Category Archives: Science

Olive-stuffing and in-theatre piano: the brain surgeon breaking new ground

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Italian Roberto Trignani is known for ‘awake surgery’ and other unorthodox methods

Playing the violin, watching cartoons and doing crosswords: these are just some of the activities patients have performed while having brain surgery under Roberto Trignani.

Trignani, the head of neurosurgery at Riuniti hospital in Ancona, Italy, was already known for his “awake surgery” techniques, which he has used roughly 70 times in the last few years. But he broke new ground in June this year when a 60-year-old woman prepared stuffed olives as he removed a tumour from her left temporal lobe.

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South African Covid-19 variant may be ‘more effective at spreading’

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Research still to confirm threat posed but variant does not appear to provoke more serious symptoms

The South African variant of Covid-19, two cases of which have now been detected in the UK, is likely to be more transmissible, may hit young people harder, and may be slightly more resistant to vaccines, scientists in South Africa believe.

However, research is still continuing to confirm the threat posed by the variant, which does not appear to provoke more serious symptoms or require different treatment.

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What do we know about the two new Covid-19 variants in the UK?

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One appears to have arisen in Kent, the other brought in from South Africa. Both are highly transmissible

Two new variants of Covid-19 have been identified as of concern in the UK, both said to be more transmissible than the previously dominant version. Here’s what we know so far.

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Scotland may enter full Covid lockdown, says Sturgeon

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First minister tells MSPs tough restrictions were ‘essential’ to suppress new strain of virus

Nicola Sturgeon has warned MSPs she may have to introduce full lockdown measures across Scotland in the coming days to contain the faster-spreading Covid variant, which has already led to Wales bringing forward a countrywide lockdown from last Sunday and Northern Ireland announcing a six-week lockdown from Boxing Day.

Sturgeon used her weekly coronavirus statement to the Scottish parliament to tighten level 4 measures – the strictest of Scotland’s five-tier system of Covid controls and which all of mainland Scotland will enter from 26 December.

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Listen up: making music from the northern lights

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A biologist and composer have turned the aurora borealis into sound to create a magic melding of art and nature

There’s a hypnotic crackle before a whoosh of sound flies from ear to ear. It’s followed by a heavenly chorus that might be whales whistling, frogs calling or the chirping of an alien bird. It sounds celestial because that’s what it is. The noise is the aurora borealis: the northern lights.

The vivid green lights that trace across the Arctic sky emit electromagnetic waves when the solar shower meets the Earth’s magnetic field, and these can be translated into sounds that are made audible to human ears by a small machine.

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UK reports another 691 Covid deaths – as it happened

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Anthony Fauci ‘extremely confident’ in vaccine; BioNTech’s CEO says tests being run on mutant strain. This blog is now closed. Follow our new blog below

Coronavirus live updates

We are closing this live blog now, but you can stay up to date with the latest on our new global blog, which you can find below.

Related: Coronavirus live news: US cases increase 14% in one week, France to reopen UK border

Tesco has introduced buying limits on items including toilet roll, eggs, rice, soap and handwash. Customers at the supermarket are now limited to one item per person of toilet roll, and up to three products of eggs, rice, soap and handwash.

It is understood the extra limits are pre-emptive measures to help smooth demand in the coming weeks, rather than a reaction to shortages or a change in buying behaviour. They are on top of a three-item limit on essential items such as flour, dried pasta and anti-bacterial wipes which has been in place for several months.

Related: Tesco limits purchases of toilet roll, eggs, rice, soap and handwash

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New Covid variant in UK: spreading Christmas fear?

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B117 is more transmissible than original virus, but there is no evidence it makes people sicker

If a new virus sounds scary, a new mutating virus sounds scarier still. In Kent in September, scientists now believe, somebody with Covid was the unlucky first person to pass on a variant form of the coronavirus that is maybe as much as 70% more transmissible than the version we have been used to.

The exponential recent rise in cases now blamed on that incident and the UK government response have sparked alarm around the world, with other countries banning flights into the UK for at least 48 hours while everyone figures out what is going on.

