Doctors hope to trial gene therapy on people with rare disorder in next three years

Single jab could reduce risk of heart attack for some but wider benefit is yet to be proven

The GM virus treatment that saved Isabelle Holdaway is a start, at least, in the fight against drug resistanceThe first antibiotic was discovered by Paul Ehrlich in 1909 and cured syphilis-infected rabbits. At that time about 10% of the population of London were infected with syphilis and there were no effective treatments. Despite the tedious injection procedure and side effects, Salvarsan, together with the less toxic derivative Neosalvarsan, enjoyed the status of the most frequently prescribed drug until its replacement by penicillin in the 1940s. The postwar period was the beginning of a 20-year golden age of antibiotic discovery, with a large number of effective new antibiotics entering into clinical use.But the problem of antibiotic resistance has been increasingly recognised over the past 30 years, with the chief medical officer of England, Dame Sally Davies, in 2018 repeating her warning of the post-antibiotic apocalypse facing modern medicine as we run out of effective antibiotics to treat life-threatening infections. The recent success in treating 17-year-old Isabelle Holdaway – who was left with an infection that could not be cleared by antibiotics after a lung transplant – with bacteria-killing viruses offers some hope. But it also raises the question as to how this therapy works and whether it can help to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance. Continue reading...

Access to help for sexual problems is patchy and many fear the consequences of cuts to sexual health services could be profound. Nicola Davis investigates

Allendale, Northumberland: Less than a minute from setting out the lure, there’s a rustling like crumpled dry paper and a blur of wingsThe sun-warmed heather of Dryburn Moor stretches away, rust-coloured and hummocky, to a soft horizon of uplands, woods and fields. There’s little breeze and clouds barely move in a hazy sky. The right conditions for seeing emperor moths.Related: Hunting for moths in the night garden Continue reading...

The Amazon CEO’s aerospace company is developing rockets for short space tourism trips and satellite launch contractsThe tech billionaires’ space race is heating up.Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company, Blue Origin, aims to take people to the moon by 2024, he announced on Thursday. Continue reading...

Western scientists ignored the progress being made in the Soviet east, argues David HankePhage therapy (Girl is first patient saved by GM virus treatment, 9 May) has a long history, predating antibiotics, but has been largely confined to the (former) USSR since the 30s. As early as 1896, British bacteriologist Ernest Hankin discovered filterable antibacterial activity killing cholera in Ganges water and suggested the agent was responsible for limiting cholera epidemics; Félix d’Herelle realised in 1916 that the activity was a bacteria-killing virus. However, two commissioned reviews from the US contradicted d’Herelle – wrongly – and research in the west was largely abandoned, especially as antibiotics arrived. In the Soviet east, progress on phage therapy continued – after all, you can collect new strains in a jamjar on a piece of string dipped in the Moscow river – published in Russian, but many western scientists didn’t read the research and wouldn’t trust it if they did. Honourable exceptions include successful preclinical studies on animals in the 80s in the UK, but the overall conclusion is that politics interfered to hamper the development of life-saving new therapies.

The party of moderation has found a novel, if slightly risky, way to tap into how remainers feel about Brexit“When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer,” wrote George Orwell in his famous essay, Politics and the English Language, just after the second world war. Things are bad, and our language is getting worse.The Liberal Democrats have adopted the slogan “Bollocks to Brexit” in their campaign for the on again, never really off European elections on 23 May. This has certainly won them some attention. Critics were quick to denounce what they saw as a sorry decline in standards of taste and decency. James Forsyth, political editor of the Spectator – and a columnist for the Sun – tweeted that the slogan “does nothing for civility and makes the public square a less pleasant place”. He acknowledged there was a chance he might sound a bit prim in offering this view. Continue reading...

Fertility treatment in other parts of Britain is far better supported, new data showsThe proportion of IVF treatments funded by the NHS in England has slumped to the lowest level ever recorded by Britain’s fertility regulator, new figures reveal.The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority said the NHS funded only 35% of IVF cycles in England in 2017, the lowest rate since data collection began in 2009. The figure represents a fall from a peak of more than 40% in 2010. Continue reading...

