Beloved children’s author will reflect on illness that put him in intensive care for 47 days using mix of poems and nurses’ ward notes

ONS figures estimate 1 in 160 people were infected with Covid in first week of October

I used to think the mental block I have around life admin was to do with an innate lack of focus. But then I discovered ‘decision fatigue’Recently my mother paid me one of her quintessential “compli-sults”: a lashing of praise that somehow leaves a bruise. I’m moving flat, and mentioned that my poor organisational skills were sure to wreak havoc with the process.“Stop putting yourself down, you’re the best at sorting things when you need to be – it’s why I call you in a crisis,” she said. “It’s just the basic, obvious stuff you can’t handle.” Continue reading...

ONS update also shows that males have higher death rate than females

Newly leaked documents reported by Bloomberg News show that ExxonMobil’s climate dishonesty is even worse than we thoughtIn 2017, we published the first peer-reviewed analysis of ExxonMobil’s 40-year history of climate change communications. We found that the company and its parents, Exxon and Mobil, misled the public about climate change and its severity. Central to this conclusion was the contrast between what Exxon and ExxonMobil scientists said in internal reports and scientific articles versus what Exxon, Mobil, and ExxonMobil told the public in non-peer-reviewed publications and in “advertorials” – paid advertisements dressed up to look like opinion pieces – in The New York Times.Newly leaked documents, reported recently by Bloomberg News, show that ExxonMobil’s climate dishonesty is even worse than we thought. While the company privately has an internal “plan for surging carbon emissions…by as much as the output of the entire nation of Greece,” according to Bloomberg, ExxonMobil executives “shield their carbon forecasts from investors.” In other words, ExxonMobil drew up plans to expand fossil fuel production, internally calculated how much this would increase their carbon dioxide emissions, then failed to disclose those estimates to investors. Indeed, the company has never publicly disclosed its emissions forecasts. In response to the Bloomberg report, ExxonMobil claimed that the leaked documents were not up-to-date, but declined to provide “any details on the new projections,” according to Bloomberg. Continue reading...

Measures, which will come into effect on Friday night, accepted in exchange for £42m support

Results of major trial described as sobering, with drug found not to improve survival rates

Netflix’s documentary about the 1986 space shuttle tragedy is a timely meditation on the perils of exceptionalismIn the first episode of Challenger, a new documentary series on Netflix that revisits the 1986 space shuttle disaster, there is a scene that will be remembered by anyone who was old enough to watch the news in that era. The montage of seven smiling astronauts – most famously, Christa McAuliffe, the “first teacher in space” – gives way to footage of the shuttle’s launch and, 73 seconds later, the explosion over Cape Canaveral. The camera shifts to the faces of the spectators, as they move from excitement to the realisation that something terrible has happened.There is nothing so remote as recent history, and it is a jolt to recall how shocking that footage actually was: the deaths of seven people broadcast on live television, watched by millions of Americans. Stranger still, however, is the view of the United States at 30 years’ distance. The documentary does a fine job of piecing together the incompetence at Nasa that led to the disaster, but it’s the chronicle of what happened publicly in the years leading up to the explosion – the agency’s hard sell on the American dream, in line with the country’s confident self-image – that delivers the biggest shock. Watching grainy scenes of big-haired Americans smiling and striving and reaching for the stars, I felt a nostalgia so powerful that before I could stop myself, I’d found myself thinking, “Wow, the US really was great back then.” Continue reading...

As the capital moves to tier 2 restrictions, we look at factors that may – or may not – influence the impact of the virus in London compared with other English citiesThe number of coronavirus infections is rising across the UK, but until recently it was England’s northern cities which seemed to be igniting like powder kegs while London was smouldering but not catching fire. But the announcement that second-tier restrictions (high alert level) would be imposed on the capital from Saturday heralded the possibility that people in London would not escape a second wave.Infection rates in 12 London boroughs already exceed 100 cases per 100,000; Richmond upon Thames tops the list at 140. Continue reading...

Exclusive: claims raise further questions about government’s Covid crisis response

Latest findings from a global study show high blood pressure, obesity and smoking were associated with the highest number of deaths in Australia

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Study reveals increase in high blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and obesity, all risk factors for diseaseThe failure of governments to tackle a three-decade rise in preventable diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes has fuelled the Covid-19 pandemic and is stalling life expectancy around the world, a comprehensive study has found.The latest data from the Global Burden of Disease study, published in the Lancet medical journal, is from 2019, before Covid, but helps explain the world’s vulnerability to the virus. Continue reading...

