Across much of the world people are taking international holidays, returning to the office, and going to festivals and political rallies. Faced with the seemingly unstoppable Omicron variant, they’ve decided to live as close to normality as they can in the presence of Covid-19, limiting its impact. But in Covid-zero China it’s a vastly different story. An estimated 340 million people in at least 46 cities are under some form of lockdown or restrictions in China, as cases appear in multiple provinces – often in so far tiny quantities. On…
Tag: Science
Does China need to rethink its zero-Covid policy? – podcast
To slow down a surge in Covid cases, last week Chinese authorities put Shanghai into lockdown. But with a population of 26 million there have been difficulties providing residents with basic necessities, and videos have appeared on social media showing protests and scrambles over food supplies. Now, authorities plan to start easing the lockdown in some areas on Monday, despite reporting a record of more than 25,000 new Covid cases. Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s China affairs correspondent, Vincent Ni, about what’s been happening in Shanghai, whether the Omicron…
iPhone maker Pegatron halts Shanghai production due to Covid lockdown
Key iPhone maker Pegatron has halted operations at two subsidiaries in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Kunshan, as global supply chains feel the pinch of Beijing’s strict zero-Covid measures. The business hub of Shanghai has become the heart of China’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak since the virus surfaced more than two years ago. The city of 25 million has remained almost entirely locked down since the start of the month. “We have temporarily suspended work,” said Pegatron in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The Taiwanese firm…
Covid cases rise in Shanghai as millions remain in lockdown
Covid-19 cases in China’s largest city of Shanghai have risen again as millions remain isolated at home under a sweeping lockdown. Health officials on Sunday reported 438 confirmed cases detected over the previous 24 hours, along with 7,788 asymptomatic cases. Both figures were up slightly from the day before. While small by the standards of some countries, the daily case numbers are some of the largest since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019. Shanghai with its 26 million people last week began…
‘Magnetic turd’: scientists invent moving slime that could be used in human digestive systems
Scientists have created a moving magnetic slime capable of encircling smaller objects, self-healing and “very large deformation” to squeeze and travel through narrow spaces. The slime, which is controlled by magnets, is also a good electrical conductor and can be used to interconnect electrodes, its creators say. The dark-coloured magnetic blob has been compared on social media to Flubber, the eponymous substance in the 1997 sci-fi film, and described as a “magnetic turd” and “amazing and a tiny bit terrifying”. Prof Li Zhang, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong,…
Covid lockdown extended in Shanghai as outbreaks put economy on the skids
Shanghai has been plunged into an extended lockdown and some residents face another 10 days of isolation in their homes as China’s strict zero-Covid policy threatens to derail the country’s economy. The eastern half of China’s biggest city had been due to emerge on Friday from a four-day lockdown aimed at crushing a persistent outbreak of the Omicron variant, but the extension was announced late on Thursday night. A lockdown of the western half of the city went ahead as planned on Friday morning, leaving a majority of the city’s…
China shuts down city of 17.5m people in bid to halt Covid outbreak
China’s government has locked down Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people, as it tries to contain its worst ever Covid-19 outbreak across multiple provinces, with case numbers tripling from Saturday to Sunday. All businesses in the finance and technology hub, which borders Hong Kong, were ordered to close or work from home unless they supplied food, utilities, or other necessities, according to a government notice on Sunday. It said all residential communities were now under “closed management”, meaning they would be locked down. Every resident would undergo three rounds…
Space junk set to crash into far side of moon and cause huge crater
In an unprecedented display of cosmic littering, a wayward rocket body will crash into the far side of the moon on Friday marking the first time that a piece of space junk has accidentally struck the lunar surface. The spent rocket booster, believed to be part of the Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 mission which swung around the moon in 2014, is predicted to slam into the Hertzsprung crater at 12.25pm GMT, though the precise time and location are unclear. Travelling at more than 5,500mph (2.5km per second), the tumbling 4 tonne…
Space junk on collision course with the moon likely a Chinese rocket – experts
The moon is about to get walloped by 3 tons of space junk, a punch that will carve out a crater that could fit several semi-tractor-trailers. The leftover rocket will smash into the far side of the moon at 5,800mph (9,300km/h) on Friday, away from telescopes’ prying eyes. It may take weeks, even months, to confirm the impact through satellite images. It’s been tumbling haphazardly through space, experts believe, since China launched it nearly a decade ago. But Chinese officials are dubious it’s theirs. No matter whose it is, scientists…
Cold war on ice? Politics and science collide once more in Australia’s approach to Antarctica | Kieran Pender
In the 1950s, the Soviets came to Antarctica. As part of its contribution to the International Geophysical Year of 1957-8, a global scientific jamboree, the Soviet Union began building research stations across the great southern land – largely in areas claimed by Australia. Amid heightened cold war tensions, Australian officials were not pleased. Government records from the time reveal fears the Soviets might install defence infrastructure in Antarctica; the then foreign minister, Richard Casey, warned of missiles being launched on Sydney or Melbourne. The Australian Antarctic Territory is vast: at…