2020 was a year to forget, but here’s why the new one bring reasons to hope. Get the Guardian Weekly delivered at homeFor many people, the back of 2020 can’t come too soon. With a new virus strain upending millions of people’s Christmas plans in the UK, coupled with the threat of a no-deal Brexit, the lead-up to 25 December was … a hairy one. At least the belated announcement of a trade and security deal with the European Union on 24 December gave some clarity. But, as Britain finally detaches from the EU, it remains a country beset by the worst of the pandemic.On that note, we wanted to look at the year ahead with at least some semblance of optimism. On page 40, writers from the Observer look at eight innovations and inventions that offer a bit of hope for the near future, while Mark Rice-Oxley, editor of the Guardian’s Upside series, considers other reasons to be cheerful about the year ahead. Through the prism of 12 world leaders, we also look at how 2021 might pan out politically. Continue reading...

How the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab works, its advantages and possible limitations

Spectacular discovery of monkey in Myanmar among new species described this year by Natural History Museum scientistsScarab beetles from New Guinea, seaweed from the Falklands and a new species of monkey found on an extinct volcano in Myanmar are among 503 species newly identified by scientists at the Natural History Museum.The museum’s work in 2020 describing species previously unknown to science includes naming new lichens, wasps, barnacles, miniature tarantulas and a lungless worm salamander. Continue reading...

Announcement made in response to ‘significant growing demand’ on hospitals and will enable local leaders to seek more support

Official tests for antibody prevalence suggest an infection rate 10 times higher than official number

Preliminary analysis suggests higher load makes B117 variant easier to spread to other people

Scientists say with that B117 has a transmission advantage making it 56% more transmissable than previous variant

While there have been setbacks, in Australia at least it would be hard to find many people distrusting of scientistsBeing an epidemiologist in 2020 has been a very odd experience. This time last year, when I told people my job title, more than half the time I’d be met with a blank look and then the tentative question: “Is that … like a skin doctor?”Explaining that it was more like a spreadsheet doctor rarely went down that well. Continue reading...

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Independent Sage group warns of ‘tens of thousands of avoidable deaths’ without immediate action

Climate specialists not being listened to despite Covid showing importance of following science, activist saysClimate experts are not being listened to despite the coronavirus pandemic highlighting the importance of following science, the environmental activist Greta Thunberg has said.The Swedish teenager argued that the Covid-19 crisis had “shone a light” on how “we cannot make it without science”, but people were “only listening to one type of scientist”. Continue reading...

The concept is not only impractical, it creates an ‘them and us’ mentality. Everyone’s health matters, or no one’s health matters

Database could be shared across Europe, says Salvador Illa

Experts warn tier 4 may not be enough to contain new, highly transmissible variant

Astronaut Jessica Meir’s seven-month mission on the International Space Station (expedition 62, from September 2019-April 2020) glides from the euphoria of the first days in zero gravity, to the deep pressure of the first all-female spacewalk in history, and finally to a completely unexpected event: seeing the global pandemic on Earth unfold from orbit. Will the astronaut be returning to a completely different planet? Continue reading...

Film-makers Alina Manolache and Vladimir Potop on how they made the Guardian documentary 2020: A Covid Space OdysseyOur latest Guardian documentary is an evocative meditation on isolation and human fragility. It pieces together glimpses of the astronaut Jessica Meir’s seven-month mission on the International Space Station (Expedition 62, from September 2019-April 2020), from the euphoria of her first spacewalk to the surprise of witnessing the global pandemic unfold on Earth. We spoke with the film-makers Alina Manolache and Vladimir Potop about the film. Continue reading...

Hospitals under growing pressure as patient numbers surpass first wave of pandemic

Vietnam’s 2003 Sars epidemic and Senegal’s 2014 Ebola outbreak informed their fast and effective responsesIn October 2019, in those halcyon pre-Covid-19 days, a chart was published that ranked 195 countries according to their capacity to deal with outbreaks of infectious disease. Drawn up by the Washington DC-based Nuclear Threat Initiative and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, Maryland, the 2019 Global Health Security Index (GHSI) placed the US and UK first and second, respectively. South Korea came ninth, New Zealand 35th and China 51st, while a number of African countries brought up the rear.Well, that was droll. Either the authors of the chart got their colour key inside out or our definition of health security needs an overhaul – and given all the fancy data visualisation software available these days it’s unlikely to be the former. Of course, the pandemic is not over. But back in March, when the index was already looking about as accurate as a 2016 US election poll, Johns Hopkins health policy analyst Sarah Dalglish wrote in the Lancet: “The pandemic has given the lie to the notion that expertise is concentrated in, or at least best channelled by, legacy powers and historically rich states.” And she hasn’t changed her view. Continue reading...

