Category Archives: Science

Government announces 50 new cases amid fears of extended lockdown – as it happened

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NSW reports 47 people in hospital, with 16 in intensive care including a teenager. This blog is now closed

We’re going to wind things up for the evening. Here’s a reminder of what we learned today:

NSW has updated its list of venues of concern. New close contact venues include Bupa Dental in Miranda from 10.50am to 12pm on Wednesday 7 July, Chemist Warehouse in Punchbowl on Thursday 8 July from 9.20am to 9.40am and Direct Trade in Merrylands from 2.20pm to 2.50pm on Saturday 3 July.

The full list of venues is on the NSW Health website.

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Spectators banned from Olympics as Tokyo Covid emergency declared

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Japanese prime minister says Tokyo’s fourth state of emergency will begin on Monday

Olympic organisers have decided to ban spectators from the Tokyo Games after Japan’s prime minister declared a state of emergency in the host city.

The news was confirmed by the Olympic minister, Tamayo Marukawa, following talks between the government, organisers and Olympic and paralympic representatives - although he left open the possibility that some venues outside Tokyo could still have fans.

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Human body size shaped by climate, evolutionary study shows

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Research combines data from fossils with climate models, revealing the effect of climate on body and brain size

A well-known pattern in human evolution is an increase in body and brain size. Our species, Homo sapiens, is part of the Homo genus and emerged about 300,000 years ago. We are much bigger than earlier Homo species and have brains three times larger than humans who lived a million years ago.

There has been debate over the factors causing humans to evolve in this way, prompting a research team led by Cambridge University and Tübingen University in Germany to combine data on more than 300 human fossils from the Homo genus with climate models to establish the role the climate played in driving evolution.

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Global experts urge Boris Johnson to delay ‘dangerous’ Covid reopening

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More than 100 scientists and doctors say move risks creating a generation with problems due to long Covid

Lifting the remaining Covid restrictions in England this month is “dangerous and premature”, according to international scientists and doctors, who have called on the UK government to pause reopening until more people are vaccinated.

Writing in the Lancet, more than 100 global experts warn that removing restrictions on 19 July will cause millions of infections and risk creating a generation with chronic health problems and disability from long Covid, the impact of which may be felt for decades.

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World ‘must step up preparations for extreme heat’

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Rising temperatures may be hitting faster and harder than forecast, say climate scientists in wake of heatwave in US and Canada

The world needs to step up preparations for extreme heat, which may be hitting faster and harder than previously forecast, a group of leading climate scientists have warned in the wake of freakishly high temperatures in Canada and the US.

Last week’s heat dome above British Columbia, Washington state and Portland, Oregon smashed daily temperature records by more than 5C (9F) in some places – a spike that would have been considered impossible two weeks ago, the experts said, prompting concerns the climate may have crossed a dangerous threshold.

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Temperatures rising – Inside the 9 July Guardian Weekly

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Is the world getting too hot for humans?
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Last week’s searing temperatures in North America’s Pacific north-west were more than just another heatwave. The 49.6C registered in the tiny British Columbian town of Lytton was not simply the hottest temperature on record in Canada, it also defied computer modelling of how the world might change as emissions rise. Our global environment editor Jonathan Watts looks at how the rare phenomenon known as a heat dome is part of a growing trend towards extreme weather events, while climate science professor Simon Lewis explains why global heating is making more of the planet too hot for humans.

Starting with the Soviet invasion of the 1970s, Afghanistan has spent four decades as a battleground for proxy wars between competing nations and ideologies. As US and British troops withdraw, Emma Graham-Harrison returns to Kabul, where she spent several years as a foreign corespondent, to find little optimism and much anxiety at the resurgence of the Taliban.

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Kenya in rush to vaccinate 4m children as measles cases surge

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WHO reports measles outbreaks in eight African countries amid huge fall-off in jabs during Covid

Kenya has restarted its vaccination programme in an effort to tackle the re-emergence of measles, which has surged in the country during the Covid restrictions.

A 10-day campaign against highly contagious measles and rubella has begun to target 4 million children aged nine months to five years in 22 of Kenya’s 47 counties where outbreaks are highest.

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What are the risks of England unlocking in the Covid third wave?

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Analysis: Boris Johnson is betting big by easing rules on 19 July despite new infections rising exponentially

Lifting the final Covid restrictions in England on 19 July is a gamble for the government. Even without further easing, cases are on course to surpass 50,000 a day by mid-July. Thereafter they could swiftly exceed the winter peak of 81,000 and hit 100,000 or more, the health secretary has said. What the next wave means for lives and the NHS is still deeply uncertain – but the science offers some clues.

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Climate crisis causing male dragonflies to lose wing ‘bling’, study finds

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Black patterns used to attract mates can cause the insects to overheat in hotter climates

Male dragonflies are losing the “bling” wing decorations that they use to entice the females as climates get hotter, according to new research.

The results have led to the scientists calling for more work on whether this disparate evolution might lead to females no longer recognising males of their own species in the long run.

