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Latest updates: health experts and opposition call for mixing rules to be cancelled; all English secondary schools to get rapid tests from January

Call echoed by head of hospital doctors’ union and in a letter from Keir Starmer to the PM

2 June 1949 – 19 February 2020

The emergence of a novel coronavirus prompted a wave of global collaboration that has led to vaccines, treatments and the promise of new discoveries

Urgent talks under way in Whitehall after emergence of new variant of virus

The prime minister’s spell in intensive care underscored the severity of the pandemic. Did it also make him reassess his life?It was an unexpected twist in what already felt like an excessively dramatic disaster movie. On 6 April, the British prime minister was admitted to the intensive care ward at St Thomas’ hospital in London, after contracting a new and potentially deadly virus. Donald Trump said he was “praying for his good friend”; the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said all his wishes were with the prime minister, his family and the British people in “this difficult time”. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, described it as “terribly sad news”.Boris Johnson pulled through, of course, surviving to witness the birth of his son, Wilfred – given the middle name Nicholas, after the doctors, Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart, who saved Johnson’s life. But more than eight months later, could the country still be feeling the impact of this dramatic turn of events? Continue reading...

Team will study effects on environment of A-68A, which is heading for South GeorgiaScientists are preparing for an urgent mission to the world’s biggest iceberg, which is on a collision course with the island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean.The A-68A iceberg, which is larger than Luxembourg, broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in 2017 and has been drifting towards the island ever since. Continue reading...

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As US death toll hits 300,000, one group of workers have paid an especially high price. The Guardian shares their storiesThe US death toll from Covid-19 crossed the grim milestone of 300,000 Monday, just hours after the first doses of a new vaccine were given to high-risk healthcare workers.Frontline healthcare worker have shouldered an extraordinary burden over the last 10 months and represent a disproportionate share of the sick. Continue reading...

Dr Zania Stamataki sets out the key factors … and says there is no need to panic

Downing Street says there are no plans to review guidance on household mixing or schools

Health secretary says variant may be linked to rapid spread of virus in south-east England

Dr Kizzmekia Corbett one of two leaders of team that created vaccine as only 14% of Black Americans trust vaccine will be safe

The solution to today’s puzzleEarlier today I set you the following puzzle:Four elves Glarald, Mnementh, Virthana and Tinsel are each wearing tunics of a different colour. At least one of these elves is a liar. (A liar is someone who only says statements that are untrue). During break at elf school, the following conversation is overheard: Continue reading...

The fringe view that we should avoid coronavirus restrictions was presented to the PM as he weighed a crucial decisionOn 17 September the government’s scientific advisory group, Sage, met. Its minutes note that a national “circuit breaker” lockdown for England “could have a significant impact on transmission”, stating that the “approach has greater impact when the epidemic is growing faster”. A second wave had been all but inevitable after the lifting of national restrictions on 4 July, the introduction of the “eat out to help out” scheme, and the easing of travel restrictions and quarantining, which allowed people to take holidays to Covid-transmission hotspots such as Spain.On 21 September, Prof Chris Whitty and Prof Sir Patrick Vallance held a public briefing where they presented worst-case scenario figures for Covid cases and deaths into autumn and winter if no action was taken. The briefing was widely criticised as scaremongering, but the projected figures of 50,000 cases and 200 deaths per day has proved to be largely correct, with 45,000 cases and 450 deaths per day in October-November. The same day, Sage set out in an official document that a circuit breaker “should be considered for immediate introduction”. Continue reading...

Jake Haendel spent months trapped in his body, silent and unmoving but fully conscious. Most people never emerge from ‘locked-in syndrome’, but as a doctor told him, everything about his case is bizarre by Josh Wilbur Continue reading...

Trials have claimed 86% efficacy, but Peru has suspended tests because of ‘an adverse event’ and there is concern about lack of transparencyRead all our coronavirus coverage hereTrials in the United Arab Emirates have shown that China’s Sinopharm vaccine has 86% efficacy. So what is the Chinese treatment, where is it being trialled and will it challenge the vaccines being developed in western countries? Continue reading...

From December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19 – here are the points where momentum shiftedFrom December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19, it has been an extraordinary year. Here’s how the momentum shifted Continue reading...

Logic with Santa’s little helpersHere’s a logic puzzle that was sent in to me by a (very smart) 12-year-old.Four elves Glarald, Mnementh, Virthana and Tinsel are each wearing tunics of a different colour. At least one of these elves is a liar. (A liar is someone who says only statements that are untrue). During a break at elf school, the following conversation is overheard: Continue reading...

Thecodontosaurus antiquus a nimble omnivore that ran on two legs, CT scans and 3D modelling suggestBritain’s earliest dinosaur was a nimble omnivore that ran around on two legs, unlike its later relatives brontosaurus and diplodocus, research suggests.Standing at about the height of a 10-year-old child, and 1.5 metres in length with a long thin tail, Thecodontosaurus antiquus roamed the Earth during the Triassic period, more than 205m years ago, when Britain consisted of many islands surrounded by warm seas. As well as being one of the earliest dinosaurs, it was also among the first to be discovered. It was unearthed by Bristol quarrymen in 1834, earning it the nickname “the Bristol dinosaur”. Continue reading...

