Patient is doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, doctors say, though it’s too soon to know if it is a successIn a medical first, doctors in Maryland have transplanted a modified pig’s heart into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life.Doctors at the University of Maryland medical center said Monday that the patient was doing well three days after the...
The solution to today’s puzzleEarlier today I set you the puzzle below, which is based on Gödel’s incompleteness theorem. As I discussed in the original post, this theorem is one of the most famous in maths and states that in any mathematical system there will always be true statements that cannot be proved.For example, in a formal mathematical setting, the statement ‘This sentence is...
Dominic Cummings | Science | Prayers | MarmaladeThe Conservatives warned that if Jeremy Corbyn were elected prime minister he would take Britain back to the 1980s. With all the cheese and wine parties at Downing Street (Dominic Cummings makes new claim of party in No 10 garden in lockdown, 7 January), it seems as if Johnson is aiming for the 1970s.Pete LavenderNottingham• Pots and kettles, worms...
Our research shows how differently the new variant infects and affects us, and underlines the need for an updated responseEmma Thomson is a professor in infectious diseases at the MRC Centre for Virus Research, GlasgowSince Omicron first emerged in late November, teams of scientists in the UK and beyond have been racing to understand it. The results so far suggest that this new variant is...
Contrary to mythical depictions of the iconic steeds as towering beasts, most in England were less than 14.2 hands highIn films and literature they are usually depicted as hulking, foot-stomping, snorting beasts but a new study has claimed that the medieval warhorse was typically a much slighter, daintier animal.A team of archaeologists and historians searching for the truth about the steeds that...
Access to vaccines, masks and tests will help us make the awkward transition from pandemic to endemicIn May 2020, we and other scientists predicted that many regions of the world might never reach the herd immunity threshold for Covid-19 – the point at which enough people are immune to infection that transmission begins to slow down.This remains true today, even as vaccines have become...
The proof that rocked mathsIn 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel published his incompleteness theorem, a result widely considered one of the greatest intellectual achievements of modern times.The theorem states that in any reasonable mathematical system there will always be true statements that cannot be proved. The result was a huge shock to the mathematical community, where the prevailing...
Most complete large ichthyosaur ever found in Britain found beside England’s largest reservoirThe fossilised remains of a 10 metre-long ichthyosaur, a giant “sea dragon” that terrorised marine life 180m years ago, have been discovered beside England’s largest reservoir.The discovery at Rutland Water nature reserve is the most complete large ichthyosaur ever found in Britain, with a skull...
Ichthyosaur about 10 metres long and dating back 180m years discovered at Rutland WaterA gigantic prehistoric “sea dragon” discovered in the Midlands has been described as one of the greatest finds in the history of British palaeontology.The ichthyosaur, which is about 180m years old with a skeleton measuring about 10 metres in length and a skull weighing about a tonne, is the largest and most...
Four storage solutions to help Britain keep the lights on deep into the futureSoaring energy bills rooted in a global gas supply crunch have focused minds on the age-old problem: how can we better store power?Attention has turned to the closure of the Rough gas storage facility in the North Sea in 2017, which left the UK with only enough storage to meet the demand of four to five winter days....