The Guardian is given a unique insight into the operations of CSL, which is making vaccines that could help end the crisis

Ambitious series of joint missions aims to construct a crewed space station that will orbit the moonEuropean space officials will this week unveil detailed plans for a series of ambitious missions aimed at returning humans to the moon in the next few years.Projects will include construction of crew quarters for an orbiting lunar space station, making the power and propulsion units for America’s Orion spacecraft, and designing and building a sophisticated communication and refuelling unit, known as Esprit, to serve astronauts on the lunar surface. These missions will be carried out jointly with Nasa and the Japanese and Canadian space agencies. 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...

British Medical Association seeks to build trust amid ‘inconsistent’ Covid messaging

Fungi have long supported and enriched life on our planet. They must be protected as fiercely as animals and plantsAs you read these words, fungi are changing the way that life happens, as they have done for more than a billion years. They are eating rock, making soil, digesting pollutants, nourishing and killing plants, surviving in space, inducing visions, producing food, making medicines, manipulating animal behaviour, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere.Fungi make up one of life’s kingdoms – as broad and busy a category as “animals” or “plants” – and provide a key to understanding our planet. Yet fungi have received only a small fraction of the attention they deserve. The best estimate suggests that there are between 2.2m and 3.8m species of fungi on the Earth – as many as 10 times the estimated number of plant species – meaning that, at most, a mere 8% of all fungal species have been described. Of these, only 358 have had their conservation priority assessed on the IUCN red list of threatened species, compared with 76,000 species of animal and 44,000 species of plant. Fungi, in other words, represent a meagre 0.2% of our global conservation priorities. Continue reading...

Victoria records 14 new Covid-19 infections, with three in NSW and one in QueenslandThe Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has confirmed authorities will ease restrictions in Melbourne in a week’s time, though the changes will be less expansive than previously hoped.Victoria recorded 14 new infections on Saturday, making it increasingly unlikely that Melbourne would hit a fortnightly average of five cases, the target for a wider reopening under the state government’s Covid-19 roadmap. Continue reading...

WHO emergencies chief warns ‘there are no new answers’ as cases surge globally. This blog has now closed. Follow our latest blog below

Names from across the arts, sport, politics and science are among those recognisedThe prolific author Susan Hill and the renowned choreographer Siobhan Davies have both been made dames. Continue reading...

GPs have reported a substantial drop in the numbers they are seeing across the country

Open letter calling for new Covid-19 strategy also signed by ‘Prof Cominic Dummings’

Mayor says new measures to curb infections will be capital-wide rather than by borough

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

As cases surge, figures show the demographics of those most seriously affected by coronavirus remain the same

Report says recovery efforts are undermined by ministers’ tendency to over-promise and under-deliverHyperbolic and confused government messaging on Covid-19 has eroded trust among the public and helped created a sense of disconnection between Westminster and those managing the pandemic at a local level, according to a report by Whitehall advisers.The C-19 National Foresight Group highlighted ministers’ tendency to over-promise and under-deliver, and the erratic, often late-night timing of key pandemic announcements – often without prior consultation or warning – as examples of poor communications that were undermining Covid recovery efforts. Continue reading...

Doctors grapple for answers as more patients report post-coronavirus cognitive impairment

Study seeks to compare microbiomes of our ancestors for clues to modern diseasesResearchers working knee-deep in 14th- and 15th-century latrines have found that bacterial DNA from human excrement can last for centuries and provide clues to how our gut contents have changed significantly since medieval times.Analysis of two cesspits, one in Jerusalem and the other in the Latvian capital, Riga, could help scientists understand if changes to our microbiome – the genetic makeup of the bacteria, virus, fungi, parasites and other microbes living inside us – affect modern-day afflictions. Continue reading...

The Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland will house one of UK’s first sites of its kind if it wins approvalIn two years, thousands of tourists and space enthusiasts could be gathering in the far north of Scotland to watch an unlikely event, the inaugural flight of a rocket blasting off from a peat bog usually grazed by deer and sheep.The Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland, a desolate stretch of peatland punctuated by mires and tiny lochs overlooking the Pentland Firth, has been chosen as the site of one of the UK’s first spaceports – provided it eventually wins approval from the Civil Aviation Authority. Continue reading...