Environment Agency calls for urgent action to protect country from river and coastal floodsEntire communities might need to be moved away from coasts and rivers as the UK takes urgent action to prepare for an average global temperature rise of 4C, the Environment Agency warned.The agency said on Thursday that difficult decisions would have to be taken in the coming years to make sure the UK was resilient amid flooding that would not be held back by higher land defences. Continue reading...

Hope for sufferers of rare form of disease as manufacturers of Ocrevus cave in to NHS EnglandPeople with a rare form of multiple sclerosis will finally get access to a drug that can slow the disease’s progress after NHS bosses pressured its maker to lower the price.The National Institute for health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the drug, ocrelizumab, after negotiations between NHS England and Roche, which manufactures it under the name Ocrevus. Continue reading...

Bacteria-killing viruses known as phages offer hope of solution to antibiotic resistance

Dams, levees, hydropower and habitat degradation behind fragmentation on huge scale, finds global assessmentOnly a third of the world’s great rivers remain free flowing, due to the impact of dams that are drastically reducing the benefits healthy rivers provide people and nature, according to a global analysis.Billions of people rely on rivers for water, food and irrigation, but from the Danube to the Yangtze most large rivers are fragmented and degraded. Untouched rivers are largely confined to remote places such as the Arctic and Amazonia. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Out of 23 big countries, only Saudi Arabia and Indonesia had higher proportion of doubtersThe US is a hotbed of climate science denial when compared with other countries, with international polling finding a significant number of Americans do not believe human-driven climate change is occurring.A total of 13% of Americans polled in a 23-country survey conducted by the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project agreed with the statement that the climate is changing “but human activity is not responsible at all”. A further 5% said the climate was not changing. Continue reading...

Wim Hof claims cold-water immersion can help fight modern diseases. As outdoor swimming becomes ever more popular in the UK, photojournalist Jonny Weeks joined him for a weekend to experience it firsthand“Look at this beautiful tree. An oak, Quercus robur. It’s yelling at us, ‘Helloooo!’” says Wim Hof, the doyen of cold endurance stunts, as we head across Hampstead Heath, north London, for a swim in one of the ponds.Soon he’s catapulting himself into a gaping hole in its trunk, peeping out excitedly like a child. “Here I am, talking to the tree,” he beams. “I see the tree has personality. I go in. We are one. It’s alive. We are alive. Is that crazy? Bloody crazy! Yes I am.” Continue reading...

Research finds drop in sexual activity steepest for married and cohabiting couplesSex is on the decline in Britain, particularly among married and cohabiting couples, according to a major study that suggests the increasingly busy lives we lead and distractions of the internet may be partly to blame.The data comes from more than 34,000 people in the UK who took part in three waves of a large study called Natsal (national surveys of sexual attitudes and lifestyles). It shows a fall in sexual activity from 2001 to 2012 in all groups, with the steepest decline among the over-25s and those who are married or cohabiting. Continue reading...

A million plant and animal species are under threat. Humans are largely to blame – but we will pay the cost tooWe humans pride ourselves on our ability to look beyond immediate concerns and think on a grander scale. While other creatures preen for mates, hunt prey or build homes, only humans ponder the nature of time, explore our place in the universe or are troubled by the question of what wiped out the dinosaurs. Yet we are often poor at focusing on and understanding the things which really matter. A new mass extinction is under way, and this time we are mostly responsible. The new UN Global Assessment Report warns that a million plant and animal species are at risk of being wiped out.Most of us find it impossible to visualise such a large number. Focusing on individual cases is only partially helpful. Plenty of tears are shed for charismatic megafauna such as rhinos when they are driven to the brink. Fewer know or care that two in five amphibian species are under threat. Phytoplankton drifting in the ocean are barely noticed at all, but absorb carbon dioxide as well as being eaten by zooplankton, which in turn are eaten by larger creatures, in turn eaten by ourselves. Continue reading...

The Orbital Reflector should have been a celestial triumph. Until the US president and his government shutdown became involvedName: The Orbital Reflector.Age: Dead on arrival. Continue reading...

