For example this display shows a cat asleep in a ray of sunshine! Is that legal?

Critical sequence of tests begins in space simulator to prepare Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer for its journey to the great gas giant

Study finds antibodies against Sars-CoV-2 three-and-a-half times higher in people vaccinated again after 12 weeks rather than three

Boris Johnson should get the preliminaries under way and advance the start dateThe good news is that Boris Johnson has finally announced a public inquiry into the United Kingdom’s Covid-19 pandemic. Public inquiries remain pivotal in our public life, even today, and it was inconceivable that there would not be one on what the prime minister this week called “a trauma like no other”. For many months though, Mr Johnson has prevaricated on the timing and the details. It always seemed to be never quite the right moment. Now, amid expectations that the worst of the pandemic may possibly be ending at least in this country, that excuse is running out of road.The bad news is that Mr Johnson is still playing for time. The public inquiry will not start until spring 2022. This is a ludicrous delay. When it gets under way, it will be lengthy and extensive. Although the terms of reference have not been set, Mr Johnson acknowledges that they are likely to be wide. That means the inquiry will probably have to cover, among other things, Britain’s pandemic preparedness, the state’s lockdown and economic responses, the record of the NHS, the problems in social care, the impact on ethnic minorities and other at-risk groups, test-and-trace efforts, medical treatments and vaccines, modelling, statistics, public messaging and international comparisons. It is a huge agenda. Continue reading...

Hollywood star is aiming to be first to shoot a feature film in space, but Russia has launched rival bid

My mentor and friend Michael Atkinson, who has died aged 95, was for many years professor of gastroenterology at the University of Nottingham, where one of his most important contributions was the development of the Atkinson tube, which helps people with oesophageal cancer to swallow.Born in Rawdon, just outside Leeds, to Herbert, a plumbers’ merchant, and his wife, Janet (nee Palliser), a postmistress, Michael went to Aireborough grammar school in West Yorkshire, then University College London for his medical education during the second world war. Continue reading...

Public health officials and scientists are investigating a rise in infections to verify the risk

With restrictions in England due to be further relaxed on 17 May, new coronavirus variants first detected in India are spreading across the UK. Public Health England designated one, known as B.1.617.2, as a ‘variant of concern’ last week. It is now the second most common variant in the country. Anand Jagatia speaks to the Guardian science correspondent Nicola Davis and Prof Ravi Gupta about what we know and how concerned we should be

Boris Johnson promises a public inquiry into the pandemic, but our scientific community could provide more honest answersBoris Johnson’s promise of a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic is welcome, but tardy and vague. It is scarcely surprising that the government has been dragging its feet, for no independent, objective and credible inquiry could be anything but devastating about the political handling of the crisis. The long and lethal litany of blunders and cover-ups presented in Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott’s book Failures of State beggars belief, even while it is so recent in memory.Official inquiries are rarely characterised by frankness or timeliness. Like the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, they tend to become drawn-out exercises in political point-scoring, at best detonating a weak charge long after the event. If the Covid inquiry does ever happen (Johnson hardly has a good track record of keeping promises), it is likely to be trammeled by evasion, foot-dragging and blame-shifting on a scale that will make Chilcot look terse and incisive in comparison. Continue reading...

Vital international scientific work, including studies into how viruses spread, is being jeopardised by short-sighted cutsGiven the ambitions outlined in the government’s integrated review of “Global Britain in a Competitive Age”, you could be forgiven for thinking that research into the causes, detection and control of emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential was being taken pretty seriously at the highest level. The government will “build on the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic to improve our use of data to anticipate and respond to future crises”, and intends to “drive towards a more science-led approach to the problems we face”. Or so it claims.At the sharp end, the reality is very different. The integrated review was published five days after UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the body representing the UK’s seven research councils, posted an open letter explaining that its official development assistance (ODA) allocation had been slashed and there was now a £120m deficit in funds promised to research already up and running. This has left the programme I lead, the One Health Poultry Hub, with a 70% cut in its funding. Continue reading...

