 13: Survival, a new documentary about the flawed mission, these facts somehow seem much drier, though meticulously and sumptuously rendered through restored archival material. Director Peter Middleton recreates a play-by-play of the six-day mission - aboard Apollo 13, at mission control in Houston and in living rooms across the country - primarily through archival recordings, old interviews with the crew and never-before-seen footage of the spacecraft, ground control and the astronauts' families. The result is a faithful and explicative, though at times too clinical, depiction of an ill-fated chapter of the US space program that seems as fit for a classroom as it is on-couch entertainment. Continue reading...
New archaeological research adds to view that siege may have been quicker and more efficient than was thoughtThe Roman siege of Jewish rebels in Masada, one of the founding myths of modern Israel, may have been far quicker and more efficient and brutal than it has been traditionally represented as, according to new archaeological research.The end of the AD72-73 Jewish Revolt is conventionally depicted as a heroic last stand against the might of Rome by a handful of rebels who eventually killed themselves rather than be overwhelmed by the emperor Vespasian's forces. Continue reading...
Research suggests expanded frontostriatal salience network could be risk factor for developing conditionResearchers have gained new insight into how and why some people experience depression after finding a particular brain network is far bigger in people living with the condition.The surface of the brain is a communication junction box at which different areas talk to each other to carry out particular processes. But there is a finite amount of space for these networks to share. Continue reading...
Nuclear is costly, risky and slow, Ramana says. Why then, he asks in his new book, do governments still champion it?You would be forgiven for thinking that the debate on nuclear power is pretty much settled. Sure, there are still some naysayers, but most reasonable people have come to realise that in an age of climate crisis, we need low-carbon nuclear energy - alongside wind and solar power - to help us transition away from fossil fuels. In 2016, 400 reactors were operating across 31 countries, with one estimate suggesting roughly the same number in operation in mid-2023, accounting for 9.2% of global commercial gross electricity generation. But what if this optimism were in fact wrong, and nuclear power can never live up to its promise? That is the argument the physicist MV Ramana makes in his new book. He says nuclear is costly, dangerous and takes too long to scale up. Nuclear, the work's title reads, is not the solution.This wasn't the book Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia, planned to write. The problems with nuclear are so obvious", he wagered, they do not need to be spelled out. But with the guidance of his editor, he realised his mistake. Even in the contemporary environmental movement, which emerged alongside the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements, there are converts. Prominent environmentalists, understandably desperate about the climate crisis, believe it is rational and reasonable to support nuclear power as part of our energy mix.Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change by MV Ramana is out now Continue reading...
Research into canine cognition suggests some pets store object names in long-term memoryDog owners may have trouble remembering which toy is Mr Squeaky, but such names can be seared into the memory of their pets, researchers have found.Scientists previously discovered some dogs have a remarkable ability to learn the names of toys, with a border collie known as Chaser having learned the labels of more than 1,000 objects. Continue reading...
Pathologising young people is less effective than tackling the social causes of their worries, suggest clinical psychologists Dr Lucy Johnstone and Dr Helen Care. Plus, letters from a concerned grandparent and Linda KarlsenThe staggering" rise in anxiety among children (NHS referrals for anxiety in children more than double pre-Covid levels, 27 August) deserves a more sophisticated response than installing counsellors in every school, useful though that may be in some cases, and I say this as a mental health professional - a consultant clinical psychologist.Well-meaning awareness campaigns that encourage us to translate every feeling into a mental health issue" convey the message that children have an individual deficit, while obscuring the reasons for their distress. And yet research consistently shows that their feelings are understandable in context. Continue reading...
Some 63 studies from 1994 to 2022 have been analysed by Australian researchers commissioned by the World Health OrganizationMobile phones are not linked to brain and head cancers, a comprehensive review of the highest quality evidence available commissioned by the World Health Organization has found.Led by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa), the systematic review examined more than 5,000 studies from which the most scientifically rigorous were identified and weak studies were excluded. Continue reading...
Impact may have caused largest moon in solar system to swing on its axis, say scientistsThe largest moon in the solar system was struck by an ancient asteroid 20 times bigger than the rock that clattered into Earth and ended the reign of the dinosaurs 66m years ago, research suggests.The devastating impact took place 4bn years ago and caused Ganymede, one of nearly 100 known moons of Jupiter, to spin around such that the impact crater faces almost directly away from the gas giant. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay, with A on (#6QE5M)
The arrest of Telegram's founder and CEO in Paris last month has thrown the spotlight on the messaging app and its approach to content moderation. Madeleine Finlay hears from Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer and technology journalist Alex Hern about how the case could influence how social media companies approach problematic content on their platformsClips: Global News, NBC NewsInternet prophet': arrest of Telegram CEO could strengthen heroic image Continue reading...
The Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore reported a 'strange noise' coming from the stricken Boeing Starliner space capsule whose problems have left him and colleague Suni Williams stuck in orbit for six months longer than they anticipated when they blasted off from Earth in June. Wilmore radioed mission control in Houston on Saturday to report a pulsing sound from a speaker inside the capsule. The source of the pulsing noise is believed to have come from a speaker feedback loop between the space station and Starliner
The answer to today's puzzleEarlier today I set you the following counterintuitive puzzle, about a curious object that fits through a small hole, but not through a big one. Here it is again with solutions. Continue reading...
Forces unleashed by quakes squeeze quartz enough to generate electric fields, driving formation of depositsChunky gold nuggets tend to form far underground along fracture lines that run through quartz, but the reason why has never been nailed down.Now, scientists have proposed an explanation for the effect: the immense forces unleashed by earthquakes squeeze quartz enough to generate electric fields, which in turn drive the formation of the precious deposits. Continue reading...
Butch Wilmore reports pulsing sounds from capsule dogged with issues and set to return without astronautsThe Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore has reported a strange noise" coming from the stricken Boeing Starliner space capsule whose problems have left him and his colleague Suni Williams stuck in orbit for six months longer than they anticipated when they blasted off from earth in June.Wilmore radioed mission control in Houston on Saturday to report a pulsing sound from a speaker inside the capsule. I've got a question about Starliner," Wilmore said. There's a strange noise coming through the speaker ... I don't know what's making it." Continue reading...
Window painUPDATE: Read the answer hereToday's puzzle is about defenestration. Now there's a word I've never used in this column before. Continue reading...
Scientists who examined Eddie Hall say findings suggest set of muscles in the legs are more important than we thought'Gym-goers who want to pump the heaviest weights might figure that bulging thighs and bulky buttocks are the path to greater power. But a study involving one of the world's strongest men found that a set of slender, rope-like muscles that typically get far less attention could be more important than previously thought.Scientists at Loughborough University's school of sport, exercise and health sciences examined the rippling sinews of Eddie Hall, a Staffordshire truck mechanic nicknamed the Beast" who became the world's strongest man in 2017. Continue reading...
Early risers will get a prime opportunity to glimpse the planet as it moves to its furthest point west from the sunThis week, on 5 September, Mercury will reach the astronomical configuration known as greatest western elongation. This is the point at which Mercury will be at its furthest point west from the sun, as viewed from Earth. It offers a prime opportunity to catch a glimpse of the elusive planet.A greatest western elongation event means that the planet will be visible in the sky before sunrise. The chart shows the view looking east-north-east at 05.30 BST on the morning of 5 September. This is about 50 minutes before sunrise. Find a spot with a clear view of the horizon, and as far away from any street lights as you can. Continue reading...
My uncle David Ish-Horowicz, who has died aged 75 from a brain tumour, was a molecular biologist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), now Cancer Research UK (CRUK), from the late 1970s.He was one of the pioneers in the application of molecular biology to developmental genetics. His research career focused on unravelling the intricate mechanisms that govern how embryos turn into complex organisms. He utilised both drosophila (fruit fly) and vertebrate models to identify and analyse the molecular and genetic pathways that establish and regulate spatial organisation within embryos. Continue reading...
When my father died my grief was deep - for him and the dad I wished he'd beenGrief is a thing with wings. It swoops in when and how it wants, often uninvited. When I think of my father, I think of sound. His laughter: a deep rumble from his slightly distended gut, ending with a sigh, as if he were reluctant to let it go. The gentle push of his windscreen-shaped glasses up the bridge of his nose. I think of 5am wake-up calls - me at five or six, my brother five years older, both of us trudging drowsily to the dining table for maths lessons. I think of his short afro, often patted into a near perfect square.An ex-military man, his life was ruled by discipline. He both scared and fascinated me. I was in awe of his mind: brilliant with numbers yet complex, shielded by an impenetrable layer. I admired his style: beige and unremarkable, distinctly his. His personality was uninhibited, exuberant, vivacious. He loved entertaining, clinking champagne glasses at our home on Victoria Island in Lagos, discussing Nigeria's woes. Continue reading...
