104 articles from FRIDAY 24.9.2021

Sponges, blood cells and sound-art: the exhibition hoping to cure my cancer

The UK’s first ever cancer research exhibition pairs up patients with researchers to show the creative paths taken on the cutting edge of human discoveryShortly before the pandemic hit, I found myself dressed in a red lab coat, trying to find a cure for blood cancer. Although that might be overstating things a little. It’s Professor Dominique Bonnet who is at the cutting edge of cancer...

The US is about to kick-start its controversial covid booster campaign

The news: The White House is set to kick off its booster shot campaign today, after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky overruled her own agency’s advisors in favor of recommending third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for frontline workers. Who gets it: There are three groups of Americans now eligible for a booster shot: those 65 and older, some adults...

A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century review – sciencey self-help

Evolutionary biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein show how human nature is at odds with modern society, in a study soaked in pseudoscienceImagine discovering a fence in the middle of a desert. Not immediately seeing its purpose, you might think: “Let’s get rid of this useless fence!” But are you sure about that? Maybe you’re at the edge of a field of angry wildebeest, and by...

Return of the common cold: infections surge in UK as autumn arrives

After 18 months of social distancing, scientists believe people’s immune defences have weakenedThe return of schools and the arrival of autumn means common colds and other respiratory infections are firmly on the rise, spreading coughs and sneezes, more severe illnesses, and prompting some to report their worst colds ever.According to Public Health England, there is no particularly nasty new...

If endangered primates disappear, so will their parasites. That's actually a problem

People are more aware of the plight of endangered gorillas than of gorillas' gut worms, and are understandably more enamored with mouse lemurs than their mites. Half of the world's roughly 500 primate species are at risk of extinction due to human activities such as hunting, trapping and deforestation. But the demise of the world's threatened primates could also trigger even more extinctions for...

Aging the unageable: New way to age lobsters

Researchers have developed a new way of determining the age of a lobster based on its DNA. Lobsters are notoriously difficult to age. Nobody knows exactly how old they can get, and some experts have estimated they could live on the ocean floor for as long as a century or more. Until now, a lobster's age has usually been estimated using its size - but this is inaccurate as individual lobsters grow...