Spacecraft known as Hope carries instruments designed to study the tenuous Martian atmosphereThe Emirates Mars Mission (EMM) is on course to arrive at the Red Planet on 9 February. A third and final major trajectory correction manoeuvre (TCM) was completed on 10 November. An additional minor TCM in December will tee it up for a Mars orbit insertion manoeuvre next year. Without the need for further major course corrections, the mission team can begin early science observations of Mars and interplanetary space.The EMM spacecraft, also known as Hope, carries three instruments primarily designed to study the tenuous Martian atmosphere. With its arrival, the United Arab Emirates will become the fifth region, after the US, Russia, Europe and India, to reach Mars. Launched in July 2020, it is one of three spacecraft currently en route to the red planet. China’s Tianwen orbiter and rover, and the US rover Perseverance were also launched at the same time. Continue reading...

Report suggests tree growth will not store nearly as much carbon as scientists hopedGlobal heating appears to be making trees drop their leaves earlier, according to new research, confounding the idea that warmer temperatures delay the onset of autumn.The finding is important because trees draw huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and therefore play a key role in managing the climate. Continue reading...

As millions of people will hopefully be inoculated in the next six months, this will be the ideal time for clinical trials to compare the vaccines head to head, writes Dr Andrew Hill. Plus letters from Dr Niamh Martin and Roy GrimwoodWe now have three vaccines against Covid-19, giving between 70% and 95% protection (Vaccine results bring us a step closer to ending Covid, says Oxford scientist, 23 November). However, there are many unanswered questions. Which vaccine will protect people from Covid-19 infection for the longest time? Is one vaccine more protective for frontline healthcare workers, who could be exposed to high levels of virus? Are there any differences in safety? So far, each vaccine has been compared with a placebo in separate trials. The trials differ in designs and populations enrolled, so it is hard to compare the effectiveness and safety of these vaccines reliably.In the next six months, millions of people in the UK will be vaccinated with vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca. This is an ideal opportunity to conduct new randomised clinical trials, comparing these vaccines head to head. The NHS has discovered the survival benefits of dexamethasone in the Recovery trial. The World Health Organization has shown remdesivir to be of no benefit in its Solidarity trial. At this stage, we need to continue running large independent trials to further our understanding of the vaccines. Otherwise, if there are unexpected breakthrough infections on one vaccine or new safety issues, the results could be very hard to interpret.

Share price drops as critics question claim vaccine could protect up to 90% of people

Do not demonise. To optimise the vaccine rollout, all of us must show respect to those who are unsure about inoculations

Guardians of Sleep project working with Canadian university to compile Covid-19 dreams

Statistics show how ‘world-beating’ tracing scheme fails to follow up on Covid-19 cases at every stepIt was in May that Boris Johnson promised the UK would have a “world-beating” test-and-trace operation in place within weeks.“Our test-and-trace system is as good as, or better than, any other system anywhere in the world,” he doubled down in July. Continue reading...

Honesty, competence and a willingness to give us all the facts are essential for establishing who to trust

Five-day easing prompts warning that one guest could infect a third of people at a gathering

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

With a number of Covid-19 vaccines seemingly on the way, Nicola Davis talks to Prof Eleanor Riley about how they might help the body’s defence mechanisms fight the virus Continue reading...

Public Health England disputes Warwick University economists’ findings as ‘misleading’

Fears easing restrictions over festive period will lead to rise in cases and overwhelm NHS

Support group warns that large gatherings are too risky and calls for low-key festive period

Results from clinical trials have shown that the world has three apparently highly effective vaccines for Covid-19. With the race now on for regulatory approval, production and distribution, is the end of the pandemic within reach?After a gruelling year of successive waves of Covid-19 infections and national lockdowns there has been a burst of good news this month, with three separate vaccine candidates performing extremely well in clinical trials.First, Pfizer and Moderna announced that their vaccines were testing at an efficacy of around 95%. Then came the news that the AstraZeneca vaccine (the one pre-ordered in bulk by the UK government) was hitting 90%. It marks not just a new phase in the Covid-19 pandemic but potentially a revolution in vaccine technology itself. Continue reading...

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Germany and Spain look to limit Christmas gatherings as Macron unveils tough post-lockdown restrictions

My academic mentor and friend Marcus Banks, who has died aged 60 of epilepsy, was a social anthropologist. He played a leading role in promoting the sub-discipline of visual anthropology, which is concerned with studying cultures through photography, film and other media.Spending his entire career at Oxford University, from the late 1980s onwards Marcus showed how visual artefacts should be thought of as a central – perhaps the central – means through which all people, everywhere, forge their identities, and through which they order and transform the worlds around them. Continue reading...

Anticov study with international research institutions aims to stop disease progression and protect fragile health systemsA network of 13 African countries has joined forces with global researchers to launch the largest clinical trial of potential Covid-19 treatments on the continent.The Anticov study, involving Antwerp’s Institute of Tropical Medicine and international research institutions, aims to identify treatments that can be used to treat mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 early and prevent spikes in hospitalisation that could overwhelm fragile and already overburdened health systems in Africa. Continue reading...

The pandemic has robbed us of scent as well as touch. I’m up for anything that gives my nose a workout, no matter how stinky

China has launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon – the first such attempt by any country since the 1970s.The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am Beijing time on Tuesday from Wenchang space launch centre on the island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft.The Chang'e-5 mission will test China’s ability to remotely acquire samples from space before more complex missions.If successful, the mission would make China only the third country to have retrieved lunar samples, joining the US and the Soviet Union

During the pandemic it has become a buzzword for successfully steering through adversity. But what exactly is resilience - and can you cultivate more of it?

