25 articles from SUNDAY 17.10.2021

Australia could see Covid surge from new variants even after 80% vaccination when border reopens

Modelling shows increased risk of outbreaks if a mutation similar to the transmissibility of Delta were to circulate with international arrivalsFollow our Covid live blog for the latest updatesVaccine rollout and rates tracker; cases and data trackerGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingIf the Australian international border is reopened while highly transmissible Covid-19 variants...

Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms: are these drugs the future of therapy?

Scientists treating depression and a range of other mental illnesses have been running controlled trials using MDMA and psychedelic drugs such as LSD, and the results have been encouraging.Dr Robin Carhart Harris, head the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, discusses his work showing how psilocybin (or magic mushrooms) can be used to assist psychotherapy for...

NASA, ULA launch Lucy Mission to ‘fossils’ of planet formation

NASA's Lucy mission, the agency's first to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids, launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Over the next 12 years, Lucy will fly by one main-belt asteroid and seven Trojan asteroids, making it the agency's first single spacecraft mission in history to explore so many different asteroids. Lucy will investigate these 'fossils' of planetary formation up close...

We put our child in charge for a day – it was both terrifying and freeing

One day a year our daughter does as she pleases and it’s always great fun… and a good education for us allWe call it her “in-charge day”. A day when our nine-year-old daughter Flora is in charge, and we are, effectively, hers to command. A day when all the traditional hierarchies between parent and child are reversed, when she can fulfil her fantasies, refuse to do anything she doesn’t...

Polygenic screening of embryos is here, but is it ethical?

The first child born using the technique arrived last year. But can it really help reduce diseases in a new generation, or is it ‘techno-eugenics’?The birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978 provoked a media frenzy. In comparison, a little girl named Aurea born by IVF in May 2020 went almost unnoticed. Yet she represents a significant first in assisted reproduction too, for the...

Pregnant women at risk from NHS workers’ mixed messages over safety of jab

Expectant mothers tell helpline that midwives are advising them against vaccines despite threat posed by virus• Coronavirus – latest updates• See all our coronavirus coveragePregnant women are being advised by some health professionals not to have the Covid vaccine despite an edict from the NHS that they should encourage them to get the jab. One in six of the most critically ill Covid...

Russian film crew return to Earth after shooting the first movie in space

Actor and director land safely in Kazakhstan after spending 12 days on the International Space Station shooting the first movie in orbitA Russian actor and a film director have returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station shooting scenes for the first movie in orbit.Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed as scheduled on Kazakhstan’s steppe early on Sunday,...