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‘The coughing would not stop’: MP talks of ‘unbearable pain’ of Covid

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Labour shadow minister Yasmin Qureshi talks about the shock of being hospitalised and her slow recovery since

A shadow minister who became the first female MP to be hospitalised by Covid-19 has described the “unbearable pain” caused by coughing fits and pneumonia as the disease took hold.

Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour MP for Bolton South East and a shadow minister for international development, said she was left “anxious and concerned” after being rushed by ambulance to her local hospital in October.

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Epidemiologist looks to the past to predict second post-pandemic ‘roaring 20s’

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Dr Nicholas Christakis says once pandemics end, often there is a period in which people seek out extensive social interactions

It is almost exactly one year since the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was identified by Chinese scientists as the source of a new, lethal respiratory illness.

Since, more than 1.5 million people have died globally, economies worldwide have shut down multiple times and societies have isolated in their homes and watched holidays pass without the closeness of family and friends. Ahead of us is a year undertaking the most logistically challenging public health campaign ever.

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Inside Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine development

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From a small discovery to producing at scale, photojournalist David Levene documents the groundbreaking work of the scientists of Oxford University during the development of a vaccine which is now poised for approval by medicines regulators

From the moment the coronavirus spilled out of China and spread around the world, the great hope for the return of normal life lay with safe and effective vaccines. While wearing masks and washing hands helped to reduce the flood of infections, they would never be enough to hold back the tide. Social distancing – a phrase that does nothing to convey the hardship of the act – suppresses the virus, no doubt. But what kind of life is a life lived apart?

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The most exciting scientific breakthroughs of 2020, chosen by scientists

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The response to Covid-19 has been momentous but discoveries in AI, diet, conservation, space and beyond, show the power of science to improve the world post-pandemic

In 2020 the race to space changed gear. The May launch of the SpaceX vehicle Crew Dragon was the first time a private vehicle had delivered astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It was deeply impressive, but also featureless… sleek, white inner walls replaced the complex instrument panels of old, and it was clear that the two test pilots on board were mostly passengers, with no direct control over the flight. In November, Crew Dragon became the first private spacecraft fully certified by Nasa to transport humans to the ISS and later that month delivered four astronauts to the orbiting station. This taxi may not be cheap, but it’s here to stay and it’s a game-changer.

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Early humans may have survived the harsh winters by hibernating

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Seasonal damage in bone fossils in Spain suggests Neanderthals and their predecessors followed the same strategy as cave bears

Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated, according to fossil experts.

Evidence from bones found at one of the world’s most important fossil sites suggests that our hominid predecessors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by sleeping through the winter.

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Coronavirus live updates: France and Germany ban travel from UK; Ireland bringing in restrictions

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Ireland restricts travel from Britain as Italy, Belgium and Netherlands stop UK travel; Cases of new strain reported outside UK, says WHO

The Italian health ministry is reporting that they have found a patient infected with the same mutated strain of coronavirus as the UK.

The infected patient returned to Italy from the UK with his partner in the past few days and landed in Rome’s Fiumicino airport. They’re now in isolation, the ministry said.

El Salvador has banned travellers who have been to the UK or South Africa in the last 30 days.

President Nayib Bukele announced the new decision on Twitter after linking a Reuters story on European countries closing their borders to UK passengers.

A partir de ahora, queda prohibido el ingreso a nuestro país, de cualquier persona que su itinerario de vuelo haya incluido el Reino Unido o Sudáfrica o que haya estado en alguno de esos dos países en los últimos 30 días.

Cc. @R_Cucalon, @anliker1980 https://t.co/UQyL6ROsUN

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We need even tougher curbs to fight this new coronavirus strain

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The virus is likely to have spread more widely than the south-east of England, so the lockdown is likely to expand

While the country has obsessed over the Christmas restrictions over the last few weeks the real story lay elsewhere, it transpires. A new strain of the coronavirus emerged a couple of months ago, probably somewhere in the north-east corner of Kent, but went unnoticed for weeks. New viruses emerge all the time, but they usually don’t cause problems. And it usually takes a long time for a new strain – starting from just a single case – to become visible to public health authorities.