Report calls for change of priorities and culture to avert catastrophic biodiversity lossGovernments need to ramp up investment in nature restoration and raise the tax burden on companies that degrade wildlife, according to recommendations made to the G7 group of rich nations.The proposals are part of a growing debate on how to radically change humanity’s relationship with nature in the wake of a new UN mega-report that showed an alarming decline in the Earth’s life-support systems. Continue reading...

The science writer Philip Ball has always been fascinated by space. He looks at the latest missions to the moon and beyond. And: Carole Cadwalladr on why she used her TED talk to tell tech billionaires they had broken democracyPhilip Ball was a child when, in 1969, he watched Apollo 11 land the first two people on the moon. He has retained his fascination for space ever since and has been closely following the recent advancements in space exploration. At the start of this year, China became the first country to successfully land a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the moon, while in April, the first privately funded mission to the moon, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, crashed after the apparent failure of its main engine.Ball joins India Rakusen to discuss why so many countries are again embarking on missions to the moon and debates the value of private industry investing in space exploration. If humankind is unable to survive on Earth, which already has everything we need, what hope do we have of surviving on Mars? Continue reading...

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three sandwich sudoku puzzles. It’s a new variant of Sudoku that is getting lots of attention. To get a printable page of the problems click this link. If you got stuck with the last one, which was very hard, this video reveals how to solve it. Continue reading...

Scientists reveal 1 million species at risk of extinction in damning UN reportHuman society is in jeopardy from the accelerating decline of the Earth’s natural life-support systems, the world’s leading scientists have warned, as they announced the results of the most thorough planetary health check ever undertaken.From coral reefs flickering out beneath the oceans to rainforests desiccating into savannahs, nature is being destroyed at a rate tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the past 10m years, according to the UN global assessment report. Continue reading...

There is hope in the face of environmental crises. But we must all – farmers, citizens, politicians – embrace changeA new UN report is set to reveal that up to 1m species face extinction because of human actions. The loss of pollinating insects and other ecological disasters – from the destruction of flood-saving mangroves to air pollution – poses no less of a threat than climate change, according to the report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).Related: Biodiversity crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists to warn Continue reading...

Sudoku variant that mixes logic and arithmetic is an online hitA new type of Sudoku is whetting the appetites of puzzle fans.Sandwich sudoku follows the same rules of sudoku but includes extra clues outside the grid like this: Continue reading...

Some families hand down money to the next generation; others bequeath fat. Guess which mine didMy nana once said: “You can never be too rich or too thin.” I don’t think she’ll mind me saying that she’s never been too much of either. Nevertheless, her sage words have become something of a family motto, so we decided to have them written in Latin beneath our heraldic crest (a pair of hair-straighteners mantling a brimming ashtray, leopard-skin shield). Unfortunately none of us can read Latin, so the translation turns out to be something like: “The rich man is either too thin or too much, nor are you able to, so there isn’t.”The reason my family ain’t so au fait with classical Latin is that, like more than 45% of the country, we are all werkin’ clahss. Classified somewhere charming between grades C2 and E, the social stratum my lot comes from has meant that, for many reasons, being thin (in a healthy way at least) is highly improbable. Continue reading...

People who drink one to two standard drinks a day are the healthiest overall. But moderate drinking isn’t an isolated behaviourAs a society, we love drinking. There are people who abstain, but by and large we love to drink alcohol – it’s part of our social culture, part of our collective identity, and so pervasive that it can be hard to escape from even if you try. As anyone who’s attempted a Dry July can attest, booze is something that we are all connected to in myriads of ways.So stories about drinking make us stop and take notice. In particular, moderate drinking. We all know that boozing too much is bad for us – it’s no surprise that 20 beers a week is probably not great for your health – but it is much more confusing that we are constantly being told that moderate drinking is either good or bad for us depending on the week or even the day that different studies are announced. A recent study just last month concluded that moderate drinking might be preventing depression, which seems incredibly unlikely for a number of reasons. Continue reading...