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers' questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhat is the evolutionary purpose of blushing? Peter Walls, LiverpoolSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue reading...
The academic and author draws on quantum mechanics, English romantic philosophy and mysticism to explore a new theory of mind that embraces the paranormalJeffrey J Kripal is a professor of philosophy and religious thought at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is the author of 10 books on the history of mysticism, psychology and the paranormal. His latest, How to Think Impossibly, draws on a range of sources including gnosticism, quantum physics and English romantic philosophy, to attempt a new theory of mind and the imagination.At the root of some of your understanding of imagination, and your argument that current theories of mind leave too much off the table", seems to be an experience that happened to you in Kolkata in November 1989. Can you describe what that involved?
As a new play examines the work of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, we celebrate the women whose crucial discoveries were ignored or suppressedEighty-five years ago, several dozen eminent astronomers posed for a photograph outside the newly constructed McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis in Texas. All were men - with one exception. Half-concealed by a man in front of her, the face of a solitary woman can just be made out in the grainy black and white image.This is Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, whose impact on our understanding of the cosmos was profound. She showed stars were primarily made of hydrogen and helium, contradicting the scientific orthodoxy of the 1920s, which held that they were made of an array of elements. Her claims were suppressed and her work obscured, like her image on the McDonald Observatory photograph. Continue reading...
Maria Sibylla Merian's beautiful and disturbing illustrations, which shaped how we look at the natural world, will be on show at Amsterdam's RijksmuseumMore than three centuries after she made a perilous transatlantic voyage to study butterflies, a rare copy of the hand-coloured masterwork by the great naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian is returning to Amsterdam.The Rijksmuseum, which holds more than half-a-million books on art and history, last week announced it had acquired a rare first-edition copy of Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname (Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium), described as a high point of 18th-century book production when the Dutch Republic was the bookshop of the world". Continue reading...
With a biologically significant birthday looming, it's time to take stock - and get ready to embrace whatever comes nextRecently I've been going through old photographs. My parents are clearing out their loft and I've been forced, finally, to confront the boxes of A-level sketchbooks and towers of 90s magazines, and let it all go. The photographs, though, are interesting. It's a cliche, I know, to look back at images of youth and tut at how lovely you were, and how blind to that loveliness you were at the time. But it still shocks me to look at a photo from my teens, covered in black eyeliner at a family seder night, or awkwardly leaning against the stairs in a 50s dress and 80s shoes, and feel that maternal tug towards my old self, and the memory of just how foolish and monstrous I believed myself to be.This autumn I will turn 44, an age (new research suggests) of dramatic change". The study tracked thousands of molecules in people aged 25 to 75, and detected two major waves of age-related changes, first at 44 and then again at 60. When I read this, I got up from my seat and stood for a little while in front of the mirror. I looked at my jawline and thought about ageing. Continue reading...
Last week's planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequalityNone of the African countries affected by the outbreak of a new variant of mpox have received any of the promised vaccine, pushing back a rollout that had been planned for last week.The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been at the centre of an outbreak of the new clade 1b variant, with 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...
Lidded vessel is star object in rich Galloway Hoard and came from silver mine in what is now IranIt is a star object of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, buried in AD900 and unearthed in a field in Scotland. Now a lidded silver vessel has been identified as being of west Asian origin, transported halfway around the world more than 1,000 years ago.When it emerged from the ground a decade ago, the vessel was still wrapped in its ancient textiles, whose survival is extremely rare. Its surface could be seen only through X-ray scans. Since then, the textiles have been partially removed and preserved and the vessel has had laser cleaning to remove green corrosion over much of its silver surface. It has also undergone scientific analysis. Continue reading...
Just interrupt and say, Sorry, I can't bear film plots'The question I am a woman in my 30s and I notice I can find conversation unfulfilling. When I am with new people, I find myself either having a bit of commentary in my head or doing lots of listening to their problems, as they might overshare things and I feel as if they are dumping on me. Such conversation feels unsatisfactory. This is not a feeling I get with older friends, where sharing and turn-taking is mostly natural and comfortable.I notice that on dates someone might tell me anecdotes and I feel they aren't connecting with me - sometimes a man will describe to me the plot of a film and I might be feeling desperately bored and be longing to be asked a question about myself or have a bit of back and forth about what is happening in the present moment. Do I have to push through that bit until I get to the comfortable conversation and parity stage? Continue reading...
