When we think of bomb disposal experts in the modern age, we picture someone in a padded suit as wide as a car, walking excruciatingly slowly towards a suspect package with all manner of high-tech gadgets. This week we heard about the world’s first bomb disposal expert, and his approach was, well, more laissez-faire.

Call up Colonel Vivian Dering Majendie to diffuse your bomb and you’d be more likely to see him stroll up to it and pick it apart with his own fair hands. Read here about how Her Majesty’s Inspector of Explosives worked to rid Victorian Britain of the “infernal machines” left around London, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool during the era’s own war on terror. It’s a great tale.

Only around 60,000 people still speak Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language that has been in decline over the past century. But it’s an essential communication tool for the fishing communities of the Outer Hebrides. Important navigational marks are expressed in Gaelic in the region, as is information about prime spots to find lobster. In fact, as these researchers reveal, the industry is dependent on the language, and the language on the industry.

A lot of confusion is going around about the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine. It hasn’t been helped by false claims coming out of France and Germany. We thought it would be useful to put together a guide on what we do and don’t know about its efficacy and potential to cause side-effects. So here are some key questions answered for anyone getting a jab.

Also this week, the unwelcome return of “COVID toe”, an exciting discovery at Cern, and a frog that has developed its own noise-cancelling headphones.

Laura Hood

Politics Editor, Assistant Editor

A man of his time: Colonel Vivian Majendie – the first recognised bomb disposal expert in Britain. Spy Magazine (1882) via Wikimedia Commons

The first bomb disposal expert: Colonel Vivian Majendie and the original ‘war on terror’

James Crossland, Liverpool John Moores University

Colonel Majendie was also a pioneer in forensic investigations.

Alastair Cole/Tongue Tied Films

How Scottish Gaelic is helping protect Scotland’s seas

Magnus Course, University of Edinburgh; Alastair Cole, Newcastle University

Around 75% of fishermen in the Outer Hebrides speak Gaelic. Their daily use of the language at work helps keep it alive.

By early March only one-third of Germany’s stocks of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine had been used – possibly because of misinformation about its effects. Sean Gallup/EPA-EFE

How well does the AstraZeneca vaccine work? An expert reviews the current evidence

Sarah Pitt, University of Brighton

Fears that the vaccine doesn't work in older people appear unfounded.

shutterstock.

Four COVID-related skin complaints everyone should look out for

Vassilios Vassiliou, University of East Anglia; Subothini Sara Selvendran, University of East Anglia

Rashes and lesions are a potentially useful way of spotting COVID-19 patients who are otherwise asymptomatic.

LHCb experiment. Roͬͬ͠͠͡͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠sͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠aͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠ Menkman/Flickr

Cern: scientists discover four new particles – here’s why they matter

Patrick Koppenburg, Dutch National Institute for Subatomic Physics; Harry Cliff, University of Cambridge

The theory of tiny particles isn't complete. But new discoveries are helping scientists expand it.

Clever frog. Shutterstock/Martin Valigursky

This frog’s lungs act like noise cancelling headphones

Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard, University of Southern Denmark

The noise from the lungs drowns out other species' calls, letting the females hear potential mates.

 

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