38 articles from SATURDAY 9.1.2021

NHS counts cost of Christmas in lives and warns worst is yet to come

As Covid death toll passes 1,300 a day, doctors and hospital leaders say services are on brink of collapseIn normal times, January is the month for counting the cost of Christmas. The credit card bills arrive. New year resolutions are made. The consequences of recent indulgence have to be faced.This year, however, the price of having celebrated Christmas with loved ones could be far steeper –...

More asymptomatic testing can be a vital tool to stop the spread of Covid | Susan Hopkins

Local authorities are being called on to expand their plans as well as to support people who need to self-isolate Coronavirus - latest coverageSee all our coronavirus coverageWe now know that around one in three people who have coronavirus never show any symptoms but that does not mean they are not infectious. We need to use everything at our disposal to find these individuals without symptoms and...

2020 another grim year for Brazilian Amazon

Deforestation destroyed the equivalent of more than two football pitches each minute in the Brazilian Amazon in 2020, another devastating year for a resource seen as vital to curbing climate change, according to government data released Friday.

NIST publishes a beginner's guide to DNA origami

In a technique known as DNA origami, researchers fold long strands of DNA over and over again to construct a variety of tiny 3-D structures, including miniature biosensors and drug-delivery containers. Pioneered at the California Institute of Technology in 2006, DNA origami has attracted hundreds of new researchers over the past decade, eager to build receptacles and sensors that could detect and...

Researchers collaborate to aid coral reef restoration

Florida's threatened coral reefs have a more than $4 billion annual economic impact on the state's economy, and University of Central Florida researchers are zeroing in on one factor that could be limiting their survival—coral skeleton strength.

Child marriage is legal and persists across Canada

Canada is at the forefront of global efforts to end child marriage abroad. Yet this practice remains legal and persists across the country. In Canada, more than 3,600 marriage certificates were issued to children, usually girls, under the age of 18 between 2000 and 2018, according to a new study from researchers at McGill University. In recent years, an increasing number of child marriages have...

Users, not tech executives, should decide what constitutes free speech online

On January 7, following the violent white supremacist riots that breached the US Capitol, Twitter and Facebook both suspended President Donald Trump from their platforms. The next day, Twitter made its suspension permanent. Many praised the decision for preventing the president from doing more harm at a time when his adherents are taking cues from his false claims that the election was rigged....