26 articles from SATURDAY 20.6.2020

'Wildly off-base': how did Australia get its coronavirus modelling so wrong?

Although early coronavirus modelling was inaccurate, experts say it did make us see what could happen if we did nothingWhen Covid-19 shifted from a disease in returned travellers to a virus that was spreading throughout the Australian community, dire predictions of deaths proliferated on social media and in the news.In March, the deputy chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, said modelling...

Breakthrough discovery to transform prostate cancer treatment

A novel formulation of the prostate cancer drug abiraterone acetate - currently marketed as Zytiga - will dramatically improve the quality of life for people suffering from prostate cancer, as pre-clinical trials show the new formulation improves the drug's effectiveness by 40 per cent.

NHS Covid app developers 'tried to block rival symptom trackers'

Developers claim government technology unit was hostile to other groups, hampering the fight against the diseaseNHSX, the health service technology unit responsible for the government’s failed contact-tracing app, attempted to block rival apps to protect its own, hampering efforts to track the early spread of the coronavirus.Developers were urged to stop work by NHSX and the Ministry of Defence,...

Why lockdown silence was golden for science

From acoustic engineers in Britain to marine biologists in Canada, researchers made the most of the drastic drop in noise from human activityOne of the few upsides of lockdown was that, if a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square, you had a chance of hearing it. City dwellers across the globe delighted in the silence, the freedom from the incessant rumble of traffic, and the joy of birdsong. How...

'Tipping point': Greta Thunberg hails Black Lives Matter protests

People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activistGreta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.Reflecting on the protests that have...

UK seeking to scale back plans for independent satnav, report says

Ministers reportedly exploring alternatives to plan announced in 2018 to build rival to EU’s Galileo projectBritish ministers are seeking to scale back plans for a £5bn satellite navigation system that was introduced in 2018 as an alternative to the European Union’s Galileo project, it has been reported.The ministers are exploring other options, which include using OneWeb, the UK satellite...