The Guardian’s UK technology editor Alex Hern speaks to Prof Andy Przybylski from the Oxford Internet Institute about his new approach of looking at the impact of computer games on mental health. According to Prof Przybylski, this new approach is more objective – but it also depends on gaming companies being more transparent Continue reading...

Lunar landing is due in about eight days and entire mission is scheduled to last 23 daysChina has launched a robotic spacecraft to bring back rocks from the moon – the first such attempt by any country since the 1970s.The Long March-5, China’s largest carrier rocket, blasted off at 4.30am Beijing time on Tuesday from Wenchang space launch centre on the island of Hainan carrying the Chang’e-5 spacecraft. Continue reading...

Latest breakthrough comes as PM says he hopes most at-risk could be immunised by Easter

Latest updates: PM holds press conference; Police Federation says new rules may be impossible to enforce; Starmer says three-tier system is risky

How the new tiers – to come into effect after lockdown ends on 2 December – compare with the old ones

Jab that is part of global initiative to distribute doses will remain at low price ‘in perpetuity’

Analysts say ‘lower efficacy for higher dose’ needs explaining, as results below those of rivals

Vaccine developed in UK by AstraZeneca and Oxford University ‘will save many lives’, says scientist

What is the UK regulator’s role in assessing the quality, safety and effectiveness of vaccines?

Trial participants react to news that Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has up to 90% efficacy

Team’s coronavirus work built on decades of research pioneered by Sarah Gilbert and Adrian Hill

Doctors, nurses, hospital leaders and infectious disease experts fear large celebrations will cause an explosion of new Covid casesDoctors, nurses, infectious disease experts and hospital leaders have united in warning Americans against traveling or gathering in large groups for Thanksgiving, a US holiday traditionally marked by bringing extended family and friends around a dinner table.Experts and frontline workers are fearful such events will cause an explosion of new Covid-19 cases, which could overburden hospitals struggling to recruit nurses amid an “exponential” rise in cases. Continue reading...

Quinn credited with boosting ‘greatest social media campaign in history’, raising more than $220m for ALS researchPatrick Quinn, whose personal battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease helped power the Ice Bucket Challenge fundraising campaign, has died aged 37, seven years after his diagnosis, according to the ALS Association and his supporters on Facebook.Quinn, who was born and grew up in Yonkers, New York, was co-founder of the campaign that raised more than $220m for medical research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was diagnosed with ALS on 8 March 2013. Continue reading...

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Proposals include plans to limit self-isolation and to allow household mixing at Christmas

This is a good time to follow the changing relationship between Mars and the waxing gibbous moonOver the next few nights the waxing moon slides past Mars in the eastern sky. If you have yet to find the Red Planet, the moon proves a handy signpost. The chart shows the view looking east from London at 17:00 GMT on 25 November. Continue reading...

Plans for mass immunisation against Covid-19 are developing fast, but concerns must be addressed

Operation Warp Speed chief says if immunization plan goes well enough Americans should be vaccinated by MayAs the United States recorded its 12th million Covid-19 case, the Trump administration’s vaccine program adviser predicted that life in America could be back to normal around May of 2021 as immunization is set to begin.The note of optimism came even as millions of Americans were expected to travel for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday this week and many appeared to be ignoring warnings from health officials about furthering the spread of the infectious disease. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Four out of five UK intensive care consultants say their unit is stretched by shortage of doctors and nurses

WHO says Europe faces third wave early in 2021 if nations repeat their failures to prepare

No one knew whether mRNA technology would work against this virus – but it does. It’s an extraordinary moment for science

Agencies point finger at state-sponsored hackers from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea

The states and their hackers that security experts believe are targeting vaccine developers

Despite the promising news from Pfizer and Moderna, other efforts – which may be even more effective – continue around the world

It’s essential for the status quo to be challenged. But those who claim to be bold outliers need to draw on evidence, not cry censorshipDisinformation can be deadly. Tobacco industry propaganda disguising the dangers of smoking; the actions of big oil to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change; corrupt scientists telling parents that life-saving vaccines are unsafe: all have cost lives. And so it goes in a pandemic. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” said the director general of the World Health Organization earlier this year. It was prescient.There are people with a clear motivation to spread disinformation regardless of the human cost. There are the corporate interests such as the Conservative donor and multimillionaire hotel owner Rocco Forte, who was given a primetime BBC platform to spread untruths about Covid-19. Continue reading...

Russia reports record new cases and deaths; South Australia lockdown to end at midnight on Saturday; global cases pass 57.5m. Follow latest updates

PM set to announce end to lockdown before trying to broker national agreement on family gatherings

Doctors behind new Australian guidelines for treatment of the painful disease say they are hampered by a lack of quality scientific evidenceProf Jason Abbott’s interest in gynaecology was piqued in the early 1990s when he treated a significant number of women complaining of troubling symptoms including – but not limited to – pelvic pain, fatigue, heavy bleeding, painful sex and painful bowel movements.And while some of these women would eventually be given a diagnosis of endometriosis – a severe disorder in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, causing inflammation and pain – Abbott said the identification of the disease often provided no help in treating the symptoms. Continue reading...