Isolating students say universities are charging them high prices for low-quality food

Disney blasts off with an intriguing drama about how Nasa socked it to the Soviets in the 1960s with its manned spaceflight programmeIt’s Mad Men in Space, almost. Disney+ marks its first anniversary with The Right Stuff, an eight-part drama based on Tom Wolfe’s non-fiction book of the same name (and the 1983 film that was based on that) about the astronauts of Nasa’s Project Mercury, the Mercury Seven.Like Mad Men, it is set in the late 1950s and early 60s and everything – especially the suited and booted, would-be conquering heroes at its core – looks slick and gorgeous. That much you might expect from a Disney-made tale of real life derring-do, but what is unexpected is that the show concentrates on what a mess everything was, including the astronauts (apart from John Glenn, apparently), behind the scenes. It’s a particularly bold departure from the more tempting and traditional template at a time when commissioners, makers and viewers alike could all be forgiven for wanting to wallow in nostalgia and revisit what still count, however gilded the narrative has become, as past glories. Continue reading...

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EU commission secures enough doses for 500,000 patients in 36 countries including UK

When they’re dicing with our lives, politicians must fully explain the reasoning for their decisions‘You cannot put people out of a job on a hunch,” a Glasgow restaurant owner said of Nicola Sturgeon’s new drinking restrictions in Scotland, which have forbidden the sale of alcohol in licensed premises and closed pubs and restaurants across the country’s central belt for 16 days. “I genuinely do not understand it – and we’re not being told why.”Related: Pubs and restaurants: do scientists think Covid closures and curfews work? Continue reading...

Commentators have used study as evidence government was too quick to impose full lockdown but conclusions not so clear

Leaked slides suggest hospitality accounted for 41% of linked Covid cases among under-30s

While virus can spread easily in crowded indoor venues, 10pm cut-off is questionable

In this second episode of our age of extinction takeover, Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston explore the impact that conservation and national parks can have on Indigenous communities and the biodiversity surrounding themIf you haven’t already, go back and listen to Tuesday’s episode on the history of national parks and some of the challenges they face Continue reading...

Air temperatures hit all-time highs for month and Arctic sea ice level was ‘particularly low’The world this year experienced its hottest September on record, scientists have reported.Surface air temperatures last month were 0.05C warmer than in September 2019, making it the hottest September on record globally, experts from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said. Continue reading...

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Brain of a young man killed in the eruption was found in Herculaneum, ItalyBrain cells have been found in exceptionally preserved form in the remains of a young man killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius almost 2,000 years ago, an Italian study has revealed.The preserved neuronal structures in vitrified or frozen form were discovered at the archaeological site of Herculaneum, an ancient Roman city engulfed under a hail of volcanic ash after nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79AD. Continue reading...

Urgent talks underway with chemical supplier Roche as non-urgent tests delayed

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have been awarded the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery of the Crispr genetic scissors used to edit the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision.The genome editing method has revolutionised the field of genetic engineering, with its impact felt across biomedical research, clinical medicine, agriculture and wider society.The researchers will share the 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000) prize announced on Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm – the first time that two women have shared the prize

The prime minister seems to be bored by pandemic politics and craving less gloomy times. He needs to focus on today’s crisis, not fantasy futuresGovernments have a wide range of measures and different degrees of compulsion at their disposal when dealing with a pandemic, from full lockdown to targeted interventions, from urging compliance to enforcing it by law. Boris Johnson has tried it all with no underlying strategic concept. The result is a shambles: mixed messages, unclear guidance and failure to limit the spread of the virus.Infections are rising in nearly every area subject to tighter controls, and the criteria for the application of those restrictions is opaque. There are no special measures in London, but prevalence in the borough of Hillingdon (in the prime minister’s constituency) is 67 cases per 100,000, more than double the rate in places that face stricter restrictions. The infection rate has gone up in 19 of 20 areas subject to localised controls for the past two months. The plan, if there is such a thing, is not working. Challenged on that point by Sir Keir Starmer in parliament on Wednesday, Mr Johnson offered no defence, only vacuity. “The problem is, alas, that the disease continues to spread,” he said. Continue reading...

