28 articles from SUNDAY 20.12.2020

The Guardian view on a new Covid strain: a more stringent lockdown beckons | Editorial

A mutant virus cannot wholly explain why the UK is in this mess or distract from the other failures that have led us hereThe lockdown in the south-east of England may be the shape of things to come. Sixteen million people are under new severe tier 4 restrictions and there are suggestions that these tougher new rules could be in place for months. Many more across the country have seen their plans...

All about my father: chef Ravinder Bhogal on her distant dad

My father was exiled from my emotional life – and it was only when he was dying that I started to understand whyMy father was my first love. It wasn’t a romantic love, of course, but all the ache of love was in it. He was handsome, charming and dangerous. It was more than just a minor crush – it was a fatal, all-consuming yearning for his affection that engulfed me like a slow, devastating...

The most exciting scientific breakthroughs of 2020, chosen by scientists

The response to Covid-19 has been momentous but discoveries in AI, diet, conservation, space and beyond, show the power of science to improve the world post-pandemicIn 2020 the race to space changed gear. The May launch of the SpaceX vehicle Crew Dragon was the first time a private vehicle had delivered astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It was deeply impressive, but also...

Early humans may have survived the harsh winters by hibernating

Seasonal damage in bone fossils in Spain suggests Neanderthals and their predecessors followed the same strategy as cave bearsBears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated, according to fossil experts.Evidence from bones found at one of the world’s most important fossil sites suggests that our...

We need even tougher curbs to fight this new coronavirus strain

The virus is likely to have spread more widely than the south-east of England, so the lockdown is likely to expandCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWhile the country has obsessed over the Christmas restrictions over the last few weeks the real story lay elsewhere, it transpires. A new strain of the coronavirus emerged a couple of months ago, probably somewhere in the...

The Observer view on Boris Johnson’s Christmas U-turn | Observer editorial

The prime minister made the right decision in the face of rising infections, but he left it far too late‘We don’t want to cancel Christmas… I think that would be inhuman,” the prime minister said just last Wednesday in response to calls from scientific experts to reduce the relaxation of social restrictions allowing households to mix over Christmas.Four days later, he was forced to...

Performance breakthrough by topological-insulator into a waveguide-resonator system

Topological insulator (TI), a major discovery in condensed matter physics since this century, has now been introduced into waveguide-resonator systems. Along with basic similarities with classical ones, a TI enhanced system shows great advantages. A recent research in Nanjing University boosted the confidence of using the concepts of TI for practical device performance and functionalities, with...

Protecting against atherosclerosis at the molecular level

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba identified a novel mechanism by which CREB3L3 protects against atherosclerosis. By studying the absence or overexpression of the protein in mice prone to develop atherosclerosis, the researchers demonstrated that the absence of CREB3L3 exacerbates the formation of atherosclerosis, whereby the overexpression protects against atherosclerosis. At the...

Scientists solve 'flea mystery'

Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) and the University of Bristol in the UK solved the 'Flea Mystery.'

Study sheds new light on how the brain distinguishes speech from noise

For the first time, researchers have provided physiological evidence that a pervasive neuromodulation system - a group of neurons that regulate the functioning of more specialized neurons - strongly influences sound processing in an important auditory region of the brain. The neuromodulator, acetylcholine, may even help the main auditory brain circuitry distinguish speech from noise.