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Headaches are telling you something about how your brain works with your body, influencing your behaviour and feelingsWe need pain. It seems contradictory to say it, particularly now that we have so many ways of dealing with it and switching it off. Pain not only tells us something is wrong, it also protects us. If you slam the car door on your hand, it’s going to hurt. You will have damaged the soft tissue; all the muscles and ligaments that help you move your fingers. It will no doubt swell up to twice its size. This inflammation is part of the healing process. Your hand feels hot and looks red because of all the extra blood flow. All these inflammatory agents that are acting to heal you are stimulating the pain receptors in your hand, the ones in your skin and your muscles. Your head is not so different except, crucially, the underlying cause can be much more subtle and varied.As a neuroscientist who writes about headaches, it is somewhat ironic to admit that I suffer from them still. Two recent headaches stand out. The first happened when I couldn’t find my glasses. I’m astigmatic so I see the world on a bit of a slant because my left eyeball is shaped like a rugby ball instead of a football. Just looking around can be effortful. Plus, the search made me late for everything that day which was unpleasant. By the time I got home, my head felt like it was in the grip of giant hands and they had begun to squeeze hard. All I wanted for dinner was a paracetamol sandwich. Continue reading...

More than 140 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 140 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue reading...

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19

Latest ONS figures appear to show better picture, even as more lockdown measures relaxed

The feline had caught coronavirus from its owners, but our research shows it’s a rare occurrence

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says number of mystery Covid-19 cases has risen by 130 as nine new infections announced in NSW

From the UK government over-promising on testing to scientific spin on a vaccine, realism is in short supply

Exclusive: no data on accuracy of this and other test bought by government has been published

When the Guardian spoke to staff in March they had no time for reflection. So what do they think of the new surge now?

Experts say poor airflow, reduced distancing and prolonged exposure are key factors in the spread of coronavirus

The government is asking people who may have coronavirus to isolate - but it has no idea of whether they’re doing so

Oxford and Moderna trials draw from strikingly white cohort, for a virus that has disproportionately affected people of colourThe remarkably fast progress of two leading contenders for an effective coronavirus vaccine has raised hopes the pandemic may be speedily tamed. But some experts have warned the vaccine trials risk being undermined by a lack of diversity among their participants.Related: Coronavirus vaccine tracker: how close are we to a vaccine? Continue reading...

The Tasmanian government is trying to keep the orange bellied parrot alive but is chopping down everywhere the swift parrot lives

UK adds Belgium, Andorra and Bahamas to quarantine list ; Spain’s health ministry denies facing second wave; Dutch PM calls on tourists to avoid busy parts of Amsterdam

World Health Organization warns figure is ‘the tip of the iceberg’ and that the true number could be much higher

Lucy spacecraft has passed its system integration review and can now be assembled and tested

My friend Gerald Lincoln, the endocrinologist and naturalist who has died aged 75, devoted his life to unravelling the mysteries of nature.Brought up on a farm in Norfolk – the son of Gertrude (nee Holmes), a geography teacher, and Ernest Lincoln, a tenant farmer – he spent his childhood in the countryside, marvelling at wildlife. He also became an adept poacher, carrying toilet paper as an alibi when he ventured into the woods. Continue reading...

Latest figures show just 72% of close contacts reached; PM defends scheme; UK reports 950 new cases; Aberdeen outbreak cases increase by 25. This live blog is now closed - please follow the global live blog for the latest updates.

Scans suggest Tanystropheus, which lived 242m years ago, lived in water, researchers sayThe mystery of an ancient reptile with a tremendously long neck has been solved, according to researchers who say the creature lived in the water.Fossils of the creature, known as Tanystropheus, were first unearthed in Germany around 150 years ago and further specimens have turned up over the decades, largely at Monte San Giorgio on the Swiss-Italian border. Continue reading...

Overheated polemics won’t solve this emergency – and the apocalypse is a needlessly high bar for actionProtesters march in the streets in an “extinction rebellion” against the climate crisis, with some (but not all) of their leaders claiming that climate tipping points could kill billions in the coming decades. Others dismiss the importance or reality of the crisis, while new books loudly proclaim “apocalypse never” and “false alarm”.The popular discourse around the climate emergency all too often highlights fringe voices that predict the end of the world or suggest that there is little to worry about. But as the climatologist Steven Schneider presciently remarked a decade ago, when it comes to the climate “the end of the world” and “good for us” are probably the two least likely outcomes. Continue reading...