Semaglutide - contained in Ozempic and Wegovy - has far-reaching benefits', with people dying at lower rate from all causesWeight-loss drugs are poised to revolutionise healthcare by slowing down the ageing process and by allowing people to live for longer and in better health. That is the dramatic message from leading scientists after studies were presented last week at the European Society of Cardiology Conference in London.Research has already found that semaglutide - also known by the brand names Wegovy and Ozempic - reduced the risk of death in people who were obese or overweight and had cardiovascular disease. Continue reading...
Programme that monitored thousands of women leads to findings that could lead to better health outcomes for decades to comeScientists say they are moving towards earlier indentification and prevention of heart disease. The development is the result of a programme that monitored thousands of women for three decades while assessing their susceptibilities to cardiac illness.The scientists presented the work as late-breaking research at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in London and published it in the New England Journal of Medicine. We hope these findings move the field closer to identifying even earlier ways to detect and prevent heart disease," said Paul Ridker, study author and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Continue reading...
Australian scientists hail finding as a step in unlocking secrets of planet's protective magnetic fieldBy travelling to the centre of the Earth via seismic waves scientists have discovered a ring-like structure within the swirling pool of molten metal known as the outer core.Research published in the journal Science Advances has identified a doughnut-shaped region within the outer core, parallel to the equator. Continue reading...
Two astronauts at International Space Station will board SpaceX rocket in September instead of Boeing StarlinerNasa on Friday cut two astronauts from the next crew to make room on the return trip for the two stuck on the International Space Station.Nasa's Nick Hague and the Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov will launch in September onboard a SpaceX rocket for the orbiting laboratory. The duo will return with Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore in February. Nasa decided it was too risky for Williams and Wilmore to fly home in their Boeing Starliner capsule, marred by thruster troubles and helium leaks. Continue reading...
Physicist whose work on nuclear refrigeration has aided understanding of the big bang and the early universeAlthough absolute zero will for ever remain beyond our reach, we have achieved probably the next best thing." These were the words of George Pickett, who has died aged 85, discussing his work on nuclear refrigeration at Lancaster University, the purpose of which was to produce the lowest possible laboratory temperatures, a necessity for numerous scientific studies.At such low temperatures - close to -273.15C, or what is known as absolute zero, the point at which an object has no heat at all - the motion of atoms and subatomic particles ceases almost completely. The rules of classical physics break down, allowing scientists to study the enigmatic world of quantum mechanics, determining how elementary particles move and interact. Continue reading...
Researchers say males can see other mosquitoes flying around, but give chase only when they hear female buzzingWhile dulcet tones might sway humans looking for a partner, it seems they are also important for male mosquitoes: researchers have found the insects chase others only when they hear the buzz of a female.Male mosquitoes form swarms involving thousands of individuals to attract potential partners, but must avoid bumping into each other while pursuing the females that turn up. Continue reading...
Public health experts warn overinflated view of abilities' and restrictive laws could make next outbreak more lethalThe US is making the same mistakes with the H5N1 bird flu virus as with Covid, even as the highly pathogenic avian influenza continues spreading on American farms and raising alarms that it could mutate to become a pandemic, public health experts argue in the New England Journal of Medicine.We're closing our eyes to both the Covid pandemic and to a potential nascent bird flu [pandemic] on the horizon," said Gregg Gonsalves, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and co-author of the article. Our ability to react swiftly and decisively is the big problem." Continue reading...
People with most compensatory sleep 19% less likely to develop heart disease than those with the leastPeople who catch up" on missed sleep at the weekend may have up to a 20% lower risk of heart disease compared with those who do not, according to a study.The findings, presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, looked at data from 90,903 adults taking part in the UK Biobank project, a database that holds medical and lifestyle records of 500,000 people in the UK. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Former chief scientific adviser makes remark as DSIT announces reopening of recruitment for key roleThe Labour minister Patrick Vallance, who helped spearhead the country's response to the Covid pandemic, has said he would not have served as a minister in a Conservative government.The former UK government chief scientific adviser was made a peer and appointed science minister this year after Keir Starmer's party swept to victory in the general election. And he made clear on Thursday that, if he had been asked by Rishi Sunak to consider serving in a Tory government: I wouldn't have done, no." Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian