Category Archives: Science

Covid live news: Sweden ‘should have clamped down harder’ as pandemic hit; US set to ease mask guidelines

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Latest updates: Swedish report says government should have shown better leadership at start of crisis; new US mask guidelines expected on Friday

At least 5.2 million children around the world have lost a parent, grandparent or family member who helped care for them to Covid, according to a new study.

The research looked at coronavirus mortality data across 21 countries from the start of the pandemic between March 2020 and October 2021.

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Victims dismayed as Canadian inquiry finds mystery syndrome does not exist

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New Brunswick officials say baffling disorder that causes memory loss and cognitive decline is from known neurological condition

After warning medical professionals to be on the lookout for a baffling neurological condition that produced memory loss, muscle wasting and severe cognitive decline, authorities in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have concluded that no such illness exists, a finding that has prompted skepticism and disbelief as families search for answers.

New Brunswick officials last year flagged a possible “cluster” of residents suffering from an unknown neurological syndrome, similar to those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Symptoms were varied and dramatic: some patients started drooling, and others felt as though bugs were crawling on their skin.

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Hong Kong domestic workers left homeless after being fired for contracting Covid-19

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Dozens of live-in workers have been forced to sleep rough in the Hong Kong winter after bosses refuse to allow them back in the house

Live-in domestic workers in Hong Kong have been left homeless after they were diagnosed with Covid-19 and their employers fired them or refused their return to the residence, support groups have said.

Many of the workers, who are mostly women from Indonesia and the Philippines, were also left without insurance to cover their medical bills.

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Springtime asteroid hit ramped up extinction rates, say scientists

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Animals in northern hemisphere would have been more vulnerable to intense heat just after winter

Having an asteroid slam into Earth was catastrophic for the dinosaurs, but the season of the strike may have substantially ramped up extinction rates for others species, research suggests.

Scientists have found evidence that the devastating impact 66m years ago, which wiped out three-quarters of Earth’s species and created the Chicxulub crater in modern-day Mexico, happened in the spring in the northern hemisphere.

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Does life flash before your eyes? Brain scan of dying man suggests it’s possible

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Scientists report unexpected brain activity in patient, 87, as he died from heart attack

When Harry Stamper sets off a bomb to save planet Earth in the film Armageddon, his life flashes before his eyes. Now research has revealed tantalising clues that such recall may not be Hollywood hyperbole.

An international team of scientists has reported an unexpected situation in which they recorded the brain activity of an 87-year-old patient as he died.

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Black carbon pollution from tourism and research increasing Antarctic snowmelt, study says

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Pollution generated by burning fossil fuels causes snow to darken, absorb more solar energy and melt faster

Black carbon pollution from tourism and research activities in Antarctica is likely increasing snowmelt on the continent by an estimated 83 tonnes for each visitor, according to new research.

Scientists have estimated that the black carbon produced by vessels, planes and diesel generators results in 23mm of additional snowmelt each summer in the most frequently visited areas of the ice-covered landmass.

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Scientists find part of brain responds selectively to sound of singing

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US results also confirm previous findings that some neurons respond to speech or music

It may not yet feature in a West End musical but scientists say they have found an unexpected response to singin’ in the brain.

Researchers say they have found particular groups of neurons that appear to respond selectively to the sound of singing.

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Remains of ‘world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur’ recovered in Scotland

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Discovery shows pterosaurs with a 2.5-metre wingspan existed about 25m years earlier than previously thought

It might be best known today for its otters and puffins but 170m years ago the Isle of Skye was home to an enormous flying reptile with a wingspan bigger than a kingsize bed, researchers have revealed.

Fossil hunters in Scotland say they have recovered the remains of the world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur, adding the creature – known informally as a pterodactyl – also boasted a mouthful of sharp teeth for spearing and trapping fish.

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Covid cost-cutting will put blinkers on our best Covid research

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Analysis: several world-leading studies to guide future Covid care depend on widespread testing now threatened by government cuts

After a bruising two years in which the UK failed to prove its resilience to a pandemic, the government hopes to re-cast the nation as a scientific superpower: a country that has built on the lessons of the crisis to deliver better research, more precision healthcare, and a more streamlined pathway to new drugs and vaccines.

But the government’s decision to substantially cut back on free Covid testing, as part of Boris Johnson’s “living with Covid” strategy, already threatens to undermine pioneering trials and coronavirus surveillance that are the envy of other nations. Together, they are crucial for understanding how drugs keep patients out of hospital, how immunity is holding up in vulnerable care homes and hospitals and how the epidemic is unfolding around us.

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‘People are dying on the floor’: healthcare workers tell of Covid devastation in Solomon Islands

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The Pacific country was coronavirus-free until last month but an outbreak of thousands of cases is overwhelming the health system

Frontline health workers in Solomon Islands have warned that its health system is on the brink of collapse as the country struggles to deal with a devastating outbreak of Covid-19.

A senior doctor and two nurses at the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in the capital of Honiara have told of how there are no beds for Covid patients – leading to people dying on the floor of the wards – as well as a lack of facilities and staff shortages that have led to Covid-positive nurses being recalled to work and probationary nurses tending to critically ill patients solo, when they should be supervised by a more senior nurse.

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Covid antivirals an option for the Queen under care of medical household

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Monarch said to have mild symptoms, but staff may look to drugs recently approved in UK

With the Queen approaching her 96th birthday in April, there was always going to be concern about her contracting Covid, but the monarch has tested positive against a radically different backdrop from when the virus arrived in the UK.