Rising emissions of nitrous oxide from farming are putting world on track to exceed 2C heatingThe spread of intensive farming is threatening to jeopardise the world’s chances of meeting the terms of the Paris agreement on the climate crisis, as the increasing use of artificial fertiliser and growing populations of livestock are raising the concentration of a key greenhouse gas to levels far beyond those seen naturally.Nitrous oxide is given off by the overuse of artificial fertilisers, and by organic sources such as animal manure, and has a heating effect 300 times that of carbon dioxide. Levels of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere are 20% higher than in pre-industrial times, with most of that increase coming from farming. Continue reading...

Projects from freewheeling lullabies to food growing are fostering a sense of togetherness during the pandemic

Public Health England’s study likely to accelerate calls for further measures such as sugar taxThe food industry has cut out only 3% of sugar from its supermarket, cafe and restaurant products over the last three years, according to a damning report from Public Health England that will accelerate calls for taxes or other compulsory measures to be introduced.PHE launched its flagship sugar reduction programme in 2016 with a mission to help bring down childhood obesity by introducing a voluntary target for the food industry to remove 20% of sugar by 2020. But the third year of data – gathered before the coronavirus outbreak Covid – suggests it is unattainable without a “big stick” such as taxation. Continue reading...

Dr Rick Bright says administration ‘ignores scientific expertise and overrules public health guidance’

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna share prize for genome editing methodTwo scientists have been awarded the 2020 Nobel prize in chemistry for developing the genetic scissors used in gene editing – the first time two women have shared the prize.Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A Doudna will share the 10m Swedish kronor (£870,000) prize announced on Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. 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...

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

Cross-party group warns many businesses are falling through the cracks due to being with ‘wrong bank’

Behavioural experts in London find socio-economic factors to be the keys to helpfulnessConventional wisdom is that people living in big cities are less likely than smaller towns to help strangers in need, but new research suggests the likelihood of securing assistance is associated with socio-economic factors, and has little to do with the anonymity and the fast pace of urban living.Researchers at University College London (UCL) measured whether people posted a lost letter, returned a dropped item, and stopped cars to let someone cross the road in 37 different neighbourhoods in 12 cities and 12 towns across the UK. Continue reading...

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It is thought the celestial body was created in a cosmic crash 4.5bn years agoCorrected version:It could so easily have turned out differently. About 4.5bn years ago the Earth is believed to have collided with another planet, Theia, resulting in the formation of the moon. A more glancing blow might have resulted in a “hit and run” and a moon-less Earth; while a head-on collision may have blasted away much of Earth’s mantle, leaving no atmosphere. Instead it seems to have been something in between, which eroded between 10 and 60% of Earth’s atmosphere, but also left us with the moon. Continue reading...

Scientists question purchase of tests from British consortium before evaluation made public

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsWhy are the majority of people right-handed rather than there being equal numbers of left and right? What is the factor causing the difference and what about other primates – or are we the only species to exhibit this imbalance?Peter Hanson, Whitestone, Exeter Continue reading...

Pressure mounts on manufacturer to allow other companies to supply remdesivir

The pandemic has exposed the weakness in the UK’s austerity-hit social safety net – something many claimants have only just discovered

Young people no longer understand traditional gestures, from miming a phone call to requesting the bill. Are we losing part of our cultural heritage?Name: Hand gestures.Age: Older than language. Continue reading...

Roger Penrose says win, shared with Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, ‘is in some ways a distraction’Three scientists have won the 2020 Nobel prize in physics for their work on black hole formation and the discovery of a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.Sir Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez together scooped the 114th Nobel prize in physics. Continue reading...