Experts fear misinformation and development worries could undermine efforts to control pandemic

There have been a number of incredible science stories in 2020, from AI deciphering the facial expressions of mice to the discovery of a black hole just 1,000 light-years from Earth. Yet, it was the Sars-CoV-2 virus that came to dominate both the headlines and our lives. In the first of two episodes, health editor Sarah Boseley, science editor Ian Sample and producer Madeleine Finlay give their thoughts on what has happened over the past year, alongside professors Eleanor Riley, John Drury and Christina Pagel. Continue reading...

Education secretary under pressure to rethink plan for millions of pupils to return

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three puzzles concerning the number 2021, which is the concatenation of two consecutive integers, 20 and 21. Before we get to the problems (and the answers), thanks to reader ConradKnightSocks for alerting me to the brilliant fact that 2021 is also the product of two consecutive prime numbers: 43 x 47.The last time this was the case was 1763, which is 41 x 43. Continue reading...

Move comes after Republicans voiced anger over the delay, which resulted in millions of Americans losing unemployment aid

New UK-wide restrictions are now essential. At Independent Sage, we’ve come up with a five-point emergency plan

The public’s appetite for science has never been stronger, but only openness can confound the deluge of fake narratives

We realised Covid was not just the story of our lives – it would change everything about the way we worked

Next year in numbersUPDATE: For the solutions and further discussion click here.Count von Count will be fizzing with excitement. For the first time since 1920, the coming year, 2021, consists of two ascending, consecutive numbers. Enjoy this ‘counting date’ while it lasts, people! It ain’t going to happen again for another hundred and one years.Today’s puzzles reveal more arithmetical patterns concerning 2021. Continue reading...

Search out the brightest star in the night sky and its parent constellationThe winter sky in the northern hemisphere is filled with delights. This week search out the brightest star in the night sky, and from there explore that star’s parent constellation of Canis Major, the greater dog. Continue reading...

President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to announce new restrictions in attempt to slow the surge

Nine months on from the virus, I am seriously debilitated. This is how the new NHS clinics need to help thousands of usWith the excitement of the Covid vaccine’s arrival, it may be easy to forget and ignore those of us with “long Covid”, who are struggling to reclaim our previous, pre-viral lives and continue to live with debilitating symptoms. Even when the NHS has managed the herculean task of vaccinating the nation, Covid-19 and the new mutant variants of the virus will continue to circulate, leaving more people at risk of long Covid. Data from a King’s College London study in September suggested as many as 60,000 people in the UK could be affected, but the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics suggest it could be much higher.I was acutely ill in March, though – like many people with long Covid – mine was defined as a “mild” case not requiring admission to hospital. Nine months on, I am seriously debilitated, with crashing post-exertional fatigue, often associated with chest pains. On bad days, my brain feels like it doesn’t want to function, even a conversation can be too much. I have no risk factors, I’m in my 50s, and have always been fit, but remain too unwell to work – ironically as a consultant in infectious diseases. Watching the pandemic unfold from the sidelines when I should have been working in the thick of it has only added to the frustration of my protracted illness. Continue reading...

Dexamethasone demonstrates power of large-scale, randomised trials in finding effective medicines

Stricter measures needed as cases of mutated virus, linked to UK travellers, are reported across globe

Pascal Soirot says firm has ‘winning formula’ to improve Oxford jab’s efficacy, as countries across Europe roll out vaccination programsSee all our coronavirus coverageThe head of the firm behind the Oxford Covid vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will be effective against the variant strain of the virus that was first found in the UK.AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, but hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the vaccine’s efficacy. Continue reading...

The frescoed thermopolium, a Roman-era fast-food stall, is the first to be fully excavatedResearchers said on Saturday they had discovered a frescoed thermopolium or fast-food counter in an exceptional state of preservation in Pompeii.Related: Researchers win £1m grant to unlock secrets of Viking-era treasure trove Continue reading...

The Yale professor has some good news for us: once the pandemic is over, people will party like there’s no tomorrowAs a Christmas present to myself, I had a long, luxurious binge-listen to the wonderful podcast Transmissions: the Definitive Story of Joy Division and New Order. It earns that “definitive” in the title.Narrated by Maxine Peake, and featuring interviews with pretty much everyone you could want to hear from, plus a few surprises, it is in-depth, affectionate and frank. When the story gets to the shambolic opening of infamous Manchester nightclub The Haçienda, with its awful sound, cavernous space and organisational “issues”, I had terrible pangs for a proper night out, even one in a newly opened club where the paint was yet to dry on the dancefloor. Continue reading...

Get off the sofa and become an ‘exerciser’Old friends get you doing the strangest things and so it was that, after a fish supper in a beachside café in West Wittering between lockdowns, I found myself catching one friend as she fell off the other friend’s stationary training bike in her spare bedroom. The falling friend is a ceramicist and, like me, does not identify as an exerciser. When the pedals started going faster than her legs, she screeched, her eyes widened, and then she toppled sideways.“Exerciser”, I should add, is a term I’ve coined myself. It describes what I am not and, in order to see off things I don’t want in my life (pandemic-induced anxiety, panic about finishing my new book), what I am now trying to become. An exerciser. Continue reading...

