Category Archives: Science

WHO condemns rush by wealthy nations to give Covid vaccine booster

Posted on by

Move likened to handing out life jackets to those who already have them while letting others drown

The World Health Organization has condemned the rush by wealthy countries to provide Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, while millions of people around the world have yet to receive a single dose.

Speaking before US authorities announced all vaccinated Americans would soon be eligible to receive booster doses, WHO experts insisted there was not enough scientific evidence to support the additional shot.

Continue reading...

Human remains in tomb are best-preserved ever found in Pompeii

Posted on by

Former slave who rose through the social ranks was interred at necropolis of Porta Sarno before AD79

The partially mummified remains, including hair and bones, of a former slave who rose through the social ranks have been found in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The remains of Marcus Venerius Secundio were found in a tomb at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, which was one of the main entrance gates into the city. The tomb is believed to date back to the decades before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

Continue reading...

New mathematical record: what’s the point of calculating pi?

Posted on by

The famous number has many practical uses, mathematicians say, but is it really worth the time and effort to work out its trillions of digits?

Swiss researchers have spent 108 days calculating pi to a new record accuracy of 62.8tn digits.

Using a computer, their approximation beat the previous world record of 50tn decimal places, and was calculated 3.5 times as quickly. It’s an impressive and time-consuming feat that begs the question: why?

Continue reading...

Swiss researchers calculate pi to new record of 62.8tn figures

Posted on by

Supercomputer calculation took 108 days and nine hours – 3.5 times as fast as previous record

Swiss researchers have calculated the mathematical constant pi to a new world-record level of exactitude, hitting 62.8tn figures using a supercomputer.

“The calculation took 108 days and nine hours,” the Graubuenden University of Applied Sciences said in a statement.

Continue reading...

Cooling consumerism could save the climate | Letters

Posted on by

Bill Kingdom says the battle against Covid provides lessons in how to cut consumption to ease global warming. Plus letters from Sue Dalley, David Hughes and Dave Hunter

In Adam Tooze’s article (By pushing for more oil production, the US is killing its climate pledges, 13 August), he surmised that economic activity and fossil fuel consumption are hardwired together. It may be more that economic activity and energy consumption are hardwired together – and thus the need to move to renewables or low-carbon energy sources. That must be part of the strategy, along with as yet unavailable technical solutions such as carbon capture.

However, we seem to tiptoe around the consumption part of any strategy. Lower consumption results in lower carbon emissions. The government has managed to exert strong influence over personal actions during the Covid pandemic using a myriad of three-word slogans. We need a similar push linked to consumption and climate change.
Bill Kingdom
Oxford

Continue reading...

‘Hidden pandemic’: Peruvian children in crisis as carers die

Posted on by

With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and poverty

When Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a coma.

Six months pregnant, López feared she would not wake up, or that if she did, her baby would not be there.

Continue reading...

Vaccine hesitancy is a symptom of people’s broken relationship with the state | Nesrine Malik

Posted on by

From Khartoum to Kansas, vaccine conspiracy theorists share one thing in common: they have lost their faith in government

It’s hard to explain what it feels like when someone you thought you knew intimately starts to repeat conspiracy theories about the pandemic and vaccines. You don’t really grasp what’s happening immediately: it’s too vast and jarring a realisation to gulp down in one go. So you go through phases. First you clutch at straws. Perhaps it’s a bad joke, or they didn’t really mean it, or they’re just misinformed. Then you enter a stage of hot, disorienting rage and frustrated remonstration. Once that is spent, finally you cool off. But inside you is a leaden realisation that not only is this person you love putting their life at risk: perhaps you never really knew them at all.

People with the wildest theories about the pandemic can be found in countries even where most people don’t have access to the internet, cable TV or the shock jocks of commercial radio. A common impulse is to write off those espousing conspiracies, consigning them to the casualties claimed by WhatsApp groups, disinformation or silent mental health issues. These things may be true – but vaccine hesitancy is a symptom of broader failures. What all people wary of vaccines have in common, from Khartoum to Kansas, is their trust in the state has been eroded. Without understanding this, we will be fated to keep channelling our frustrations towards individuals without grasping why they have lost trust in the first place.

Continue reading...

Covid news: all 16- and 17-year-olds in England to be offered first jab by 23 August – as it happened

Posted on by

UK department of health says the date will give teenagers change to build up immunity before school starts

We’re wrapping up the Covid live blog for today, here’s a quick summary of the latest developments:

France’s pass sanitaire health permit system will be extended to more than 120 major department stores and shopping centres on Monday in areas where levels of Covid infection are causing concern, including Paris and the Mediterranean coast.

The decision to extend the measure restricting entry to customers who can prove they have been vaccinated, have had a negative Covid test or have recovered from coronavirus was made by local officials.

The pass will now be required for shoppers entering Paris department stores such as Galeries Lafayette, Printemps, BHV, Le Mon Marché and La Samaritaine, and others mainly in the south of the country.

Related: French Covid permit scheme extended to Paris department stores

Continue reading...

Interoception: the hidden sense that shapes wellbeing

Posted on by

There’s growing evidence that signals sent from our internal organs to the brain play a major role in regulating emotions and fending off anxiety and depression

If you’re sitting in a safe and comfortable position, close your eyes and try to feel your heart beating in your chest. Can you, without moving your hands to take your pulse, feel each movement and count its rhythm? Or do you struggle to detect anything at all? This simple test is just one way to assess your “interoception” – your brain’s perception of your body’s state, transmitted from receptors on all your internal organs.

