SCIENCE

UK Health Security Agency data show three months after boosting, protection against hospitalisation remains at about 90 per cent for people aged 65 and over, the BBC reported. Protection against mild symptomatic infection is more short-lived, the data revealed. That drops to around 30 per cent by about three months, it added.

According to Hans Henri P Kluge, the WHO's Regional Director for Europe, Omicron variant can evade previous immunity in people. "So it can still infect those who have had Covid-19 in the past, those who are unvaccinated, and those who were vaccinated many months ago," Kluge said in a recent note. "There are three things that we need to do urgently: protect ourselves through vaccination, prevent further infections, and prepare health systems for a surge in cases".

According to Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash, herd immunity against Covid-19 is possible in the country, but at the cost of many infections, Jerusalem Post reported. "The price of herd immunity is very many infections, and that may be what will happen. The numbers need to be high to reach herd immunity, this is something that is possible," Ash was quoted as saying to 103FM Radio on Sunday.

The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on December 25, kicking off a long-delayed, potentially transformative mission to study the early universe, nearby exoplanets and more. The telescope is headed for the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), a gravitationally stable spot 1.5 million kilometres from our planet in the direction of Mars, Space.com reported.

A team of astronomers, using data from several European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes and other facilities, has discovered at least 70 new rogue planets in our galaxy. Rogue planets, lurking far away from any star illuminating them, would normally be impossible to image.

Researchers from Imperial College London stressed that these estimated reductions in severity must be balanced against the larger risk of infection with Omicron, due to the reduction in protection provided by both vaccination and natural infection. For example, at a population level, large numbers of infections could still lead to large numbers of hospitalisations.

The discovery, published in the Nature Astronomy journal and released to the public on Thursday, took a deep dive into the black hole at the center of the galaxy Centaurus A, about 12 million light-years away, reported Xinhua news agency. Despite being galaxies far away, the erupting black hole extended across a length equal to 16 moons placed side by side in the night sky. However, it is not visible to the naked eye.

The findings suggest that booster programmes are needed to help maintain protection from severe disease, said a team of researchers led by University of Edinburgh. The researchers from Scotland and Brazil analysed data for two million people in Scotland and 42 million people in Brazil who had been vaccinated with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine which uses an adenovirus, specifically a common cold virus from chimpanzees, to train the immune system to fight the virus.

The study, led by the University of Leeds, also reveals that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking far more rapidly than glaciers in other parts of the world, a rate of loss the researchers describe as 'exceptional' as they lost around 40 per cent of their area. The research is the latest confirmation that the changes in the Himalayan glaciers are accelerating.

NASA's auditing body, the Office of Audits, has produced a report detailing the agency's commitment to replace the orbiting lab with commercial space stations. Astronauts have lived and worked onboard the ISS orbiting roughly 250 miles above the Earth's surface for more than 20 years. "The ISS costs about $3 billion a year, roughly a third of NASA's annual human space flight budget, and while current plans call for the Station's retirement in 2024, an extension to 2030 is likely," the US space agency said in the audit report.