21 articles from SATURDAY 6.6.2020

'It’s psychologically easier': how anti-vaxxers capitalised on coronavirus fears to spread misinformation

While many believe a Covid-19 vaccine will be a ‘ticket out’, experts are concerned getting people to take it is the real challengeSign up for Guardian Australia’s daily coronavirus emailDownload the free Guardian app to get the most important news notificationsWhen Susan had a baby daughter, she was not planning on having her vaccinated. It didn’t seem abnormal to her – most of her...

Prime minister told to dump rhetoric and plan for new Covid wave

Medical chiefs call for a public health campaign as faith in government strategy slumpsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSenior figures from across the NHS have issued an urgent plea for a comprehensive plan to tackle a second wave of coronavirus infections, as Boris Johnson continues to lose public confidence in his handling of the pandemic.Amid persistent fears among...

Coronavirus disrupts global fight to save endangered species

Biologist Carlos Ruiz has spent a quarter-century working to save golden lion tamarins, the charismatic long-maned monkeys native to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Thanks to painstaking reforestation efforts, the population of these endangered monkeys was steadily growing until an outbreak of yellow fever hit Brazil in 2018, wiping out a third of the tamarins. Enter the coronavirus, which is now...

SpaceX opens era of amateur astronauts, cosmic movie sets

SpaceX’s debut astronaut launch is the biggest, most visible opening shot yet in NASA’s grand plan for commercializing Earth’s backyard. Amateur astronauts, private space stations, flying factories, out-of-this-world movie sets — this is the future the space agency is striving to shape as it eases out of low-Earth orbit and aims for the moon and Mars. NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, who will...

Labour accuses government of cover-up over BAME Covid-19 report

Vital recommendations that could help protect people are missing from review, say MPsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLabour has accused the government of “covering up vital recommendations” that could help prevent black, Asian and minority ethnic people dying from coronavirus.Concerns about censorship mounted this week after third-party submissions, which...

How Google Docs became the social media of the resistance

In the week after George Floyd’s murder, hundreds of thousands of people joined protests across the US and around the globe, demanding education, attention, and justice. But one of the key tools for organizing these protests is a surprising one: it’s not encrypted, doesn’t rely on signing in to a social network, and wasn’t even designed for this purpose. It’s Google Docs. In just the...

I’ve been ill for months, but I still don't know if it is Covid-19

I’ve had a fever, a cough and breathlessness since February, and been in and out of hospital. If it isn’t coronavirus, what is it? By Simon HattenstoneI’m lying in bed, shivering like crazy. My partner, Diane, is asleep, and I burrow deep into her back. I’m sweating like crazy, too. I’m desperate for the loo, and I run there in my shivery sweats and sweaty shivers. It’s only five...

Environmental noise changes evolutionary cooperation between cellular components, model shows

Cells are massive factories, containing a multitude of substations devoted to specific tasks all devoted to keeping the overarching organism alive. Until now, researchers have questioned how such diverse components evolve in tandem -- especially when each component can evolve in a variety of ways. Two researchers based in Tokyo, Japan, have developed a statistical physics model to demonstrate how...

Lightning fast algorithms can lighten the load of 3D hologram generation

Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new way of calculating simple holograms for heads-up displays (HUDs) and near-eye displays (NEDs). The method is up to 56 times faster than conventional algorithms and does not require power-hungry graphics processing units (GPUs), running on normal computing cores like those found in PCs. This opens the way to...