Pharmaceutical company says newer shots led to decline in demand for AstraZeneca vaccine, which is no longer being manufactured or suppliedAstraZeneca has begun the worldwide withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine due to a surplus of available updated vaccines" that target new variants of the virus.The announcement follows the pharmaceutical company in March voluntarily withdrawing its European Union marketing authorisation, which is the approval to market a medicine in member states. Continue reading...
Fish welfare campaigners say Defra decision facilitates greenwashing and will mislead consumersAnimal welfare campaigners are challenging the decision to allow producers of Scottish salmon to drop the word farmed" from labelling.An application by the industry body claimed changing the protected name wording on the front of packaging from Scottish farmed salmon" to Scottish salmon" made sense because wild salmon was no longer sold in supermarkets, which consumers were aware of. Continue reading...
by Presented and produced by Madeleine Finlay, sound on (#6MM29)
A study has found that more than two dozen US coastal cities are sinking by more than 2mm a year. It's a similar picture across the world. Nearly half of China's major cities, as well as places such as Tehran and Jakarta, are facing similar problems. These issues are compounded by sea level rises caused by global heating. Madeleine Finlay speaks to Prof Manoochehr Shirzaei of Virginia Tech University and Prof Robert Nicholls of the University of East Anglia to find out what's making our cities sink and whether anything can be done to rescue them from the seaClips: Global News, CNBC, WRDW Continue reading...
Countdown halted hours before liftoff in latest delay for long-planned flight, with no word on next attemptBoeing called off its first astronaut launch because of a valve problem on its rocket on Monday night.Two Nasa test pilots had just strapped into Boeing's Starliner capsule when the countdown was halted, just two hours before the planned liftoff. A United Launch Alliance engineer, Dillon Rice, said the issue involved an oxygen relief valve on the upper stage of the company's Atlas rocket. Continue reading...
Study suggests almost everyone with two copies of genetic variant ApoE4 goes on to develop diseaseHaving two copies of a gene variant known to predispose people to Alzheimer's could in fact represent a distinct genetic form of the disease, researchers have said.The variant, known as ApoE4, has long been known to increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's, with two copies conferring greater risk than one. Continue reading...
Company, which has been plagued by safety issues in its avionics wing, will send two astronauts to the ISS in its new spacecraftBoeing has an opportunity on Monday night to restore some luster to its tarnished name, with the scheduled first crewed launch from Florida of Starliner, a pioneering new capsule designed to transform human exploration of space.Although the company's space operations are entirely independent of its aviation wing, which has been plagued by a recent series of safety and quality issues, the spacecraft's pathway to the Cape Canaveral launchpad, and planned 10.34pm ET liftoff, has been similarly bumpy. Continue reading...
Researchers say experimental shot is step towards goal of creating vaccines before a pandemic has startedScientists have created a vaccine that has the potential to protect against a broad range of coronaviruses, including varieties that are not yet even known about.The experimental shot, which has been tested in mice, marks a change in strategy towards proactive vaccinology", where vaccines are designed and readied for manufacture before a potentially pandemic virus emerges. Continue reading...
Three stars with vastly different surface temperatures make up the grouping known as an asterismToday we'll look at a pattern of stars, a grouping known as an asterism, that heralds the season of spring.In the northern hemisphere, this asterism is known as the Spring Triangle, but for those in the southern hemisphere, Autumn Triangle would be more appropriate. It is formed by three bright stars in three constellations that are prominent at this time of year. Continue reading...
I attended the same senior school as Marion Ecob-Prince. She and her brother were born in the same week as me, in the same nursing home and we were all involved in a baby mix-up.At feeding time my mother was presented with a handsome, lusty baby - who turned out to be Marion. Marion's mother, Anne, was tending to her twin brother, so was unaware that she had been given a rather less prepossessing specimen. Maternal instincts overrode my mother's admiration for Marion, and she handed her to the nearest nurse and rushed to see to whom I had been given. Continue reading...
