Use of cattle from country free of mad cow disease means product is safe, experts say, and patients can still donate blood
Bone cows, specially bred in mad cow-free Australia, are being used instead of human donors for dental and medical bone grafts.
While bovine grafts have been tested for spinal fusion, foot reconstructions and to fix skull traumas, the Australian versions are predominantly used in dental work to strengthen degraded jaws before tooth implants.
Continue reading...Epidemiologists say wave in north, particularly among children, may be partly caused by ‘immunity debt’
Chinese health authorities have provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, and have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China.
Continue reading...Reports say new model Q* fuelled safety fears, with workers airing their concerns to the board before CEO Sam Altman’s sacking
OpenAI was reportedly working on an advanced system before Sam Altman’s sacking that was so powerful it caused safety concerns among staff at the company.
The artificial intelligence model triggered such alarm with some OpenAI researchers that they wrote to the board of directors before Altman’s dismissal warning it could threaten humanity, Reuters reported.
Continue reading...‘Momentous’ breakthrough as trial finds treatment for nail infections to be highly effective for neglected tropical disease
A cheap and easily taken drug used to treat fungal nail infections has been found to work against a devastating flesh and bone-eating disease found across Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Researchers say the breakthrough offers hope to thousands of patients who have suffered decades of neglect and can face amputations if the disease is left untreated.
Continue reading...Researchers say they have discovered a common type of bacteria can trigger irritation
Whether it’s a tickle of the nose, or an irritation in one’s hair, itches can be excruciating. Now scientists say they have found a common type of skin bacteria can trigger the sensation.
Crucially, as such bacteria are commonly found on the skin of patients with eczema – or atopic dermatitis – the work helps explain why such conditions can be accompanied by the urge to scratch.
Continue reading...Chief medical officer for England and chief UK medical adviser says civil servants did good job but PM took ‘unique’ decisions
Q: Was there no aspect on the pandemic on which you did not advise?
Whitty says he would not put it like that. He says he felt it important to advise on issues where advice from a scientist or doctor would be useful.
Continue reading...Former chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance revealed there was ‘complete lack of leadership’ at times in crisis
Vallance says that some of what he was doing during Covid would have been done by anyone else in the post of government chief scientific adviser (GCSA).
But he says because of his medical training, and his knowledge of vaccines (he had worked for GlaxoSmithKline before taking the GCSA job), he was probably more involved than another GCSA might have been.
Continue reading...PM would almost certainly have known concerns over ‘eat out to help out’ scheme, says former chief scientific adviser
Rishi Sunak would almost certainly have known scientists were worried about his “eat out to help out” scheme during the pandemic, Sir Patrick Vallance has said, directly contradicting the prime minister’s evidence to the Covid inquiry.
In potentially damaging testimony, Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic, said he would be “very surprised” if Sunak had not learned about objections to his plan to help the hospitality industry.
Continue reading...Leading property firms also call for more tax breaks and improved transport links to hubs ahead of autumn statement
The UK needs to build more laboratory space, improve transport links and offer more tax breaks to achieve Rishi Sunak’s ambition of becoming a science superpower, two leading property firms have argued ahead of the autumn statement.
Demand for laboratories in the UK is growing fast, with lab vacancy rates of just 1% in Cambridge and London, and 7% in Oxford, according to a report by British Land, one of Britain’s biggest property developers, and the upmarket estate agency and advisory firm Savills.
Continue reading...The soaring price-tag of a plan to fly rock samples back to Earth is jeopardising other space projects, say critics
It is one of the most complex space missions ever contemplated. A flotilla of unmanned probes and robot rovers will be flown to Mars to gather rock samples which will then be blasted back to Earth for study for signs of life.
This is Nasa’s Mars Sample Return and it would involve the first-ever space launch from another planet, as well as the first-ever rendezvous in orbit around another planet.
