Experts say discovery of 120,000-year-old prints could shed new light on spread of Homo sapiens out of AfricaA set of seven footprints made at a lake about 120,000 years ago have been hailed as the earliest evidence of modern humans on the Arabian Peninsula – a discovery experts say could shed light on the spread of our species out of Africa.The path by which Homo sapiens spread around the world...
Deal worth £118m covers design, manufacturing and testing of ESA’s first planetary defence missionThe European Space Agency has awarded a €129m (£118m) contract to the German space company OHB. The deal covers the design, manufacturing and testing of Hera, the ESA’s first planetary defence mission.Hera is the European contribution to an experiment called the asteroid impact and deflection...
Carmaker is to begin testing proposal to fit its Dyna vehicles with hydrogen fuel cellsPortable emissions-free “power plants” could soon hit the road under plans by Toyota to fit some of the company’s light-duty trucks with hydrogen fuel cells that can generate electricity.The world’s second-largest carmaker will begin testing the plan to fit a Toyota Dyna with hydrogen fuel cells in Japan...
Upwards curvature means foot muscles do less work, potentially weakening them over timeThey may feel comfy, but wearing shoes that curve upwards at the front may be weakening your foot muscles and increasing your risk of injury.This curvature, known as a “toe spring”, is a common feature of many shoes, especially trainers. It helps the front part of the foot to roll forwards when walking or...
It’s easy to feel angry towards those who don’t follow Covid-19 guidelines. Yet empathy is the key to changing people’s minds“I have asthma by the way,” a woman announced to me in my local cornershop this week. I hadn’t noticed her. She wasn’t wearing a mask; I was. “It’s OK!” I said, without a beat. She replied: “Just saying before you told me off for not having a mask.”I...
India reports world record one-day cases; Trump appointee to take leave after rant likening CDC scientists to ‘resistance’North-east of England faces new restrictions amid cases spikeCDC director says vaccine won’t be widely available until late 2021Why Covid may have already peaked in many African countriesChinese border city enters ‘wartime’ mode to tackle Covid outbreakSee all our...
Boris Johnson and his ministers chose early – and unwisely – to outsource their Covid response to big private companiesA friend texts: his five-year-old daughter is sick. On hearing the symptoms, the NHS helpline adviser says she must be tested for Covid. So he and his wife have been trying for two days straight to book her a test, with almost nothing to show for it. All they are offered is a...
Rates climb back up to several hundred per day after dwindling in June and JulyIn the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, Ireland’s contact tracers often made calls to people who were very sick, with some struggling to breathe.“In a lot of cases people were suffering extreme physical distress,” said Eamonn Gormley, a tracer at University College Dublin. “One person collapsed on the...
Teams around the world are hard at work developing Covid-19 vaccines. While any potential candidate will need to be tested on thousands of volunteers to prove its safety and efficacy, some scientists have argued that the race to the finish line could be sped up by human challenge trials — where participants are infected with a special strain of the virus. Ian Sample delves into some of the...