Interoception may be less well known than the “outward facing” senses such as sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell, but it has enormous consequences for your wellbeing. Scientists have shown that our sensitivity to interoceptive signals can determine our capacity to regulate our emotions, and our subsequent susceptibility to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

Continue reading...

New Covid variants ‘will set us back a year’, experts warn UK government

Posted on by

Vaccine-beating variant is ‘realistic possibility’, say scientists, amid calls for contingency plans to be revealed

Ministers are being pressed to reveal what contingency plans are in place to deal with a future Covid variant that evades current vaccines, amid warnings from scientific advisers that such an outcome could set the battle against the pandemic back a year or more.

Recent papers produced by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have suggested that the arrival of a variant that evades vaccines is a “realistic possibility”. Sage backed continued work on new vaccines that reduce infection and transmission more than current jabs, the creation of more vaccine-production facilities in the UK and lab-based studies to predict evolution of variants.

Continue reading...

Australia Covid live news update: NSW put in statewide lockdown as AMA says health system ‘can no longer manage’

Posted on by

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announces 466 cases, four deaths and 5km limit for greater Sydney

That’s where I’ll leave you for tonight. It’s been a big day. Let’s recap what we learned.

No public holidays for Parkes...

While the new PHO isn’t available, interesting to note that the Govt took no time at all to cancel the public holidays impacted by the lockdown… ‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/5uEtFIpKiE

Continue reading...

NSW Covid update: entire state in lockdown as premier warns ‘this is literally a war’

Posted on by

Australian Medical Association says NSW health system ‘can no longer manage’ after record Delta case numbers

New South Wales has been forced into a snap statewide lockdown after enduring its worst day of the Covid-19 pandemic so far, with 466 new cases and four deaths.

Australia’s most populous state has tightened restrictions and imposed new $5,000 fines for lockdown breaches, ahead of an expected worsening of numbers in coming days.

Continue reading...

Booster jabs for rich countries will cause more deaths worldwide, say experts

Posted on by

Oxford Vaccine Group and Gavi say western leaders must not ‘reject their responsibility to the rest of humanity’

Many more people around the world will die of Covid if western political leaders “reject their responsibility to the rest of humanity” by prioritising booster shots for their own populations instead of sharing doses, the head of the Oxford vaccine group has warned.

Writing for the Guardian, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, and Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, say that the scientific and public health case for large-scale boosting has not been made and could have far-reaching consequences in other countries.

Continue reading...

Common myths about Covid – debunked

Posted on by

Read on for the facts about Sars-CoV-2, backed up by science

Wrong. People who never get symptoms from Covid are less infectious than people who get symptoms, but they can still have high viral loads and can pass on the virus. And the peak infectiousness in those who do develop symptoms is actually the day or two before they start feeling ill.

Continue reading...

Woolly mammoth walked far enough to circle Earth twice, study finds

Posted on by

Research into life of Kik adds weight to theory that climate change could have contributed to species’ demise

He was huge, hairy and boasted two enormous tusks: researchers say they have discovered a woolly mammoth called Kik who traipsed almost far enough in his life to circle the Earth twice.

Experts say the work not only sheds light on the movements of the giant proboscideans, but adds weight to ideas that climate change or human activity may have contributed to the demise of most of the creatures about 12,000 years ago.

Continue reading...

Pores for thought: how sweat reveals our every secret, from what we’ve eaten to whether we’re on drugs

Posted on by

Just one drop of perspiration might soon be enough to identify a criminal or diagnose a cancer. But this fast-moving science could also pose a serious threat to civil liberties


When I deposited my index fingerprint on a laboratory slide so that Simona Francese could analyse it, I felt as if I was giving her the password to my body’s secrets. Most forensic scientists examine a fingerprint’s pattern but Francese, a forensic scientist from Sheffield Hallam University, analyses the chemicals left behind in those whirls and swirls. Her aim is to develop techniques that will allow her to extract identifying information about people at a crime scene from the sweaty residues they leave behind.

Fingerprints are inked with sweat, a body fluid that holds revealing information about our health and our vices. Our sweat glands source perspiration from the watery parts of blood, and any chemicals flowing around your circulatory system can, in principle, leak out of your sweat pores.

Continue reading...

Lesotho’s PM isolating with Covid as cases ‘go unrecorded’

Posted on by

Medics fear government is failing to gather data as ‘social media conspiracies’ slow vaccination take-up

Lesotho’s prime minister, Moeketsi Majoro, has said he is isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, as doctors warned that the true tally of cases in the country was going unrecorded.

Majoro tweeted that he had taken a travel-related test that came back positive.

Continue reading...

CDC urges pregnant women to get Covid vaccine, finding no increased risk of miscarriage

Posted on by

Updated guidance comes after a CDC analysis of new safety data, as vaccination rates remain low among pregnant women in the US

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention urged all pregnant women Wednesday to get the Covid-19 vaccine as hospitals in hot spots around the US see disturbing numbers of unvaccinated mothers-to-be seriously ill with the virus.

Expectant women run a higher higher risk of severe illness and pregnancy complications from the coronavirus, including perhaps miscarriages and stillbirths. But their vaccination rates are low, with only about 23% having received at least one dose, according to CDC data.

Continue reading...

UK orders extra Covid vaccines for autumn 2022 booster campaign

Posted on by

Pfizer reportedly asked to supply 35m more doses, with final go-ahead for this year’s programme still awaited

Ministers have started ordering vaccines for a booster campaign in autumn 2022, with Pfizer reportedly being asked to supply the UK with a further 35m doses.

The government has still not give the final go-ahead for the vaccine booster programme expected this autumn, but it is understood to have placed the order with Pfizer despite the company raising its prices.

Continue reading...