Exclusive: Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd joins senior legal figures in calling for MPs to examine emergency legislation

Global initiative will supply 120m rapid antigen tests to low- and middle-income countries

Substance has had promising results in ferrets, with hopes it may reduce transmission

Only two out of 400 Covid images on British Association of Dermatologists’ website feature black or brown skin

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

Green campaigners call for clarity on tree-planting and on interim subsidy system

A new treatment could help children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, grow taller and avoid health problems in later life. But there are concerns about whether this is ethical

This blog is now closed. Follow the latest below:Coronavirus updates – live12.16am BSTWe’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:Related: Coronavirus live news: global deaths near 1m as India poised to pass 6m cases11.50pm BSTHello, Helen Sullivan joining you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest from around the world for the next few hours.Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan. Continue reading...

The closest full moon to the equinox is known as the Harvest Moon as its extra light allowed farmers to work late into the evening to gather the cropsFor those of us in the northern hemisphere, it is the week of the Harvest Moon. This is defined as the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox, which took place last week on 22 September. In the southern hemisphere, the Harvest Moon takes place in March or April, close to the March equinox.This week the full moon takes place on 1 October 22:05 BST, but because the moon rises soon after sunset on several days close to the equinox, it often seems as if a full moon appears on a number of consecutive days. According to tradition, this extra illumination made it easier for farmers to gather in their crops. Continue reading...

Lack of clear rules about certification standards may be allowing manufacturers to sell tests based on poor or dodgy data

Despite now having evidence that test and trace is the only way to fight the virus, the UK has lost control at the crucial moment

What is it about islands which so fascinates, and soothes after time spent in cities?The love of islands is a widespread affliction – why else are we still reading Robinson Crusoe after 300 years? Why Treasure Island? Why after 75 years and over 2,000 episodes are we still listening to Desert Island Discs? From the blessed isles of Tír na nÓg and Thomas More’s Utopia to the island-dramas of CS Lewis and Enid Blyton, it seems we can’t get enough of them.As a boy in my local library in Fife, I'd sit on scratchy carpet tiles and open an immense atlas 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...

The right fails to recognise that the Swedes’ real virtue in this pandemic is their social cohesionSweden is to the 21st-century right what the Soviet Union was to the 20th-century left. Conservatives have transformed it into a Tory Disneyland where every dream comes true. On the shores of the Baltic lies a country that has no need to curtail civil liberties and wreck the economy to curb Covid-19. “I have a dream, a fantasy,” sang Abba. “To help me through reality.” For much of the right, that fantasy is called Sweden.Let the leader of the Conservative backbenchers stand for the Tory press and innumerable ideologues inside and outside Westminster. Sir Graham Brady ruined a perfectly good argument that parliament must have the power to scrutinise Johnson’s emergency decrees by announcing that there was no emergency. We could look to a country that merely had a ban on gatherings of more than 50, restrictions on visiting care homes, a shift to table-only service in bars and see that “Sweden today is in a better place than the United Kingdom”. Or as the Sun explained on Thursday as Boris Johnson met Anders Tegnell, the Swedish public health “mastermind”, a do-little strategy has spared Sweden a second wave of Covid-19 infections. Continue reading...

Studies show people living in the Arctic Circle are armed with a mindset that helps combat the long ‘polar night’. It might come in handy for us all…

Scientists estimate we will face a health emergency at least once every five years. Our new initiative seeks a better response

Proposed centre with up to 250 jobs is linked to EU Copernicus satellite programmeThe UK is at risk of losing the contract for the expansion of a flagship European weather research centre based in Reading because of Brexit.The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has been based in Berkshire for the last 45 years but its future EU-funded activities are now the subject of an international battle. Continue reading...