When it comes to the expansion rate of the universe, trying to get a straight answer isn’t easy. That’s because the two best ways of measuring what’s known as the Hubble constant are giving different results. As each method becomes increasingly accurate, the gap between widens. Is one of them wrong? Or is it time to rejig the Standard Model of Cosmology? Madeleine Finlay investigates the so-called ‘Hubble tension’ with Prof Erminia Calabrese Continue reading...

Think only fringe people believe in outlandish conspiracy theories? Think againWhen a childhood friend, a stay-at-home mom with a flourishing Pinterest account, sent me a copy of Plandemic – a 26-minute viral video falsely claiming manipulated origins of the coronavirus and the medical dangers of vaccines – I realized that conspiracy sympathizers weren’t as fringe as I thought.My friend was the third person, along with a work colleague and neighbor who is a doctor, to recently jump into the conspiracy theory abyss. I often dismissed conspiracy adherents as delusional cult members. But this was different. I knew these women. They were bright and led full, busy lives. Continue reading...

Chronic loneliness has little to do with being alone, experts say – could a pharmaceutical treatment help lonely people form meaningful relationships?Shortly after relocating to Texas from California three years ago, Cheryl Webster started hosting a game night at her home as a way of meeting new people. They stopped meeting due to Covid-19, and Webster has only heard from one person in the group in the months since they were able to play.Eventually, she decided to pick up the phone herself – but nobody called back. Continue reading...

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting or giving someone Covid-19

Astrophysicist who studied the interaction between the rotation and magnetic field of the sun behind sunspots and solar flaresNigel Weiss, who has died aged 83, was a world authority on the physics of sunspots and the mechanisms driving a cycle of solar activity that lasts for 11 years.Sunspots appear as darker, cooler patches on the sun’s surface that may last from a few days to a few months. They were noticed by ancient Chinese and Greek astronomers and came to prominence following telescopic observations by Galileo and others. The number of spots on the Sun at any time follows the 11-year cycle and the sun is slightly brighter during maximum activity. Continue reading...

US health body highlights risks of reopening after outbreaks in state of Georgia and in Israel

Rats and bats that host pandemic pathogens like Covid-19 increase in damaged ecosystems, analysis shows

Geriatrician who pioneered the idea of strength training for elderly peopleUnlike other exercise researchers in the 1980s who were focusing on heart health, the geriatrician Archie Young, who has died aged 73, was interested in strength and balance. To live independently and avoid falls, it is fundamental to have sufficient balance to stand upright and the muscle strength to get up from the toilet or a low chair, but before Young’s discoveries many assumed that deteriorating muscle strength was both inevitable and irreversible in elderly people.In the early 80s Young was a doctor in a rehabilitation unit in Oxford, where among other things he introduced ultrasound imaging to physiotherapy. In 1985 he became a consultant and then professor and head of geriatric medicine at the Royal Free hospital in London, where he helped set up Queen Mary’s, a rehabilitation facility for elderly people. In both Oxford and London he conducted experiments with elderly volunteers, for example measuring their quadriceps (thigh muscle) and studying the effect of strengthening exercises. Continue reading...

Surge in tablets sold as benzodiazepines, used to treat anxiety or insomnia, linked to hospitalisations and deathsA surge in illicit prescription drugs that have been linked to hospitalisations and deaths in England has prompted health officials to issue a rare national alert.Public Health England (PHE) issued the alert to drug treatment services and healthcare providers about the availability of illicit tablets being sold as benzodiazepines, such as Xanax and diazepam, which can be prescribed to treat anxiety or insomnia. Continue reading...

I fell sick on 25 March. Four months later, I’m still dealing with fever, cognitive dysfunction, memory issues and much moreI just passed the four-month mark of being sick with Covid. I am young, and I had considered myself healthy.My first symptom was that I couldn’t read a text message. It wasn’t about anything complex – just trying to arrange a video call – but it was a few sentences longer than normal, and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It was the end of the night so I thought I was tired, but an hour later I took my temperature and realized I had a fever. I had been isolating for 11 days at that point; the only place I had been was the grocery store. Continue reading...

As clinical researchers, we searched for information about the UK’s new 90-minute tests – but found no data about their effectiveness

Fertility and Sterility took seven years to take down Italian study, which was criticised by doctors for ethical concerns and dubious justificationsA widely criticised peer-reviewed study that measured the attractiveness of women with endometriosis has been retracted from the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.The study, Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study, was first published in 2013 and has been defended by the authors and the journal in the intervening years despite heavy criticism from doctors, other researchers and people with endometriosis for its ethical concerns and dubious justifications, with one advocate calling the study “heartbreaking” and “disgusting”. Continue reading...