Continue reading...Method could be used to stop people from unlocking cars or to support bartenders serving alcohol
Whether it is the story of Peter Piper and his pickled peppers or a woman selling sea shells on the seashore, tongue-twisters tackled when sober can sound rather different after a drink.
Now researchers believe such changes, in particular those relating to pitch and frequency, could be used to alert people to their level of intoxication.
Continue reading...£5m project launched with aim of having reliable tests within five years to provide quick diagnosis
Scientists are to begin piloting simple blood tests for dementia that could revolutionise detection of the disease and within five years lead to people being diagnosed in seconds by the NHS.
Currently, getting a formal diagnosis in the UK relies on mental ability tests, brain scans or invasive and painful lumbar punctures, where a sample of cerebrospinal fluid is drawn from the lower back.
Continue reading...Anastrozole to be made available to women who have been through the menopause and have family history of breast cancer
Almost 300,000 women at higher risk of developing breast cancer are being given access to a drug that can halve their risk in a “major step forward” in the fight against the disease.
An estimated 289,000 women in England who are at moderate or high risk of breast cancer will from Tuesday be able to take the tablet to try to prevent it from developing, NHS bosses said.
Continue reading...Reanalysis of skeletal remains in Spain suggests conflicts took place about 5,000 years ago in neolithic period, say researchers
The earliest period of warfare in Europe might have occurred more than 1,000 years before what was previously thought to be the first large-scale conflict in the region, researchers have suggested.
Reanalysis of more than 300 sets of skeletal remains uncovered in Spain – radiocarbon dated to between 5,400 and 5,000 years ago – indicates that conflicts took place long before powerful states formed in the region.
Continue reading...Researcher shares images of an ultra-rare platypus – possibly the first ever documented - observed in the Northern Tablelands
Researchers hunting for an endangered turtle have discovered something even rarer – a white platypus frolicking in a New South Wales stream.
Photos and footage of the extraordinary creature have been published in a scientific journal after several encounters over the past two years or so.
Continue reading...Declassified spy images point to 396 undiscovered forts in Syria and Iraq, shifting understanding of Roman frontier
Declassified cold-war spy satellite images have thrown new light on the workings of the Roman empire by revealing hundreds of previously undiscovered forts, with dramatic implications for our understanding, experts have said.
Archeologists examining aerial photographs taken in the 1960s and 70s said they reveal 396 sites of unknown Roman forts in Syria and Iraq across the Syrian steppe.
Continue reading...British astronaut last flew to International Space Station in 2015 as European Space Agency astronaut
The last British astronaut to go into space is to come out of retirement to lead the UK’s first astronaut mission.
Tim Peake, 51, who will be leading the mission, last flew to the International Space Station (ISS) as a European Space Agency astronaut in 2015.
Continue reading...Human faces and other figures believed to be up to 2,000 years old exposed as Brazil river level hits record low
Human faces and other figures etched in stone up to 2,000 years ago have been revealed on Amazon riverbanks as a historic drought in the Brazilian region has brought water levels to unprecedented lows.
The petroglyphs, which include animals and other natural forms, have been revealed on the shores of the Rio Negro, at an archeological site known as the Ponto das Lajes, or Place of Slabs.
Continue reading...Clues unearthed more than 100 years ago inspired archeologists to locate the 5,000-year-old site
The ruins of a 5,000-year-old tomb in a construction that reflects the pinnacle of neolithic engineering in northern Britain has been unearthed in Orkney.
Fourteen articulated skeletons of men, women and children – two positioned as if they were embracing – have been found inside one of six cells or side rooms.
Continue reading...The 2018 Australian of the year was recognised for her work on super-fast technology in the field of atomic electronics
The quantum physicist and 2018 Australian of the year, Prof Michelle Simmons, has been awarded the top honour at the prime minister’s prizes for science.
Simmons, of the University of New South Wales, was recognised on Monday night for her work in creating the field of atomic electronics.
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