The gas giants Jupiter and Saturn will soon align so closely in the south-western sky they may appear as one

Mission will record details about the composition of the astral bodies and could be launched in 2028British engineers are to start work on a new spacecraft that will lie in wait for passing comets then chase them down and map their surfaces in three dimensions.Appropriately dubbed the “comet chaser”, the mission will not only record details of the comets’ contours, but also the composition of the dust and and gases released as they hurtle through the heavens. Continue reading...

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Fears that relaxing restrictions over festive period will put further pressure on hospitals

Scientists find aberrant immune system in patients with virus could also be cause of ‘long Covid’

Part of the Galloway Hoard, found in 2014, the piece is so spectacular it may have belonged to a monarchA spectacular Anglo-Saxon silver cross has emerged from beneath 1,000 years of encrusted dirt following painstaking conservation. Such is its quality that whoever commissioned this treasure may have been a high-standing cleric or even a king.It was a sorry-looking object when first unearthed in 2014 from a ploughed field in western Scotland as part of the Galloway Hoard, the richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland, acquired by the National Museums Scotland (NMS) in 2017. Continue reading...

Vial used to give Margaret Keenan the first non-trial dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is among items being used to document UK’s response to pandemicThe vial of the first dose of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to be used outside a trial – administered last Tuesday to 90-year-old Margaret Keenan from Coventry – has been added to a collection of artefacts documenting the pandemic.The empty vial has been acquired by London’s Science Museum as well as “stay at home” signs from the daily Downing Street briefings, homemade masks and other items that curators believe will provide a record of the UK’s response to the disease. Continue reading...

The pandemic is expected to precipitate a mental health crisis, but perhaps also a chance to approach life with new clarity

Rejoice at the worldwide success of research and technology, but if we don’t follow the rules it could all be for nothingNearly a year after the pandemic started, it was a moment of hope when Margaret Keenan – a 90-year-old grandmother, and resident of Coventry for 60 years – received what she described as an “early birthday present”. She was the first person to receive an approved vaccine against Covid-19 and her name will rightly be recorded in the history books.This is also a moment to recognise the thousands of scientists and engineers behind the many vaccines that are now emerging, and the many thousands of volunteers who have selflessly taken part in clinical trials. Clinical trials are the way to find out what works and what doesn’t, for both vaccines and therapeutics, and are essential to our response. Continue reading...

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Space party kicks off on Monday with the annual display, followed on Thursday by a once-in-a-20-year event when Jupiter and Saturn ‘kiss’Australian stargazers are set to be treated to a galactic display as planets align and shooting stars light up the night sky through the next week.The space party starts with the annual Geminid meteor shower on Monday morning when the Earth passes through the tail of an asteroid. Continue reading...

The Australian mathematician Samuel Blake describes how he and and two other cryptologists finally solved an encrypted message written by the unnamed serial killer 51 years ago.The FBI confirmed the code, cracked with help from a supercomputer called Spartan, is accurate, but they said it did not help with identification

Despite Boris Johnson’s pledges, the UK is way off course on its path to net zero emissions. It’s Labour’s job to force the issue

When Chinese scientists alerted colleagues to a new virus last December, suspicion fell on a Wuhan market. What have health officials learned since then?

They’re loyal, diligent – and have unbeatable noses. Could dogs play a key part in the fight against the pandemic?A single-storey building in a lonely rural business park, a few miles from Milton Keynes on a grey autumn day. It looks like a location for a bleak thriller: where a kidnap victim is held, perhaps, or the scene of a final shootout. Inside, though, something kind of cool is happening.In a brightly lit room, four inverted metal cups have been placed on the red carpet, each containing a small glass jar. One of these contains a smell: a “training odour”. Into the room bursts Billy, followed by Jess. Billy is a labrador, and Jess his human trainer. Billy bounces about the place, clearly super excited. He sniffs at everything – furniture, people, the cups – wagging ferociously. When he sniffs at the cup that contains the smell, another trainer, Jayde, indicates success with a clicking noise. Billy is rewarded with his favourite toy, a well-chewed rubber ball, and a chorus of “good boy”. Continue reading...

A dangerous trip almost ended in disaster but the project was saved with some ingenuityWhat is the weather like up on Mount Everest today? Last year a bunch of daredevil scientists and Sherpas laboured in the “death zone” and installed the world’s highest weather station, perched at 8,430 metres, just 400 metres short of Everest’s summit. But it nearly didn’t happen.Having been stuck behind a queue of climbers heading for the summit, the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex expedition team were dangerously cold when they reached the location where the station was to be installed. “We paced back and forth, attempting to stave off frostbite as wind-chill temperatures hovered close to -30°C and our drill batteries became too cold to work,” said Loughborough University’s Tom Matthews on the Conversation. Luckily team member Phutasi Sherpa had enough body heat to warm up the batteries and get the drill going again, enabling the team to bolt their weather station to the side of the mountain. Continue reading...

