COVID-19: kids are using soft drinks to fake positive tests – I've worked out the science and how to spot it

By Mark Lorch, Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull

Children are always going to find cunning ways to bunk off school, and the latest trick is to fake a positive COVID-19 lateral flow test (LFT) using soft drinks. So how are fruit juices, cola and devious kids fooling the tests and is there a way to tell a fake positive result from a real one? I’ve tried to find out.

First, I thought it best to check the claims, so I cracked open bottles of cola and orange juice, then deposited a few drops directly…

Read complete article

~	Why the New Yorker blocked UK website readers from its Lucy Letby story – an expert explains

~	How a British military march became the distinctive sound of American graduations

~	UN rights office urges Sri Lanka to reveal fate of the disappeared

~	World Should Rally to Halt Unfolding Atrocities in Darfur

~	It’s a mistake to dismiss Bridgerton as fluffy period drama

~	How newborn chicks are helping to settle a centuries-old debate about cognition and our senses

~	Extreme heatwaves in south and south-east Asia are a sign of things to come

~	Slovakia’s polarised politics: Robert Fico warned a politician could be violently attacked weeks before assassination attempt

~	Co-op Live: Manchester’s new concert venue was hit by delays, but a false start need not mean it’s blighted forever

~	‘They call us the fatherless ones’: the trauma of families devastated by the infected blood scandal will last for generations