27 articles from SATURDAY 17.4.2021

Tinnitus helpline reports a surge in calls since start of the coronavirus pandemic

Scientists are concerned virus or medication used for treating Covid-19 is causing ear damageCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore people are complaining of developing tinnitus for the first time or have found their symptoms have worsened since the start of the pandemic, according to scientists and other leading experts who specialise in the condition.The British...

Walking or running in nature with a therapist is helping people heal

Outdoor therapy can help people to become reflective and their body language while moving gives clues to their feelingsCovid has transformed the way many of us work and that includes the people who look after our mental health. For much of lockdown, psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists and psychiatrists have all had to venture into the world of online therapy, tackling their clients’...

AI ethicist Kate Darling: ‘Robots can be our partners’

The MIT researcher says that for humans to flourish we must move beyond thinking of robots as potential future competitorsDr Kate Darling is a research specialist in human-robot interaction, robot ethics and intellectual property theory and policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. In her new book, The New Breed, she argues that we would be better prepared for the future...

NASA’s NICER Probes the Squeezability of Neutron Stars

Portal origin URL: NASA’s NICER Probes the Squeezability of Neutron StarsPortal origin nid: 470204Published: Saturday, April 17, 2021 - 11:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: Matter in the hearts of neutron stars – dense remnants of exploded massive stars – takes the most extreme form we can measure. Now, thanks to data from NASA’s NICER, an...

Climate Change Is the Biggest Story on Earth. So Why Can’t Hollywood Make Good TV Shows and Movies About It?

Last summer, I wrote a short story entitled Rat Island, set in a post-pandemic United States. In it, the rule of law and social order have broken down, with mobs roaming the streets of Los Angeles. A wealthy group of people stand on top of a skyscraper, waiting for the helicopter that will whisk them away, but the crowd storms the building, desperate to board. In the fall of 2020 my agent...

Add India to UK travel ban list to stop Covid variant, urges scientist

Indian coronavirus variant has potential to ‘scupper’ lockdown easing, says professor of immunologyCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIndia should be placed on the UK’s “red list” for travel after the discovery of a new coronavirus variant, according to a leading scientist.Prof Danny Altmann, from Imperial College London, said it was “mystifying” and...

Wilhelm Reich: the strange, prescient sexologist who sought to set us free

He believed orgasms could be a healing force and coined the term ‘sexual revolution’. Reich’s understanding of the body is vital in our age of protests and patriarchy, writes Olivia LaingThere are certain people who speak directly into their moment, and others who leave a message for history to decipher, whose work gains in relevance or whose life becomes uncannily meaningful decades after...

Pandemic made 2020 ‘the year of the quiet ocean’, say scientists

Human-generated sounds faded substantially at height of Covid lockdown, studies showCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe Covid-19 lockdown has produced the quietest year for the world’s oceans in recent memory, according to a group of scientists working on a global map of underwater soundscapes.Noise pollution from ship engines, trawling activities, oil platforms,...

Nasa picks Elon Musk’s SpaceX to build spacecraft to return humans to moon

Space agency breaks with tradition by awarding $2.9bn contract to single company in ‘big step’ for moon-to-Mars strategyNasa has chosen SpaceX to build the next-generation spacecraft that will return humans to the moon, further strengthening Elon Musk’s grip on the burgeoning public-private space industry.The $2.9bn contract to build the lunar lander that will spearhead the Artemis program,...

Heart patients advised to move more to avoid heart attacks and strokes

Elevated blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes increase the risk of heart disease. But a large study today reveals that in people with these conditions, increasing activity levels is associated with a reduced likelihood of heart events and mortality. The research is presented at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2021, an online scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

New amphibious centipede species discovered in Okinawa and Taiwan

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University and Hosei University have discovered a new species of large, tropical centipede of genus Scolopendra in Okinawa and Taiwan. It is only the third amphibious centipede identified in the world, and is the largest in the region, 20 cm long and nearly 2 cm thick. It is also the first new centipede to be identified in Japan in 143 years, testament to the...

Scientists find Galapagos volcano could help forecast future eruptions

The Galápagos Islands have played a historic role since Charles Darwin's visit onboard the HMS Beagle in 1835. Today, a team of scientists, including from the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, studied a large eruption in the archipelago to get new insights into how volcanoes behave and could help forecast future events.