Covid-19 pandemic

Despite the global pandemic, Gallery Weekend began in Berlin on Saturday. It usually attracts international art lovers, collectors and curators from around the world but with international travel restrictions it is certainly less cosmopolitan this year.Until 2 May, almost 50 participating galleries across Berlin open their doors to visitors who have an appointment and a negative COVID-19 test result that is less than 24 hours old.Most galleries will keep their exhibitions for up to six weeks, to allow more potential art buyers to book an individual time slot.Owner of Dittrich & Schlechtriem gallery, André Schlechtriem, said: "With all these measures, like daily tests, it is possible even though the number of visitors is reduced. A gallery is a social place where people meet. And the Berlin Gallery Weekend is about that."The Marítimo Museum of Barcelona is hosting an exhibition of the art of Escher until 26 September. Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) is one of the world’s most famous graphic artists and there are displays of over 200 works by the visionary maestro.Hugely influentialHis art is admired by millions of people worldwide and it has influenced advertising, fashion and cinema."A big part of Escher’s art was influenced by mathematicians, especially the art after 1945 when mathematicians came in contact with Escher’s art, during a mathematician congress held in Amsterdam," said art collector and exhibition commissioner, Federico Giudiceandrea.The Russian city of Perm has an exhibition dedicated to Spanish surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. On display are more than 150 works by the late painter, most taken from Russia's largest private Dali collection and are being exhibited for the first time. Related Italian artist collective turns Turin residential building into art galleryArt lovers in the Russian city of Perm take in new Salvador Dali exhibitWatch: Trailblazing female artists celebrated in Berlin exhibition The exhibition also features ten series of Dali's graphic works, many showing different techniques, including woodcutting, lithography and even 'bulletism', an artistic technique that involves shooting colour bullets onto a blank canvas.There are also some rare glass sculptures made by Dali. He only made 28 such sculptures and three of them are on display.The exhibition also includes new 3D media. "Living Dreams of Salvador Dali" immerses visitors in the world of surrealism, in which the artist's images and characters seemingly come to life.The exhibition, "Surrealism is Me", runs at the Central Exhibition Hall in the Russian city of Perm until 30 May.

Oyster farmers in the US are making money by dumping their catch back into the ocean, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit their market hard.In the first half of 2020, oyster farmers in New England, US, found that their catch had no place to sell."Ninety per cent of the oysters we saw go to restaurants, and so once the restaurants closed, our distributors just said we can't take any, we have no place to send them," explains the founder of Virgin Oyster Company Brian Gennaco. If one oyster can do this, imagine what a thriving oyster reef can do! pic.twitter.com/XR9CTT55tB— The Nature Conservancy in Maine (@TNCmaine) March 26, 2021 However, their fortunes changed after a conservation group and several federal agencies hatched a creative scheme to save the industry and 3,000 jobs.They're buying up 5 million surplus oysters and deploying them onto depleted coastal reefs to reconstruct key marine habitats. Related What is ocean rewilding and how will it fight climate change?No need to choose between eating fish and saving the ocean, say experts The program – Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration, or SOAR – seeks to restore shellfish reefs at 20 locations in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Washington state in the US.It is run by non-profit environmental group The Nature Conservancy in partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts.Click on the video above to learn more about this project.

Ruben Smith-Stone spends his typical school day outside with his bikes or tinkering with the launch ramps and jumps the 12 year-old has built for them.It’s a far cry from the desks and chalkboards of the classroom.For the past three years, he has been among the now 80,000-strong cohort of kids in the UK eschewing conventional education in favour of homeschooling. Related Work from home for life? Why companies around the world want to make remote work permanent For many parents like Ruben’s, the benefits of an education outside the mainstream system - with its emphasis on testing, streaming and examining - are self-evident."These sorts of skills he's doing now will probably help him out in later life, like the carpentry skills, the sports skills, stuff like that,” said Michelle, Ruben’s mother and home-educator.“I think in his life after education they will help him out dramatically rather than being stuck in a school where he's not learning what he wants to learn and being set into a category that he doesn't fit into, really". We had parents saying 'I've got my child back, my child is so much happier, my child enjoys learning at home. So I'm now going to home-educate Wendy Charles-Warner Education Otherwise Trustee and Home Education Researcher While it’s a trend that has been growing steadily over the last decade, the closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a sharp increase in the number of parents deciding to educate their kids at home."What became apparent from the surveys I've done over the last year was a great many parents who were put into a position of their child learning at home, realised how much their child thrived,” explained Wendy Charles-Warner, a trustee of the charity Education Otherwise and a home education researcher based in Wales.“We had parents saying 'I've got my child back, my child is so much happier, my child enjoys learning at home. So I'm now going to home-educate,'” she added.“They'd dipped their toe in the water, and found how much it benefited their child".For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.