Reports that Sage will meet on Thursday to discuss threat with PHE figures expected to show big jump in cases linked to variant

Should you have a lateral flow test before sex? Is it essential to wait until you’re fully vaccinated? Doctors, scientists and other experts answer the big questions

While its doors have been closed to the public, scientists have been busy digitising its vast archive – from 100-year-old insects to rare mineralsThe main exhibition room at the Natural History Museum in London is cathedral-like, with Hope the blue whale suspended mid-air like a demigod. Filled with specimens collected by explorers, this remarkable place teaches us about the evolution of life on our planet.There is a “great unlocking” happening in this building, home to one of the world’s largest natural history collections. Insects on pins and old minerals that have been sitting in mahogany display cases for hundreds of years are being re-examined, digitised and brought into the 21st century. Continue reading...

MRNA vaccines appear to neutralise Indian variant; CDC says there is ‘plausible causal association’ between vaccine and dangerous clotting

GB study points to highlighting personal benefits being key to counter vaccine hesitancy

However, UK trial found two doses of the same vaccine triggered less adverse reactions

Boris Johnson has pledged that an independent inquiry will investigate the lessons of the UK pandemic

I felt that we were deprived of quality time together, writes Lesley West, whose husband died this yearRachel Clarke’s article (10 May) resonated with me as it captured completely the effect of the pandemic on the dying. My late husband was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer earlier this year and spent his final two weeks in hospital.I was “allowed” to visit if the permission of a doctor was given, and then had to give a code to enter the hospital. Our time together was increased towards the end, but by then he was often not lucid and did not recognise me. Continue reading...

Man, known as T5, was able to write 18 words a minute with more than 94% accuracy on individual lettersA man who was paralysed from the neck down in an accident more than a decade ago has written sentences using a computer system that turns imagined handwriting into words.It is the first time scientists have created sentences from brain activity linked to handwriting and paves the way for more sophisticated devices to help paralysed people communicate faster and more clearly. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Thinning indicates profound impact of humans and could affect satellites and GPSHumanity’s enormous emissions of greenhouse gases are shrinking the stratosphere, a new study has revealed.The thickness of the atmospheric layer has contracted by 400 metres since the 1980s, the researchers found, and will thin by about another kilometre by 2080 without major cuts in emissions. The changes have the potential to affect satellite operations, the GPS navigation system and radio communications. Continue reading...

The UK must risk an in-person meeting in Glasgow if this crucial climate conference is to be a successWalkouts, standoffs, shouting, tears, bloodletting – the UN climate Cops have seen it all. The annual meetings, in which all countries bar a few failed states take part, under the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), are the only global forum for discussing the future of the planet. They have veered between triumph and disaster, marked by dramatic and sometimes traumatic moments. At their best they can be momentous events, shifting the world’s response to the climate crisis into a higher gear, as at the landmark Paris Cop in 2015.This year’s 26th conference of the parties, postponed from last year because of Covid-19 and shaded by the pandemic, will be different. Scheduled to take place in Glasgow in November, these will be the most important talks since 2015. At Cop26, countries will lay out their plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions this decade – probably the last decade in which we still have a chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C, beyond which corals bleach, low-lying islands face inundation and extreme weather will take hold. Continue reading...

Children’s charity urges UK to set example and start sharing jabs with lower-income countries from June

Sand samples examined by National Trust experts indicate hillside chalk figure was created in the 10th centuryOver the centuries the huge, naked, club-wielding giant carved into a steep hillside in Dorset has been thought prehistoric, Celtic, Roman or even a 17th century lampoon of Oliver Cromwell.After 12 months of new, hi-tech sediment analysis, the National Trust has now revealed the probable truth and experts admit they are taken aback. The bizarre, enigmatic Cerne Giant is none of the above, but late Saxon, possibly 10th century. Continue reading...

Button batteries and magnets found in certain types of children’s toys associated with complicationsThere has been a fivefold increase in magnet ingestion over the past five years in young children amid a steady rise in hospital admissions in London caused by the swallowing of foreign objects, doctors have said.While most of the time objects pass out of the body naturally without incident, button batteries and small permanent magnets found in cordless tools, hard disk drives, magnetic fasteners and certain types of children’s toys have been associated with complications. Continue reading...

Prompted by an illness that took her to the brink of death and back, Jemma Wadham recalls 25 years of expeditions around the globe. Speaking to the professor about her new book, Ice Rivers, Shivani Dave uncovers the importance of glaciers – and what they should mean to us Continue reading...

