New Scientist Australian Edition 20-Jun-20

Virtual events How humans are altering life on Earth Author Helen Pilcher explores how humans have been tinkering with nature and altering the course of evolution via selective breeding, genetic technologies and by changing the biosphere. Thursday 25 June at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events What happened at the big bang? Theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper reveals how little we know about the first few seconds after the big bang and why the early universe could soon give up its secrets. Thursday 9 July at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events Podcasts Weekly Cracking nuclear fusion, countering coronavirus misinformation and meeting the largest land animal of all time. Plus: the creation of a macroscopic-sized quantum entity newscientist.com/podcasts Newsletter Fix the planet Our free newsletter delivers a monthly dose…

Virtual events How humans are altering life on Earth Author Helen Pilcher explores how humans have been tinkering with nature and altering the course of evolution via selective breeding, genetic technologies and by changing the biosphere. Thursday 25 June at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events What happened at the big bang? Theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper reveals how little we know about the first few seconds after the big bang and why the early universe could soon give up its secrets. Thursday 9 July at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events Podcasts Weekly Cracking nuclear fusion, countering coronavirus misinformation and meeting the largest land animal of all time. Plus: the creation of a macroscopic-sized quantum entity newscientist.com/podcasts Newsletter Fix the planet Our free newsletter delivers a monthly dose of climate optimism straight to your inbox. newscientist.com/sign-up/fix-the-planet Video Where we come from Harvard geneticist David Reich…

AS SOME countries take tentative steps back towards normality, thoughts inevitably turn to the future. What lessons are there from missteps made this time that we can apply to preparing for the next pandemic? Because, even though its nature, timing and deadliness cannot be known, we can be confident that there will be another. The forces that led to this one, including ever-greater international trade and travel and encroachment on wild areas, may be taking a short break, but will be back. In an ideal world, once the virus was properly under control, leaders would come together to take stock and produce a series of thoughtful steps to prepare for the next pandemic. Yet even in places that are easing restrictions, this current outbreak is far from over. In many parts…

ARIZONA, North Carolina and Florida are all US states that are now experiencing a spike in confirmed coronavirus cases while lifting stay-at-home orders. On 10 June, the US surpassed 2 million confirmed cases of covid-19, representing an increase of more than 140,000 from the previous week. Around two months ago, the country saw a weekly increase in confirmed cases of more than 210,000, largely due to hotspots such as New York City and Seattle, Washington. Rates of new cases in each of those cities, along with the percentage of tests that are positive, have now decreased. But places that weren’t as severely affected by the first peak are driving the recent increase, including regions of Arkansas, Georgia and California. In Florida, the stay-at-home order took effect on 3 April. That week, 6820 confirmed…

AS SOME countries take tentative steps back towards normality, thoughts inevitably turn to the future. What lessons are there from missteps made this time that we can apply to preparing for the next pandemic? Because, even though its nature, timing and deadliness cannot be known, we can be confident that there will be another. The forces that led to this one, including ever-greater international trade and travel and encroachment on wild areas, may be taking a short break, but will be back. In an ideal world, once the virus was properly under control, leaders would come together to take stock and produce a series of thoughtful steps to prepare for the next pandemic. Yet even in places that are easing restrictions, this current outbreak is far from over. In many…

“I THINK when you’re sitting in Europe, you feel like you just had the epidemic and everyone’s coming out of it. It feels like it’s over with. But it’s actually just at the start in every country in some ways,” says Azra Ghani at Imperial College London of covid‑19’s spread. Her view is backed up by World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, which show that the world experienced its highest daily jump in new confirmed coronavirus cases on 7 June, a record that, when New Scientist went to press, had since been broken three more times. “Although the situation in Europe is improving, globally it is worsening,” said WHO general secretary Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference on 8 June. The virus’s spread continues as the world rapidly approaches the grim threshold of…