The speedy rollout is thanks to a combination of foresight, hard work and lucky breaks

Exclusive: Antibody therapy could confer instant immunity to Covid-19 on at-risk groups

Six new cases emerge as Russia becomes latest country to tighten controls on travel from Britain

Of all the lessons we’ve learned from this pandemic, the most significant is how unequal its effects have been

Changes in composition and production of saliva as people grow older appears to intensify perception of aromasJust as a bottle of wine improves with age, so may our ability to pick out the subtleties of its scent. Changes in the composition of our saliva and how much of it we produce appears to intensify our perception of smokey and peppery aromas in red wine, new research suggests.The findings could lead to the development of wines that are more tailored toward specific groups of consumers. “We could diversify winemaking production to make more enjoyable wines based on consumers’ physiologies,” said Maria Ángeles del Pozo Bayón, of the Spanish Research Council’s Institute of Food Science and Research in Madrid, who led the research. Continue reading...

From observational studies to rapid development of vaccines, knowledge-sharing was a key feature of science in 2020The raw numbers around Covid-19 are simply incredible when you consider that this was a disease almost no one had heard of in December 2019. At the time of writing, this year about 240,000 people in the UK have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19, and more than 70,000 people have had Covid-19 listed as a cause of death on their death certificate.I began 2020 anxious about the reports emerging from Wuhan: they seemed to imply an asymptomatic transmission of a respiratory pathogen that was serious enough to put sufferers into intensive care units. I am a clinical academic with specialist training in respiratory and intensive care medicine; I also lead a research programme that focusses on the lung inflammation caused respiratory infections – to me, and others, what was being reported looked like serious trouble. Continue reading...

To recover from my functional neurological disorder, I had to learn to ‘reset’ my mindRestrictions have come to define many people’s lives this year – understandably frustration has been vented over cancelled plans or the inability to travel. But for me, this was business as usual. For the past two and a half years, I had been unable to walk due to a condition called functional neurological disorder, which blocks messages from the brain to certain body parts. My left leg wasn’t listening, leaving me stuck and immobile.That was, until it all changed. From September this year I was to be enrolled in a five-week treatment programme that could help me regain my mobility. Treatment would mean travelling into London every week by train during the pandemic, staying in a hotel two nights a week and interacting closely with others, taking me away from my small, low-risk Essex village. I hesitated, but my boyfriend encouraged me before I could let the doubt take hold. That was the first lesson: trusting my gut wholeheartedly. Continue reading...

Whistleblower claims safety measures breached at Milton Keynes facility where 20 staff affected

Total number of UK deaths from Covid-19 now 69,625, with further 39,036 daily cases recorded

Science has shown how powerful it can be in the face of a formidable challenge like a pandemicYou may think of immunologists as biologists, but we are also in the defence business. This aspect of our role really comes into its own when a new, devastating disease rears its head. We estimate that the new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 first made the leap to humans last December. Over one and a half million lives have been lost in the past year as a result. Dealing with Covid has undoubtedly left its mark on the field – my field – and it seems like a good time to take stock.Right now I am sitting opposite my Christmas tree, the cat beside me, and I can’t help thinking that swooning over That Plot from the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine briefing (page 58 if you are interested) is probably a phenomenon restricted to viral immunologists. But if this year has taught us anything, it’s not to make assumptions. And sure enough, I’ve seen it shared on social media by non-scientists as a symbol of hope. Continue reading...

Sites in city turn away people due to ‘incredible demand’ for quick-turnaround tests

Italian Roberto Trignani is known for ‘awake surgery’ and other unorthodox methodsPlaying the violin, watching cartoons and doing crosswords: these are just some of the activities patients have performed while having brain surgery under Roberto Trignani.Trignani, the head of neurosurgery at Riuniti hospital in Ancona, Italy, was already known for his “awake surgery” techniques, which he has used roughly 70 times in the last few years. But he broke new ground in June this year when a 60-year-old woman prepared stuffed olives as he removed a tumour from her left temporal lobe. Continue reading...

As Covid-19 spread around the world, conspiracy theories about its origin, severity and prevention followed closely behind. Now attention has turned to vaccines. False claims circulated among anti-vaxxer groups include the theory that Covid vaccines are being used to implant microchips in people and that they will alter a person’s DNA. In the second of a two-part exploration into Covid vaccine scepticism, Nicola Davis hears from the Guardian’s UK technology editor, Alex Hern, and the researcher Joe Ondrak about how conspiracy theories emerge and spread, and if there’s anything we can do about them Continue reading...

Two people in UK test positive for variant as government bans travel to England from South Africa