11 articles from SATURDAY 4.7.2020

Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate change | Rebecca Huntley

The science has been settled to the highest degree, so now the key to progress is understanding our psychological reactionsIt took me much longer than it should have to realise that educating people about climate change science was not enough. Due perhaps to my personality type (highly rational, don’t talk to me about horoscopes, please) and my background (the well-educated daughter of a high...

WHO says trials show malaria and HIV drugs don't cut Covid-19 hospital deaths

Hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir not found to help patients in hospitalCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir for patients in hospital with Covid-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.The...

London hospital starts virtual ward rounds for medical students

Imperial College doctors with AR glasses examine patients as trainees watch remotelyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA flock of students stumbling after a consultant on a ward round has long been a familiar sight in hospitals. Perhaps not for much longer though – a university has pioneered the use of augmented reality to allow students to take part from home.Imperial...

Does the key to anti-ageing lie in our bones?

Osteocalcin, a hormone produced in the bones, could one day provide treatments for age-related issues such as muscle and memory lossGérard Karsenty was a young scientist trying to make a name for himself in the early 1990s when he first stumbled upon a finding that would go on to transform our understanding of bone, and the role it plays in our body.Karsenty had become interested in osteocalcin,...

It's Not a Snake, but Beware of Its Venomous Bite

If a worm and a snake had a slimy, scandalous love child, it might look something like a caecilian: a legless creature that's actually neither worm nor snake but a soil-dwelling amphibian found in tropics across the globe.Content to spend most of their time beneath the forest floor, caecilians are elusive and poorly understood. Which is why Carlos Jared, a biologist at the Butantan Institute...

Having anxiety and agoraphobia holds you back. But there are positives to be found…

If I hadn’t experienced anxiety and agoraphobia and the therapy that resulted from them, I wouldn’t now understand human complexities as I do, writes Charlotte LevinI sometimes wonder about my parallel life: the one in which I attended drama school, became a respected actor, travelled the world and ended up marrying Louis Theroux after meeting him at an awards ceremony. The life in which I...

Trump is scooping up the world’s remdesivir. It’s a sign of things to come | Devi Sridhar

The case of the Covid-19 drug shows how national interests will continue to define the allocation of research productsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageDonald Trump has called Covid-19 a hoax, encouraged his followers to take hydroxychloroquine and threatened to cut all ties between the US and the World Health Organization. He has predicted that coronavirus will...

‘It’s not over’: intimate diaries from the eye of the UK’s coronavirus storm

From an intensive care nurse to a homeless restaurant worker, four people changed by Covid-19 reflect on the most intense chapter of their livesOn 21 February, McFarlane, 57, was on her way back to Bangkok airport with her husband, Archie. The couple had been visiting their son, who works at an international school. “We felt apprehensive because the virus was starting to hit the news,” she...

Love of science, not Trump's ignorance, will make America great again

Amid a pandemic, the president rails against reason itself. The passions of his predecessors throw his failure into sharp reliefWe know what the temperature was in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776, because Thomas Jefferson wrote it down at 6am (68F), 9am (72.25F), 1pm (76F), and 9pm (73.5F). Even on this most important day, the author of the Declaration of Independence was never too busy to observe...

Coronavirus live news: worldwide cases top 11m as US states hit fresh highs

4 July holiday weekend set to start with continued rise in infections; Brazil cases pass 1.5m; Boris Johnson defends decision to reopen pubs on Saturday. Follow all the developments liveWhat we’re learning about Covid as US states open upHow Victoria’s outbreak divided AustraliaScotland and Wales attack UK government’s shambolic travel changes 12.53am BST New South Wales has quietly added...