The waxing crescent moon will appear close to Mars in the western sky, with Gemini aboveSky watchers have a pretty view to look forward to this week on Wednesday evening. A thin waxing crescent moon will appear close to Mars. The moon will be just 16% illuminated, making it appear as a sliver in the sky. It acts as a useful signpost for finding the constellation of Gemini, which is standing upright in the western sky by mid-late evening. Mars will be slightly lower and to the north. The chart shows the view looking west at 21:30 BST on 8 May 2019. There will still be some twilight close to the horizon but this should not hamper your view of either target. Those who like a challenge can look the day before. The moon will be an even thinner crescent but will be right next to Mars. The red planet is currently getting lower each night as it heads behind the sun. It will finally be lost to the summer sunset glare in July, reappearing in October in the morning dawn sky. Continue reading...

The cannabis-derived compound is popping up in everything from mineral water to bath bombs. We ask experts and users if it actually worksAaron Horn first came across cannabidiol, or CBD, about three years ago in Glastonbury – the town, not the festival. “I found it at this amazing hemp shop, Hemp in Avalon,” recalls Horn, a musician who is now 35. “It’s run by a guy called Free. His last name is Cannabis. He changed his name by deed poll to Free Cannabis.” Horn bought a tube of high-concentration CBD paste – “it comes out like a brown toothpaste, almost” – and it was recommended he put a tiny dot on his finger and pop it in his mouth.Horn’s adult life had been spent in the shadow of a horrific accident that took place when he was 22. In June 2006, he had been shooting at a target with an air rifle in the garden of his family home; his parents are the music producers Jill Sinclair and Trevor Horn. Horn didn’t realise his mother was nearby, and a stray pellet lodged in her neck and severed an artery. Sinclair experienced hypoxia, which caused irreversible brain damage, and she spent years in a coma before dying in 2014. Continue reading...

There is too little incentive for pharmaceutical companies to work on treatments for diseases of low-income countries

We’re besieged by people promising to improve our lot. My self-help programme is slightly different...Some of the most malevolent legacies of the Margaret Thatcher era for British society have been grievously self-evident. Some people have included the deadly sin of greed among them but I’m afraid we can’t lay that one at her feet. Like its six fraternal vices, greed has always been with us. All Thatcher did was turn lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride into attributes. To this day, these are pillars upon which stands the modern Conservative party.You may be surprised at the inclusion of sloth on this list. Didn’t even her enemies concede that the Iron Lady always proclaimed the rewards of hard work? I would contend that her acolytes certainly all did believe in hard work, so long as it was only the working class that would be made to do it. Under her, the capitalist dream of being granted the means to make money in exchange for doing as little as possible became a reality. Continue reading...

Conveying our deepest desires, likes and dislikes, to our most intimate partner is essential. Here’s how…“Yes,” I say, surprisingly firmly, to the man I have never met before, whose name I do not even know, who is massaging my back and shoulders. “Yes. Yes, please.”I am lying on a mat on the floor of a conference room in a London hotel and around me three people – complete strangers – are rubbing my back. “Zero,” I say suddenly, which is the code word for stop. It’s not because I want the massage to end – in truth, it feels rather soothing – but because we have been encouraged to try saying “no” as well as “yes”. That, after all, is the point of the exercise. According to the leader of this workshop, intimacy and relationships expert Jan Day, we find “no” extremely difficult to say, and our lives would be better if we could bring ourselves to say it more readily. Instantly, the people surrounding me draw back, and I revel in the afterglow of both having articulated the difficult message I wanted to convey, and having it acted upon. Continue reading...

New mobile system to be launched this year ‘will put lives at risk’The introduction of 5G mobile phone networks could seriously affect weather forecasters’ ability to predict major storms.That is the stark warning of meteorologists around the world, who say the next-generation wireless system now being rolled out across the globe is likely to disrupt the delicate satellite instruments they use to monitor changes in the atmosphere. Continue reading...