Throughout her life, Danyah Miller developed coping mechanisms to help deal with certain challenges. Would she have thrived if she had known about dyslexia, or would a label have limited her?Discovering that I have dyslexia, and most probably dyscalculia, later in my life has raised many questions for me, not least whether a childhood diagnosis would have changed the trajectory of my life, both personally and professionally.Over the years I'd suspected that I might be dyslexic. I also thought that I was making excuses for myself when met with certain challenges. It wasn't until last year that I decided to seek an assessment to confirm either way. I was relieved to read, in the first paragraph of my diagnostic report, that my literacy difficulties are consistent with the specific learning difficulty dyslexia. Continue reading...
Water detective Dr Leon Barron studies London's wastewater, analysing it in all its chemical, narcotic, polluted glory, before and after treatment. Amazingly, he still drinks the stuff from the tapIf you live in London, Dr Leon Barron knows what you're up to. He knows what prescribed drugs you're on - painkillers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or beta blockers - and what illicit ones you're taking for fun. He knows if you've been drinking and when (Friday and Saturday are the main ones"); perhaps even if you're worried about your dog getting fleas.Of course, I only mean the collective you", the city. Barron, who leads the Emerging Chemical Contaminants team at Imperial College London, has no idea what any individual is taking or doing; he explains that very clearly and carefully. He has a research scientist's precision plus the slight wariness of someone whose research has grabbed headlines, with the inaccuracies and misinterpretations that brings (I wonder what he thought about Prawn to be wild", reporting his research on cocaine residue in wild river shrimps.) But he's also infectiously enthusiastic and generous with his time, spending a whole morning taking me round his lab and through his groundbreaking work. Continue reading...
Legacy can be found in the lives you touch and your impact on othersThe question I am a 54-year-old woman with a good career and a stable marriage. I live across the globe from my parents, my siblings and their kids and I am child-free. I have reduced contact with them to brief and polite birthday and Christmas messages, which they respond to, but we have no relationship or ongoing contact as such. It is close to estrangement, and I have no desire to try to repair this. I am child-free because I always feared repeating my family's parenting style and had no sense of my childhood as a positive experience.I have become preoccupied with the idea of a legacy of a life well lived. I have always placed high value on social contribution and working hard. But, as I increasingly ponder the likelihood of dying alone and without children, I have started to become quite critical about the point of striving in my career, and how and what I should be doing with my time. I feel being forgotten" is a realistic proposition - and it leads me to wonder whether this is liberating, and I can stop striving, do as I please, or should I strive harder and find a way of leaving my mark, ensuring I have a life that will mean something? Is this just an indulgent existential crisis? Do I need to just get over myself? Continue reading...
The writer of a new book about life on Earth seen through the prism of the egg says the age-old paradox actually leads us back a billion years - to the bottom of the oceanThe chicken or the egg? Sometimes, as a zoology author, I am asked this question by the kid at the front with the raised hand and large questioning eyes. Sometimes it's the older guy at the back with a glint in his eye. Sometimes it's a student who approaches the lectern at the end of a lecture while everyone else files out. The same mischievous eyes, the same wry smile. So which came first?" they ask, beaming, unaware that this is not the first time I have been asked.I hadn't foreseen, years ago, when I began exploring the evolution of the animal egg and the role it has played in the long history of life on this planet, that it would become pretty much the only question I would be asked. I spent years reframing the evolution of life on Earth as a story told from the egg's perspective, tracing this strange vessel's adaptation to land, its movement across continents, the evolution of the umbilical cord, the evolution of the placenta, menstruation, menopause... but even now, having finally turned this journey into a book, I expect that a great deal of my dialogue with readers will be chicken-based. Continue reading...