Environmental tests exposed spacecraft to vibrations and noise it will face during ascentThe James Webb space telescope has successfully completed a series of tests to simulate the harsh conditions it will experience during launch. Known as environmental tests, they subjected the spacecraft to the noise and the vibrations associated with being blasted into orbit. JWST received 140 decibels of sound and was shaken in ways that will happen naturally during its ascent.During a previous set of environmental tests in 2018, before the instruments had been secured to the spacecraft, a number of screws and washers came loose and fell off the sunshield cover. This set back the schedule. The spacecraft has been subject to many delays during more than 20 years of development. It is now scheduled to be launched on 31 October 2021 on an Ariane 5 rocket supplied by the European Space Agency. Continue reading...

Strategies to stop transmission routes of coronavirus must include schools, writes Phil Moorfoot, while Daniel Nucinkis says the government’s rejection of Sage’s proposals will cost thousands of lives. Plus letters from Prof Saville Kushner and Cllr Robert KnowlesEven Keir Starmer is not averse to the Boris factor when referring to “circuit breakers” (Keir Starmer urges PM to impose ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown on England, 13 October). A mini-lockdown that leaves schools open defeats the whole strategy. Pre-summer, we saw images of classrooms with tiny groups of students socially distancing and wearing masks. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different: up to 30 students in a poorly ventilated room with no social distancing, existing in a bubble of over 100 students.The current strategy from ministers is to prevent community transmission, but they are forgetting the elephant in the room. At the heart of all communities, you have schools. It is no surprise that Covid cases increased as schools and colleges returned from the summer break. Students do not socially distance or stay in year-group bubbles as they commute to and from school. Once home, they mix with siblings and parents. This is where community transmission takes place. Continue reading...

Bones of 18th-century Charles Byrne are stored at the Royal College of Surgeons in LondonThe author Hilary Mantel has called for the Royal College of Surgeons to repatriate the skeleton of an Irish “giant” whose bones remain in storage in London two centuries after he asked to be buried at sea.Charles Byrne had a genetic form of gigantism that caused him to grow to more than 2.31 metres (7ft 7in) tall. His height made him a celebrity in 18th-century London, and while he was still alive he went to great lengths to try to ensure his skeleton was not put on display after his death – a fate then usually reserved for executed criminals. Continue reading...

Metamorphosis – where a creature remodels itself between life stages – is one of the most astounding and bizarre feats of biology. It’s also surprisingly common. Why do animals bother undertaking this huge transformational change, and how do they rebuild their bodies from one form to another? Natalie Grover investigates Continue reading...

Serious incident declared over backlog caused by service suspension during Covid pandemic

For 20 years, the psychological illusionist has delighted TV audiences. He explains why he’s ready to give it all up and paint caricatures – and how magic made him question his religious faithA mounted moose’s head looms over Derren Brown’s right shoulder. A black crayfish – “exploded” and expanded for display, its pincers reaching toward the ceiling – sits in the cabinet to his left, flanked by other unrecognisable curios. “I acquire a lot of shit, as you can probably tell,” says Brown over Zoom. His comfortable red fleece, draped over a blue shirt, is at odds with the macabre surroundings. He claims to have acquired more than 200 pieces of ethically sourced taxidermy, displayed throughout his home. The only way he can dust the moose’s head is to blow it with his cordless leaf blower. “Is that weird?” he asks.“I like things that look real and aren’t. I quite like painting. I like my taxidermy. I like magic,” says the psychological illusionist (his term), mentalist, conjuror, writer, painter, photographer and performer. Even explaining the grim process of taxidermy, he manages to be charming and approachable – and to use the same, assured rationality with which he analyses his tricks. Continue reading...

Review of reported neonatal cases finds most babies with virus contract it in hospital

State media reported the company was offering its vaccines to students in Beijing and Wuhan but that the trial had been suspended

Lasting symptoms may not be down to a single syndrome but several different ones

Paris introduces 9pm curvew; Italy sees 7,332 new cases; record new daily infections in Portugal, Switzerland, Iran and Russia. This blog is now closed. Follow our new live blog below

Autoimmune diseases are rising fast but first experimental study shows nature could helpChildren whose outdoor play areas were transformed from gravel yards to mini-forests showed improved immune systems within a month, research has shown.The scientists believe this is because the children had developed significantly more diverse microbes on their skin and in their guts than the children whose playgrounds were not upgraded. Continue reading...

