Artists have responded to the invisible and existential threat of SARS-CoV-2. Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to David Goodsell and Angela Palmer about how they tackled the greatest health crisis of a generation.
Roger Highfield is the Science Director at the Science Museum Group, a member of the UK's Medical Research Council and a visiting professor at the Dunn School, University of Oxford, and Department of Chemistry, UCL. He studied Chemistry at the University of Oxford and was the first person to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble. Roger was the Science Editor of The Daily Telegraph for two decades, and the Editor of New Scientist between 2008 and 2011. He has written or co-authored ten popular science books, most recently Stephen Hawking: Genius at Work, and has had thousands of articles published in newspapers and magazines.
Although Omicron is milder than first feared, there is a failure of political imagination when it comes to the implications for pandemic preparedness. Roger Highfield, Science Director, looks beyond Omicron with the government’s influential life sciences advisor, Sir John Bell.
How should we prepare for the next pandemic? Our Science Director, Roger Highfield, talks about an extraordinary new proposal with Dr Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI, the world’s largest vaccine development initiative.
The pandemic has alerted the world to the threat of airborne disease. A new study has shown the value of clean air, and also how filtration can curb antibiotic resistance in hospitals. Our Science Director Roger Highfield talks to Cambridge based intensive care consultant, Vilas Navapurkar about its findings.
The verdict on the outcome of the most important climate talks in recent years is in, says Science Director Roger Highfield, in the first in a new series of climate-focused blog posts. The historic ‘Glasgow Climate Pact’ agreed at COP26 is more than some expected, but falls short of what many had hoped.
A pioneering UK study shows how the highly transmissible Delta strain spreads from person to person, even among vaccinated people, and details how rapidly vaccine immunity wanes.
Delta infections are surging in highly vaccinated countries, like the UK, that once seemed to have made progress in curbing COVID-19. Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to Professor Ravindra “Ravi” Gupta of the University of Cambridge, about why Delta is the most concerning variant seen so far.
The world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer is the Serum Institute of India. Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to Umesh Shaligram, Executive Director, about its vast COVID-19 vaccination effort.
Insights into the impact of the pandemic on the nation’s mental health have come from a new online study to weigh up cognitive skills, says Roger Highfield, Science Director.
Roger Highfield, Science Director, discusses two new COVID-19 vaccines under development, one of which is manufactured by cells from the fall armyworm moth, with Dr Ian Gray, Medical Director of Sanofi UK and Ireland.
How do you ensure that ‘COVID-19 jabs are in arms, not fridges’? Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to Dr Emily Lawson, England’s vaccine deployment lead in the National Health Service.
How do you know which vaccine research to back when a pandemic starts? Roger Highfield, Science Director, talks to Kate Bingham, former chair of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce.