Study links age and number of symptoms to lasting health problems from coronavirus

Tiered lockdown system not adequate for preventing high rate of virus infections daily, epidemiologist tells MPs

Interlocking exoskeleton could provide inspiration for new methods of joining materials

Effect of greater flavan-3-ol intake is bigger in people with hypertension, research findsDiets rich in tea, berries and apples could lower blood pressure, according to the first study using objective measures of thousands of UK residents’ eating habits.Foods and drinks such as tea, apples, grapes, red wine, and cocoa contain flavan-3-ols, which are naturally occurring compounds found in plants known to be associated with lower risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Continue reading...

A targeted immunisation programme may offer some protection, but it will not deliver ‘life as normal’

Fever, runny nose, headache? Lost your sense of taste or smell? Your guide to differentiating between the three illnesses

There is something fundamentally sickening about the US blood plasma industry. A meaningful welfare state could put a stop to such desperate measuresLooking to make extra cash? Don’t want to retrain in “cyber” but need a new gig? Good news! All you need to do is contract Covid-19, try not to die, then sell your antibody-rich blood plasma. Blood centres in the US are currently paying Covid-19 survivors a premium for their plasma, the yellowish liquid that makes up about 55% of blood. Apparently, you can get $100-$200 (£75-£155) a pop.It would seem some enterprising students have cottoned on to this money-making scheme. Administrators at Brigham Young University’s campus in Idaho recently announced that they are “deeply troubled” by accounts of students who have “intentionally” exposed themselves to coronavirus in order to get that sweet, sweet blood money. “There is never a need to resort to behaviour that endangers health or safety in order to make ends meet,” the school said. Continue reading...

Spacecraft ‘kissed the surface’ in brief landing on asteroid 200m miles away from Earth in US-first missionA Nasa spacecraft has successfully landed on an asteroid, dodging boulders the size of buildings, in order to collect a handful of cosmic rubble for analysis back on Earth.The space agency team behind the Osiris-Rex project said preliminary data showed the sample collection went as planned and that the spacecraft had lifted off the surface of asteroid Bennu. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:

Scientists are hoping that research into Dendrocnide excelsa could lead to new painkillersIt sounds like something out of The Day of the Triffids: a stinging nettle the size of a large tree, with a sting so vicious it inflicts excruciating pain that can last for days, weeks or even months. But this is no science fiction, these are the stinging trees of Australia.

The Olympic hero has written Be Amazing, an inspirational book for children that reveals how they too can be champions, with help from Stoic philosophy, sports psychology – and BeyoncéIt was Steven Spielberg’s fault. “I was six when I saw ET,” says Sir Chris Hoy. “It changed my life. I wasn’t interested in cycling at all before. The bikes I’d seen in Edinburgh just seemed functional things for getting from A to B. Then I saw those BMX bikes on screen and I was hooked. It wasn’t the scene where they cycle across the sky, but when they get chased by the police and they’re doing jumps and skidding round corners. It was the most exciting thing I’d ever seen. I wanted to do that.”He dreamed of getting a £110 Raleigh BMX bike for Christmas. “A lot of money in those days. But my parents, being canny Scots, had different ideas. Dad picked up a £5 bike from a jumble sale, stripped it down, sprayed it black, put on new grips and some BMX stickers.” Four years later, Hoy was leading in the semi-final of a BMX world championship race when disaster struck. “Immediately after the last jump, my foot slipped and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get it back on the pedal fast enough. Two riders overtook me and I lost a place in the final. I was in tears afterwards.” Continue reading...

UK genetics consortium to monitor changes in virus to spot resistance to antibodies

London-based hVivo to take part in world’s first coronavirus ‘challenge trials’

The CDC has said that young adults saw a 55% increase nationally in coronavirus cases in AugustFrom late July through September, students from more than 2,400 colleges and universities went back to campus to participate in what has ultimately become an American experiment in how institutions of higher education can operate during a pandemic.It has been a few weeks since the most dramatic effects of college reopening have been seen, and in the time since, research has started to show that inviting students back to college likely led to a rise in Covid-19 cases in the US. Continue reading...

Non-profit organisation 1Day Sooner has attracted over 38,500 willing participants

The UK government fumbled its sophisticated tools in its efforts to tackle Covid-19, so now it’s reaching for the blunt oneNobody wants a lockdown. You’d think that would go without saying. As England faces a three-tier system of regionally unequal lockdowns or the possibility of a national “circuit breaker”, there is no one sitting around thinking, “Oh good, time to tank the economy, halt NHS services, and wreck everyone’s mental health, again. I love this.” That’s perverse, and such a person surely doesn’t exist.And yet I’ve been hearing a lot about this supposedly pro-lockdown person lately. There is certainly a vocal, self-identified anti-lockdown position: pro-business, anti-disruption, with a sudden interest in both herd immunity and Sweden. But who, according to those in the anti-lockdown camp and their supporters in the media, opposes this position? Continue reading...

Prof Ravi Gupta’s career has informed HIV treatment and curative strategies in the UK and at the Africa Health Research Institute. His treatment of a London patient is, to date, only the second ever successful treatment of an HIV patient, where the person remains long-term virus free. Gupta talks to Sarah Boseley about how a career in HIV research is informing the testing and treatment for Covid-19 and what we can learn in any parallels between the two viruses Continue reading...

Move is part of US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2030With competition among Earth’s telecoms providers as fierce as ever, equipment maker Nokia has announced its expansion into a new market, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the moon.The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by Nasa to deploy an “ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened” wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the moon by 2030. Continue reading...

Johns Hopkins figures show new landmark tally; soaring infections have prompted curfews in French cities. This blog has now closed. Follow our new blog belowCoronavirus – live updates12.03am BSTThanks for your company, wherever you are. We are now closing this blog, but you can stay up to date on all the latest developments on our new coronavirus blog below.Related: Coronavirus live news: WHO says failure to quarantine behind soaring case rises11.36pm BSTHere’s a quick recap of recent events: Continue reading...

Chief scientific adviser added it was unlikely Covid would be completely eradicated

The prime minister needs to rebuild a political consensus for his pandemic plans, not least because a Tory revolt would see him need Labour support to pass new measuresLike a gambling addict, Boris Johnson racks up losses but keeps laying larger bets, convinced a last big win awaits him. In a casino, this plan might hurt his wallet and his pride. In a pandemic wrapped around the shock of Brexit, such a strategy could cost, unnecessarily, lives and livelihoods. But Mr Johnson has won against the odds before. Faced with a political opponent, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who is able to marshall Mr Johnson’s own Conservative backbenchers against him, the prime minister has opted to double down on his plan to test his way out of the coronavirus crisis. But it is not a winning wager.The prime minister has pinned his hopes on a new saliva-based test that can tell whether a person is Covid-positive within 15 minutes. Speed is essential to contain a pandemic. With wait times for diagnostic test results not coming down fast enough, contact tracers have too short a window to identify coronavirus patients before they have a chance to infect others. The centralised, privately run test-and-trace system is clunky and relies on specialised laboratories. By comparison, the new tests can be done on the spot. Continue reading...

Researchers say better awareness needed so females with autism get right supportGirls with autism are not being diagnosed because they are adept at camouflaging their behaviour in an effort to try to fit in, according to a new study.Autism is diagnosed in 1% of the population and a diagnosis is made more often – and earlier – in boys, with a reported ratio of four males to every female, according to the paper published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Continue reading...

The answers to today’s ‘trick’ questionsEarlier today I set you six ‘bat and ball’ puzzles, meaning puzzles that require you to overrule a wrong ‘gut’ answer. (Click here to read the original bat and ball puzzle.)For each of the puzzles, I have included the gut answer, the correct answer and also the percentage of readers who got it right. (Readers were given four possible answers and invited to make a choice.) Continue reading...