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting or giving someone Covid-19

Typhoon Morakot left country with more quakes after changing stress pattern in Earth’s crustEleven years ago, Typhoon Morakot slammed into Taiwan, deluging the country with 3,000 litres of rain per square metre in three days. Catastrophic flooding and landslides followed and more than 600 people died.It is considered one of the worst tropical cyclones in Taiwan’s recorded history. But that wasn’t the end of it. New research reveals that the typhoon also left Taiwan with a legacy of extra earthquakes for the next few years. Continue reading...

Jeremy Cushing on the tragic consequences of the pandemic response, Prof W Richard Bowen on the need for more scientifically educated politicians, Joseph Palley on England’s excess deaths, and Betty Cairns on how the dead are being remembered in ItalyI was left confused by Devi Sridhar’s article (The northern lockdown represents government failure. There is a better way, 31 July). She urged the adoption of “an objective with a timeline, forming a gameplan, appointing a high-level official to oversee things”, but none of these have any specific content. The content, far from reflecting the title, actually suggests a localised approach. Insofar as I detected any recommendations, they were to use “a robust testing and tracing system” and local expertise. These are ideas being widely shared, and show that our government has adopted almost the opposite approach, starving local authorities of information and resources in favour of corporations. The government has refrained from testing at the UK border, which other countries have made standard.It brings us back to the basic nature of this government – distrust of the public sector, tight centralisation, poverty-stricken government agencies and overall incompetence, with leadership confined to those unquestioningly loyal to the prime minister. The similarities between our government and Donald Trump’s are many and the result the same – large numbers of people dying.

President again says he is doing ‘incredible job’ fighting pandemic and casts doubt on Jeffrey Epstein’s cause of death

The carbon economy amplifies racial, social and economic inequities, creating a system that is fundamentally incompatible with a stable futureFrom deep-rooted racism to the Covid-19 pandemic, from extreme inequality to ecological collapse, our world is facing dire and deeply interconnected emergencies. But as much as the present moment painfully underscores the weaknesses of our economic system, it also gives us the rare opportunity to reimagine it. As we seek to rebuild our world, we can and must end the carbon economy.Related: Environmental racism is killing Americans of color. Climate change will make it worse | Mustafa Santiago Ali Continue reading...

Most experts agree containment of Covid-19 has failed so far, but what is the threshold for reaching herd immunity?Pandemics typically end in one of two ways: cases are tracked and isolated or a population achieves herd immunity, often with the help of a vaccine. Most experts agree containment of the coronavirus has failed so far. What about herd immunity?What is herd immunity? Continue reading...

Like a fire, the virus relentlessly seeks out its fuel, humans, and will keep spreading as long as it has access to that

Exclusive: experts say decisions apparently being made on ideological grounds

If communities feel singled out, discriminated against, left behind and ignored, blame the messenger not them

Since the beginning of the pandemic, ‘test, test, test’ has been the key message from epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists and healthcare professionals alike. But how does a country know if it’s doing sufficient testing? Or that it’s catching enough of the asymptomatic cases? Nicola Davis speaks to Prof Rowland Kao about the positivity rate, a value that can help to answer some of these difficult questions Continue reading...

Rare find includes skin, tendon and excrement of what is thought to be an adult maleRussian scientists are poring over the uniquely well-preserved bones of a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth after completing the operation to pull them from the bottom of a Siberian lake.Experts spent five days scouring the silt of Lake Pechenelava-To in the remote Yamal peninsula for the remains, which include tendons, skin and even excrement, after they were spotted by local residents. About 90% of the animal has been retrieved during two expeditions. Continue reading...

ANU’s Peter Collignon says what’s important now is making sure people who test positive stay at home

Covid-19 survivors have higher rates of mental ill-health, study says; Belgium sees ICU admissions double; Singapore to use electronic tags to monitor some travellers. This live blog is closed. Follow our new one below

Researchers discover links with earlier puberty and signs of more rapid cellular ageingChildren who experience violence or trauma seem to age faster, going through puberty earlier and showing greater signs of ageing in their cells, researchers have found.They say the findings add to a growing body of work that suggests early adversity can become “biologically embedded” with the potential for adverse health effects later in life. Continue reading...

New evidence on how our bodies combat the virus has huge implications for the development of a coronavirus vaccineThis episode first aired on Today in Focus, the Guardian’s global daily news podcast.It’s a familiar refrain of the past six months: “When will we get back to normal?” The premise is that once a vaccine arrives or enough people have had Covid-19 we will be immune from its terrible effects. But new evidence on how our bodies combat the virus is casting doubt on the prospects for long-term immunity. Continue reading...

Research suggests more than half experience PTSD, anxiety, insomnia, depression or compulsive symptoms

Moscow says it will start production next month and mass immunisation by October