New Scientist Australian Edition 1-Aug-20

Virtual events The end of the universe Will our universe collapse on itself, rip itself apart or succumb to an expanding bubble of doom, asks astrophysicist Katie Mack. Thursday 13 August at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events What were the Neanderthals really like? Archaeologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes reveals the fascinating story of the Neanderthals, shedding new light on their complex lives. Thursday 27 August at 6pm BST/1pm EDT and on demand. newscientist.com/events Podcasts Weekly The hidden dark matter of our food; NASA’s new search for life on Mars; smallpox in the American civil war. Plus: quadruple-stranded DNA and a polystyrene-eating beetle. 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 Robot masseurs Now you can have…

PHOTONS travel light. They have been zinging around the cosmos largely unimpeded since around 380,000 years after the big bang, when atoms formed and the universe became transparent to them. Astronomy is essentially the act of capturing as many photons as possible; cosmology that of translating this act into a coherent picture of the universe. News this week that we have made our best ever map of the cosmos, depicting some 11 billion years of its history, is a milestone on both counts (see page 12). It is the result of two decades of light gathering by astronomers at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). For cosmologists, the map is the best confirmation yet that their standard model of the universe…

CASES of the coronavirus hit a new daily high of around 300,000 globally on 27 July, with more than half occurring in the Americas – the US alone has been reporting a seven-day average of 67,000 daily cases since 21 July. The virus is also spreading rapidly in India, Brazil and South Africa, which haven’t yet suppressed their first peaks. There has also been a worrying uptick of cases in Asia. On 26 July, China, where the outbreak began, saw its highest number of new daily cases since March. The next day, Hong Kong announced new restrictions to curb infections, as did the city of Danang in Vietnam, which reported the country’s first community transmission since April. Speaking during a World Health Organization press conference on 27 July, Maria Van…

LAST week was a big one for Sarah Gilbert at the University of Oxford, leader of the team that created the “Oxford vaccine”, a front runner in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. On 20 July, her team published results showing that the vaccine produces the desired immune responses in people. Gilbert says she took a moment to pause ahead of the announcement – she had most of the day before, a Sunday, off. That is a rare luxury these days. She normally works long hours, including on weekends. “There is a lot going on during the week, so weekends are a time to catch up on more substantial pieces of work with fewer interruptions,” she says. Gilbert gradually moved into vaccine development after joining Oxford in 1994. Even so,…

AS THE World Health Organization (WHO) baldly reminds us, “there are no specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19”. However, trials of treatments are taking place. Some have shown promise in helping those infected by calming an overreacting immune system or targeting the coronavirus – either by destroying it or stopping it from replicating. Dexamethasone, a widely available steroid that dampens the immune response, became the first medicine shown to reduce deaths in covid-19 patients. The RECOVERY trial of more than 2000 people found that it reduced deaths in people on mechanical ventilators by a third – and by a fifth in those who received oxygen but not ventilation. “The trial showed it is beneficial to those who are severely affected,” says Sheuli Porkess at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical…

AMID rising global numbers of daily coronavirus infections, a fresh flush of vaccine trial results is offering hope for the longer run. There are more than 160 coronavirus vaccines in development around the world. About 140 of these are at the preclinical stage, meaning they are still being looked at in laboratories and in animal tests. Another 25 are already being tested in people. The rate at which the tally has risen to 160-plus is unusually fast. “What is phenomenal is the numbers changing over the past few months. The amount of research is incredible,” says Sheuli Porkess at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. As the candidates advance, the World Health Organization (WHO) last month started to convene a working group to prioritise the most promising vaccines. “Practical…