ONS data suggests people with life-threatening conditions still shying away from hospitals

Dr Martin Kulldorff discussed ‘Great Barrington declaration’ letter on Richie Allen Show

Bolton MP and shadow international development minister being treated after condition worsens

Ebola survivors showing no antibodies found to still have lasting capacity to fight virus

Coronavirus ‘high alert’ warning covers the north-east, parts of the Midlands, London, York and most of Essex among other areas

He treated Meghan Markle’s dog and Russell Brand’s cat. But now the TV vet is dealing with serious injury and trauma – his own and his beloved terrier’sOn the way to his office Prof Noel Fitzpatrick gives me a quick tour of all the familiar locations from Channel 4’s The Supervet, flicking lights on and off as we go: the consulting room, the operating theatre, complete with viewing gallery. I have already visited the main entrance where, on the TV programme, a pair of receptionists ooh and ahh over new, frequently unprepossessing, animal arrivals.Finally we end up in Fitzpatrick’s densely cluttered office, also familiar, where he sits at a desk dominated by five computer screens. Skeletons and bits of metal implants cover the flat surfaces, including the windowsill. Behind me is a standing cardboard cutout of the actor Hugh Jackman; on the wall next to my head is a sign that reads: “Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman. Then always be Batman.” Continue reading...

You’ll be hit for sixHere’s a famous puzzle:A bat and a ball cost £1.10. The bat costs £1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? Continue reading...

Year-on-year expansion, while slightly lower than analyst expectations, represents a dramatic reversal

If in the next week daily Covid cases are fewer than five per day with few or no mystery cases, we will be the first to protest if there is no step 3 opening

In the final week of British summer time, meteors from Comet Halley will be streaking across the night skyThis week, keep an eye open for the Orionid meteor shower. It may not be the brightest or the most spectacular meteor shower of the year but it derives from the most famous comet of them all: Comet Halley. Meteors are tiny pieces of dust that have been left in space from the tails of comets. They streak across the night sky as they burn up in our atmosphere. Continue reading...

New modelling indicates mandatory masks and strict closures of public spaces early in the state’s second wave could have eradicated the virus

Links between an anti-lockdown declaration and a libertarian thinktank suggest a hidden agenda

Our sense of smell is crucial to survival – so wearing the right perfume could be more important than you thinkEarlier this year I was asked to give a lecture to a group of fashion journalism students at Condé Nast College – an event that was swiftly moved online thanks to the pandemic. It goes without saying that giving a lecture to a group of students looking back at you from a Zoom grid is no less intimidating than doing it in real life, so as I got ready for the event, I did all the things I could to pump up my confidence: I slipped on my favourite denim shirt, I slicked back my increasingly shaggy lockdown hair and, finally, I sprayed on one of my all-time favourite scents – Hermès Eau de Néroli Doré, a zingy, energizing citrus number with a grown-up saffron afterglow.Of course, there was a bit of muscle memory here from a grooming routine pre-pandemic. I have always worn fragrance before going out to meet people, especially those I want to feel my most confident and professional around. But spraying it on for a virtual meeting when no-one else was there, confirmed something: all along I’ve been wearing scent for me, not for them. As lockdown progressed, fragrance became more important to me. Trapped indoors, scent offered not only an escape for my brain, but an organisational project that was long overdue – I had to build a “fragrance wardrobe”. Continue reading...

Review finds quality of evidence is poor and noise may lead to more disrupted sleepWhether it is nature sounds, the whine of a hairdryer or the incessant hum of a ceiling fan, white noise apps have been downloaded by millions of people around the world in the hope of getting a better night’s sleep. However, research suggests there is no good evidence that they work, and may even be making things worse.True white noise is the hissy fizzing sound of all the frequencies that humans can hear being fired off randomly and at the same intensity. In recent years, numerous apps and devices have been developed that use it – or other “relaxing” sounds such as the hum of a fan or crashing waves – to help people fall asleep. Continue reading...