Asked 10 random questions, the philosopher and author shares the strangest thing he's done for love, his famous hair and his fears for the future of the moonYour latest book is called Who Owns the Moon. Who owns the moon?Well, nobody does and that's part of the problem. Billions are being invested in exploiting the moon, because there are some very valuable resources there that are in short supply back on this planet. There will be great technological spin offs when there's settlement on the moon. But I wrote the book because I feel that the regulatory framework that exists for activity out in space is very, very weak.Sign up for Guardian Australia's free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Continue reading...
UK medicines regulator says information on boxes of montelukast will alert users to risk of mood and behaviour changesMore than 500 adverse neuropsychiatric reactions have been reported in children under the age of nine involving an asthma drug which is to get new warnings over its risks.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced last week that more prominent warnings would be added to the information provided on boxes of the asthma drug montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair. Continue reading...
I get advice about my age on social media (not all of it friendly), but I'm sanguine about life without youthful anxietiesHow old is old? That depends on how old you are, for as you age you will nudge that number upwards. A recent German study asked people over the age of 40 that same question eight times over a period of 25 years, and it found old" gets older as we age. Of course it does. Would Paul McCartney, fit at 813/4, choose 64 now as the time he'd need feeding? Jumpin' Jack Flash at 80 is as lithe and frisky as ever, but only a halfway Dorian Grey, young in limb, but a face as raddled as that portrait: is Mick Jagger old yet?I am 77: I and my friends contemplate our age all the time. How old are we, exactly? I can feel like Methuselah, mentioning to some bright young spark that the first election I covered as an Observer reporter was 1970, or that I remember the old king's funeral, or that I had a doll's ration book (sweet rationing lasted until 1953), or how the great smog of London of 1952 that killed 4,000 knocked me down with bronchitis, inhaling Friars' Balsam under a towel. That's old, isn't it?Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
by Hosted by Savannah Ayoade-Greaves; written by Sofi on (#6MJB3)
Sofie Hagen loves sex - so why has it been 3,089 days since she's had any? (1m27s); A flat white can now set you back up to 5.19 - but should we swallow it? (25m13s); and psychotherapist and Observer columnist Philippa Perry addresses a reader's personal problem (43m51s). Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science correspondent on (#6MJ13)
Ethereal scenes of flowing super-heated material may help explain why atmosphere is hotter than surfaceThe sun's otherworldly landscape, including coronal moss, solar rain and 6,000-mile-tall spires of gas, is revealed in footage from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft.The observations, beamed back by the European Space Agency probe, reveal feathery, hair-like structures made of plasma and also capture eruptions and showers of relatively cooler material falling to the surface. Continue reading...
Genetic analysis of Winchester samples shows similar strains of disease and supports theory that fur trade played role in spreadLeprosy passed between humans and red squirrels in medieval England, research suggests, supporting the theory that the fur trade could have played a role in the spread of the disease.Leprosy is one of the oldest infectious diseases recorded in humans and is typically caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. Continue reading...
China has launched a probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon in a world first, part of its goal to land a human on the lunar surface by 2030. A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang space launch centre in Hainan province. The mission has drawn concern from China's major rival, the US, over Beijing's geopolitical intentions amid what the head of Nasa has called a new 'space race'
The launch of the uncrewed Chang'e-6 is part of China's effort to put a human on the lunar surface by 2030China has launched a probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon - in a world first - as part of its goal to land a human on the lunar surface by 2030.A rocket carrying the Chang'e-6 lunar probe blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China's Hainan province just before 5.30 pm (0930 GMT). Continue reading...
As humans enter what has been termed the third space age', it's private companies - not governments - leading the chargeIf the 20th-century space race was about political power, this century's will be about money. But for those who dream of sending humans back to the moon and possibly Mars, it's an exciting time to be alive whether it's presidents or billionaires paying the fare.Space flight is having a renaissance moment, bringing a fresh energy not seen since the days of the Apollo programme and, for the first time, with private companies rather than governments leading the charge. Continue reading...
