Māori boy who died last week was youngest New Zealander to die with virus and the first child

Latest UK daily cases show a 72% jump on the 48,071 new infections recorded last Sunday; Irish officials say 52% of cases estimated to be new variant

Like countless other new parents, Sara had sailed straight into the ‘iceberg’ of unrealistically high expectations

Analysis: Omicron studies so far have been rapid first takes, but the message for England is loud and clear

Thousands drive miles as appointment-only systems jeopardise aim of offering third vaccination to all adults by end of month

While my husband and two children celebrate Christmas without me, I will be rowing 3,000 miles across the AtlanticFor the past few weeks, I’ve been getting ready for Christmas. As well as putting the tree up ridiculously early, I’ve made the cake, bought the presents and assembled the stockings. Even though my children no longer believe in Santa, the crinkle of my dad’s old golf socks stuffed full of presents on Christmas morning still makes their faces light up.But this year, for the first time since they were born, I won’t be there to celebrate with them. I’m leaving my husband Fred, daughter Inès, 15, and son Vincent, 12, to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic as part of the annual Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. My four-woman crew of mothers is called the Mothership, and between us we have 11 children, the youngest of whom is four. Continue reading...

City project that used lateral flow tests to monitor population took pressure off NHS at critical time

Billionaires in space, an end-date for deforestation, facing up to racial bias in healthcare – we asked scientists to share the most important developments of 2021Space made the headlines on many occasions in 2021: the landing of Nasa’s Perseverance rover on Mars, the arrival of a rare meteorite in the UK, the launch of a mission to hit an asteroid, the discovery of almost 200 new planets beyond the solar system – all shared their moment of fame with the public. However, the most extensive coverage of space news was probably of the 11-minute flight to outside the edge of Earth’s atmosphere made by William Shatner, AKA Captain James T Kirk of the USS Enterprise, in October 2021. Continue reading...

Health workers at King’s College hospital fear a surge in admissions as the Omicron wave gathers force, but are cautiously optimisticOn the third floor of one of the country’s biggest hospital trusts, a team of intensive care specialists in masks and visors huddle around a screened bay where a critically ill patient lies unconscious surrounded by cables and tubes.The elderly man’s breathing is supported by a ventilator and he is connected to an arterial line to measure blood pressure. He is fed by a gastric tube, and a nearby stack of six monitors provide updates on his condition, from oxygen levels to heart rate. Continue reading...

Charities ask for more government help and blame confusion over access to care, shortage of boosters and lack of shielding support

The instrument will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into spaceThe much-delayed launch of the James Webb space telescope will go ahead on 24 December, Nasa and the company overseeing the launch have confirmed.The project, begun in 1989, was originally expected to deploy the instrument – which will be the largest and most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space – in the early 2000s. Continue reading...

Deaths could hit 6,000 a day and delaying restrictions until New Year will cut effectiveness, say Sage expertsRead more: is there any good news at all on Omicron?The scale of the threat posed by the Omicron variant was laid bare by government scientists last night as they warned that there are now hundreds of thousands of infections every day. That daily number could reach between 600,000 and 2 million by the end of the month if new restrictions are not brought in immediately.The government’s SPI-M-O group of scientists, which reports to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), also warned that, based on their modelling, hospitalisations could peak between 3,000 and 10,000 a day and deaths at between 600 and 6,000 a day. Continue reading...

As part of a Guardian series about chronic pain and long Covid, Linda Geddes explores the growing realisation that pain can be a disease in and of itself. Gabrielle Jackson, associate editor of audio and visual, introduces this storyYou can read the original article here: Sufferers of chronic pain have long been told it’s all in their head. We now know that’s wrongYou can also read and watch more from our series about chronic pain here: The pain that can’t be seen Continue reading...

From a humble garage to international backing, Space Forge plans to manufacture alloys, medicines and semiconductors in microgravityLast year, when Josh Western and Andrew Bacon set up their company Space Forge, they had a garage to work in and little else. Today, the two Cardiff-based entrepreneurs have a staff of 25 and are now planning further expansion after raising £7.6m of international seed-funding.The financing – to be announced later this week – should allow the company to start a remarkable aerospace endeavour: deploying satellites in which new alloys, medicines and semiconductors can be manufactured in outer space and then brought back to Earth. The first missions are now planned for the end of 2022. Continue reading...

Analysis: scientists are only starting to understand new Covid mutation but there is encouraging news from the laboratory, South Africa and on antiviral drugs

Tom Hollander made us laugh at the hypocrisy of religion, but also showed us human kindness

Total number of cases now at 24,968, while number of deaths from new variant in England has risen to seven

My aunt Margaret Waddy, who has died aged 77 of a pulmonary embolism, was a horticulturist and a teacher, a quiz fan and a committed volunteer with Samaritans in Cambridge.Margaret was born in London but her early life was spent in the Gold Coast, now Ghana, where her parents, Bernard (known as BB) Waddy, a doctor in tropical medicine, and Mary (nee Lawrence), worked for the Colonial Service. At the age of five she was sent to Britain to be educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, a Roman Catholic boarding school. Continue reading...

