Trial suggests psilocybin combined with psychological therapy is as effective as antidepressant drugMagic mushrooms have a long and rich history. Now scientists say they could play an important role in the future, with their active ingredient a promising treatment for depression.The results from a small, phase two clinical trial have revealed that two doses of psilocybin appears to be as effective...
Households in Southwark and Barnet added to test drive in effort to curb spread of South African variantCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSurge testing has been expanded in London to two further postcodes in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa.On Tuesday it was announced that surge testing would be carried out in...
Remains of buildings near Yorkshire town said to be ‘most important Roman discovery of last decade’ When developers broke ground on the outskirts of Scarborough, they were hoping to build a housing estate ideal for first-time buyers, families and professionals, with en suites, off-street parking and integrated kitchens galore. But before shovels had even hit earth, they found someone else had...
Intact remains, discovered in Morocco, may help engineers create stronger lightweight structuresPterosaurs, one of the first and largest vertebrates to learn to fly, have often been seen as the cool cousins of the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex.Now scientists have discovered the 100m-year-old secret to the success of the flying pterosaur: a neck longer than a giraffe. Continue...
Scientists say the AstraZeneca vaccine has a greater effect when it comes to the cellular responseA single dose of either the Oxford/AstraZeneca or the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine generates a big protective antibody response against the coronavirus in the over-80s, researchers have found.The first study to look at the comparative performance of the two vaccines that have been in use in the UK in...
New strains such as the South African variant that’s emerged in south London will require constant vigilance as lockdown easesAll viruses mutate. They do this to adapt and survive better in their specific host. The virus that causes Covid-19 is no different: it has moved from the animal realm, where it most likely originated in bats, to the human world. Since then, scientists have been locked in...
New Netflix drama Stowaway is the latest in a crop of movies that suggests space travel is more random death and boredom than warp speed nineAnybody who fancies watching a new science fiction film this month can count their lucky stars. A Netflix drama, Stowaway, features Anna Kendrick, Toni Collette and Daniel Dae Kim as a trio of astronauts who are on their way to Mars when they discover that an...
A professor has suggested that press coverage could make people believe they have the conditionRejoice! A mystery has been solved. We now have an explanation for long Covid, a condition afflicting many thousands of people. A super-spreader has been identified. Important as this finding is, I’m reluctant to call for the vector to be eradicated. Why? Because it’s me.In a presentation to the...
Sleeping sickness, strange behaviour and mass hysteria ... a neurologist makes sense of ‘psychosomatic’ illnessIn Sweden in recent years, hundreds of children of refugee families have fallen into coma-like states and not woken up again, sometimes for months or years. Dozens of people in three Nicaraguan communities have had tremors, convulsions, breathing difficulties and hallucinations that...
Researchers to examine whether mixing vaccines may give longer-lasting immunity against virus Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA major UK study examining whether Covid vaccines can be safely mixed with different types of jabs for the first and second doses is to be expanded.Researchers running the Com-Cov study, launched in February to investigate alternating doses of...
They are 20 disparate diseases that, like mines, unduly affect the world’s poorest people. Now there’s a plan to eradicate them by 2030In January the World Health Organization launched a new strategy for eradicating neglected tropical diseases, boldly setting targets to eliminate 20 of them by 2030.But what are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)? There is no easy answer. The concept was first...
To understand why so many are craving human touch we can look to our evolutionary history – and the secrets of our skinDr Susannah Walker is a reader in behavioural neuroscience at Liverpool John Moores University“What I miss,” said one colleague last spring, during one of our weekly online team meetings, “are hugs, great big man-hugs, like I share with my dad and close male friends.”...
Colony does not perish when queen dies as ‘chosen’ workers shrink brains and expand their ovariesFew species in the animal kingdom can change the size of their brain. Fewer still can change it back to its original size. Now researchers have found the first insect species with that ability: Indian jumping ants.They are like catnip to researchers in the field. In contrast to their cousins,...