In fact, we have one of the most comprehensive and sensitive molecular surveillance systems in the world and that allowed us to pick up this strain relatively quickly. However, the virus has also moved fast – very fast – and spread beyond Kent to Essex, London and elsewhere.

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Scorned scientist now vindicated in her work on how to treat stroke

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Anne Abbott challenged medical establishment and faced ‘shocking’ rebuffs

Anne Abbott is a scientist on a mission. She believes large numbers of debilitating strokes can be prevented without surgical interventions. Lifestyle changes and medication alone can make massive improvements to people at risk from the thickening of their arteries.

It is not an attitude that has endeared her to the medical establishment, however. For years, it has attempted to block her work while instead pressing for increasing use of carotid surgery and stents, she told the Observer last week.

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Coronavirus live news: Boris Johnson to give press briefing – follow live

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Italy and Australia announce new lockdowns; France death toll surpasses 60,000; Sweden introduces tough new measures

Distribution of the Moderna vaccine will begin to more than 3,800 sites across the United States this weekend, after it was approved on Friday by the medicines regulator, the Food and Drug Administration.

Workers in Bloomington, Indiana, will fill and package vials with the mRNA vaccine before handing them on to be shipped from sites including Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. Those locations are close to air hubs for United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp.

A further 339 people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, NHS England said on Saturday.

Patients were aged between 44 and 100. All except 13, aged between 64 and 95, had known underlying health conditions. The deaths were between 5 November and 18 December.

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Guardians of the galaxy: Mike Pence names members of new US space force

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Vice-president’s announcement marks first birthday of signature Trump program but social media mockery follows

Members of the new US space force will be known as “guardians”, Vice-President Mike Pence announced on Friday, at a ceremony to mark the first birthday of the newest branch of the US armed forces, one of Donald Trump’s signature policy initiatives.

Related: Trump unveils logo for Starfleet ... er, Space Force ... and Trekkers take to Twitter

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‘The platypuses were glowing’: the secret light of Australia’s marsupials

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The discovery that bilbies, bandicoots, Tasmanian devils and echidnas emit bio-fluorescence under UV light has sparked the burning question. Why?

Dr Kenny Travouillon turned off the lights and headed straight for the shelf holding the stuffed platypus, armed with an ultraviolet torch to test something out. Would the monotreme glow?

“All the platypuses were glowing,” says Travouillon, the mammals curator at the Western Australian Museum in Perth. “We went through with other mammals and we found they were glowing too.”

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Covid is a chance to build a world where everyone has access to basic vaccines | David Miliband and Anuradha Gupta

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Preventable diseases still plague those missing out on vaccines. Efforts to halt coronavirus could help crack this issue

The massive public, private and foundation investments in a coronavirus vaccine are producing results at a record pace. And countries are reacting accordingly. A recent global assessment of purchasing agreements for Covid-19 vaccines reveals that high-income countries, as well as a few middle-income countries with high manufacturing capacity, have already bought enough doses for their populations.

But delivery of the vaccine needs a new level of focus. This is especially the case for populations in poor and war-torn countries, where the health system is weak or nonexistent. Even before the pandemic, approximately 20 million infants a year, often some of the most vulnerable in the world, were missing out on basic vaccines. For example, there are estimated to be more than 10.6 million children in the world’s poorest countries who in 2019 did not receive even a first dose of a diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT).

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Africa steps up fight against HIV with trial of new combination vaccines

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African-led study expected to involve 1,600 people over next three years in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa

The first trial in Africa to test two new vaccines to protect against HIV got under way in Uganda this week, raising hopes of an end to the epidemic that affects millions of people across the continent.

The African-led PrEPVacc study will test two experimental combination vaccines to see if they can provide any protection against HIV in people most at risk of infection.

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