More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progressResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

Chair of modelling group urges curb on capacity in favour of speed if test-and-trace system is to work

Just like the Black Death, influenza and smallpox, Covid-19 will affect almost every aspect of our of lives – even after a vaccine turns upOn 7 September 1854, in the middle of a raging cholera epidemic, the physician John Snow approached the board of guardians of St James’s parish for permission to remove the handle from a public water pump in Broad Street in London’s Soho. Snow observed that 61 victims of the cholera had recently drawn water from the pump and reasoned that contaminated water was the source of the epidemic. His request was granted and, even though it would take a further 30 years for the germ theory of cholera to become accepted, his action ended the epidemic.As we adjust to another round of coronavirus restrictions, it would be nice to think that Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock have a similar endpoint in sight for Covid-19. Unfortunately, history suggests that epidemics rarely have such neat endings as the 1854 cholera epidemic. Quite the opposite: as the social historian of medicine Charles Rosenberg observed, most epidemics “drift towards closure”. It is 40 years since the identification of the first Aids cases, for instance, yet every year 1.7 million people are infected with HIV. Indeed, in the absence of a vaccine, the World Health Organization does not expect to call time on it before 2030. Continue reading...

Animal behaviour expert Konrad Lorenz explains why it is man who is red in tooth and clawYou can see why the goslings on the cover of the Observer Magazine of 1 May 1966 took Konrad Lorenz (‘the world authority on animal behaviour’) to be their parent – with his feathery white hair he could pass for a goose himself. In fact, the geese have a ‘fixed idea’ that his hair is grass, which is why they are trying to eat it.By a lake at the Max Planck Institute near Munich, John Davy talked to Lorenz about what humans can learn from animals, particularly when it came to aggression. The piece began by saying that ‘It is man, not nature, who is red in tooth and claw,’ and that between 1820 and 1945 humans killed 59 million fellow humans in ‘wars, murderous attacks, and other deadly quarrels’. Goose on goose deaths weren’t cited, but you get the idea. Continue reading...

Case numbers grow in Europe as, Belgium and Austria’s foreign ministers test positive, and Angela Merkel asks Germans to stay home. In Australia, Daniel Andrews is expected to announce some easing of restrictions in Victoria

CommonPass aims to create common standard proving a traveller is Covid-free or vaccinated

The winning essay in the Max Perutz science writing award 2020 was written by Sarah Taylor from the MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of EdinburghIn May, PhD students who are funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) were invited to enter the Max Perutz science writing award 2020 and to tell the general public “why your research matters”. From the many entries received, the 10 that made the shortlist covered diverse topics, including motor neurone disease, self-harm, babies’ experiences of pain, and bone loss resulting from space travel.The essays were judged by the Observer’s Ian Tucker, the Science Museum’s Roger Highfield, Prof Fiona Watt from the MRC, Bristol University’s Andy Ridgeway and the journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed. Continue reading...

Reports suggest timeframe between recovery and reinfection ‘relatively short’ for those who contracted virus twice

Belgium seeks to tackle a sharp rise in cases; France cases fall from the 30,621 reported on Thursday; most new infections in Italy since pandemic began. This blog is now closed

Blanket restrictions have served their purpose. Their harms now outweigh their benefitsAs Daniel Andrews signals “significant steps” will be taken to ease Victoria’s Covid rules on Sunday, there is ever more pointed attention to the number five. Five is the target set for the rolling 14-day case average that will allow us to move to the next step of easing restrictions on our journey to social and economic recovery.But getting to that target has proven challenging. In fact, we’ve been sitting firmly on an average of 10 since 7 October. On 16 October Melbourne’s average is now 8.7 cases. Continue reading...

A virtual conference was thrown into confusion when the platform hosting the event came with a pre-packaged ‘naughty word’ censorParticipants in a virtual paleontology session found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place last week, when a profanity filter prevented them from using certain words – such as bone, pubic, stream and, er, beaver – during an online conference.The US-based Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) held its annual meeting virtually this year due to the pandemic, but soon found its audience stifled when they tried to use particular words. Continue reading...

PCS union said decision not to display QR codes at eating establishments is putting members at risk of coronavirus

Expanded workforce will undergo training programme to immunise as much of population as possible