Concerns raised over food, lack of fresh air and social distancing after coming back from red list countries

Osiris-Rex has been flying around the ancient asteroid since 2018 and collected nearly a pound of rubble last fallWith rubble from an asteroid tucked inside, a Nasa spacecraft fired its engines and began the long journey back to Earth on Monday, leaving the ancient space rock in its rearview mirror.The trip home for the robotic prospector, Osiris-Rex, will take two years. Continue reading...

Latest updates: prime minister unveils new easing of restrictions from 17 May in next steps in England’s roadmap out of lockdown

Experts caution figures subject to time lags but say news reflects impact of lockdowns and vaccination

Medical chiefs cut threat level from 4 to 3, pointing to impact of vaccinations and social distancing

This poignant documentary about two young brothers with Duchenne muscular dystrophy celebrates the power of love and togethernessHere is a deeply personal documentary that raises awareness about a disability without neglecting the interiority of those living with the condition. Co-directed by Riccardo Servini and Nick Taussig, the film follows the Taussig family’s experience of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that affects their young sons, Theo and Oscar.Duchenne is incurable and fatal. By the time Theo and Oscar are in their teens, they will be using wheelchairs full time; their 20s will come with ventilators. Throughout the film, Taussig gently explains these realities to his sons, with no sugarcoating. Satisfying children’s curiosity has never been easy, and here the task is made even more difficult when science itself has yet to provide all answers. Continue reading...

Worried that your canine companion is disobedient, territorial and quick to bark? Research suggests it’s probably a clever clogsName: Grumpy dogs.Appearance: Just adorable. Continue reading...

Visitors to Bran Castle in Romania offered vaccines – with a free trip to the ‘torture chamber’ thrown in

In Kenya, the area of optimal tea-growing conditions will be reduced by more than a quarter by 2050Your morning cup of tea may never taste the same again if global heating increases and the climate crisis intensifies, according to research.Some of the world’s biggest tea-growing areas will be among the worst hit by extreme weather, and their yields are likely to be vastly reduced in the coming decades if climate breakdown continues at its current pace. Floods, droughts, heatwaves and storms are likely to have a severe impact on tea-growing areas around the world, according to a report from the charity Christian Aid. Continue reading...

Observers in the northern hemisphere can start tonight to look for the elusive targetThis May offers observers in the northern hemisphere their best chance of the year to see the planet Mercury in the evening sky. Continue reading...

Researchers create bat with similar performance from what they say is cheap and sustainable materialCricket has been bowled a googly by scientists who have suggested the traditional willow used to make bats could be replaced by bamboo to increase their sustainability and boost the sport’s reach.“Willow has been the principal material for cricket bats for centuries,” said Dr Darshil Shah at the University of Cambridge, who co-authored the study. Continue reading...

Pressure builds on Indian government to announce national lockdown; third of UK adults now fully vaccinated against Covid-19; Laos records first Covid death

Dr Shanna Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York City, talks to Rachel Humphreys about declining fertility in men. Over the past 40 years, average sperm counts among western men have more than halved.She tells Rachel how certain chemicals can interfere with reproductive health. Phthalates, used to make plastic soft and flexible, are of particular concern. They lower testosterone, which can affect sperm count, though they are bad for women, too, and can increase the risk of miscarriage and premature birth. The reproductive crisis is serious, she says. We need to try and limit our exposure to these chemicals otherwise human survival could be threatened.

Incandescent light, the thud of Tokyo nightclubs, particle physics … it all goes into Ryoji Ikeda’s extraordinary sensory symphonies. He talks about his upcoming show at 180 The StrandRyoji Ikeda has delivered some dazzling rushes on the senses over his 25-year career: a beach in Rio de Janeiro bathed in his unique palette of light; New York’s Times Square given over to his black and white flickering patterns. But for his next show, the Japanese artist and composer is taking things underground. Ikeda’s biggest exhibition in Europe to date concerns the exposed underbelly of 180 The Strand in London, which he has reimagined as staves, notes and bar lines – with himself as the conductor, “orchestrat[ing] everything into a symphony”.Beginning with a single light beam piercing the rafters, the exhibition carries the viewer through an incandescent corridor of white light and into a room filled with a ring of immense, super-directional speakers reverberating at concert pitch. To Ikeda, this is “opera” with light and sound. “There’s the intro, the welcome piece, then the crescendo [and] climax. It’s a long journey.” Continue reading...

