The promise of neurotechnology to make lives better is growing. But do we need a new set of rights to protect the integrity of our minds?
“The skull acts as a bastion of privacy; the brain is the last private part of ourselves,” Australian neurosurgeon Tom Oxley says from New York.
Oxley is the CEO of Synchron, a neurotechnology company born in Melbourne that has successfully trialled hi-tech brain implants that allow people to send emails and texts purely by thought.
Continue reading...Astronauts who will leave the International Space Station on Sunday will have to use diapers on the way home, because of a broken toilet in their SpaceX capsule.
The Nasa astronaut Megan McArthur described the situation as “suboptimal” but manageable. She and three crewmates will spend 20 hours in the capsule, from the time the hatches are closed until a Monday morning splashdown.
Continue reading...The winning essay in the Max Perutz science writing award 2021, published below, was written by Vicky Bennett from the department of biology and biochemistry at Bath University
In May, PhD students who are funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) were invited to enter the Max Perutz science writing award 2021 and write a compelling piece about their research for the non-scientific reader.
From the many entries received, the 10 that made the shortlist covered diverse topics, including dementia, childhood adversity, the role of genes in schizophrenia and the use of hypnosis to treat psychosis.
Continue reading...Children ate less healthily, took less exercise and had more emotional problems, say researchers
Children in the UK ate fewer vegetables, took less exercise and experienced worsening emotional difficulties following the Covid outbreak, according to a research study.
A biennial survey conducted by investigators at Cardiff University found that primary school-age children reported a sharp increase in “elevated or clinically significant emotional difficulties” in early 2021, compared with the same survey conducted in 2019.
Continue reading...Pill can be taken twice daily at home and priority will be given to elderly patients and those with health vulnerabilities
The UK medicines regulator has become the first in the world to approve an oral antiviral pill for Covid in a move that paves the way for tens of thousands of vulnerable patients to receive the treatment from this winter.
Nearly half a million doses of molnupiravir, a pill that can be taken twice daily at home, are due for delivery from mid-November and will be given as a priority to elderly Covid patients and those with particular vulnerabilities, such as weakened immune systems. The drug will initially be given to patients through a national study run by the NHS.
Continue reading...Two people tell us about their experiences with CBT and how it changed their lives
The psychotherapist Aaron Beck, known as the father of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), died on Tuesday aged 100 at his Philadelphia home. CBT is a form of treatment that helps patients to analyse and manage negative thinking patterns rather than focusing on past conflicts. Here, two people tell us about their experiences with CBT and how it changed their lives.
Continue reading...Among under-18s, vaccine uptake is low, and there is a growing issue with misinformation spread on social media and at school. Is there anything a concerned caregiver can do?
Throughout the pandemic, Anna has worked for the NHS. She has seen the effects of Covid-19 first-hand and, although she worked remotely because she was in a vulnerable group, other colleagues – she is a physiotherapist – were deployed to Covid wards at the height of hospital admissions. “At the trust I work for, they’re setting up a long-Covid service,” she says. She comes home and her son Sam, 16, listens to her talk about it – and yet he is adamant that the coronavirus isn’t happening or that, if it is, it’s not serious. “You know: ‘Covid is a load of rubbish – it’s all about control’,” she says. “It’s all very conspiracy theory, a lot of his stuff.” He was adamant from the start that he wouldn’t be having the vaccine if and when it became available for his age group, and he has stuck to it. “He is very resistant,” says Anna. “He is pretty determined not to conform anyway. Part of it, I think, is him being a teenager, and the other bit of it is conspiracy theory: ‘It’s all a big con.’” His main source of information since the start of the pandemic has been social media, says Anna. “He watches a lot of YouTube.”
Just over a month ago, YouTube announced it would remove videos that spread misinformation about all vaccines, and would ban the accounts of anti-vax activists; it had already banned content with false claims about Covid vaccines last year. Facebook did the same in February this year, though a quick search reveals misinformation is still easy to find (one post I found within minutes claimed 80% of vaccinated women had miscarriages). On TikTok, “unvaxxed” content racks up hundreds of thousands of views. Last month, NewsGuard, an organisation that rates the credibility of news organisations and monitors misinformation, found Covid conspiracy theories were being viewed by millions on TikTok, and, in its research, children under 13 – the lower age limit – were able to access the app.
Continue reading...Researchers say leaves of the matalafi plant could also potentially be used to treat cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases
Leaves from a plant which can be found “in back yards across Samoa” could be as effective as ibuprofen in lowering inflammation and could even be used to treat illnesses such as Parkinson’s and cancer, a new study has found.
For centuries, the leaves of the psychotria insularum plant, known locally in Samoa as matalafi, have been used in traditional medicine to treat inflammation associated with fever, body aches, swellings, elephantiasis, and respiratory infections.
Continue reading...Microsoft founder says research and development budgets should focus on weaknesses exposed by rapid spread of Covid
A global research effort worth tens of billions of dollars is needed to ensure the world is better prepared for the next pandemic, which could be far worse than Covid, Bill Gates has said.
The Microsoft founder said the “completely horrific” death toll and economic damage inflicted by coronavirus should drive funding into projects aimed at improving vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests that will be needed to contain the next pandemic more effectively.
Continue reading...Oxford researchers arrive at virus’s toll in 31 countries by looking at deaths and age they occurred
Covid has caused the loss of 28m years of life, according to the largest-ever survey to assess the scale of the impact of the pandemic.
