Science

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor For the second time NHS England has refused to fund a preventative treatment for HIV. Earlier this year they said they would not fund pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug described as a "game changer" by HIV charities.
 The decision has caused wide spread anger by AIDS charities and those at high risk of catching the infection and the wider general public. PrEP helps prevent infection in people without HIV who are at substantial risk of...

Three Earth-like planets have been discovered by scientists which offer the best chance yet of finding extraterrestrial life. A groundbreaking report, published in Nature, revealed that the Earth-sized planets that orbit around a small star nearly 40 light years away could represent astronomers' best chance yet of finding life outside our Solar System. The planets orbit close enough to their host star to maintain temperatures comparable to those on Earth, opening up the possibility that water could pool on their...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor When a journalist half-asked Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to explain quantum computing, he probably didn’t expect an answer. However, he was surprised when the young left-wing PM gave clear and concise answer to the question, during a press conference at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He replied: “Very simply…normal computers work, either there’s power going through a wire or not—a one, or a zero. They’re binary systems,” said Trudeau, triggering a wave of surprised...

A nation-wide search has been launched after Sam the Space Dog was lost in space. Children from Morecambe Bay Community Primary school launched the dog into space attached to a helium balloon with a GPS tracker and a GoPro. But when the payload returned to earth, the dog was nowhere to be seen. Chris Rose, from SentIntoSpace.com, which creates educational space missions for schools and helped with the launch, told the Lancashire Evening News: “Our GPS tracking equipment and live telemetry...

By Ben Ramanauskas Martin Shkreli has managed to engender feelings of revulsion in the vast majority of the population. He incurred widespread odium when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, acquired the drug Daraprim, which is commonly used to treat toxoplasmosis, which kills people with weakened immune systems, such as people suffering from AIDS or undergoing chemotherapy. The parasite which causes toxoplasmosis lives inside of one third of the population, in tiny cysts that go undetected because they are quarantined in our...

By Professor Colin Garner, Chief Executive of Antibiotic Research UK, comments: Today, patients undergoing routine treatments such as cancer treatment, organ transplantation and hip and knee replacements, are given antibiotics to prevent infection during these treatments. However, the frequency of antibiotic resistant infections is increasing, meaning that there are more and more deaths from antibiotic resistant bacteria. Sepsis is a common cause of death in the UK with over 37,000 deaths each year, more than lung cancer (35,000) and bowel cancer...

This week warnings from climate change scientists this informed us that the world is halfway towards the threshold that could result in dangerous climate change, revealing that average global temperatures have recorded a rise of one degree Celsius for the first time. The met office informed us that record warm temperatures measured in the first nine months of this year mean that the world has already reached the halfway point towards the arbitrary “threshold” of a 2C increase on pre-industrial...

By Dr Robin Andrews @squigglyvolcano A new non-partisan study reveals that, in the United States, Republicans and Democrats show very distinct neurological activity when presented with risk and opportunity. Full disclosure: I am utterly convinced that the modern-day Republican politician is almost certainly a divisive, hateful, fearful individual. The fact that Donald Trump of all people is leading in the polls at the moment is surely only because selfish, ignorant people believe that just because he’s shouting the loudest –...

By Dr Robin George Andrews @SquigglyVolcano & Dr Alfredo Carpineti  @DrCarpineti    The opposition to genetically modified food is irrational, and when governments who should know better ban it without cause, scientists must speak up. Scotland’s rural secretary has just announced that the growing of genetically modified crops will be banned in the fields of England’s feisty northern neighbour. Unfortunately, like many people on gluten-free diets who aren’t coeliacs, many who approve of this move simply do not understand what they’re eschewing even...