Leading UK expert says loss of funding certain to damage attempts to tackle virus and variantsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageVital coronavirus research, including a project tracking variants in India, has had its funding reduced by up to 70% under swingeing cuts to the UK overseas aid budget.One of Britain’s leading infectious disease experts said the UK government...
Latest updates: rate of coronavirus is decreasing across the UK, according to latest ONS figuresFigures on Covid deaths post-jab show vaccine’s success, scientists sayAstraZeneca CEO hits back at Covid vaccine supply criticismMinisters among main routes for PPE deal ‘VIP’ channel, court hearsUK economy builds momentum as Covid restrictions easeGlobal coronavirus updates – live 2.31pm BST...
Small number have died after being vaccinated, mostly having caught virus before dose could take effectA small number of people vaccinated against Covid have been admitted to hospital with the disease and died, researchers have found, but most were frail and elderly and caught the virus before the jab could have taken effect.Scientists say their findings are reassuring. They bear out the...
My husband, Nicholas Britton, who has died aged 67 of bone cancer, was a pioneering mathematical biologist whose research covered a huge range of subjects, from how malaria is transmitted to the growth of tree rings, and dialects in bird song.His teaching and work on modelling techniques made an important contribution to inspiring and training the generation of researchers who are currently...
China has sent into space the core module of its space station at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern province of Hainan, kicking off a series of key launch missions with one of the goals to create a national space laboratory.This will enable scientists from around the world to conduct multi-domain space science and technical...
Nasa’s sole choice of Elon Musk’s company for mission has been blamed on budget constraintsNasa has chosen SpaceX to supply the lander that will take astronauts to the moon as part of the agency’s Artemis programme.The 16 April announcement came as a surprise because the agency had originally planned to award competitive contracts to two companies. Budget constraints have been blamed for the...
When the fearless, open-hearted athlete took her own life in October, the shock was immense. Now her family is determined to find out why Damage found after late AFLW player Jacinda Barclay donates brain for concussion researchExplainer: what we know about concussion in Australian sportTall, whispering gum trees line the driveway of the Barclay property. The homestead sits nestled into the side of...
Analysis of bones from sixth to 16th centuries reveals the disease was 10 times more prevalent than expectedIt was a time when battles, plagues and ghastly accidents caused many a misery, but now research suggests the inhabitants of medieval Britain were no strangers to another tribulation: cancer.According to Cancer Research UK about 50% of people in the UK born after 1960 will receive a...
THURSDAY 29. APRIL 2021
Oliver Burkeman’s long read pitches philosophical readers against the more scientifically minded onesI read the online version of Oliver Burkeman’s long read that raises the question of whether free will is an illusion, and shortly afterwards read the same article again in print (The clockwork universe, Journal, 27 April). I was surprised when I realised that the brief reference to quantum...
Dr Dominic Salisbury says poor-quality evidence lies behind some treatments such as CBT In reviewing the possible role of psychology in treating long Covid (Long Covid is very far from ‘all in the mind’ – but psychology can still help us treat it, 27 April), Dr Carmine Pariante misrepresents why many ME/chronic fatigue syndrome patients remain sceptical about psychological interventions such...
Study of 11,584 staff found hesitancy was higher among BAME workers, as well as younger staffCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageUp to a quarter of British healthcare workers have expressed hesitancy towards Covid-19 vaccines, the first comprehensive study of NHS and care staff suggests. Conspiracy beliefs, a paucity of black and ethnic minority participants in vaccine...
Archaeologists studying Warsaw’s national collection of mummies expected to uncover a male priestPolish researchers examining an ancient Egyptian mummy that they expected to be a male priest were surprised when X-rays and computer tests revealed instead that it was a mummy of a woman who had been seven months pregnant.The researchers said on Thursday it was the world’s first known case of such...
Astronaut and first man to orbit the moon alone, during the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969On 20 July 1969, Michael Collins, who has died aged 90, became the most solitary human in the universe – even if he derided that categorisation as “phony philosophy”. He was the first man to orbit the moon alone, inside Apollo 11’s command module Columbia, and out of touch with ground control for...
China has successfully launched the first module of its new space station, part of an ambitious plan for Beijing to have a permanent human presence in space. The Tianhe, or Heavenly Harmony, unmanned core module, launched from Wenchang in China’s Hainan province, is expected to become fully operational in 2022, with about 10 more missions required to launch and assemble partsChina...
Hormones, steroids and antibiotics intended for use on dogs, horses, pigeons and farm animals intercepted by officialsThe government has been urged to open an investigation into illegal imports of veterinary drugs, after the number seized at the UK border increased dramatically last year.The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, the executive agency that regulates animal drugs, seized more than 40...
Impact is on par with adult punch and larvae can move fast enough to capture prey, researchers observedThere’s a small, iridescent crustacean you might have heard of: its powerful punch can crack holes in aquarium glass and be deployed at the speed of a bullet. These aggressive critters – called mantis shrimp – can also be trigger happy, keen to pummel prey, predators and even their own kind...
The space station is expected to become fully operational in 2022 after about 10 missions to bring up more parts and assemble them in orbitChina has launched the first module of its new space station, a milestone in Beijing’s ambitious plan to place a permanent human presence in space.The Tianhe or “Heavenly Harmony” unmanned core module, containing living quarters for three crew, was...
Over her career, first as a forester and then as a professor of forest ecology, Suzanne Simard has been uncovering the hidden fungal networks that connect trees and allow them to send signals and share resources. Speaking to Suzanne about her new book, Finding the Mother Tree, Linda Geddes discovers how these underground webs allow plants to cooperate and communicate with each other Continue...
WEDNESDAY 28. APRIL 2021
Michael Collins, who was part of the Apollo 11 moon landing crew and kept the command module flying while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 90, his family said on Wednesday. He was sometimes known as the ‘forgotten astronaut’ because he did not get to land on the moon, while Armstrong and Aldrin became household names. But his...
Examination of 1,400 living and extinct species finds evolutionary selection may not be reason for larger brainsBig-brained mammals are typically considered intelligent – but a study has found that the body size of a species could have evolved smaller to adapt to environmental changes, making the brain appear proportionally bigger. In other words, relative brain size may have nothing to do with...
Latest updates: Matt Hancock says UK has secured 60m doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be used for booster shots later this year. This live blog is now closed – please follow the global live blog for Covid updatesUK orders 60m more doses of Pfizer Covid vaccine for booster jabsUK drops plans for mandatory Covid passports in pubs and restaurantsNHS app will be used as Covid ‘vaccine...
Collins, known as the ‘forgotten astronaut’, kept command module flying while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moonMichael Collins, who was part of the Apollo 11 original moon landing crew and kept the command module flying while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, has died at the age of 90, his family said on Wednesday. Related: Mars...
Leaders across continent look to gathering pace of vaccinations as key to easing restrictionsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageEuropean leaders are lifting restrictions across a lockdown-weary bloc as they take what Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, has admitted is a “calculated risk” that accelerating vaccination campaigns will keep stubbornly high infection...
Discovery could accelerate development of easy-to-use treatments for mental health conditionsResearchers have identified a psychedelic that doesn’t trigger hallucinations, a key discovery that could allow scientists to accelerate the development of easy-to-use treatments for mental health and neurological conditions.Researchers are racing to harness the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for...
Malcolm Hole spent seven years working on island of volcanological significanceA geologist who spent seven years working in the Antarctic has had a peninsula on the continent named after him in recognition of his work.Dr Malcolm Hole became only the second person to visit Rothschild Island when he arrived there in 1985 and part of it has now been called the Hole peninsula. Continue...