35 articles from SUNDAY 20.9.2020

UK at 'critical point' over Covid-19, top scientists to tell public

Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty to make TV appeal ahead of ‘challenging winter’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBritain’s most senior government scientists will make a direct appeal to the public on Monday, warning that the coronavirus trend is “heading in the wrong direction” and “a critical point has been reached”.As Downing Street considers imposing...

Starwatch: equinox, when the sun sits on the equator

Tomorrow marks the changing of the seasons as the sun crosses the equator to bring summer to the southern hemisphere and winter to the northSummer officially ends in the northern hemisphere tomorrow, and we enter the autumn. This is the time of year when the length of day and night are exactly equal. Known as the September equinox, it always takes place sometime around the 21st of the month. This...

Efforts afoot to save South's disappearing grasslands

In the early 2000s, a harvest of pine trees on Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau led to a remarkable discovery. Once sunlight hit the ground, the seeds and rootstock of native grasses and wildflowers that had lain dormant for decades began to spring to life.

Efforts afoot to save South's disappearing grasslands

Once sunlight hit the ground, the seeds and rootstock of native grasses and wildflowers that had lain dormant for decades began to spring to life. The area was originally part of vast patchwork of Southern grasslands that today hang on only in tiny remnants, many times in rights-of-way next to roads or under power lines. In Tennessee, where the pine trees were cleared, wildlife officials now...

Amgen drug shrinks tumors in lung cancer patients with KRAS gene mutation - study

The median length of time that patients given the drug sotorasib lived before their disease worsened was 6.3 months for lung cancer patients and 4 months for colorectal cancer patients, the company said. Patients in the Phase I trial involving several types of cancer were treated with once daily sotorasib. The oral medication is designed to target a mutated form of a gene known as KRAS that...

My search for life on other planets kept me going when my husband died

For Sara Seager, star-gazing offered a sense of perspective when tragedy struckFifteen years ago, I started my job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an astrophysicist and planetary scientist, my job is to search for alien life. Not little green humanoids like ET, but signs of life on planets orbiting other stars. Every star is a sun and if our sun has planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth,...

Matt Hancock’s Covid cavalry is not yet on the horizon. We need a global approach now

The UK has done well on building capacity. But only wide access to simple, effective tests will allow us to manage life under coronavirusCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAs the UK battles with the overwhelming demand for Covid-19 tests, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said on Friday that the country needs to come together to keep the infection levels down while we...

Susan Michie: 'Bars and pubs and other high-risk places should not be open'

The psychologist and member of Independent Sage on the flaws in the Conservative government’s response to Covid-19, and its failure to build trust through honest communicationSusan Michie, 65, is a professor of health psychology at University College London and leader of the Human Behaviour Change project funded by the Wellcome Trust. She has been part of the Covid-19 behavioural science team, a...

Dismay as Britain faces up to prospect of new coronavirus lockdown

Boris Johnson under pressure as virus flares and experts despair at opportunities wasted during the summerCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWith the days shortening and the prospect of a tighter local lockdown imminent, there was understandable dismay among residents and business owners in London on Saturday. Outside Blade Hairclubbing, on Frith Street, Soho, three...

The search for life – from Venus to the outer solar system

While the discovery of the normally microbe-produced phosphine on our toxic neighbour is astonishing, other candidates for life are more promisingIt remains one of the most unexpected scientific discoveries of the year. To their astonishment, British scientists last week revealed they had uncovered strong evidence that phosphine – a toxic, rancid gas produced by microbes – exists in the...