Jenny Mikakos quits in wake of inquiry into hotel quarantine; Madrid braces for lockdown as Spain reaches 716,481 total infections; surge in cases in Athens

Lessons from other parts of the world show we should lock down early, rely on evidence – and get used to wearing masks

Coronavirus cases in France jump to record high as Spanish government calls for Madrid lockdown

Art gives way to science in yet another sport. But won’t we all lose out when the magic is gone?Bryson DeChambeau sounds like a character from a novel, one perhaps set on the Côte d’Azur in the 1930s, a raffish figure with a taste for the high life. He is, in fact, a 27-year-old golfer from California, and the only high life that interests him is the flight of a golf ball, which when hit by Mr DeChambeau goes an outrageous distance. Nicknamed “the scientist” for his single-minded application of new ideas about golf club design and swing mechanics – his aim is to do for golf what his hero Einstein did for relativity. He has married theory with sheer power, adding 40lb in muscle weight in the past six months to maximise the length of his driving and overwhelm golf courses, even one as fearsome as Winged Foot in New York, where he was the runaway winner of the US Open.Every so often someone comes along who revolutionises a sport. Donald Bradman did it in cricket in the 1930s with batting so perfect the English bowlers had to resort to bodyline – bouncers directed at his head – to curb him. Mr DeChambeau may have an even bigger impact on golf than “the Don” had on cricket, with pundits saying it will never be the same again – the authorities are already discussing changing the composition of the ball to reduce the distance he can hit it. His bomb and gouge approach is rendering great old courses impotent, offending golfing purists who dislike his power game, his ugly, all-action swing, the fact he doesn’t much care whether he hits the fairway or not – distance, not accuracy, is the key – and his brash persona. He annoyed fellow pros at a tournament in July when he tried to have his ball moved under the “dangerous animal” rule because he’d seen a red ant and thought he was close to an anthill. They also criticise his slow, deliberate way of playing. “I’m definitely changing the way people think about the game,” says Mr DeChambeau. Continue reading...

Researchers around the world are training canines to sniff out the virus – could they be deployed for mass testing?

Researchers will test length of time virus stays infectious in different climatic conditions

Analysis suggests too little attention is paid to gender disparities in medical trials

Side-effects of bexarotene rule out use but trial suggests other drugs may halt multiple sclerosisDoctors believe they are closer to a treatment for multiple sclerosis after discovering a drug that repairs the coatings around nerves that are damaged by the disease.A clinical trial of the cancer drug bexarotene showed that it repaired the protective myelin sheaths that MS destroys. The loss of myelin causes a range of neurological problems including balance, vision and muscle disorders, and ultimately, disability. 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...

The prime minister’s inadequate new measures are a product of his reckless nature. They endanger businesses – and lives

Exclusive: significant proportion of severely ill people have inborn errors, study finds

Boris Johnson’s Churchillian language does not impress Richard Teverson, while Katherine Arnott dismisses the prime minister’s appeal to people’s common sense. Plus letters from Patrick Cosgrove and David Boyd HaycockI, like so many others, am slack-jawed at the incompetence of this government’s response to Covid. Our death rate is terrible and the continued mixed messages from “go to work as you are less likely to be sacked if you are in the office/don’t go to work” and “eat out to help out/don’t eat out, certainly not after 10pm” have exhausted the public and make compliance more unlikely.And now Boris Johnson insinuates that we have a worse death rate than many countries in Europe because we are “freedom loving” (Follow new Covid restrictions, or risk a second lockdown, Johnson warns, 22 September). I would be so grateful if he could stop this faux Churchillian tub-thumping with pernicious Brexit undertones, hinting that we are better than all of Europe because we love freedom more (the inference being that that is why we have voted to leave all those rule adherents behind). Let’s see how “freedom loving” the prime minister thinks we all are when there are queues of 7,000 trucks in Kent in January as Michael Gove now warns. Continue reading...

Experts believe virus is probably becoming more contagious but US study did not find mutations made it more lethalThe Covid-19 virus is continuing to mutate throughout the course of the pandemic, with experts believing it is probably becoming more contagious, as coronavirus cases in the US have started to rise once again, according to new research.The new US study analyzed 5,000 genetic sequences of the virus, which has continued to mutate as it has spread through the population. The study did not find that mutations of the virus have made it more lethal or changed its effects, even as it may be becoming easier to catch, according to a report in the Washington Post, which noted that public health experts acknowledge all viruses have mutations, most of which are insignificant. Continue reading...