Portugal registers highest daily deaths since pandemic start; London police blame rule breakers for high case numbers; Switzerland imposes 7pm curfew. This liveblog is now closed

Breakthrough comes via Edinburgh study that spotted five genes linked to serious illness

UK and Russian scientists to explore whether vaccines given together improves efficacy

Trials reveal vaccine failed to produce a strong immune response in older people

The pandemic has made the necessity of relying on experts evident to all ... this is a rich exploration of lifelong learningBefore the Brexit referendum in 2016, Michael Gove announced that Britain had had enough of experts, depicting them as out of touch and elitist. This anti-intellectualism became commonplace in the UK and the US, despite some notable Tory U-turns. With the unprecedented public health crisis of Covid-19, the expert is back in fashion. Virologists, epidemiologists, statisticians, politicians and members of the public share a language of information about the coronavirus, ranging from social distancing, self-isolation and lockdown to covidiot, covexit and Barnard Castle. But whose knowledge and expertise counts?This question has a long and complex history that encompasses the meanings of “truth” as well as the evolution of the scientific method. The term “expert” comes from the mid-19th century, with its focus on objective truth, and the rise of the professions, especially as a white, male, scientific enterprise (and in contrast to feminised and “morally useful” art subjects). This hierarchy of science over humanities persists, though in the era of fake news, scientific expertise is apparently up for grabs since access to data is democratised. Continue reading...

The challenge of delivering vaccines on this scale are hard, but are firmly within the world of logistics, engineering, and politics

New airlock and scientific experiments among cargo delivered to International Space StationThe latest SpaceX Dragon resupply spacecraft has delivered a new airlock, new scientific experiments and other cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).Launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:17 EST (16:17 GMT) on Sunday 6 December from Nasa’s Kennedy space centre in Florida, the capsule docked with the ISS a day later. It is scheduled to remain at the space station for about a month. Continue reading...

An order for 51m doses has been cancelled with researchers ‘devastated’ after a trial returned false positive HIV results

Research shows people who have a dog with type 2 diabetes are 38% more at risk of having disease themselvesIt’s said that dogs resemble their owners, but the similarities may also extend to their risk of diabetes, research suggests. The same cannot be said of cat owners and their companions, however.Previous studies had hinted that overweight owners tend to have porkier pets, possibly because of shared health behaviours such as overeating or not taking regular exercise. To investigate whether this extended to a shared risk of type 2 diabetes, Beatrice Kennedy, of Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues turned to insurance data from Sweden’s largest pet insurance company, using owners’ 10-digit national identification numbers to pull their anonymised health records. Continue reading...

Recommendation signals formal FDA approval for Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the US could be imminentAn advisory panel to the US Food and Drug Administration has recommended the emergency approval of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.The recommendation is expected to signal that the first approval of a Covid-19 vaccine for use in the US is imminent. That would mark a major milestone in a pandemic that has killed more than 285,000 Americans and 1.5 million people globally. Continue reading...

Lockdown saw a surge in artefacts dug up by gardeners. How should such finds be handled?

Greta Thunberg has warned the world is failing to tackle the climate emergency and is in a ‘state of complete denial’ nearly five years after the Paris agreement.Thunberg, 17, whose solo school strike in 2018 snowballed into a global youth movement, spoke out ahead of a UN event at which national leaders have been asked to increase their pledges on emissions cuts.In a video shared exclusively with the Guardian, she calls on leaders to account for failing to reverse rising carbon emissions, but concluded: ‘There is hope … we are the hope – we, the people’

Eminent physiologist who escaped the Nazis and demonstrated how the heartbeat is controlledIn 1955 the physiologist Otto Hutter, who has died aged 96, was studying the pacemaker cells to be found in the heart. These produce the electrical impulses that fire the muscle’s contractions. At the time it was not clear why these electrical impulses should fluctuate, but in a set of extraordinary photographs Hutter and his colleague Wolfgang Trautwein captured the trace from the pacemaker cells showing what happened when different nerves in the body were stimulated.The photographs, which became a standard feature in medical textbooks, showed that when the vagus nerve, running from the brain stem to the colon, was stimulated, the waves of electrical activity in the pacemaker cells died down, and when the sympathetic nerves, responding to stress, were activated, they increased. Continue reading...

Project hopes to influence policymakers at Cop26 UN climate change conference in GlasgowPeople around the world will have a chance to discuss responses to the climate crisis in a planned global citizens’ assembly to inform UN talks in Glasgow in 2021, organisers said on Thursday.The project aims to build on similar initiatives in individual countries such as Ireland, France and Canada, where citizens’ assemblies have given politicians a steer by generating ambitious proposals on divisive issues. Continue reading...