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Scientists at Oxford University say their experimental coronavirus vaccine has been shown in an early trial to prompt a protective immune response in hundreds of people who got the shot.British researchers first began testing the vaccine in April in about 1,000 people, half of whom got the experimental vaccine. Such early trials are usually designed only to evaluate safety, but in this case experts were also looking to see what kind of immune response was provoked.In research published Monday in the journal Lancet, scientists said that they found their experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced a dual immune response in people aged 18 to 55."We are seeing good immune response in almost everybody," said Dr. Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University. "What this vaccine does particularly well is…

Cameroon's medical authorities say over 200,000 children have not received routine vaccinations on schedule since March, when the country had its first case of COVID-19.  Parents are refusing to take their kids to hospitals because they fear they may be infected with the virus, which has spread to nearly 17,000 people and caused nearly 400 deaths.  Doctors are warning that without the vaccinations, children in Cameroon risk preventable diseases such as diphtheria, the measles, and tetanus.  A 4-month-old baby cries as she receives her second polio vaccine at the Chantal Biya Foundation Hospital in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde. Elizabeth Mbungong, 27, says she is getting her baby’s booster shot nearly three months late because she was scared of going to the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I gave birth in the month of March and the first vaccine was given…

Astrophysicists on Monday published the largest-ever 3D map of the Universe, the result of an analysis of more than 4 million galaxies and ultra-bright, energy-packed quasars.The efforts of hundreds of scientists from about 30 institutions worldwide have yielded a "complete story of the expansion of the universe," said Will Percival of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.In the project launched more than two decades ago, the researchers made "the most accurate expansion history measurements over the widest-ever range of cosmic time," he said in a statement.The map relies on the latest observations of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), titled the "extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey" (eBOSS), with data collected from an optical telescope in New Mexico over six years.The infant universe following the big bang is relatively well…

The United Arab Emirates launched its first mission to Mars early Monday as it strives to develop its scientific and technology capabilities and move away from its reliance on oil. The Hope Probe blasted off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center at 1:58 a.m. UAE time/6:58 a.m. Japanese time Monday (2158 GMT Sunday) for a seven-month journey to the Red Planet, where it will orbit and send back data about the atmosphere. The first Arab mission to Mars was initially set to launch July 14 but had been delayed twice because of bad weather. There are currently eight active missions exploring Mars; some orbit the planet and some have landed on its surface. China and the United States each plan to send another this year. The Emirates Mars Mission has cost…

The World Health Organization reports the COVID-19 pandemic and lack of money are hampering efforts to bring a speedy end to the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Equateur Province.  Since the outbreak was declared June 1, 56 cases, including 20 deaths have been recorded.Shortly after Ebola was detected in the DRC, World Health Officials expressed confidence they would be able to quickly control the spread of the deadly virus.  They noted many lessons had been learned from previous outbreaks.  They said the availability of a vaccine, and therapeutics could help them prevent the onset of the disease and treat those who fell ill.   World Health Organization spokeswoman, Fadela Chaib says these new tools are being used to good effect.  Over the course of four days, she says 12,000…

Actor and activist Angelina Jolie urged the U.N. Security Council on Friday to fulfill its promise to hold to account perpetrators of sexual violence against children in conflict settings.“I have met child survivors of sexual violence – and domestic violence and trauma and abuse – everywhere,” Jolie said of her 20 years working with the U.N. refugee agency. “There is no continent untouched by these crimes.”She addressed a council session reflecting on the issue, one year after adoption of Resolution 2467, which strengthened prevention through justice and accountability mechanisms, empowered the council to impose sanctions on perpetrators, and opened the way for victims to seek reparations.Jolie gave the example of Yazidi children she had met in northern Iraq. Thousands of their mothers and female relatives have been abducted, enslaved and…

Researchers have discovered one of the blackest materials on Earth – material that reflects less than .5 percent of the light that hits it – on the skin of deep-sea fish that use their blackness as camouflage from predators.The fish's skin and its possible applications in the above-water world are described in a study published Thursday in the science journal Current Biology. The lead author of the study, Smithsonian Natural History Museum zoologist Karen Osborn, said in her research she kept coming across black fish that she could not quite photograph — she could only capture their silhouette.This inspired her to capture samples of the fish and examine them. Deep-sea fish of this nature, she said, use their blackness to escape predators. In their environment, where sunlight cannot reach, many…

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have released the Images of the sun taken with the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager and Extreme Ultraviolet Imager of the Solar Orbiter spacecraft are seen in a combination of photos released by NASA, July 16, 2020.The campfires could help explain why the corona, the Sun’s upper atmosphere, is 300 times hotter than the solar surface.Of the Solar Orbiter’s 10 instruments, six are imaging devices, each studying a different aspect of the sun.The Solar and Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) exposed zodiacal light — light from the sun reflecting off interplanetary dust. To capture it, the imager had to dim the sun’s light to one-trillionth of its normal brightness.The Polar and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) mapped the sun’s magnetic field. Four instruments meant for measuring the space…

The number of reported Ebola cases in western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has surpassed the African nation's 2018 outbreak numbers in the same region, World Health Organization officials said Thursday. "There are now 56 cases, and this is of great concern, particularly as it is now surpassing the previous (2018) outbreak in this area, which was closed off and controlled at a total of 54 cases," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, referring to DRC's Equateur province, a large region bordering the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The challenges of responding to Ebola cases amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he added, are exacerbated by inadequate funding and rough terrain. “The current Ebola outbreak is running into headwinds because cases are scattered across remote areas in dense rain…