The enormous toll was revealed in research, led by the University of Oxford, which calculated the years of life lost (YLL) in 37 countries. The study measured the number of deaths and the age at which they occurred, making it the most detailed assessment yet of the impact of Covid-19.
Continue reading...Exclusive: study raises hopes that Covid-related damage to sense of smell may be more superficial than previously feared
The virus that causes Covid-19 does not infect human brain cells, according to a study published in the journal Cell. The findings will raise hopes that the damage caused by Sars-CoV-2 might be more superficial and reversible than previously feared.
The study contradicts earlier research that suggested the virus infects neurons in the membrane that lines the upper recesses of the nose.
Continue reading...Cop26 countries must take action to stop record heat becoming an annual event, say experts
The heatwaves and wildfires that caused devastation in Europe this summer would not have happened without global heating, new analysis shows.
The summer of 2021 was the hottest on record in the continent, with average temperatures about 1C above normal. The elevated heat caused wildfires and premature deaths.
Continue reading...The technology was viewed with scepticism before the pandemic but there is now growing confidence about its use
It is one of the most remarkable success stories of the pandemic: the unproven technology that delivered the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines in record time, helping to turn the tide on Covid-19. The vaccines are based on mRNA, the molecule that instructs our cells to make specific proteins. By injecting synthetic mRNA, our cells are turned into on-demand vaccine factories, pumping out any protein we want our immune system to learn to recognise and destroy.
Pre-pandemic, the technology was viewed with scepticism – a clever concept, but not guaranteed to deliver. Now there is growing confidence that mRNA vaccines could have far-reaching applications in tackling diseases from flu to malaria.
Continue reading...With millions of followers, the stance of some Apostolic church leaders threatens to undermine fight against Covid
Hymnal melodies reverberate around the hillside in Kuwadzana, a Harare suburb. On a blisteringly hot Saturday, members of the Apostolic church, dressed in white, hum and sing together.
Songs, long prayers and a little Bible reading punctuate the outdoor service. It’s a spectacle for passersby.
Continue reading...Accolade reflects how use of the short form of ‘vaccine’ rose by 72 times in a year and spread across society
In a year when talk over the virtual garden fence has focused on whether you have been jabbed, jagged or had both doses yet, and whether it was Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna you were injected with, Oxford Languages has chosen vax as its word of the year.
After deciding last year that it was impossible to sum up 2020 in one word, the company that produces the Oxford English Dictionary said the shorthand for vaccine had “injected itself into the bloodstream of the English language” this year during the Covid pandemic.
Continue reading...Evidence from animal remains shows Norse seafarers settled on the islands centuries before Portuguese explorers
They came from the land of the ice and snow and the midnight sun – but still ended up in some balmy destinations. This is the conclusion of researchers who have discovered evidence to support the idea that the Vikings settled on the clement shores of the Azores several hundred years before the Portuguese arrived in 1427.
Given that the Vikings are usually associated with the frozen north, the claim is startling. Nevertheless, it is based on solid science, says a group of international researchers who recently analysed lakebed sediments in the Azores, an archipelago in the mid-Atlantic.
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Losing weight may be tough, but keeping it off, research tells us, is tougher – just not for the reasons you might think
As the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University, Massachusetts, Susan Roberts has spent much of the past two decades studying ways to fight the obesity epidemic that continues to plague much of the western world.
But time and again, Roberts and other obesity experts around the globe have found themselves faced with a recurring problem. While getting overweight individuals to commit to shedding pounds is often relatively straightforward in the short term, preventing them from regaining the lost weight is much more challenging.
Continue reading...The veteran scientist on Trump’s limited impact, Russia’s ruthless climate stance and on the urgency of COP26 in Glasgow
Prof Peter Stott is a forensic climate detective who examines the human fingerprint on extreme weather. A specialist in mathematics, he leads the climate monitoring and attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services at the Met Office in Exeter and was part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change team that won the Nobel peace prize in 2007. Since he started in the field more than 25 years ago, Stott has often found himself on the frontline of the battle against the fossil fuel lobby, petrostates and sceptical rightwing US politicians, which he details in his new book. Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial. He is also exploring new forms of scientific expression and is co-founder, with his wife, of the Climate Stories initiative, which brings artists, scientists and members of the public together to respond to the climate emergency by creating new poems, songs and pictures.
You have spent a quarter of a century in climate science. On a personal level, how does that feel?
At times I have felt exhilarated about the progress of our science and hopeful that it will be acted on. In other moments, I felt dispirited that our warnings were ignored, such as at Copenhagen in 2009, or worried when we were attacked as in Moscow in 2004, or in the US and UK after Climategate. At those times, I felt I was uncovering an uncomfortable truth and there were people who were literally trying to stop me from saying it. Now I feel anxious that the clock is ticking on the whole issue. Another very hot year has gone by and there is no sign of action that is sufficient to change the data trends. That makes me concerned about the science I have spent 26 years doing. I hoped this work would make the world a better place, but I am increasingly anxious that this will not happen in time.
Prof Stuart Russell says field of artificial intelligence needs to grow up quickly to ensure humans remain in control
A scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb.
Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, said most experts believed that machines more intelligent than humans would be developed this century, and he called for international treaties to regulate the development of the technology.
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