Originally planned to roll out in May, the UK’s track and trace app has now been delayed until winter. Part of the government’s wider test, track and trace strategy, the app uses Bluetooth on smartphones to see who infected people have been in close contact with, and uses this informationContinue Reading
Author provided For thousands of Syrian refugees who have suffered horrific blast injuries after being hit by barrel bombs and other devices of death in their war-torn homeland, the only option is amputation. When you see the damage a blast injury can do it’s a shock to the system andContinue Reading
Masson/Shutterstock The UK’s social distancing measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused unprecedented changes to individual and social lives. The necessity of the measures to control the disease is not in question. However, it is becoming clear that the effects of social distancing will hit refugees andContinue Reading
Rules about coronavirus research have been relaxed. angellodeco/Shutterstock The Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are among the most influential scientific journals in the world. Both have recently had to retract studies on the effectiveness of COVID-19 treatments after doubts were raised about the underlying data. The scandalContinue Reading
NuPenDekDee/Shutterstock Two weeks after the A-level and GCSE exams were cancelled, English assessment authority OFQUAL has decided how grades will be decided for these qualifications. They will be awarded by teachers in the first instance, and these recommendations will then be moderated by exam boards. The fact that this announcementContinue Reading
Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock It’s Monday morning and I’m running my regular children’s sleep clinic. Except it’s not a Monday morning like any other I have had in my 20 years of practice. I am running the clinic on my laptop, seeing patients and their families on a video screen rather thanContinue Reading
Sberbank Technopark in Russia by Zaha Hadid Architects. Zaha Hadid Architects When giant blobs began appearing on city skylines around the world in the late 1980s and 1990s, it marked not an alien invasion but the impact of computers on the practice of building design. Thanks to computer-aided design (CAD),Continue Reading
Discuss how flying less could help the planet. Shutterstock Schools around the world have closed in reponse to the COVID-19 pandemic, so many families are finding themselves thrust into homeschooling. Parents are figuring out how to teach their children subjects like mathematics and grammar, while also juggling other commitments, allContinue Reading
Pluto, with its basin Sputnik Planitia on the right. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker Pluto, along with many other dwarf planets in the outer solar system, is often thought of as dark, icy and barren – with a surface temperature of just −230°C. But now aContinue Reading
iyd39/Shutterstock If the whole world is dealing with coronavirus, will there be less war? – George, aged 11, UK This is a very serious and important question. Lots of people believe that wars should stop so that we can focus on dealing with coronavirus. In some cases, this has happened.Continue Reading