Sumatran ape applied sap and leaves to open cut after suspected fight with another male, say scientistsThe high intelligence levels of orangutans have long been recognised, partly due to their practical skills such as using tools to retrieve seeds and forage for insects. But new research suggests the primate has another handy skill in its repertoire: applying medicinal herbs.Researchers say they have observed a male Sumatran orangutan treating an open facial wound with sap and chewed leaves from a plant known to have anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties. Continue reading...
by Presented by Ian Sample, produced by Madeleine Fin on (#6MGMC)
Glioblastomas are an extremely aggressive type of brain tumour, which is why the news this week of a vaccine that has shown promise in fighting them is so exciting. And this comes right off the back of the announcement of another trial of the world's first personalised mRNA vaccine for melanoma, a kind of skin cancer. Ian Sample talks to Prof Alan Melcher of the Institute of Cancer Research about how these vaccines work and whether they could one day be used to target cancer before it is even detectable on scansClips: BBCRead more about the personalised cancer vaccine for melanoma Continue reading...
US astrophysicist whose discovery of the cosmic microwave radiation resulting from the big bang brought him the Nobel prizeThe American astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, who has died aged 90, was responsible for one of the biggest cosmological revelations of the 20th century - the discovery of cosmic microwave background, the leftover radiation from the big bang.He first demonstrated its existence in 1965 with his collaborator Robert Wilson, and then, five years later - with Wilson and another astrophysicist, Keith Jefferts - went on to detect the presence of interstellar carbon monoxide, launching the field of molecular line astronomy. Continue reading...
MP says trade in remains is gross violation of human dignity', as skulls from Pitt Rivers collection removedAn auction house has withdrawn 18 ancient Egyptian human skulls from sale after an MP said selling them would perpetuate the atrocities of colonialism.Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Afrikan reparations, believes the sale of human remains for any purposes should be outlawed, adding that the trade was a gross violation of human dignity". Continue reading...
While some cyanobacteria are among the deadliest organisms in the world, others help us flourishBlue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, come in many forms and have generally got a bad press, mainly because five of the 2,000 identified species can produce some of the deadliest toxins known to science.At the same time, they are among the oldest organisms in the world, dating back 2.1bn years, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. Continue reading...
Researchers suggest cylinder to prevent astronauts losing muscle mass in low gravity environmentAs humans prepare to return to the moon after an absence of more than half a century, researchers have hit on a radical approach to keeping astronauts fit as they potter around the ball of rock.To prevent lunar explorers from becoming weak and feeble in the low gravity environment, scientists suggest astronauts go for a run. But, this being space, it's not just any kind of run - researchers have advised astronauts run several times a day around a lunar Wall of Death". Continue reading...
Transform project has potential to reduce deaths from the disease by 40%, savings thousands of lives a year in UKMethods of screening men for prostate cancer will be trialled in an attempt to save thousands of lives in the UK each year, in what has been hailed as a pivotal moment" by experts.The 42m project, known as Transform, will compare various screening methods to current NHS diagnostic processes, which can include blood tests, physical examinations and biopsies. Continue reading...
by Helen Davidson in Taipei and Associated Press in S on (#6MEY4)
Zhang Yongzhen stages sit-in protest, as government attempts to avoid scrutiny over handling of outbreakThe first Chinese scientist to publish a genomic sequence of the Covid-19 virus, in defiance of government orders, staged a sit-in protest after claiming he was locked out of his laboratory over the weekend.Zhang Yongzhen, a virologist, said in an online post on Monday that he and his team had been given a sudden eviction notice from their lab, and guards had barred him from entering it over the weekend. The post, published on Weibo, was later deleted, Associated Press (AP) reported. Continue reading...
by Presented by Madeleine Finlay with Karen McVeigh, on (#6MESR)
Guardian Seascapes reporter Karen McVeigh tells Madeleine Finlay about a recent trip to the Galapagos Islands, where mounds of plastic waste are washing up and causing problems for endemic species. Tackling this kind of waste and the overproduction of plastic were the topics on the table in Ottawa this week, as countries met to negotiate a global plastics treaty. But is progress too slow to address this pervasive problem?Read more about Karen McVeigh's trip to the Galapagos IslandsFollow all the reporting from the Guardian's Seascapes team Continue reading...