When Rebecca Schiller swapped the city for a rural dream life seemed idyllic. But however far you go, you can’t escape your self…Winter has hung around this year as though even the seasons are waiting for government permission to unlock. Despite spring’s late arrival on the smallholding, Amber has gone into labour early. It’s just me and her in the kidding pen; me muttering soft, nonsensical words of encouragement, her bleating through contractions and resting against my hand. She pushes again but nothing happens. The hooves of the emerging kid have been static for too long and the out-of-hours emergency vet is on the way. I give into a two-minute power cry because I don’t know if this day will end with life or death, and then the vet arrives and I snap out of it. “I’ll give her an epidural first,” he says, getting to work matter-of-factly. A goat epidural – of course.Five years ago I lived in town, had just two cats and barely knew the difference between hay and straw. Now, somehow, I’m a person with an overdue account at the agricultural merchants and I know how to organise a spinal block for a goat. Continue reading...

US agency accuses Beijing of failing to meet expected standards regarding its space debrisRemnants of China’s biggest rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit and drawing US criticism over a lack of transparency.The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO), put the point of impact west of the Maldives archipelago. Continue reading...

Key advisers are among those who say scheme is flawed as holiday firms report huge rise in bookings

The discovery of a child laid to rest in Africa 78,000 years ago indicates a value placed on life that we shareScientists have discovered what may be the oldest known burial in Africa. The remains of a person, probably aged two or three, and buried some 78,000 years ago have been discovered in Panga ya Saidi, a cave system in Kenya. The child, given the name Mtoto, Swahili for “child”, appears to have been placed on their side with their legs tucked into the chest and the head resting on a long-perished support. The body may have been wrapped in some form of material, perhaps an animal skin, which again has perished.Mtoto is not the earliest human burial of which we know. There are several sites in the Middle East in which modern humans (Homo sapiens) were buried at least 120,000 years ago. We know also of Neanderthal burials. Some anthropologists suggest that an even earlier human species, Homo naledi, may also have buried their dead, though this is controversial. Continue reading...

Models have been useful, especially as humans are far too optimistic and confident

According to some, not factoring hormone fluctuation into women’s mental healthcare can be dangerous. For others, it feeds into outdated stereotypes“It’s my hormones, doc. It’s my hormones, and no one’s listened to that.”It was the late 1980s, in what was once Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital in inner-city Melbourne. A brash young registrar doing her training in psychiatry had arrived at her first hospital placement, full of ideas and enthusiasm. Perhaps to put a bit of scuff on that bright ambition, she was assigned to look after the female patients in the “back ward”. Continue reading...

Frustration expressed at what several leaders see as US attempt to claim moral high ground

Gene-screening, as is used to detect some breast cancer risks, could save thousands of livesScientists have begun work to create a prostate cancer screening service for the UK. In a few years, middle-aged men could be tested to reveal their genetic susceptibility to the condition, with those deemed to be under significant threat of developing it being offered treatment or surgery.The service would tackle a disease that has become the nation’s most commonly diagnosed cancer and would parallel Britain’s breast cancer screening programme. Every year, more than 47,500 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer: 129 a day on average. More than 11,500 deaths from the disease occur each year, with one in eight men being diagnosed with prostate cancer at some time in their lives. Continue reading...

China has played down fears that its Long March 5B rocket could hit a populated area or a plane in flight but there is no shortage of problem debris in orbitSometime this weekend the upper stage of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket will plunge back to Earth and most of it will burn up on re-entry – but perhaps not all.Military experts in the US expect the booster stage to come down on Saturday or Sunday, but have warned it is difficult to predict where it will land and when and how much material might hit the ground – or if it could knock a plane out of the sky. Continue reading...

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Sinopharm jab will also be added to Covax programme for the developing world in the coming weeksThe World Health Organization has given emergency use approval to one of the Chinese-made Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccines in a major boost to the product’s credibility.The long-awaited decision made on Friday by a WHO technical advisory group would also see the Chinese vaccine being included in the Covax programme for the developing world in the coming weeks, and distributed through UN agencies, potentially benefiting millions of people in need worldwide. Continue reading...