A university in Sweden is using a so-called “robot scientist” to speed up its search for a cure for COVID-19.The robot scientist, named Eve, is an AI-driven laboratory system that can automate research tasks like testing chemicals, planning and carrying out experiments. Related Amazon will develop autonomous delivery robot tech in FinlandThis French robotics start-up may have the solution for the ageing population crisisAstraZeneca COVID vaccine blood clot risk 'similar' to Pfizer, new study finds “Eve will go through the entire list of chemicals she has, and try to find the same structure. So she chooses what will be the next step, depending on the previous one,” said scientist Ivgeniia Tiukova. This will free human scientists to make the high-level creative leaps at which they excel, and thus contribute to solving societal challenges. Ross King British scientist Medical researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg say Eve is able to take on work that human scientists would otherwise have to carry out, freeing them up to focus on more challenging tasks.“We test a few thousand, it will take a while, but this robot is fast,” said Chalmers professor of chemistry Per Sunnerhagen.Moving to SwedenEve started life at the University of Manchester in northern England, where she was involved in finding treatments for malaria.Moving Eve to Gothenburg involved disassembling the robot scientist’s robotic arms, liquid handling, drug maintenance and yeast culture equipment. Related 'Big dreams and financing': How Europe’s start-ups can thrive post-COVID, says KPMG France chiefGoogle Maps crowding predictions expand to more cities as commuters try to avoid COVID-19Record profits for Apple, Microsoft and Google amid COVID-19 boost for Big Tech Eve’s developer, British scientist Ross King, said in a statement that he hoped she would enable Chalmers researchers to spend more time being creative.“This will free human scientists to make the high-level creative leaps at which they excel, and thus contribute to solving societal challenges,” he said.

Just a month after beginning his training in the detection of COVID-19, Pokaa the golden retriever has taken up his post in a nursing home in the eastern Alsace region of France.Rather than forcing an intrusive swab up people’s noses, Pokaa needs only to sniff a cloth that has been held under a resident’s armpit to deduce whether or not they have the virus.So far, he has managed to rack up some impressive results, enjoying a 100 per cent success rate detecting COVID-19 in symptomatic residents and 94 per cent in asymptomatic cases. Related This COVID breath test doesn’t involve putting swabs up your nose. But is it effective? “If Pokaa detects a positive swab, he sits in front of the cone, he really holds his position and he can be very insistent on his marking,” Pokaa’s trainer, Christelle Schreiber, said.“If he detects a negative swab, he'll smell it, or very quickly ignore it, and come back to me and say there's nothing there,” she added.Once the dog detects the disease, a PCR test is administered to confirm the diagnosis and the patient is isolated from other residents of the home.Crucially, Pokaa has proven adept at sniffing out the virus up to 48 hrs before it is picked up by a CPR test.“We were able to verify that people who were negative 48 hours before the PCR test, and were detected positive by the dog, actually had a positive PCR test 48 hours later," Alain Legrand, director of the Handi’chiens association where Pokaa received his training, explained. I believe that our dogs, I truly believe this from the bottom of my heart, our dogs will save lives in institutions. The people we take care of are fragile, with multiple diseases, and despite the vaccine, they can still be affected by the virus. And it's these people that we have to really protect. Robert Kohler Director of La Roselière nursing home and president of Handi'chiens Dogs are usually trained by Handi’chiens to provide assistance and company to people with disabilities.But the pandemic inspired the charity to put the canine’s keen sense of smell to good use in the fight against COVID-19."I believe that our dogs, I truly believe this from the bottom of my heart, our dogs will save lives in institutions,” said Robert Kohler, director of La Roselière nursing home and president of Handi'chiens.“The people we take care of are fragile, with multiple diseases, and despite the vaccine, they can still be affected by the virus. And it's these people that we have to really protect".For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.

Martinique will enter a strict lockdown for three weeks as COVID-19 infections surge in the French overseas territory.The island's prefect, Stanislas Cazelles, advised tourists to "leave the territory" as soon as possible, as Martinique has one of the highest COVID incident rates in France with almost 1,200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.All shops except groceries and pharmacies will be closed and hotels will only be open to residents or essential professional workers."Companies and administrations are also invited to participate in this lockdown effort, they are invited to organise service so that as many employees as possible can work from home," Cazelles added.Pressure on the island's hospitals has intensified as a result of the outbreak and with occupancy at 227%.Vaccination rates are also low with less than 22% of the population having received a first dose. Related UPDATED: Where can I travel in Europe? A list of COVID entry rules for every European country Calls for French medical staff to volunteerFrench health minister Olivier Véran appealed for volunteer doctors and nurses to travel to the overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique, with around 240 healthcare professionals flying out on Tuesday.Sébastien Lecornu, France's minister for overseas territories, thanked healthcare workers and firefighters for their reinforcements overseas. He travelled to a hospital upon arriving in Guadeloupe to observe the situation there. After the previous lockdown measures came into force on July 30, several clashes between demonstrators and police were observed on the island.But Cazelles promised the strict rules will be lifted "as soon as the health situation allows", saying they would review the situation in 15 days.Watch the video above for full details.