This blog has now closed. Follow our new blog below:

Flu season could be like no other this year and a national campaign to promote the flu vaccine is urgent, say scientistsA national public health campaign promoting the flu vaccine is urgently needed to avoid stretched healthcare services being overwhelmed this winter as the US faces cold season while still struggling to gain control of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists have warned.Influenza or seasonal flu is a perennial public health burden that, like Covid-19, causes most severe problems among elderly people and those with underlying health conditions. Continue reading...

Cancer charity reels from effects of coronavirus on fundraising as it cuts sixth of workforce

Company has had ‘more people than ever’ seeking vaccination after government campaign

Exclusive: Figures show big rise in number of women aged 20 to 40 admitted to hospital

Minister announces ‘shift in emphasis’ in England as coronavirus infections soar

Announcement comes as Covid deaths increased by 27% in Europe week on week

Just as world leaders came together after the second world war at Bretton Woods, now we need to create a new framework for health securityThe scale of the coronavirus crisis is hard to fully comprehend: globally, more than 30 million people have contracted the virus and nearly 1 million have died. The UN estimates that the pandemic will mean $8.5tn in lost output for the world this year and next. The wider social and economic costs – from poverty to mental illness to domestic violence – are almost impossible to quantify.Yet the global scale of the disaster has not been met with a global response of the same magnitude. National governments have taken often drastic action to slow the spread of the disease. But while scientists working on diagnostics, therapies and vaccines cooperate across borders, the intergovernmental response has been marked by its absence. It also reflects the peculiarly inept and lamentable crop of global leaders from Washington to London, Moscow and Beijing. Continue reading...

Scientists found weekly ‘awe walks’ led to more positive emotions among study participants - here are some of the nation’s most wondrous locations

Two groups of prominent scientists write open letters with conflicting advice on how to tackle virus

Simulation using world’s fastest supercomputer casts doubt on effectiveness in preventing spread of coronavirus

Our responses to coronavirus are not us-and-them, like Brexit. We have fractured into many different groups. From the graph fetishists to the snoops, which one are you?It’s easy to say that Covid has divided us. But this is not a simple us-and-them split like Brexit, however much that percolates through our collective unconscious. We are now all members of ever-shifting tribes. Here are some that I’ve encountered. Continue reading...

Former real estate mogul was investigated after criticising Xi Jinping over his handling of the coronavirus pandemicChina has sentenced an influential former property executive and critic of President Xi Jinping to 18 years in prison for corruption.Ren Zhiqiang, the former chairman of Huayuan, a state-owned real estate group, was also fined 4.2m yuan, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court said on its website on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Ketton Quarry, Rutland: Pliny the Elder believed that hawks sprinkled sap from hawkweeds into their eyes. But the plant’s true hawkish behaviour was only recently discoveredOld limestone quarries are fantastic places for nature, and here at Ketton the Wildlife Trust reserve fills the space left by stone extracted in the 1930s. Next door there is light industry, on what would have been the quarry floor, and then beyond that the vast modern excavations and tall cement works that dominate the landscape.Related: Berries festoon the quarry reserve Continue reading...

New policy comes after serious quality control questions were raised about the data relied on by a study in the medical journalOne of the world’s leading medical journals, the Lancet, has reformed its editorial policies following a shocking case of apparent research misconduct involving the study of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19.In May, the Lancet published a peer-reviewed study about the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine, which concluded Covid-19 patients who received the drug were dying at higher rates and experiencing more heart-related complications than other virus patients. Continue reading...

Is it possible to define the biological, chemical and physical functions that separate cells, plants and even humans from inanimate objects? In his new book, Paul Nurse, Nobel prize winner and director of the Francis Crick Institute, addresses a question that has long plagued both philosophers and scientists – what does it really mean to be alive? Speaking to Madeleine Finlay, Paul delves into why it’s important to understand the underlying principles of life, the role of science in society, and what life might look like on other planets Continue reading...

This blog is now closed. Follow our new blog at the link below:

Boris Johnson held lengthy meeting with scientists about bringing down UK infection rate

Continue reading...

Bacterial infection alongside speed of temperature rise may have triggered mortality, suggests studyHigh temperatures and the persistent warming of oceans have triggered profound changes in marine ecosystems, but a new study suggests that the rate of onset of warming – rather than the peak – could also play a key role in the damage fuelled by climate change.In early July 2017, researchers were drawn to the coast of Eilat, Israel, following sightings of fish carcasses, a rare occurrence in the region’s coral reefs. Continue reading...

Matt Hancock announces childcare exemption to local lockdowns in England; UK cases rise by 4,368, second highest daily total since early May

Continued doubling of infection rate feared by top advisers is unlikely to happen, say some experts

The solutions to today’s teasersEarlier today I set a logic problem and a word problem from Puzzlebomb, a monthly problem sheet.I’ll start with the word problem. Continue reading...

Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty’s briefing predicted an autumn of rising deaths and difficult lockdown choices

Vallance and Whitty spoke reasonably and sincerely in their press conference. But their data was selective, and they seem determined to cause alarm

Writer lays into president and PM for their ‘crummy’ response to coronavirus

UK chief scientific adviser says breakthrough far more likely in first half of 2021

Continuous cough is one of three main Covid-19 symptoms people are told to look out for

Monument in northern city of Agra opens to visitors after being closed for six months

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

Grant Shapps says ‘we can’t afford to wait until deaths are rising before taking action’

Decision will impact the expansion of Beijing’s space exploration and navigational programsChina will lose access to a strategic space tracking station in Western Australia when its contract expires, the facility’s owners said, a decision that cuts into Beijing’s expanding space exploration and navigational capabilities in the Pacific region.The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) has had a contract allowing Beijing access to the satellite antenna at the ground station since at least 2011. It is located next to an SSC satellite station primarily used by the United States and its agencies, including Nasa. Continue reading...

Bacteriophages were superseded by modern antibiotics, but scientists believe they could be key to conquering antimicrobial resistanceIt is, say enthusiasts, the cure that the world forgot. An old therapy that could take on the new superbugs.Discovered in 1917 by French Canadian biologist Félix d’Hérelle, phages – or bacteriophages – are tiny viruses that are natural predators of bacteria. In many countries they were supplanted during the second world war by antibiotics but continued to be used for decades in eastern Europe. Continue reading...

The Guardian’s health editor surveys the remarkable global efforts to develop effective protection against coronavirusIncredibly fast. Faster than any vaccine has ever been developed before, but we will have to wait a while longer yet. Continue reading...

Bamboozling bars and brain busting beesToday’s problems are from Puzzlebomb, a monthly sheet of word, logic and number puzzles whose first issue came out earlier this month.The first teaser - a meta-puzzle about bar graphs inspired by this xkcd cartoon – may well explode your head. Continue reading...

Focus should not be on how many tests are done, but how they are used and where, say experts

Coronavirus pandemic has changed public attitudes to health, experts say

Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty to make TV appeal ahead of ‘challenging winter’

Tomorrow marks the changing of the seasons as the sun crosses the equator to bring summer to the southern hemisphere and winter to the northSummer officially ends in the northern hemisphere tomorrow, and we enter the autumn. This is the time of year when the length of day and night are exactly equal. Known as the September equinox, it always takes place sometime around the 21st of the month. This year, it takes place on 22 September at 1431 BST.At this moment the sun will be located directly on the celestial equator, the projection of Earth’s equator into the sky. This means the sun will pretty much rise due east and set due west on that day. For the next three months, the sun will rise and set ever more southwards along the horizon. Continue reading...

For Sara Seager, star-gazing offered a sense of perspective when tragedy struckFifteen years ago, I started my job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As an astrophysicist and planetary scientist, my job is to search for alien life. Not little green humanoids like ET, but signs of life on planets orbiting other stars. Every star is a sun and if our sun has planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, etc) it makes sense that other stars have planets also – and they do. We already know of thousands of stars that have planets. There are billions of stars in our galaxy making the possibilities “out there” huge and wondrous.Back then, I had the perfect life: a great career; my dream home, a pretty yellow Victorian house; two adorable toddlers; and a loving husband. 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 UK has done well on building capacity. But only wide access to simple, effective tests will allow us to manage life under coronavirus

The psychologist and member of Independent Sage on the flaws in the Conservative government’s response to Covid-19, and its failure to build trust through honest communicationSusan Michie, 65, is a professor of health psychology at University College London and leader of the Human Behaviour Change project funded by the Wellcome Trust. She has been part of the Covid-19 behavioural science team, a sub-group of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). She also sits on the independent Sage committee chaired by Sir David King.How important was behavioural thinking in the advice given to government by Sage initially. How interested were they in that aspect of the response?

Boris Johnson under pressure as virus flares and experts despair at opportunities wasted during the summer

While the discovery of the normally microbe-produced phosphine on our toxic neighbour is astonishing, other candidates for life are more promisingIt remains one of the most unexpected scientific discoveries of the year. To their astonishment, British scientists last week revealed they had uncovered strong evidence that phosphine – a toxic, rancid gas produced by microbes – exists in the burning, acid-drenched atmosphere of Venus.Related: If we don't find life on planets like Venus, doesn't it make us that bit more special? | Charles Cockell Continue reading...

Doctors in England urge tighter restrictions; number of cases worldwide passes 30 million; scaled-down Oktoberfest in Munich begins. Follow all the developments

Both benevolence and selfishness inspired Josh McGrane to take part in the University of Oxford vaccine trials

Physical distancing, far more than washing hands, is the most critical factor in preventing spread of the virus

Many parts of the Earth’s climate system have been destabilised by warming, from ice sheets and ocean currents to the Amazon rainforest – and scientists believe that if one collapses others could followThe warning signs are flashing red. The California wildfires were surely made worse by the impacts of global heating. A study published in July warned that the Arctic is undergoing “an abrupt climate change event” that will probably lead to dramatic changes. As if to underline the point, on 14 September it was reported that a huge ice shelf in northeast Greenland had torn itself apart, worn away by warm waters lapping in from beneath.That same day, a study of satellite data revealed growing cracks and crevasses in the ice shelves protecting two of Antarctica’s largest glaciers – indicating that those shelves could also break apart, leaving the glaciers exposed and liable to melt, contributing to sea-level rise. The ice losses are already following our worst-case scenarios. Continue reading...

Scientists face potential struggle to convince people of vaccine safety as celebrities join misinformation chorus