Research found MRI is significantly more accurate than current tests, which are linked to overdiagnosis and overtreatment
Using MRI scans to screen men for prostate cancer could reduce deaths from the disease significantly, researchers have suggested.
Scientists said current tests, which detect the level of the protein prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood, have been linked to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of low-risk cancer.
Continue reading...Chandrayaan-3 moves into prelanding orbit amid failure of Russian mission
As it was announced that Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years had crashed on to the moon, India’s own mission, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, moved into prelanding orbit.
News on Sunday of the Russian failure was met with excitement and nervousness in India: excitement that India was now poised to win the race to become the first country to land a craft on the moon’s south pole; nervousness that its mission could also go horribly wrong at the last moment.
Continue reading...Craft spun into ‘unpredictable’ orbit before planned touchdown could take place, Russia’s state space corporation says
Russia’s first moon mission in 47 years has failed after its Luna-25 spacecraft spun out of control and crashed into the moon, dealing a significant setback to the embattled Russian space programme’s attempt to revive its Soviet-era prestige.
The state space corporation Roscosmos said it had lost contact with the craft at 1157 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. A soft landing had been planned for Monday.
Continue reading...De-aged image offers likelife image of how prince may have looked during unsuccessful Jacobite rising of 1745
The face of Bonnie Prince Charlie has been recreated using death masks that depict him as he would have looked during the Jacobite rising of 1745.
The prince, who was renowned for his good looks, has captivated a new generation of interest through the TV show Outlander.
Continue reading...Medical breakthrough marks longest pig kidney has functioned in a human, setting stage for operations in living patients
A pig’s kidney transplanted by surgeons into a brain-dead man has continued to function normally for more than a month – a critical step toward an operation the New York team hopes to eventually try in living patients.
The latest experiment, announced on Wednesday by New York University Langone Health, marks the longest a pig kidney has functioned in a person, albeit a deceased one, and it’s not over. Researchers will track the kidney’s performance for a second month.
Continue reading...Genome analysis reveals new physical details of mummified corpse found in ice of Italian Alps
Dark eyes, receding black hair, few or no freckles and a darker skin tone. This is how Ötzi the iceman, the mummified corpse found trapped in the ice of the Italian Alps, would have looked while living.
Researchers who conducted a higher-coverage analysis of the genome to learn more about Ötzi’s genetic history and the mummified man’s physical appearance have found genes associated with male-pattern baldness and darker skin tone.
Continue reading...While meteors are active from July, Perseids will be most visible in northern hemisphere this Saturday and Sunday
Stargazers will be in for a treat this weekend as the best meteor shower of the year is expected to peak.
The Perseids are named after the Greek hero Perseus because the meteor shower appears to come from the eponymous constellation.
Continue reading...The Luna-25 mission will seek to land near the south pole of the moon, seeking signs of water or its components
Russia hopes to launch its first successful lunar landing mission for nearly 50 years, with a long-delayed takeoff from the far east of the country scheduled for early on Friday morning that the Kremlin aims to tout as a new achievement in space exploration.
The Luna-25 mission will seek to land near the south pole of the moon, collecting geological samples from the area, and sending back data for signs of water or its building blocks, which could raise the possibility of a future human colony on the moon.
Continue reading...Vets receive medication originally meant for people amid virulent feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats
Veterinary services in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills, from a stockpile originally meant for humans, as efforts intensify to stop the spread of a virulent strain of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats.
The island’s health ministry began discharging the treatment on 8 August – long celebrated as International Cat Day – in what is hoped will be the beginning of the end of the disease that has struck the Mediterranean country’s feline population.
Continue reading...Research suggests behaviour may reflect evolutionary response to previous outbreaks of disease
Aerial surveys of the North Sea have revealed that seals practise social distancing – and the discovery may have profound implications for the spread of disease among the marine mammals.
In a paper published today by the Royal Society, researchers conducting censuses of grey and harbour seals detail new evidence that the two species not only maintain distances between their own kind (unlike walruses, for instance, who cluster close together) but also that this behaviour may “reflect an evolutionary response to viral susceptibility”.
Continue reading...Facility in Porton Down, Wiltshire will allow vaccines to be developed for future pandemic pathogens
Ministers have opened a new vaccine research centre in the UK where scientists will work on preparing for “disease X”, the next potential pandemic pathogen.
