16 articles from SUNDAY 24.7.2022

Monkeypox: Schiff demands to know why US does not have more vaccines

Ashish Jha, coronavirus response coordinator, defends Biden administration response but California Democrat wants answersExperience: my two weeks of monkeypox hellThe California Democrat Adam Schiff, a leading critic of the US response to the monkeypox outbreak, said on Sunday: “I don’t know why there aren’t more vaccines available.”Speaking a day after the World Health Organization...

Readers reply: which species exhibits the most diverse physical characteristics?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhich species exhibits the most diverse physical characteristics? I can’t think of a more varied example than the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Teri Robertson, NorthamptonSend new questions to nq@theguardian.com. Continue...

Want to stop feeling hurt when someone says no? Take the rejection therapy challenge

It’s easy to inure yourself to fear of rejection, all you have to do is be rejected every single dayIn 2012, 30-year-old Jia Jiang walked up to a stranger and asked if he could borrow $100. “No” was the response from the baffled man sitting in a hotel lobby. He wanted to know why he was being asked, but Jiang didn’t explain; he just said thanks then walked away. This was Jiang’s first...

Puzzle of prized white truffle finally yields to science

No one has been able to farm the rare, expensive fungus on a commercial scale – until nowThey emit intense aromas of garlic, fermented cheese and methane, and are so rare that they can fetch up to £9,000 a kilogram. Now, the puzzle that has confounded experts for more than half a century, of how to cultivate the elusive white truffle on a commercial scale, appears to have been solved.This week,...