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Boris Johnson has announced a phased lifting of restrictions. Scientists and health advisers give their verdict

Hayley Arceneaux, 29, will become youngest American in space when she joins Jared Isaacman and two contest winners on flightHayley Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician’s assistant and former bone cancer patient, will become the youngest American in space later this year, when she participates in the first SpaceX private flight.St Jude Children’s Research hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arceneaux was once a patient and now works, announced on Monday that she will blast off later this year with the entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and two contest winners. Continue reading...

Pfizer jab cuts risk of admission by up to 85% four weeks after first dose, while AstraZeneca jab cuts risk by 94%, study finds

Thinking in and out of the boxUPDATE: The solutions are now up hereWhat makes for a great puzzle? Here’s a golden oldie that certainly qualifies.The nine dots Continue reading...

No, it didn’t originate in Wuhan’s wet market, but it could have been spread by frozen food. Here is what we learned from Phase 1 of the investigation

The constellation is a constant feature of the night sky from mid-latitude northern countriesCassiopeia, the queen, can be found in the north-western sky this week. The chart shows the view from London at 1900 GMT each evening. Continue reading...

Cambridge University team say their findings could be used to spot people at risk from radicalisationOur brains hold clues for the ideologies we choose to live by, according to research, which has suggested that people who espouse extremist attitudes tend to perform poorly on complex mental tasks.Researchers from the University of Cambridge sought to evaluate whether cognitive disposition – differences in how information is perceived and processed – sculpt ideological world-views such as political, nationalistic and dogmatic beliefs, beyond the impact of traditional demographic factors like age, race and gender. Continue reading...

Neanderthals | Royal family | Unicorn shortage | Grace Dent | CrosswordsThe fanciful painting used to illustrate the print version (19 February) of your article discussing possible reasons for the demise of the Neanderthals offers yet another explanation. There appears to be just one identifiable female individual shown, breastfeeding a baby. Though the painter has modestly covered all genital areas, it’s obvious to the viewer that the other 14 or so are intended to be male. No wonder they died out.

Procedure previously deemed suitable only for adults saved the lives of six young patients last yearNHS doctors have pioneered the use of a “dead” heart transplant technique – previously deemed suitable only for adults – in children, saving the lives of six young patients last year.Surgeons typically use for transplants hearts donated by patients who are declared brain stem dead but whose hearts are still beating. Retrieving the hearts of patients who have suffered cardiac death (which are far more common than brain stem deaths) is considered too risky a prospect. Continue reading...

From immunity to blocking transmission of the virus, labs across the UK are hunting for second-generation jabs

Hailed as the ‘molecular scissors’ that will allow us to rewrite our genes, the DNA tool is being trialled in treatments for everything from sickle-cell anaemia to cancerWhen last year’s Nobel prize for chemistry was awarded to biochemist Jennifer Doudna and microbiologist Emmanuelle Charpentier for their work in developing the technique of gene editing known as Crispr-Cas9 (pronounced “crisper”), headlines hailed their discovery as “molecular scissors” that would allow us to “rewrite the book of life” – with all the complicated ethical questions that ability raises. But much of the excitement has nothing to do with visions of designer babies. The real promise of Crispr is for treating diseases caused by genetic mutations, from muscular dystrophy to congenital blindness, and even some cancers.The first human trials of Crispr therapies are happening already, and researchers hope that they are on the brink of reaching the clinic. “The speed at which Crispr research has progressed has been truly astonishing,” says Doudna from the University of California at Berkeley. Continue reading...

If he’s honest with the public, the prime minister will stress there is no quick or easy escape back to normalityIt is a sign of our times that the only live theatre currently available is that staged by politicians. Boris Johnson will tomorrow unveil his “roadmap” for easing out of coronavirus restrictions, a moment that is being fanfared as a big, dramatic event. The journey planner will be shown to the cabinet on Monday morning and then presented to the Commons before a prime ministerial news conference in the evening.I can’t tell you exactly what will be in the document, because it is still being wrangled over within government as I write. At this juncture of the crisis, as at every similar one, cabinet ministers are making last-minute special pleas to have the plan amended to advance one client group or another up the list of priority areas for coming out of restrictions. My conversations suggest that the plan is likely to be heavily hedged and highly tentative. The title “roadmap” will invest it with more solidity than it will truly possess. Anyone yearning to know when precisely they will be permitted to go to the pub, visit the cinema or holiday abroad will be disappointed. Continue reading...

Britain’s top vet was newly qualified when the outbreak hit. Here, she talks about the devastating slaughter and tracking virus variantsChristine Middlemiss was a young vet working in Scotland in February 2001 when foot and mouth disease struck Britain. Having grown up on a farm, and having later worked in veterinary care in Cumbria, she volunteered to help battle an affliction that would eventually take a terrible toll on UK livestock.“I volunteered as a temporary veterinary inspector at 4pm and was told to report to a farm in Cumbria by 8am the next day,” Middlemiss told the Observer last week. “I got there and was given an A5 piece of paper with instructions about what I had to do. That was all the recorded advice that was available at the time.” Continue reading...