Exclusive: scientists say such tests are ethical and could shorten pandemic

First minister Arlene foster announces closure of businesses and schools as well as new limits on gatherings

National lockdown is a blunt tool. If it is implemented, as per Sage’s advice, we can’t return to square one on testing

Authors of unpublished paper say two-week national lockdown would buy time to improve test-and-trace system

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...

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

Scientists identify species that appears to absorb potentially lethal UV radiation and emit blue lightThey might be tiny creatures with a comical appearance, but tardigrades are one of life’s great survivors. Now scientists say they have found a new species boasting an unexpected piece of armour: a protective fluorescent shield.Related: Tardigrades: Earth’s unlikely beacon of life that can survive a cosmic cataclysm Continue reading...

Cambridge University study also suggests older people less likely to believe coronavirus misinformation

Study team says Covid-19 patients in intensive care should be asked about hearing loss

Netherlands announces new slew of measures to curb infection spread; Johnson & Johnson confirms pause in vaccine trial

Matt Hancock criticises lockdown sceptics amid angry scenes in the Commons

It is impossible to have confidence in the government’s decision to overrule scientific adviceIn the weeks after Boris Johnson made his lockdown television address on 23 March, and as the UK’s infection and death rates rose shockingly higher, it was widely recognised that ministers had acted too slowly, and that the pandemic’s severity might have been lessened had they grasped the nettle sooner. Many ordinary people – perhaps especially those predisposed, like their prime minister, to look on the bright side – felt they had learned a hard lesson in the spring. Sometimes it pays to expect the worst.Yet here we are, after an appalling few months in which the UK topped European league tables of excess deaths. And with new infections running at 14,000 a day and hospital admissions and deaths once again climbing, there is no reason to believe that the government will avoid the same errors. Papers released on Monday night showed that on 21 September, ministers rejected a call by its Sage committee of scientific experts for a two-week “circuit breaker” lockdown to slow the virus’s transmission. That this was not disclosed until after Mr Johnson announced the new three-tier system suggests that he did not want to explain why. Continue reading...

Labour leader says government is no longer following advice of scientists; MPs debate Covid restrictions

UK wants to be deeply involved in next frontier of space exploration – the mission to MarsWhen the first female astronaut walks on the moon, more than half a century after Neil Armstrong took that historic first step, it will probably be heralded as a small step for a woman but a giant leap for womankind.But in the corridors of the UK Space Agency it will also be marked as the moment when Britain staked its claim to become a key player in the next frontier of space exploration – the mission to Mars. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsUFO sightings are often of saucer- or disc-shaped objects. Is there any evidence that this is an efficient or indeed feasible shape for intergalactic travel?Graham Hines Continue reading...

Scientists’ verdict on £12bn system has refocused attention on what is working elsewhere in cutting Covid-19 transmission rates

Timing of the release, just after the PM’s three-tier Covid plan, highlights experts’ disquiet

A radio host used mathematical theory to take Matt Hancock to task. It’s a welcome sign we’re all thinking in a more critical way

Most Sage proposals not acted upon by government despite strong warnings over second wave

Nevada man with no underlying conditions suffers more serious illness the second time with different strain

Months of delayed nuptials have been crowded together with one man having to attend 23 celebrationsCouples have rushed to get married over China’s national day holiday in the first wedding season since the coronavirus pandemic began.Months of delayed nuptial celebrations were crowded into the “golden week” holiday, traditionally a popular time for weddings, that ended on Wednesday as hotels, banquet halls and other wedding venues were booked out. Continue reading...

What does a disease smell like? Humans might not have the answer, but if they could talk, dogs might be able to tell us. Able to sniff out a range of cancers and even malaria, canines’ extraordinary noses are now being put to the test on Covid-19. Nicola Davis hears from Prof Dominique Grandjean about exactly how you train dogs to smell a virus, and how this detection technique could be used in managing the spread of Covid-19 Continue reading...

More over-65s also wanted to ensure potential coronavirus vaccines can work for everyone

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Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cites lack of understanding of virus and lasting health effects

Paul R Milgrom and Robert B Wilson awarded prize 26 years after game theory scholar John NashThe Nobel prize for economics was awarded on Monday to two US game theory specialists, 26 years after John Nash – the Princeton academic depicted by Russell Crowe in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind – won for his groundbreaking work on the same subject.Americans Paul R Milgrom and Robert B Wilson won for the designs of mathematical models that promote “improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”, said Göran K Hansson, secretary-general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Continue reading...