More than 1,000 scientists and postgraduate students were barred from working in the UK last year on national security grounds, amid a major government crackdown on research collaborations with China. Figures obtained by the Guardian reveal that a record 1,104 scientists and postgraduate students were rejected by Foreign Office vetting in 2022, up from 128 in 2020 and just 13 in 2016. The sharp increase follows a hardening of the government’s stance on scientific ties with China, with warnings from MI5 of a growing espionage threat, major research centres being…
Tag: Science
How did the Covid-19 pandemic begin? We need to investigate all credible hypotheses | Alison Young
This week’s revelation that a top US scientific agency has joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation in leaning toward a lab accident in China as the most likely source of the Covid-19 pandemic has once again surfaced the entrenched politics that have impeded the search for answers since day one. The new assessment is contained in a classified intelligence report, first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by other media organizations. It is a small, yet important development in what has been the largely stalled search for…
How seriously should we take the US DoE’s Covid lab leak theory?
What has the US energy department said about the origin of the Covid outbreak? According to the Wall Street Journal, an updated and classified 2021 US energy department report has concluded that the coronavirus behind the recent pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons programme. Does this report mean it is more likely Covid came from a lab? Not necessarily. The report’s conclusion runs counter to that from several scientific studies as well as reports by a number of other US intelligence…
Covid-19 likely emerged from laboratory leak, US energy department says
The virus which drove the Covid-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a laboratory leak but not as part of a weapons program, according to an updated and classified 2021 US energy department study provided to the White House and senior American lawmakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. The department’s finding – a departure from previous studies on how the virus emerged – came in an update to a document from the office of National Intelligence director Avril Haines. It follows an FBI finding, issued with “moderate confidence”, that…
Scientist convicted of editing babies’ genes granted visa for Hong Kong
The controversial bioethicist He Jiankui has been granted a talent visa to Hong Kong, despite having a criminal record in China for illegal medical practices. At a press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, the disgraced scientist said he was in contact with universities in Hong Kong and planned to research gene therapy for rare hereditary diseases, the Associated Press reported. He shot to fame in 2018 when he revealed that he had edited the genes of twin girls, known as Lulu and Nana, before birth, to try to make them…
Visa delays caused by security checks turning Chinese students away from Australian universities
When PhD candidate Melody Zhao received a full scholarship to study data science in Australia she didn’t expect a year later she would still be in limbo, waiting for a visa. But after receiving her Deakin University offer and applying for a student visa on 23 February 2022, she has had to defer her degree four times. Zhao is among hundreds of Chinese postgraduate candidates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) fields deemed a high security risk by the Department of Home Affairs and facing lengthy visa delays. Students…
Scientist who edited babies’ genes says he acted ‘too quickly’
The scientist at the heart of the scandal involving the world’s first gene-edited babies has said he moved “too quickly” by pressing ahead with the procedure. He Jiankui sent shock waves across the world of science when he announced in 2018 that he had edited the genes of twin girls, Lulu and Nana, before birth. He was subsequently sacked by his university in Shenzhen, received a three-year prison sentence, and was broadly condemned for having gone ahead with the risky, ethically contentious and medically unjustified procedure with inadequate consent from…
‘It was all for nothing’: Chinese count cost of Xi’s snap decision to let Covid rip
When Sunny* thinks back to March last year, she laughs ruefully at the ordeal. The 19-year-old Shanghai student spent that month locked in her dormitory, unable to shop for essentials or wash clothes, even banned from showering for two weeks over Covid fears. In April, the entire city locked down. It was the beginning of the chaos of 2022, as local Chinese authorities desperately tried to follow President Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid decree while facing the most virulent strain of the virus yet: Omicron. “Everyone was panicking, no one was ready,”…
Six lifestyle choices to slow memory decline named in 10-year study
A combination of healthy lifestyle choices such as eating well, regularly exercising, playing cards and socialising at least twice a week may help slow the rate of memory decline and reduce the risk of dementia, a decade-long study suggests. Memory is a fundamental function of daily life that continuously declines as people age, impairing quality of life and productivity, and increasing the risk of dementia. Evidence from previous research has been insufficient to evaluate the effect of healthy lifestyle on memory trajectory, but now a study suggests that combining multiple…
Ageing planet: the new demographic timebomb
In Japan even criminals are getting old. In the country’s notorious yakuza crime syndicates, more than half of members are now over 50, according to the national police agency. Veterans who have passed 70 outnumber those under 20 by two to one, even though teenagers are the groups’ traditional source of “muscle”. Japan is a pioneer in adjusting to the skewed demographics of an ageing society, with the impact of its low birthrates exacerbated by a fierce resistance to immigration. But its dilemmas are increasingly shared around the world. India…