Research in South Africa raises hopes that similar responses may be present with other vaccines

Analysis: If the spread continues at this rate, a small proportion of Covid hospitalisations is a serious matterWith the booster programme at full tilt across the UK, immunity against Covid is rising – so it is perhaps not surprising that the concern shown by experts over the steep rise in Omicron infections has left some bemused.For while the new variant is believed to dodge Covid vaccines to some degree, it is thought the jabs still offer good protection against severe disease – particularly after a booster. And greater levels of immunity mean a lower ratio of hospitalisations to cases – something we have seen before in the UK, where about 22% of cases in those aged 65 and older ended up in hospital in early 2021, when Alpha was dominant but few had received a vaccine, compared with about 6% after the vaccine rollout was well under way. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Vessel may have held a perfume or other potion used to anoint kings or in religious ceremoniesWhen the Galloway hoard was unearthed from a ploughed field in western Scotland in 2014, it offered the richest collection of Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland. But one of the artefacts paled in comparison with treasures such as a gold bird-shaped pin and a silver-gilt vessel because it was within a pouch that was mangled and misshapen after almost 1,000 years in the ground.Now that pouch has been removed and its contents restored, revealing an extraordinary Roman rock crystal jar wrapped in exquisite layers of gold thread by the finest medieval craftsman in the late eighth or early ninth century. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Wood smoke is a more important carcinogen than vehicle fumes, finds Athens analysisWood burning stoves in urban areas are responsible for almost half of people’s exposure to cancer-causing chemicals found in air pollution particles, new research has shown.The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tiny pollution particles are produced by burning fuels and have long been known to have carcinogenic effects. The new study examined the sources of the PAHs and found wood burning produced more than the diesel fuel or petrol used in vehicles. Continue reading...

People are wising up to Boris Johnson and choosing to listen to unelected experts over those paid to make bad decisions

Researchers named the subterranean animal Eumillipes persephone after the Greek goddess of the underworld

Analysis: After a steady stream of reports, how likely is it that Boris Johnson will take advice about imposing tougher restrictions?• Boris Johnson joined No 10 party during May 2020 lockdown, say sources

The first microscope used by Charles Darwin was up for auction at Christie's this week, and this video tells the story of its discovery and importance. This intricate and rather beautiful 'box of brass’ contains the microscope used by Darwin at university in Edinburgh and Cambridge as he studied botany, fine-tuning his microscopy skills prior to and during his Beagle voyage. The auctioneer describes the microscope as one of the most exciting lots they've handled, with collectors queuing up to get their bids in Continue reading...

A fleet of modified Saildrones is sending back video and data to help understand extreme weatherSending a small sailing boat to explore the interior of a hurricane may seem like a bad idea, but that is exactly what meteorologists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did in October. There was no danger though because the seven-metre vessel was crewless.Saildrones are robot vessels that can stay at sea indefinitely with a combination of wind and solar power. Some, like Saildrone Explorer SD 1045, have been modified to handle 140mph winds and giant waves. Continue reading...

For three consecutive rainy seasons, the eastern Horn of Africa has experienced poor rainfall. Confounded by Covid-19 and desert locust invasions, millions are now facing starvation across parts of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. Already, livestock and wildlife are dying of thirst and hunger in large numbers. And at the heart of it all is the worsening climate crisis.Madeleine Finlay asks climate researcher Chris Funk what’s causing these devastating weather patterns and speaks to Nairobi reporter Peter Muiruri about the impact the droughts are having in northern Kenya, and what can be done to make regions more drought-resilient in the future Continue reading...

Researchers find fewer than third of patients show much improvement 12 months after discharge

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty says rise in hospitalisations due to Omicron are fairly certain

Study of tubes between windpipe and lungs could help explain Covid variant’s rapid transmission

Early trials show jab effective in people of all ages who have already received doses of any vaccine

EU risk assessment advises against Christmas mixing owing to new Covid variant’s high transmissibility

The error is to be expected, say linguists, as we don’t often have cause to introduce novel words to our vernacular as adultsRupert Murdoch’s New York Post criticized Joe Biden and his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, for both mispronouncing the new Covid variant as “Omnicron” rather than “Omicron”.Biden’s detractors have seized on the mispronunciation as evidence of some sort of cognitive decline, but the president is far from alone. Daily Beast media reporter Justin Baragona confessed he “can relate” to Biden’s mispronunciation, and he’s not the only one: various digital news outlet URLs include the misspelling, suggesting that the mistake was in an early draft and only corrected after the article was published. Continue reading...

