51 articles from SUNDAY 11.7.2021

Festivals warn: change self-isolation rules or our staff will just ignore them

‘Untenable’ rules will force workers to delete NHS tracing app to avoid being pinged Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageFestival organisers have urged the government to change “untenable” self-isolation rules that they say are already causing staffing problems and could lead to people deleting the NHS Covid-19 tracing app to avoid getting “pinged”.Speaking...

History offers little guide to how we should escape from Covid’s clutches | Mark Honigsbaum

Herd immunity is this pandemic’s exit route, but passing the moral buck over to citizens is a dangerous strategy• Coronavirus – latest updates• See all our coronavirus coverageWhen at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic China placed a cordon sanitaire around Wuhan and then quickly extended it to eight other Chinese cities, placing 45 million people under lockdown, the immediate...

Pure folly: Turing family join fight to save ‘blue-skies maths’ from neglect

As hard-pressed universities axe abstract study, the codebreaker’s great niece and top mathematicians are fighting backAlmost exactly 80 years ago, British codebreakers made a crucial breakthrough. Using methods developed by the mathematical genius of Alan Turing, they were able to decipher the Enigma code that the Nazis were using on the eastern front in the second world war, gaining another...

Covid live news: public in England will be expected to wear masks indoors when measures lift, says UK minister

Nadhim Zahawi says mask guidance indoors is likely to stay in England and denies story that gap between vaccine doses will halfSajid Javid warns NHS waiting lists backlog could reach 13mSurge in Sydney cases leads to first locally acquired Covid death of year‘Their childhood has been stolen’: calls for action to tackle long CovidWoman, 90, infected with Alpha and Beta Covid variants at the...

Scientist Prue Hart: ‘Sunburn causes havoc in the skin – we should avoid it’

The inflammation researcher explains the health benefits and dangers of soaking up the sunProf Prue Hart is head of the inflammation research group at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Australia, which studies the beneficial effects of sunlight exposure on our health and whether these are the result of UV-induced vitamin D or other molecules produced in our skin upon exposure to sunlight.What...

Unlocking the ‘gut microbiome’ – and its massive significance to our health

Scientists are only just discovering the enormous impact of our gut health – and how it could hold the key to everything from tackling obesity to overcoming anxiety and boosting immunityIf you want to learn more about what’s going on in your gut, the first step is to turn your poo blue. How long it takes for a muffin dyed with blue food colouring to pass through your system is a measure of...

Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green; Until Proven Safe by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley – reviews

The story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is part manifesto for good science communications, part biomedical thriller, while a smart history of quarantines makes their utility resoundingly clearOn the first day of Wimbledon, Dame Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford’s Jenner Institute, was treated to a standing ovation from grateful spectators on a packed Centre Court. Together...

Baby gets go-ahead for world’s most expensive drug from NHS

NHS approved to use gene therapy to treat baby born with spinal muscular atrophyThe parents of a baby with a fatal condition have succeeded in their campaign for their son to be treated with the world’s most expensive drug.A new gene therapy, Zolgensma, will be used to treat 10-month-old Edward, from Colchester, who has severe spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), after his parents were given the green...

Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board

The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hourJuly is a frantic month for the two billionaires racing to kick off space tourism, with Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo set to launch on Sunday with the British entrepreneur on board just days ahead of rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in his rocket.Branson’s extraterrestrial...

Hepatitis C vaccine could be rolled out within five years, says Nobel Prize winner who discovered virus

A vaccine to protect against infection with hepatitis C could be in use within 5 years, says Professor Sir Michael Houghton, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology along with three other scientists for discovering the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in 1989. Sir Michael will discuss the development of a vaccine in a special presentation at this year's European Congress of Clinical...

High-tech toilets could spread antibiotic-resistant superbugs in hospitals, Japanese study suggests

Water-jet nozzles in electric toilets--commonly used in Japan and other parts of Asia--may be reservoirs for multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) in hospitals, increasing the risk of dangerous germ transmission among patients, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year.