What forecasters can learn from climate models to simulate the Covid pandemic
Epidemiologists predicting the spread of Covid-19 should adopt climate-modelling methods to make forecasts more reliable, say computer scientists who have spent months auditing one of the most influential models of the pandemic.In a study that was uploaded to the preprint platform Research Square on November 6, researchers commissioned by London’s...
Covid vaccine excitement builds as Moderna reports third positive result
They say good news comes in threes. For the third time in a week, a coronavirus vaccine developer has reported preliminary results suggesting that its vaccine is highly effective.Today, biotech company Moderna in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reported that its RNA-based vaccine is more than 94 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19,...
Trade: Synthetic alternatives to endangered wildlife products being developed
Roughly a million species are threatened with extinction, according to a major international study published last year. And trade and personal use by people is the second leading driver behind habitat destruction, the research established.Conservation agency, Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)...
CITES is a terminally ill patient in need of serious attention – conservationists
Customs officials in Singapore made a grisly discovery last April at a port on the island’s southern coast. Inside shipping containers supposedly transporting frozen beef from Nigeria to Vietnam, they found bloodstained sacks stuffed with 14 tonnes of scales stripped illegally from pangolins — scaly anteaters endemic to Africa and...
Different strokes: ‘Joe Biden is not president-elect’
Changing vote counts after Election Day raises significant legal and constitutional concerns and President Trump should use every legal and constitutional remedy to ensure that the American people can trust the results.Meanwhile, the media, including social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, are inaccurately labelling Biden as president-elect.No official sources...
Russia announces positive coronavirus vaccine results from controversial trial
For the second time this week, researchers have announced positive results for the final, human stages of a coronavirus vaccine trial. This time, the results are from the Russian vaccine trial, dubbed Sputnik V.On November 9, New York City-based drug company Pfizer put out a press release on positive interim...
Game-changer: New drug more effective in preventing HIV infection in women
A single shot given every two months has proved to be more effective than a daily pill at preventing HIV in women, researchers reported this week, an advance that medical experts hailed as ground-breaking in the fight against the deadly virus that causes AIDS.The finding that the long-acting drug would...
New NBA season set for December 22
The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players Association have set the date for the start of the 2020-2021 season.The two bodies have reached agreement in principle on the start of the new season as well as adjustments to some provisions of the current collective bargaining agreement as...
Cheap and rapid coronavirus testing to be available soon
The imminent large-scale rollout of rapid coronavirus tests promises to aid public health responses to Covid-19 — but a rapid home test remains elusive.New SARS-CoV-2 rapid tests, which can deliver results in a matter of minutes in the field rather than taking days in clinical diagnostic laboratories, are starting to...
10,000 reasons why you are tall or short
For height, DNA is largely destiny. Studies of identical and fraternal twins suggest up to 80 per cent of variation in height is genetic. But the genes responsible have largely eluded researchers.Now, by amassing genome data for four million people—the largest such study ever—geneticists have accounted for a major share...