Researchers running Helsinki pilot scheme say dogs can identify virus in seconds

Nine months in, and with over 30 million people having been infected with Covid-19, we now know some of the main factors that put people at higher risk of a severe case of the disease, such as age and having other health problems. But there is still a lot to learn about why some people, and not others, become very ill from catching Sars-CoV-2. Nicola Davis takes a look at the researchers attempting to rapidly work out how to predict who is going to get very sick Continue reading...

Researchers hope to begin world’s first human challenge trials at east London quarantine facility in January

Survey of 70,000 people finds only 49% are ‘very likely’ to get vaccine once one is available

Excess deaths in private homes prompts fears people are avoiding hospitals due to CovidSome 10,000 more deaths than usual have occurred in peoples’ private homes since mid June, long after the peak in Covid deaths, prompting fears that people may still be avoiding health services and delaying sending their loved ones to care homes.It brings to more than 30,000 the total number of excess deaths happening in people’s homes across the UK since the start of the pandemic. Continue reading...

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Study of GP records in Salford shows diagnoses up to 50% lower than expected in spring

Scientists have developed a 'tiny wind turbine' that can take energy from a gentle breeze, such as that made as you walk.The device comprises two plastic strips in a tube that flutter or clap together in the presence of airflow. That energy, powered by the contact and separation of two materials, can be bottled up and stored for use, according to researchers.Scientists in China hope the device can generate sustainable power in a low-cost, efficient manner while 'overcoming the issues that the traditional wind turbines can’t solve'

Scotland records highest daily cases total; Keir Starmer presses Boris Johnson on Covid testing at PMQs; ‘clear upward curve’ in cases in Wales

Scientists say measures won’t stop spread and increase chance of crackdown later

Researchers say device can generate sustainable power from gentle breezeScientists have developed a “tiny wind turbine” that can scavenge energy from the breeze made while walking.Imagine rubbing a balloon on your hair for a few seconds – can you hear the crackle of static electricity, see your hair stand on end? That energy, powered by the contact and separation of two materials, can be bottled up and stored for use, according to researchers working on the device. Continue reading...

Scientists have developed a ‘tiny wind turbine’ that can take energy from a gentle breeze, such as that made as you walk.The device comprises two plastic strips in a tube that flutter or clap together in the presence of airflow. That energy, powered by the contact and separation of two materials, can be bottled up and stored for use, according to researchers.Scientists in China hope the device can generate sustainable power in a low-cost, efficient manner while ‘overcoming the issues that the traditional wind turbines can’t solve’

The CDC’s confusing backpedalling on whether the coronavirus is airborne is roiling health workers and hospitals because an airborne virus requires completely new safety protocols

The path out of the pandemic relies on a full toolkit of strategies to buy time – including restricting home visitsThe new restrictions announced by Boris Johnson yesterday, including the closing of restaurants and pubs at 10pm and increased use of face coverings, fall short of a “second lockdown” but signal that life is still far from returning to normal.While England’s true number of cases is likely much lower than in the spring due to increased testing, it is the ski-jump trajectory of recent case growth that gives epidemiologists palpitations. The cruelty of exponential growth, with cases doubling at regular intervals, is real. The flipside is that reducing transmission, even a little, can have a huge payoff in reducing the total number of infections. Continue reading...

Despite being downloaded more than 18m times, the app’s effectiveness is being questioned

Exclusive: chemicals and machines needed to hit target by end of October are ‘a few weeks behind’

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

Nasa says astronauts sheltered in the Soyuz spacecraft so they could evacuate if necessary during the ‘avoidance manoeuvre’Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were carrying out an “avoidance manoeuvre” on Tuesday to ensure the station would not be hit by a piece of debris, the US space agency Nasa announced.The debris should pass within “several kilometres” of the International Space Station (ISS), but out of an abundance of caution, its trajectory was being changed to move it further away from the object. Continue reading...

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