All her life, the South African athlete has been portrayed as a freak. Her case is as much about ethics as about sport or scienceWhen she was a girl, growing up in rural South Africa, the runner Caster Semenya would sometimes face a humiliating ritual before a race. She grew accustomed, her coaches once said, to having to retreat to the bathroom with a member of a suspicious rival athletics team and physically show them that she was not a boy. From her childhood, people had gossiped about her body; by the time she had begun competing internationally she must have been used to the whispers, the open stares in changing rooms.Related: Caster Semenya loses landmark legal case against IAAF over testosterone levels Continue reading...

Scientists analyse whether gravitational wave detectors picked up signs of collisionAstronomers may have spotted a neutron star being swallowed by a black hole for the first time, marked by a belch of gravitational waves rippling across the cosmos.If confirmed, the detection by the twin Ligo detectors in the US and the Virgo detector in Italy would be the first evidence that black holes and neutron stars can pair up in binary systems. The observations could also reveal new details about the nature of such dramatic mergers, including whether the neutron star was ripped apart before crossing the black hole’s threshold or whether it slid seamlessly into oblivion. Continue reading...

The ruling against Caster Semenya is discriminatory, argues Malcolm Ferguson-Smith, while Jane Singer says it breaches the founding spirit of the Olympics. Sarah Mulholland fears for the futureIt is far from clear that testosterone is responsible for the athletic success of Caster Semenya and Dutee Chand (Caster Semenya loses testosterone legal case but may launch new appeal, 2 May). They are elite female athletes whose high level of testosterone is genetic and due to failure of the tissues to respond to testosterone secreted by the testes. Therefore treatment to reduce testosterone is unlikely to affect their condition, although the side-effects of the therapy may adversely affect performance.It is known from the Atlanta Games that athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD) maintain Olympic levels of performance even after removal of their testes. Unbiased evidence confirming this is held by the IAAF, which has confidential records from previous gender verification tests. The IAAF has a responsibility to reveal the anonymous data which could help in Semenya’s appeal against the verdict from the court of arbitration for sport. Continue reading...

Before the school run, or commuting to work, increasing numbers are taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs in the UK. Why?

Church of Scientology vessel held in port after contagious disease detected onboardA cruise ship quarantined for a reported case of measles has left the Caribbean island of St Lucia after health officials supplied 100 doses of vaccine to the ship, according to reports.The Church of Scientology cruise ship was confined to port this week by island health officials after the highly contagious disease was detected onboard. Continue reading...

Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson concludes a three-part journey into the sonic environment of the ocean examining the possible threats caused to marine life by noise pollution. In this final episode he looks at solutions and discovers an unlikely role for sound artists such as himselfAs wildlife recordist Chris Watson looks for solutions to ocean noise pollution, he hears from Tim Gordon, whose long-awaited trip to the Great Barrier Reef became a devastating experience when he heard the eerie silence of a dying coral reef, caused in part by global warming.

Wildlife recordist Chris Watson is joined by award-winning sound artist Jana Winderen on a voyage around Norway’s Austevoll islands, aboard a research vessel recording the grunting of spawning codContrary to popular belief, or the writings of Jacques Cousteau, life under the ocean surface is not a silent world but in fact a dense and rich sonic environment where sound plays a fundamental role to all known life.In episode two, the pioneering nature sound recordist Chris Watson and sound artist Jana Winderen meet a team from Norway’s Institute of Marine Research and climb aboard a research vessel setting sail around the Austevoll islands. Continue reading...

Wildlife recordist Chris Watson begins a three-part journey into the sonic environment of the ocean, celebrating the sounds and songs of marine life and investigating the threat of noise pollutionContrary to popular belief, and the writings of Jacques Cousteau, life beneath the ocean surface is not a silent world but a dense and rich sonic environment where sound plays a fundamental role in life.In episode one of this three-part series, pioneering nature sound recordist Chris Watson begins a journey driven by his fascination with recording the songs and signals of life under the ocean surface. He will meet scientists examining the possible impacts of noise pollution, from the likes of shipping noise and seismic explosions used in the search for oil and gas. He will also talk to sound artists trying to raise awareness of the issue through their art. Continue reading...

