Canadians pack into cooling centers as heat wave death toll doubles

Inside one of Vancouver's 25 air-conditioned cooling centers on Wednesday, visitors quietly read books or worked on laptops as the death toll in Canada's British Columbia province rose into the hundreds from a record-smashing heat wave.

Canada, US heat wave 'on steroids' due to climate change, say experts

The western United States and Canada would likely have experienced a heat wave in the past week even without climate change. But the scale and severity of the record-breaking temperatures were undoubtedly multiplied by the changes to our atmosphere, experts say.

COVID vaccine from Germany's CureVac just 48% effective

Germany's CureVac said Wednesday that final trial results showed its coronavirus vaccine had an efficacy rate of just 48 percent, far lower than those developed by mRNA rivals BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.

Russia races Tom Cruise and Musk for first movie in space

Six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, earning Moscow a key win in the Cold War, Russia is again in a space race with Washington.

'Gone to hell': The battle to save Europe's oldest lake

Dimitar Pendoski marches to the end of a rickety walkway, skips around sunbathing youngsters and sweeps back a tarpaulin protecting his empty lakeside restaurant, recently closed by officials under pressure from UNESCO.

California virus cases rising as delta variant spreads

California broadly reopened its economy barely two weeks ago and since then an especially contagious coronavirus variant has spread among the unvaccinated, a development that has health officials on edge and already has prompted Los Angeles County to strongly recommend everyone resume wearing masks inside.

World Wide Web source code NFT sells for $5.4 mn

Tim Berners-Lee's source code for the World Wide Web sold Wednesday for $5.4 million in the form of non-fungible token (NFT).

US encourages El Salvador to regulate use of bitcoin

A senior US State Department official met El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Wednesday and recommended the regulation of bitcoin once it becomes legal tender in the Central American country from September.

Nissan announces UK battery gigafactory, new electric car

Japanese auto giant Nissan on Thursday announced plans to build the UK's first car-battery "gigafactory", where it will build a new electric vehicle.

Indonesia holds mass vaccination to scale up virus fight

Thousands of Indonesians lined up at a sports stadium to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose Thursday in a one-day, mass vaccination event that's part of a push to dramatically scale up the nation's virus fight as hospitals fill with sick patients.

Amazon says its carbon footprint grew 19% last year

Amazon said Wednesday that its carbon footprint grew 19% last year as it rushed to deliver a surge of online orders during the pandemic.

Will one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine protect me?

Will one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine protect me?

94% of patients with cancer respond well to COVID-19 vaccines

In a U.S. and Swiss study, nearly all patients with cancer developed good immune response to the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines three to four weeks after receiving their second dose, but the fact that a small group of the patients exhibited no response raised questions about how their protection against the virus will be addressed moving forward.

Keep your friends close, cortisol levels low for life

Directing a meeting, dialing up an old acquaintance, dictating the perfect tuna salad sandwich across a drive-through window. For business and for pleasure, human beings are in constant communication.

Expanding symptom list in line with other countries could improve the UK's pandemic response

The UK should expand its official list of symptoms for defining COVID-19 to prevent cases being missed and help improve the UK's pandemic response, say experts in The BMJ today.

COVID-19 vaccine reduces severity, length, viral load for those who still get infected

Individuals who contract COVID-19 even after vaccination are likely to have a lower viral load, experience a shorter infection time and have milder symptoms than people who are unvaccinated, according to research that includes data from ongoing University of Arizona Health Sciences studies.

Diet with more fish fats, less vegetable oils can reduce migraine headaches

A diet higher in fatty fish helped frequent migraine sufferers reduce their monthly number of headaches and intensity of pain compared to participants on a diet higher in vegetable-based fats and oils, according to a new study. The findings by a team of researchers from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), parts of the National Institutes of Health; and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, were published in the July 3 issue of The BMJ.

Study identifies existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat gonorrhea

New research being presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) being held online (9-12 July) identifies drugs that could potentially be repurposed for the treatment of gonorrhoea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae [Ng]): a sexually transmitted infection which is becoming increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics.

Study links mental health with risk of tuberculosis

New research presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) taking place online (9-12 July) shows that individuals affected by mental illnesses including depression and schizophrenia experience an increased incidence of tuberculosis (TB).

Study suggests it is common for pet dogs and cats to catch COVID-19 from their owners

COVID-19 is common in pet cats and dogs whose owners have the virus, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year.

Cats may catch COVID-19 from sleeping on their owner's bed

New research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year, suggests that people with COVID-19 frequently pass it on to their pets. Cats that sleep on their owner's bed seem to be at particular risk of infection.

Report sounds alarm on efficacy, safety, ethics of embryo selection with polygenic scores

A special report published today in the New England Journal of Medicine raises serious questions about the benefits, risks and ethics of a new service—which the authors call "embryo selection based on polygenic scores," or ESPS—that allows in vitro fertilization patients to select embryos with the goal of choosing healthier and even smarter children.

Why are some fish warm-blooded? Predatory sharks gain speed advantage

New research from marine biologists offers answers to a fundamental puzzle that had until now remained unsolved: why are some fish warm-blooded when most are not?