This bungling, populist government is basking in the reflected glory of the experts who created the Covid vaccinePhilip Stephens, the chief political commentator of the Financial Times, tells a wonderful story about how he was playing football in the playground at school – in those days playground football was with tennis balls – and a ball hit the Latin master as he was passing.The Latin master immediately clipped Stephens round the ears – which, these days, would no doubt have led to the master’s dismissal. Stephens protested: “It wasn’t me, sir.” To which the reply was: “Let this be a lesson to you, my boy. There is no justice in this world.” Continue reading...

As with space travel, co-operation is crucial in solving the country’s infrastructure problemsAs a contrast in extremes, last week’s extraordinary developments in space and the southern United States take some beating. At the very moment Nasa’s Perseverance rover scored a technological triumph with its flawless landing on the surface of Mars, millions of American citizens in Texas were thrust back into a chaotic, pre-industrial dark age of no electricity, no water and, for some, no food by unprecedented freezing temperatures.Many lessons may be drawn from the confluence of these two events, positive and negative. The performance of the Perseverance mission is frankly breathtaking. Having travelled the 38.6m miles from Earth – measured by Mars’s closest approach in 2020 – over seven months, the rover touched down without any apparent damage to its sophisticated scientific equipment and cameras. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson makes pledge ahead of ‘roadmap’ announcement on Monday; Micheál Martin rules out reopening hospitality sector soon; This blog has closed. Follow our coverage below

For some the pandemic has worsened their symptoms, but others say social distancing and hygiene measures have made life easierLuka Buchanan has always been consumed by the fear of contamination and germs, washing their hands until they were raw, and terrified the food they ate would poison them.Diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder at age 19, Buchanan, who uses they/them pronouns, spent years in therapy telling themselves over and over that there was nothing to fear – that the chances of a global contagion were minuscule, and that they weren’t infected and dangerous to those around them. Continue reading...

Estrangement is surprisingly common – so how can the injured parties put their differences aside?Harry and Meghan have apparently severed links with the royal family and moved halfway across the globe. Nicole Kidman has been allegedly snubbed by her two eldest Scientologist children. Angelina Jolie has a difficult relationship with her father Jon Voight – it probably doesn’t help that he’s Donald Trump’s favourite actor… We hear about these high-profile estrangements and assume it’s either media hype or that these family fallouts are unique to the rich and famous. But Karl A Pillemer, a professor of human development at Cornell University, says it’s actually rare to find a family that has never been touched by a deep and painful rift.“Estrangement is strikingly and surprisingly common,” says Pillemer. He conducted a random survey of 1,340 individuals. He found that “more than a quarter reported that they themselves were estranged from a close family relative”. He defined that as having no contact with the relative whatsoever. The figure was much higher than he had anticipated. “For most of that 27% it was not a case that they had simply drifted apart, it was a significant estrangement about which they felt upset.” Continue reading...

Helen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, praises the agency as it begins a search for 26 recruitsHelen Sharman, the UK’s first astronaut, has welcomed the European Space Agency’s decision to improve diversity among crew as an “exciting time for human space flight expansion”.Esa announced earlier this week that as part of its bid to recruit up to 26 new astronauts it was casting its net wider than ever and that diversity – across gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, beliefs and physical disability – will be at the heart of its recruitment efforts. Continue reading...

Adam Steltzner, the chief engineer on the Perseverance project, said his team was ‘overwhelmed with excitement and joy’ as he revealed new colour photographs beamed back from Nasa’s Perseverance rover

Car-sized vehicle designed to seek signs of life is pronounced ‘healthy’ after dramatic descent to surface of the red planetNasa scientists have said the Perseverance Mars rover is “healthy” and is beaming back many stunning new images from the surface of the planet, promising significant scientific discoveries ahead.Related: Perseverance’s mission to Mars – in pictures Continue reading...

Team of experts answer questions about mission following safe landing on the red planet on Thursday – follow the briefing live

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Nasa’s rover, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, landed safely on the floor of a vast crater on Thursday, the first stop on its search for life on the red planet

Royal Society says issues such as certifying immunity and data protection need to be considered

German politicians voice support for jab after only 17% of doses delivered to country are administered so far

Radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zoneNasa’s science rover Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world, streaked through the Martian atmosphere on Thursday and landed safely on the floor of a vast crater, its first stop on a search for traces of ancient microbial life on the Red Planet.Mission managers at Nasa’s jet propulsion laboratory near Los Angeles burst into applause and cheers as radio signals confirmed that the six-wheeled rover had survived its perilous descent and arrived within its target zone inside Jezero crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed. Continue reading...

Hope mission is to study Martian atmosphere to help understand how water has been lostThe first photograph of Mars taken by the Emirates Mars Mission’s Hope spacecraft has been released by the UAE Space Agency and Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre .Captured at 20:36 GMT on 10 February 2021, one day after the Hope probe successfully entered orbit around the red planet, the image shows sunlight creeping over the giant volcanoes of the Tharsis region. Continue reading...