In addition to the protection afforded by her vaccinations – and she is understood to have had a booster – she could also be given antiviral drugs approved by UK authorities as recently as December.

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How Covid changed medicine for the future

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The global pandemic sparked a huge superhuman effort to control coronavirus. But the billions spent have also had an unexpected impact on medicine and science

When Tom Pooley, 21, became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against plague as part of a medical trial last summer after tests on mice, he was inspired by the thought that his involvement could help to rid the world of one of the most brutal killers in human history.

“They made it quite clear I was the first human to receive it,” says Pooley, a radiotherapy engineering student. “They didn’t dress it up, but they made it clear it was as safe as possible. There are risks, but they are talented people: it’s a big honour to be the first.” The single-shot, based on the Chadox technology developed by the Oxford Vaccine Group and AstraZeneca, took less than five seconds to painlessly administer, he says. That night, he felt a little unwell, but he was fine within three hours; and the small trial continued apace to combat the centuries-old bacteria threat, which killed 171 in Madagascar as recently as 2017. It uses a weakened, genetically altered version of a common-cold virus from chimpanzees.

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Living with Covid: what are risks of England’s plan to lift restrictions?

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As the new plan is set to be announced, here’s what might change, from testing to shielding

As Britain emerges from the Omicron wave, ministers are thrashing out a “living safely with Covid” plan for England expected to be announced next week. The strategy should see freedoms expanded back towards pre-pandemic norms in an attempt to readjust people’s attitudes towards coronavirus.

The decisions taken this weekend in Whitehall will have major repercussions for public health across the country. While vaccines have drastically blunted Covid hospitalisations and deaths, and restrictions came with significant downsides, lifting further measures is unlikely to come without a cost – particularly for those in vulnerable groups.

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Ending all Covid restrictions ‘premature and not based on evidence’, says BMA

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Council chair says decision not guided by data or made in consultation with health profession

Ending all Covid restrictions is premature and “not based on current evidence”, the British Medical Association has said, as experts warned dropping testing and self-isolation could lead to a surge in cases.

Boris Johnson told MPs last week that he was preparing to lift the legal requirement in England to self-isolate on 24 February, a month earlier than originally planned, with a formal announcement expected on Monday.

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Six African countries to begin making mRNA vaccines as part of WHO scheme

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Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia first countries to be assisted by global mRNA hub

Six African countries – Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia – will be the first on the continent to receive the technology needed to produce their own mRNA vaccines from a scheme headed by the World Health Organization.

The groundbreaking project aims to assist low- and middle-income countries in manufacturing mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards, with the aim of ending much of the reliance of African countries on vaccine manufacturers outside the continent.

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US has suffered more than 1m excess deaths during pandemic, CDC finds

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The latest statistic hints at the breadth of Covid-19’s impact on health in the United States

There have been more than 1m excess deaths in the US during the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The deaths are mainly attributable to Covid-19, as well as conditions that may have resulted from delayed medical care and overwhelmed health systems.

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Brains do not slow down until after age of 60, study finds

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Findings go against the assumption that mental processing speed declines from a peak at age 20

It is widely accepted as one of life’s bleak but unavoidable facts: as we get older, our brains get slower. But now a study, based on data from more than 1 million people, suggests that mental processing speed remains almost constant until the age of 60.

The analysis puts perceived reductions in speed down to people becoming more cautious as they get older. This could account for the large body of research that has concluded that mental processing speed peaks at about the age of 20 and undergoes a steady decline from that point onwards.

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US parents of under-fives clamor for off-label use over Covid vaccine delays

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Authorities warn against surreptitious use of authorized vaccines for younger children due to no safety and efficacy data

As news broke recently that the Covid vaccine for children under five would be delayed in the US amid ongoing clinical trials, a call to make the vaccines off-label for use among those children gained force – but officials caution against vaccinating young children without any safety or efficacy data for this age group.

When providers sign an agreement to provide Covid-19 vaccine shots, they also agree not to give the vaccine off-label, or use it for purposes other than what it was approved to do.

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If they could turn back time: how tech billionaires are trying to reverse the ageing process

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Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel are pouring huge sums into startups aiming to keep us all young – or even cheat death. And the science isn’t as far-fetched as you might think

In the summer of 2019, months before the word “coronavirus” entered the daily discourse, Diljeet Gill was double-checking data from his latest experiment. He was investigating what happens when old human skin cells are “reprogrammed” – a process used in labs around the world to turn adult cells (heart, brain, muscle and the like) – into stem cells, the body’s equivalent of a blank slate.

Gill, a PhD student at the Babraham Institute near Cambridge, had stopped the reprogramming process midway to see how the cells responded. Sure of his findings, he took them to his supervisor, Wolf Reik, a leading authority in epigenetics. What Gill’s work showed was remarkable: the aged skin had become more youthful – and by no small margin. Tests found that the cells behaved as if they were 25 years younger. “That was the real wow moment for me,” says Reik. “I fell off my chair three times.”

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The ugly truth: beauty’s not just skin deep – gorgeous people may be healthier too

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Good-looking people may be better at fighting infections, a study finds, so don’t feel shallow when you swipe right

Name: Gorgeous people.

Age: Considerable. Certainly of greater longevity than poor saps like you who’ve been battered by the ugly stick and, let’s face it, will probably die sooner than hotties like me.

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