Science | Common News Update

Sep72023 by adminNo Comments

UK rejoins EU science research scheme Horizon

Science

Getty ImagesBy Jonathan AmosScience correspondentThe UK is to rejoin the EU's flagship scientific research scheme, Horizon, the government has announced.UK-based scientists and institutions will be able to apply for money from the £81bn (€95bn) fund from today. Associate membership had been agreed as part of the Brexit trade deal when the UK formally left the EU in 2020.However, the UK has been excluded from the scheme for the past three years because of a disagreement over the Northern Ireland Protocol.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "With a wealth of expertise and experience to bring to the global stage, we have delivered a deal that enables UK scientists to confidently take part in the world's largest research collaboration programme."We have worked with our EU partners to make sure th...

Jun202021 by adminNo Comments

PM’s research budget to make UK ‘science superpower’

Science

Getty ImagesThe prime minister has set out plans to cement the UK's place as a "science superpower".Boris Johnson announced how increases in the research budget would be spent.He will chair a new National Science and Technology Council to provide "strategic direction" on how research is harnessed for the "public good".And Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser to the government, will lead a new Office for Science and Technology Strategy.He will take up the role of the new national technology adviser, alongside his current role.Mr Johnson said the UK's vaccination programme had proven what the UK can achieve at scale and speed. "With the right direction, pace and backing, we can breathe life into many more scientific and technological breakthroughs that transform the lives of pe...

Mar192021 by adminNo Comments

Science behind Pfizer vaccine can be used to give people cancer jabs ‘within a couple of years’

Technology

The co-creator of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine has said the technology behind it could soon be used to fight cancer too.While the vaccine has been bankrolled by the American pharmaceutical giant, the science itself is the work of BioNTech, a German company founded by married couple and dedicated physicians Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci. Dr Tureci was working on a way to harness the body's immune system to tackle tumours when the pair learned last year of a mystery virus infecting people in China. Image: mRNA could be used to treat more than just COVID-19. Pic: NIAID Over breakfast, they decided to apply the technology they'd been researching for two decades to the new threat, dubbing the effort "Project Lightspeed."Both COVID-19 vaccine...

Feb212021 by adminNo Comments

UK to launch ‘high risk’ science agency

Science

Getty ImagesThe UK is to launch a "high-risk" science agency to look for ground-breaking discoveries.The agency, Aria, will be run along the lines of US equivalents that were instrumental in the creation of the internet and GPS.Aria, which has £800m funding over four years, will have a "higher tolerance for failure than is normal", the government said.Labour said the government needed to clarify what the agency would do. The new body - the Advanced Research & Invention Agency (Aria) - would fund "high-risk, high-reward" scientific research, the government said.But the amount of funding it will get is a fraction of the money pumped into existing government research bodies such as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).For 2020-21 alone, the government has allocated £10.36bn for its research ...

Jan272021 by adminNo Comments

Watch live: Astronauts plan spacewalk to hook up new science platform

Science

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Two NASA astronauts plan to begin a spacewalk early Wednesday morning to finish installing Europe's Bartolomeo science platform on the International Space Station's exterior. Mike Hopkins and Victor Glover are to begin the expedition outside the space station at 7 a.m. EST. The assignment will be the first spacewalk for Glover, who is the first Black astronaut to live and work aboard the space station. Advertisement NASA estimates the spacewalk will last 6 1/2 hours. Glover, like all astronauts, trained in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center, where trainees wear suits underwater that simulate weightlessness. [embedded content] "We also give them videos to walk through, as well as conferences where we get to talk with them, and give ...