Helen Thomson

A SERIOUS picture is emerging about the long-term health effects of covid-19 in some children, with UK politicians calling the lack of acknowledgment of the problem a “national scandal”.
Children seem to be fairly well-protected from the most severe symptoms of covid-19. According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the majority of children don’t develop symptoms when infected with the coronavirus, or their symptoms are very mild.
However, it is becoming increasingly ap...

IN JANUARY, I gratefully received my first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. But not everyone experiences an immune response to a shot. If mine has kicked in, I should have enough antibodies to protect me from covid-19. So it was worrying when I received results from an immunity test that suggested I had a low level of antibodies. Am I immune or not?
There are three quantitative antibody tests, or “immunity trackers”, coming onto the market that are designed to tell me. The ...

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According to her mother, Sardy’s father was swept away in a tsunami in Hawaii in the mid-80s. He drowned and a stranger took his place. This man was very helpful and began taking care of the family, and after a while nobody noticed anymore that he wasn’t their real dad. Sardy’s mother knew the truth, though. He was a replacement. She called him Mr. Ree.
Mr. Ree is one of many altered realities created by Sardy’s mother — a product of the paranoia, hallucinations and delusions that chara...

Doctors have placed humans in suspended animation for the first time, as part of a trial in the US that aims to make it possible to fix traumatic injuries that would otherwise cause death.
Samuel Tisherman, at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told New Scientist that his team of medics had placed at least one patient in suspended animation, calling it “a little surreal” when they first did it. He wouldn’t reveal how many people had survived as a result.
Your questions answered: N...

IT STARTS behind your eyes, a niggling ache that heads down towards your stomach where it tumbles and turns before building towards a climax of vomit. Bleurgh! Motion sickness.
This has been a human affliction pretty much since we began travelling on anything but two legs. Most of us have experienced it, and it is likely to become even more prevalent when we all become passengers as driverless cars roll out, space tourism takes off and virtual reality headsets take over, both in the gaming in...

“ARGHH.” The first time it happens it takes you by surprise. Was that me? Then it happens again, and again. You give a tiny groan every time you get off the sofa. You hold the bottom of your spine and stretch, wondering if you should see a doctor. Surely you are too young to have a bad back?
That tends to be the start for a lot of us. Backache is an extraordinarily common burden, with one in four adults experiencing it right now, and 90 per cent of people having back pain at least once in the...

TWO minutes, 58 seconds. Two minutes, 59 seconds. Three minutes. One blue line or two? Our lives are full of moments where we hold our breath, waiting, our future in the balance. Whether it is three minutes for a pregnancy test, three months for an exam result or three years to find out what will happen with Brexit, time spent waiting for the news that could change everything can be filled with excitement and hope, or fear and anxiety.
Now though, we are starting to understand how our capacit...

I AM lying on my living room floor, my whole body shaking, along with 30 strangers, who I can just about glimpse on little squares on my laptop screen. If you would have told me a month ago this would be my new workout routine, I would have laughed you out of the room. Until now, fitness for me meant getting out and about, religiously racking up steps on my pedometer. Then London went into lockdown, and for the past few weeks I have barely left the house. But here’s the thing – in terms of he...

Brain stimulation seems to offer a shortcut to unlocking the benefits of yoga and mindfulness sessions, but turbocharging meditation could have a dark side

My encounter with a rare psychiatric disorder - extract from my new book.

As scientists work to unravel the mysteries of the mind, people with unusual conditions are helping add to our understanding

Researchers have created hybrid rhino embryos as part of a 'Hail-Mary' attempt to rescue the northern white rhinoceros from all but certain extinction.

Unlike most people, the children of a Thailand tribe see with total clarity beneath the waves – how do they do it, and might their talent be learned?...

Keep having nightmares? You may be getting too much...