The state-of-the-art Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre is based at the UK Health and Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Porton Down campus in Wiltshire.
Continue reading...The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility achieved the feat using lasers to fuse two atoms
US scientists have achieved net energy gain in a nuclear fusion reaction for the second time since a historic breakthrough in December last year in the quest to find a near-limitless, safe and clean source of energy
Scientists at the California-based Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory repeated the breakthrough in an experiment in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) on 30 July that produced a higher energy yield than in December, a Lawrence Livermore spokesperson said.
Continue reading...Rhinotillexis may be underestimated cause of transmission between staff, say researchers
Nose-picking should be given greater consideration as a potential health hazard, researchers have said, after finding healthcare workers who engaged in rhinotillexis were more likely to catch Covid than those who refrained.
Scientists in the Netherlands say research has previously found healthcare workers who had direct contact with Covid patients were more likely to catch Covid than those who did not.
Continue reading...Fossils found in Peru from extinct species show it may have had body mass of 85-340 tonnes – heavier than blue whales
The fossilised bones of an ancient creature that patrolled coastal waters 40m years ago belong to a newly discovered species that is a contender for the heaviest animal ever to have existed on Earth.
Fossil hunters discovered remnants of the enormous and long-extinct whale in a rock formation in the Ica desert of southern Peru. Fully grown adults might have weighed hundreds of tonnes, researchers believe.
Continue reading...Cells taken without consent from cancer victim can reproduce indefinitely and were sold for unjust profit by Thermo Fisher Scientific, relatives argued
Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, a long-deceased cancer victim whose “immortal” cells have lived on to fuel biomedical research for decades, lawyers for the estate have said.
The story of Lacks, a young African American woman who died in Baltimore in 1951, was made famous in Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became a movie in 2017 featuring Oprah Winfrey.
Continue reading...European Space Agency brought down defunct Aeolus weather monitoring craft in unprecedented manoeuvre
A British-built weather monitoring spacecraft has been deliberately guided into the Atlantic Ocean, the first time a defunct satellite has been manoeuvred to perform an assisted crash on Earth.
Aeolus, a satellite that has provided data to weather centres across Europe since 2018, was successfully helped to its final resting place by mission controllers at the European Space Agency (Esa).
Continue reading...Leading scientists and medics back London and other clean air schemes and urge politicians to keep their nerve
Leading doctors and scientists have warned politicians against watering down plans to expand city-wide schemes aimed at reducing traffic pollution levels linked to thousands of deaths each year.
They urged politicians not to lose their nerve over plans to improve poor air quality, such as the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (Ulez) in London, which they said were central to tackling “unacceptably high” levels of illness and child deaths, and called for more ambitious policies to reduce toxic air.
Continue reading...Archaeologists hail ‘exceptional finds’ at venue whose existence was previously known only from mentions in ancient texts
The ruins of Nero’s Theatre, an imperial theatre referred to in ancient Roman texts but never found, have been discovered under the garden of a future Four Seasons hotel, steps away from the Vatican.
Archaeologists in Rome have excavated deep under the walled garden of the Palazzo della Rovere since 2020 as part of planned renovations on the frescoed Renaissance building. The palazzo, which takes up a city block along the broad Via della Conciliazione leading to Saint Peter’s Square, is home to an ancient Vatican chivalric order that leases the space to a hotel to raise money for Christians in the Holy Land.
Continue reading...European Space Agency to attempt unprecedented manoeuvre despite craft not being designed for controlled re-entry
A defunct European satellite is expected to make an unprecedented return to Earth on Friday when mission controllers guide the spacecraft into a fiery dive over the Atlantic Ocean.
The Aeolus weather-monitoring satellite was not designed for a controlled re-entry at the end of its mission, but the European Space Agency (Esa) has decided to use what little fuel remains onboard to steer the probe to a watery grave.
Continue reading...Honeypot ant researchers hope to identify compounds that can be used in antimicrobial treatments as western science catches up to Indigenous knowledge
The honey produced by Australian honeypot ants has antibacterial and antifungal properties, researchers have found, in a discovery that brings western science up to speed with Indigenous knowledge.
The Australian honeypot ant, Camponotus inflatus, has been used by First Nations people as a bush food and in traditional medicine for thousands of years, including to treat colds and sore throats.
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