Genetics alone can mean a 21% greater risk of early death, research finds, but people can improve their chancesA healthy lifestyle may offset the impact of genetics by more than 60% and add another five years to your life, according to the first study of its kind.It is well established that some people are genetically predisposed to a shorter lifespan. It is also well known that lifestyle factors, specifically smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity, can have an impact on longevity. Continue reading...
In a first, researchers were able to compare records of people who drank polluted water in Veneto, Italy, with neighbors who did notFor the first time, researchers have formally shown that exposure to toxic PFAS increases the likelihood of death by cardiovascular disease, adding a new level of concern to the controversial chemicals' wide use.The findings are especially significant because proving an association with death by chemical exposure is difficult, but researchers were able to establish it by reviewing death records from northern Italy's Veneto region, where many residents for decades drank water highly contaminated with PFAS, also called forever chemicals". Continue reading...
The answer to today's puzzleEarlier today I set you this puzzle, about the tiling of a 4x4 grid. It requires a swift preamble, so here we go again.Consider the image below, which highlights adjacent rows in the grid. Continue reading...
by Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent on (#6ME0S)
There are no known descriptions or drawings of object in Roman literature, making its purpose unclearThey are known as one of archaeology's great enigmas - hollow 12-sided objects from the Roman era with no known purpose or use.Only 33 of these mysterious dodecahedrons have ever been found in Britain and now one, unearthed during an amateur archaeology dig after 1,700 years underground, is going on public display in Lincoln as part of a history festival. Continue reading...
The tortured puzzlers departmentUPDATE: Read the solution hereApologies to any Antipodean Swifties arriving on this page. Today's puzzle is about tiles, and whether or not you can solve it swiftly.The puzzle concerns black and white tiles on a 4x4 grid. Consider the image below, which highlights adjacent rows in the grid. Continue reading...
Ursa Major covers a little more than 3% of the entire night sky, making it the third largest constellation by areaThe seven brightest stars in Ursa Major, the Great Bear, form the shape known as the Plough, or the Big Dipper, or by a number of other names in different cultures.The association with a bear dates to antiquity, when it was listed in Ptolemy's original 48 constellations from the second century AD. Now incorporated into the International Astronomical Union's list of 88 modern constellations, it covers a little more than 3% of the entire night sky, making it the third largest constellation by area. Continue reading...
by Written by Alex Blasdel and read by Parker Sawyers on (#6MDWS)
New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought. By Alex Blasdel Continue reading...
by Anna Bawden Health and social affairs corresponden on (#6MDKB)
Exclusive: Vaccinations rise amid national campaign, but reported measles cases have increased by 40% since MarchThe number of young people receiving their MMR jab is up nearly a quarter from last year, official figures show.A national campaign to boost uptake was launched in January amid concern over measles rates in England, when the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared a national incident after a major outbreak in the West Midlands. The growth in infections shows no sign of abating, with a 40% increase in reported cases in England since March. Continue reading...
We often have as much in common with strangers as our relatives, according to studies - so why do we still love to say our children are like us?How alike are parents and kids? Quite, right? Surely we all play that game. I, for example, am competitive like my dad (but without a shred of his energy); my sister got my mother's compassion and I got her lust for crispy potato products and staying in bed. My husband and his mum, meanwhile, share a lively debating style (I'm choosing my words carefully); it's why their conversations get so ... animated.It's an assumption that transcends geography: there are the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" equivalents worldwide - mostly tree-related, although I like the Portuguese a fish's child knows how to swim". Continue reading...