Differing adult uptakes, healthcare systems and cultures of medicine have played role in approaches

Older children had exams cancelled and their futures thrown into doubt. But what has been the toll on primary pupils who began school during the pandemic?Let me introduce you to a little girl called Miriam. She’s five years old and attends a primary school in north-east London. The adults who know her describe her as a confident, outgoing child. “She has a hugely adventurous spirit; she wants to try everything,” said one. But the pandemic that continues to spread fear and uncertainty across all our lives has made her scared of the world around her.Getting to sleep is difficult for Miriam because she has nightmares. Especially on Sundays. Coming into school is hard, because she doesn’t want to leave her mother. Sometimes she gets angry and clings to her mum. “Am I safe enough to do this on my own?” she’s thinking, and sometimes the answer she gives herself is no. “Her wings have been clipped by Covid,” says the school-based counsellor who works with her. She is not alone. Continue reading...

For some trees, photosynthesis can take place in the bark, letting the tree supplement its food reserves

Vaccine boosters may be required every six months to protect against the variant, virologists from the Kirby Institute say

Residents of the wider Auckland region, closed off in August as the city tried to contain an outbreak of Covid-19, finally allowed to leave

The Parker probe is exploring the corona to help scientists better understand solar outbursts that can interfere with life on EarthA Nasa spacecraft has officially “touched” the sun, plunging through the unexplored solar atmosphere known as the corona.Scientists announced the news Tuesday during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson suffers large rebellion from his own MPs but measures pass; PM earlier tells cabinet surge of new variant cases is coming

Experimental antiviral pill Paxlovid is also effective against the Omicron variant, company announcesA pill manufactured by the prominent Covid-19 vaccine provider Pfizer is highly effective in protecting against severe disease from coronavirus, the company said on Tuesday.The experimental antiviral pill Paxlovid is also effective against the Omicron variant that is spreading rapidly across the world, the company announced, citing laboratory testing. Continue reading...

Analysis: Sajid Javid estimates there are 200,000 new cases a day – here’s why the experts suggest that number will soon multiply

Governments urged to use ‘peace dividend’ to help UN tackle pandemics, climate crisis and extreme povertyMore than 50 Nobel laureates have signed an open letter calling for all countries to cut their military spending by 2% a year for the next five years, and put half the saved money in a UN fund to combat pandemics, the climate crisis, and extreme poverty.Coordinated by the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli, the letter is supported by a large group of scientists and mathematicians including Sir Roger Penrose, and is published at a time when rising global tensions have led to a steady increase in arms budgets. Continue reading...

Object is among nearly 50,000 finds by hobbyists in 2020, according to Portable Antiquities Scheme report

Millions have died unnecessarily of Covid and millions more will in 2022 unless something changes. Justice must be doneMillions more people will die from Covid-19 in the coming year, and most will be unvaccinated. The vaccines that could save millions of lives are not reaching the poor majority of the world’s population. The contrast is stark: the current share of people fully vaccinated in high, upper-middle income, lower-middle income and low income countries is 69%, 68%, 30% and 3.5% respectively.The UK, Canada, Germany and other EU states have supported a deliberate policy to withhold vaccines from the poorest countries in the world, and defended an immoral and unethical economic system which places big pharma patents ahead of millions of lives. In this context, is the only option left to ask whether the states facilitating this might be prosecuted in the international criminal court, on the grounds of a crime against humanity? Continue reading...

Deputy prime minister offers reassurance over gatherings as government faces record rebellion

One guest is an antivaxxer, another is allergic to your cats, the turkey is still raw and your best friends are splitting up in the sitting room. Here is how to face down festive fiascosIt’s that time of year when you wake up sweating and can’t figure out why. Did you accidentally wear your thermals in bed? Do you have tuberculosis? No, dummy, it’s just that it’s almost Christmas, it’s your turn to play host, and the list of things that can go wrong on the 25th is long and wearying.Can I recommend, before we drill into this list, a quick wisdom stocktake? Last year was the worst Christmas imaginable: every plan was kiboshed at the very last minute; non-essential shops closed before we’d done our shopping; people who thought they were going back to their families ended up at home and hadn’t bought Baileys and crackers and whatnot; people who’d battled solitude for a year were stuck alone; people living on top of each other couldn’t catch a break; people expecting guests were buried under surplus pigs in blankets, and beyond our under-or over-decorated front doors, the outside world was fraught with risk and sorrow, as coronavirus declined to mark the birth of the Christ child with any respite from its march of terror. I’m not saying it couldn’t be as bad as that again – just that it couldn’t possibly be as surprisingly bad again. Continue reading...

As England moves to plan B, Boris Johnson has announced that all adults will be offered a booster vaccine by the end of December. But will that be enough to protect the NHS from being overwhelmed? Madeleine Finlay speaks to the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, about the spread of Omicron, and what we can do to prevent a tidal wave of casesArchive: The Guardian, The Sun Continue reading...

Certification encouraged vaccination in countries with low coverage, especially among young people