More than 1 million people in the United Kingdom have quit smoking since the coronavirus pandemic hit earlier this year, an anti-smoking group said. Action on Smoking and Health said more than 40% of those surveyed say they gave up cigarettes in direct response to the coronavirus.  A separate poll by University College London found more people quit smoking in the first six months of the year than in any full year since 2007. Medical researchers across the globe say COVID-19 symptoms are worse in smokers who get the virus than in nonsmokers who get sick.  U.S. experts say hospitalized smokers with coronavirus are less likely to survive.  Menthol cigarettesAlso Thursday, the U.S. branch of Action on Smoking and Health joined an African American anti-smoking group in filing a court action against…

Officials from the European Space Agency, ESA, and its U.S. counterpart, NASA Thursday released the first ever pictures from the agencies’ joint Solar Orbiter mission, including the closest pictures ever taken of the sun.The orbiter was about 77 million kilometers from the sun - about halfway between Earth and the star - when it took the stunning high-resolution pictures last month.During a remote news briefing as the pictures were released, ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist, Daniel Müller, said the mission was off to an excellent start. He said, “We didn’t expect such great results so early.”The Belgium Royal Observatory’s David Berghmans, the principal investigator for the  “Extreme Ultraviolet Imagers” (EUI) on board the spacecraft, described the very first high-resolution image they saw from the orbiter, which snapped a picture of…

NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Robert Behnken stepped outside the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday to continue efforts to complete a three-and-a-half-year project to upgrade the station’s batteries, the space agency said.Cassidy and Behnken have been working to replace aging nickel-hydrogen batteries with new lithium-ion batteries delivered to the station on a Japanese cargo ship in May. In all, NASA said 12 spacewalks will have been performed since January 2017 to change out batteries for eight power channels used to route electricity on the station.Thursday’s extravehicular activity is expected to last up to seven hours.NASA Astronauts Take Space Walk to Upgrade ISS BatteriesSpacewalk continues mission begun last week to upgrade ISS batteriesThe final spacewalk to complete the project is scheduled for next Tuesday and it will be somewhat historic. When…

Can a pregnant woman spread the coronavirus to her fetus? It's possible, but it seems to be relatively rare and scientists think they know why that is. Many viruses can cross the placenta and infect a fetus in the womb, and evidence has been growing that the coronavirus sometimes can too.   Researchers in Italy studied 31 women with COVID-19 who delivered babies in March and April and found signs of the virus in several samples of umbilical cord blood, the placenta and, in one case, breast milk. But this sort of testing can just detect bits of genetic material — it doesn't mean there is virus capable of causing infection in those places. In one case, there was strong evidence suggesting the newborn had the virus at birth because…

U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled a top-to-bottom overhaul of the review process for infrastructure projects that critics contend causes major cracks in bedrock conservations laws.  “This is something that nobody thought was possible,” Trump said on the outskirts of Atlanta’s airport on Wednesday, contending that “horrible roadblocks” due to environmental regulations had cost “trillions of dollars” over the years.  The president said his new rule “completely modernizes the approval review process under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969,” which will cut the timeline for major projects, including highways, from up to 20 years down to two years or less.  “You’re not going to devote a lifetime to doing a project that doesn’t get approved,” Trump said of the streamlined process. “It’s going to be very quick — yes or no, after study.” In his remarks at the Hapeville Airport Hub of United Parcel Service, Trump discussed how he had personally experienced frustration with…

There has been an alarming decline in the number of children getting vaccinated for such preventable diseases as diphtheria, tetanus and measles, the United Nations warned Wednesday. The U.N.’s World Health Organization and UNICEF blame the decline on the disruption of routine health care caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of World Health Organization, attends the virtual 73rd World Health Assembly in Geneva, May 18, 2020.“Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in the history of public health, and more children are now being immunized than ever before,” WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “But the pandemic has put those gains at risk. The avoidable suffering and death caused by children missing out on routine immunizations could be far greater than COVID-19 itself.” The WHO and UNICEF said that even when vaccines are available, many children who need them…

President Donald Trump is ready to roll back a foundational Nixon-era environmental law that he says stifles infrastructure projects, but that is credited with ensuring decades of scrutiny of major projects and giving local communities a say. Trump was in Atlanta to announce changes Wednesday to the National Environmental Policy Act's regulations for how and when authorities must conduct environmental reviews, making it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical plants and other projects. The 1970 law changed environmental oversight in the United States by requiring federal agencies to consider whether a project would harm the air, land, water or wildlife, and giving the public the right of review and input. The White House said the final rule will promote the rebuilding of America. Critics call the Republican president's efforts a cynical attempt…

Researchers believe they have identified the area of the brain that determines a preference for alcohol, perhaps the first step in an eventual treatment for alcoholism.In a study published Monday in the Society for Neuroscience journal eNeuro, researchers said they were trying to determine why some people can consume alcohol every day without developing dependence while less frequent drinkers develop a dependence.The researchers, from the University of Massachusetts, offered a test group of rats intermittent access to a 20 percent alcohol solution, then trained them to self-administer both 10 and 20 percent solutions of alcohol, as well as a sugar solution as a reward. They then were able to determine which rats were high or low alcohol consumers and divide them accordingly.The researchers monitored the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) activity in…