Critics say President Daniel Ortega is attempting to distract from his dismal human rights record and poor response to the pandemicNicaragua has created a new National Ministry for Extraterrestrial Space Affairs, The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, prompting scorn from critics in a nation experiencing a steady erosion of human rights since a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests three years ago.The new space agency was approved by 76 legislators Wednesday in the country’s congress, which is dominated by the Sandinista party of Daniel Ortega, the president. Fifteen opposition legislators abstained. Continue reading...

Nasa's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars' Jezero Crater to search for ancient microbial life after a journey of almost seven months from Earth, beaming back an image of the surface of the red planet

Data shows Covid has taken far greater toll than flu, to which it is often dismissively compared

Event 42,000 years ago combined with fall in solar activity potentially cataclysmic, researchers sayThe flipping of the Earth’s magnetic poles together with a drop in solar activity 42,000 years ago could have generated an apocalyptic environment that may have played a role in a major events ranging from the extinction of megafauna to the end of the Neanderthals, researchers say.The Earth’s magnetic field acts as a protective shield against damaging cosmic radiation, but when the poles switch, as has occurred many times in the past, the protective shield weakens dramatically and leaves the planet exposed to high energy particles. Continue reading...

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Spacecraft will descend on red planet carrying helicopter and instruments to look for biosignaturesA rover and a tiny helicopter are preparing to land on Mars, aiming to offer an opportunity to answer an enduring question: has life ever emerged on another planet?Nasa’s ninth mission to descend on the cold, dry, red planet will be steered by a $2.7bn (£2.1bn), car-sized, six-wheeled rover christened Perseverance, which is expected to touch down on Thursday following a seven-month journey. Continue reading...

Suspicion of authority and worries about what is halal must be balanced by the fact that protecting others is an obligation

The health service needs modernising if it is to maintain its position at the forefront of patient care and medical research

The pandemic has demonstrated why humans are ultimately an impressive species. From monitoring the genetic evolution of Sars-CoV-2 to devising vaccines in record time, we have put our minds together to reduce the impact of Covid-19. Yet, the global spread of a new disease is a reminder that we are not invincible, and remain at the mercy of our biology and the natural world. Speaking to author Melanie Challenger about her new book How to Be Animal, Madeleine Finlay asks how we can come to terms with ourselves as animals and why it might do humanity some good Continue reading...

Experts urge care over opening schools as children aged 5-12 now in one of most common groups for virus

University of Cambridge researchers identify potentially effective interventions to help peopleRobotic dogs, laughter therapy and mindfulness could help people cope with loneliness and social isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at the University of Cambridge have found.The team at the university’s School of Medicine, led by Dr Christopher Williams, reviewed 58 existing studies on loneliness and identified interventions that could be adapted for people living in lockdown or under pandemic-related social distancing measures. Continue reading...

DNA from teeth found in Siberia permafrost the oldest yet sequenced, pushing science into ‘deep time’Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have led to the world’s oldest known DNA being sequenced, according to a study that shines a genetic searchlight on the deep past.Researchers said the three teeth specimens, one roughly 800,000 years old and two more than a million years old, provided important insights into the giant ice age mammals, including into the ancient heritage of, specifically, the woolly mammoth. Continue reading...

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Healthy adult volunteers aged 18 to 30 will be exposed to virus in controlled environment

With no agreed naming system, scientists are devising their own nomenclature to fill the gap

Report points to failures to improve availability of PPE and capability of social care after readiness exercises

Human challenge trial will monitor healthy 18- to 30-year-olds given virus to aid vaccine and therapy research

Matt Hancock should spend less time watching Hollywood films and more time studying the Asian country’s innovative approach to misinformationMatt Hancock, we learned recently, got a few pointers on how to shape the UK’s vaccine strategy from the 2011 movie Contagion. I don’t know if that is something I would boast about if I were the UK health secretary, but, look, it is great that the man is not shy about seeking out diverse sources of advice. Still, he might want to think about looking towards Taiwan, rather than Hollywood, for further inspiration.Taiwan has had only nine confirmed Covid deaths so far. The island of almost 24 million people managed to snuff out the virus without having a nationwide lockdown. In October, there was a big Pride parade. Life is mostly back to normal and the economy is doing well. Continue reading...

Plan to buy the BioNTech shot has been delayed amid intervention by ‘outside forces’, says health minister

Fusarium xyrophilum hijacks yellow-eyed Xyris grasses from Guyana to create forgeries made of fungal tissueFungi have been discovered making fake flowers that look and even smell like the real thing, fooling bees and other pollinating insects into visiting them.

The wintry weather that has battered the southern US and parts of Europe could be a counterintuitive effect of the climate crisisAssociating climate change, normally connected with roasting heat, with an unusual winter storm that has crippled swaths of Texas and brought freezing temperatures across the southern US can seem counterintuitive. But scientists say there is evidence that the rapid heating of the Arctic can help push frigid air from the north pole much further south, possibly to the US-Mexico border. Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern said she does not believe community transmission is widespread