Often misused by politicians, nostalgia is a positive emotion that could do with a makeoverI have always been prone to homesickness. As a child, I didn't really enjoy holidays, I dreaded going away on school trips and I hated sleepovers. At the beginning of 2021, when I first started thinking about the history of nostalgia, and in the midst of the pandemic, I moved across the Atlantic from London to Montreal, Canada, for work. Far from home and away from my family and friends, I felt a kind of grief whenever I thought about the life I'd left behind. There was so much to love about my new life but I felt anxious, worrying constantly about the safety and wellbeing of my parents, siblings and friends. What if, due to the time difference, I missed an urgent call or woke up to terrible news? These fears were, of course, unfounded, and they were also ridiculous, childish even. Grownups - married 30-year-olds with mortgages and full-time jobs - shouldn't miss their mums.I also tend to be homesick in a weirder, more abstract way - homesick for somewhere I've never been. It's a feeling otherwise known as nostalgia. Melding fairytales with Horrible Histories, as a child I spent hours imagining myself transported back in time to invented and romanticised versions of the past. I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton's novels and, despite my homesick inclinations, begged my parents to divert me from my 1990s London primary school to a boarding school in 1950s Cornwall. My pleas went unanswered, so I went to my uniform-free state school every day in pleated skirts and white blouses, desperate to return to a world I'd never inhabited. Continue reading...
We can get into the habit of thinking about our sibling with judgment and criticismThe question Since our mother's death, my brother and I have had no contact. He lives more than 100 miles away. Our relationship has been very difficult for over 40 years. When we both had young children, things were better for a time. When our dad died, Mum's health deteriorated and she moved in with me and died 12 years later. During this time, my relationship with my brother was at its worst. Before retirement, we both worked in mental health, but neither of us understand why our family relationship has been so fractured.There is a family history: our grandfather did not get on with his sister, he and his wife kept secrets, and our dad fell out with his twin! Our childhood was difficult as our father had mental health issues. Continue reading...
Why has so little been done to make indoor spaces safer, to stop the spread of airborne viruses?Robin McKie's article rings alarm bells for global health and our failure to control airborne pathogens (What virus will cause the next pandemic? It's flu, say scientists").We are rightly looking with concern at the spread of H5N1 and the risk it poses to humans, but we have still not applied the hard-won lessons learned from Covid19. While all agencies and experts now (belatedly) admit to Covid's airbornespread, very little has been done to make indoor spaces safer forus all, and the clinically vulnerable in particular, for whom shops, workplaces, restaurants, and even clinical settings have become high-risk areas. Continue reading...
Documents examined by inquiry show officials knew people were being given infected blood products, but sanctioned their use Read more: government was warned of infected blood risks in 1970s; plus: My mum gave the injections that killed my brothers'On a former slave owner's cotton plantation in Arkansas, the sprawling Cummins state farm prison covers 6,700 hectares (16,500 acres) and can house nearly 1,900 inmates.It is a working farm with vegetable crops, a dairy and livestock, but for more than two decades its most lucrative product was the blood plasma harvested from the convicts. Continue reading...
Austrian astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger has spent her life hunting for signs of life in the universe. Here she talks about aliens, space exploration and why studying cosmology is like eating pizzaStaring into the abyss... Am I really reaching anyone out there?" Lisa Kaltenegger is laughing about the unsatisfactory experience of teaching astrophysics over Zoom during Covid lockdowns, but she could be talking about her vocation: trying to discover if there's life beyond our solar system.Kaltenegger founded the Carl Sagan Institute in 2015 to investigate just that. A burst of sunny energy and infectious enthusiasm on a grey day, she's speaking to me from the legendary extraterrestrial life researcher's old office, now hers, overlooking the leafy Cornell campus in upstate New York. The institute brings together researchers across a range of disciplines to work out what signs of life on other planets might look like from here, so that we recognise them if (or when) we find them. Continue reading...
Science | The Guardian