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Surging Covid and unlocking: does England risk being a variant factory?

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Many scientists argue that lifting all restrictions at this stage will increase likelihood of dangerous variants

Covid cases in the UK are rising exponentially, largely in younger age groups who are more likely to be partially or completely unvaccinated. What does this mean for the risk of new variants popping up?

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Astronauts at China’s new space station conduct first spacewalk

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Astronauts dock at the Tiangong station where they will remain for three months as Beijing presses on with extraterrestrial ambitions

Astronauts at China’s new space station conducted their first spacewalk Sunday, state media reported, as Beijing presses on with its extraterrestrial ambitions.

It was only the second time the country’s astronauts have stepped out of their craft while in space.

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Brazilians take to streets to demand removal of Jair Bolsonaro

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Calls for president’s impeachment grow amid claims government sought to profit from Covid jabs

Huge crowds of protesters have returned to the streets of Brazil’s biggest cities to demand the removal of a president they blame for more than half a million coronavirus deaths.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators hit the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning as calls for Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment intensified after allegations that members of his government had sought to illegally profit from the purchase of Covid vaccines.

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Vaccines ‘outpaced by variants’, WHO warns, as Delta now in 98 countries

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Proposals to extend Covid jabs to children in west would delay worldwide rollout, say experts, and allow deadly variants to develop elsewhere

Rich nations are sharing vaccines with low-income countries too slowly to prevent the spread of the Delta variant of Covid, risking millions of lives, the head of the World Health Organization has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said the sharing of vaccines was “only a trickle, which is being outpaced by variants”, after it emerged that the Delta variant is now present in at least 98 countries.

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Coronavirus live news: Iran fears fifth wave due to Delta variant; keep some restrictions in England after 19 July, doctors urge

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BMA chair says easing restrictions not an ‘all or nothing decision’; Indonesia locks down Bali and Java in effort to curb surging infections

The UK government has confirmed that proposals to end the requirement to self-isolate for those who have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine are under “consideration”.

Downing Street said it was looking at whether to drop all legal self-isolation measures for fully vaccinated people who come into contact with someone who is infected “as part of the post-Step 4 world”.

Hundreds of healthcare workers in Italy have launched a legal bid against the requirement that they get the Covid-19 vaccination, according to media reports.

The case, brought by professionals throughout northern Italy, will be heard on 14 July.

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‘Real’ T rex goes on show in England for first time in over a century

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The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US in 2018, makes its world debut at Nottingham museum

The first ‘real’ Tyrannosaurus rex to be exhibited in England for more than a century will go on show in Nottingham on Sunday.

The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US state of Montana in 2018, will make its world debut at the Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum as part of a new exhibition on the dinosaur’s life and environment.

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Thailand reports record Covid-19 cases as concerns mount about vaccine shortages

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Health authorities reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day

Health authorities in Thailand reported more than 6,200 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday, setting a record for a third straight day, as concerns mounted over shortages of treatment facilities and vaccine supplies.

Officials also reported 41 deaths, bringing the total to 2,181.

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Richard Branson aims to beat Jeff Bezos into space by nine days

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Virgin Galactic founder has announced he will take off on board the next test flight on 11 July

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days.

Branson’s company announced on Thursday evening that its next test flight will take place on 11 July and that its founder will be among the six people on board. All other passengers are company employees. It will be only the fourth trip to space for Virgin Galactic.

The winged rocket ship – the first carrying a full crew – will launch from New Mexico after the US Federal Aviation Administration gave Virgin permission to take paying customers to space in late June, after a successful test flight in May.

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Australia ‘at back of the queue’ for Pfizer Covid vaccines, minister admits

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Bulk of Pfizer and other mRNA vaccines expected to arrive in third quarter of this year, despite widespread lockdowns

Australia’s finance minister has said the country is at the “back of the queue” for Pfizer vaccines, contradicting assurances from the prime minister Scott Morrison and the health minister that “our strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue”.

Simon Birmingham on Thursday said Australia has had supply challenges “because European countries and drug companies have favoured those nations who’ve had high rates of Covid for the delivery of vaccines like Pfizer”.

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Scientists urge UK to expand official list of Covid symptoms

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UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste

Senior scientists have called for the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms to reduce the number of missed cases and ensure more people know they should self-isolate.

The researchers, who include Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Sage committee of experts, argue the UK’s narrow clinical definition of Covid leads to delays in identifying people with the disease and may miss them altogether, hampering efforts to disrupt the spread of the virus.

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Covid: Sage scientist fears England could repeat ‘mistakes of last summer’

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Prof Stephen Reicher says restrictions may have to be reimposed if reopening leads to surge in infections

A scientific adviser to the government’s Covid-19 response has expressed fears England could be in danger of repeating “the mistakes of last summer”.

Prof Stephen Reicher, from the University of St Andrews and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) subcommittee on behavioural science, said the government may have to reimpose restrictions if the reopening leads to a surge in infections.

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