Hormonal contraceptives potentially reduce risk of tear to anterior cruciate ligamentWomen on the combined pill appear to be less likely to tear a key ligament in their knee, research suggests.Injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee are common, particularly in people taking part in sport, where such injuries sometimes end careers. Continue reading...

End of transmission may be in sight after nearly three decades of medical advances

Paper says risk between male partners is zero if virus fully suppressed by antiretrovirals

If confirmed, faint signals would be first detection of seismic activity on MarsNasa’s InSight Mars lander has detected signals of what could have been a marsquake. The signals were recorded on 6 April and if confirmed would be the first detection of seismic activity on Mars.Although the signals are only faint, they fit the profile of moonquakes that were detected with seismometers left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts 50 years ago. The apparent marsquake produced readings that were bigger than the shaking of the spacecraft due to the martian wind, but smaller than the vibrations caused by the movement of the spacecraft’s robotic arm. Continue reading...

The internet has been captivated by Sugriva and her use of Instagram, but some animal experts haven’t been so impressedChimpanzees are known to use at least 22 types of tools in the wild but in captivity a less rudimentary device now appears to be within ape capabilities – Instagram.Last week, a video showing a chimpanzee casually swiping through Instagram on a smartphone was posted on the photo-sharing application by Kody Antle, son of Mahamayavi Bhagavan “Doc” Antle, who is founder of Myrtle Beach Safari, a 50-acre wildlife reserve in South Carolina. Continue reading...

Murmur, which depicts the mathematician’s ordeal after he was convicted for having a gay lover, is hailed by judges as ‘a future classic’Will Eaves’s fictionalised account of the chemical castration of Alan Turing, Murmur, was hailed as “a future classic” as it won the £30,000 Wellcome book prize on Wednesday night, only the third novel to win the award for science-related writing.Published by Charles Boyle’s one-man-band press CB Editions, Murmur was up against both fiction and non-fiction for the prize, which goes to the book that best “illuminate[s] the many ways that health and medicine touch our lives”. It beat titles including Thomas Page McBee’s memoir Amateur, about becoming the first transgender man to box at Madison Square Gardens, and cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar’s Heart, a history and memoir of the organ. Continue reading...

Scientists extract proteins from a molar to uncover details of mysterious species’ originsA human jawbone found in a cave on the Tibetan plateau has revealed new details about the appearance and lifestyle of a mysterious ancient species called Denisovans.The 160,000-year-old fossil, comprising a powerful jaw and unusually large teeth, suggests these early relatives would have looked something like the most primitive of the Neanderthals. The discovery also shows that Denisovans lived at extremely high altitude and, through interbreeding, may have passed on gene adaptations for this lifestyle to modern-day Sherpas in the region. Continue reading...

30 August 1997 Forced sterilisations in Scandinavia have shocked the world. But the great founding fathers of British socialism, reports Jonathan Freedland, had dreams almost as vile as those of the NazisThey will be searching their souls in Stockholm tonight. And in Oslo, Helsinki and Copenhagen, too. All over Scandinavia, people are facing up to the stain now spreading across their snow-white self -image, as they discover that their governments spent decades executing a chilling plan to purify the Nordic race, nurturing the strong and eradicating the weak. Each day victims of forced sterilisation, now deep in middle age, have stepped forward to tell how they were ordered to have “the chop”, to prevent them having children deemed as racially defective as themselves.Related: Eugenics: the skeleton that rattles loudest in the left's closet | Jonathan Freedland Continue reading...

Largest survey of its kind uncovers suspicion of vaccines in big part of world population

All political parties have said research and innovation can help raise living standards. A good start would be to invest in staffAmid the turbulence of Brexit deadlines and extensions, you might be pleased to know that there are at least some long-term plans afoot. A good news story in government, with major investment attached, has the potential to create a new type of future for the UK. You may not have heard of it but, in a time of fiscal constraint, the government has given a staggering boost to the UK’s capability in research and innovation, paving the way for science investment to reach £65bn. This is the biggest uplift in about 40 years. Why would the government do this? Is it a good idea? And what do you want out of it?Science is part of a social justice agenda that is likely to persist through different governments Continue reading...