Though far from common, some patients developed worse symptoms the second time they became infected with Covid-19

Authorities urged to develop policies to tackle ‘virus fatigue’ as Finland, Poland and Russia join nations with rapidly rising cases

Exclusive: research finds insertion of breathing tube produces barely any aerosols

Ministers reject health chiefs’ recommendation to impose highest level of restrictions

The president has returned home but only after receiving treatments normally reserved for serious cases

Nobel winner Sir Paul Nurse says his Francis Crick Institute alone could process 60,000 tests a week

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Study of brain activity shows no difference when dogs see back or front of a headDog owners might love their pet’s endearing puppy dog eyes and cute furry features, but it turns out the doggy brain is just as excited by the back of our heads as the front.For despite having evolved facial expressions that tug on the heartstrings of owners, researchers have found that unlike humans, dogs do not have brain regions that respond specifically to faces. Continue reading...

Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton, Charles Rice share 10m Swedish kronor prizeTwo Americans and a British scientist have won the 2020 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for their groundbreaking work on blood-borne hepatitis, a health problem that causes cirrhosis and liver cancer around the world.Harvey J Alter at the US National Institutes of Health in Maryland, Charles M Rice from Rockefeller University in New York, and Michael Houghton, a British virologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, were honoured for their joint discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a major cause of liver disease. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese says the nation could have been better prepared for Covid-19 if it had a national body to monitor infectious diseases

The grand ‘reveal’ of today’s magic tricksEarlier today I showed you four optical illusions, and asked you to explain how the effect was achieved. None of the images were digitally altered.1. The Soup Tin Continue reading...

Though the country is a huge polluter, it leads the world in the clean technologies that could make this feasibleWhen I first moved to China in 1990, winter meant coal. The moment Beijing turned on the municipal heating system, our faces would become covered with soot. People stockpiled loose coal in huge piles outside their homes for heating and cooking. I could see the smokestacks of four large coal power plants and the country’s largest steel mill in the distance. China’s addiction to this most carbon-intensive of fossil fuels made the prospect of a country dedicated to fighting climate change seem fanciful.Now, in perhaps the most important news of 2020 that you may have missed, China has stepped up on its own as a climate leader. On 22 September, President Xi Jinping announced in a video address to the UN general assembly that China would aim to become “carbon neutral” before 2060 – Beijing’s first long-term target. In so doing it joins the European Union, the UK and dozens of other countries in adopting mid-century climate targets, as called for by the Paris agreement. Continue reading...

Musician posed with fans at a Los Angeles bookshop wearing a glittery mesh mask that did not fully cover her nose and mouthFans of Lana Del Rey have criticised her for wearing a glittery mesh mask that did not appear to fully cover her nose and mouth at a surprise poetry reading and book signing event.The musician read from her new collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, and posed with fans at a Barnes and Noble store in Los Angeles at the weekend, wearing a net facial covering that did not seem to assist in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Continue reading...

Covid restrictions make regular physical activity even harder to achieve – but evolutionary psychology can provide help

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

Cédric O comments follow revelation PM and other ministers had not downloaded app

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...

Prof Peter Doherty says monoclonal antibodies are ‘really powerful’ and could be manufactured in large quantities in Australia

A magician asks you to explain his tricksToday’s puzzles are four optical illusions devised by the magician Matt Pritchard. He calls them ‘perspec-tricks’. Each image is a photograph that seems to show something impossible. The puzzle is to work out exactly how Matt created the illusion.The magic he used is old school: none of the photographs has been digitally modified. What you see is exactly what the camera saw. All the illusions involve mirrors in some way. Continue reading...

Man buried with spears and a sword and scabbard at site overlooking River Thames

Increasing number of scientists believe risk from contaminated surfaces may have been overplayed

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With no bright stars in the same part of the sky, the red planet will be unmistakeableMars will be closer to Earth this week than at any other time for the next 15 years. The fourth planet from the sun, it is currently sitting just north of the celestial equator. That means it is almost perfectly placed to be seen from both hemispheres, and it is shining with brilliant intensity in the evening sky. The chart shows its position on 5 October, looking east-south-east from London at 22:00 BST. Continue reading...

Dexamethasone ‘normally reserved for people going into respiratory failure’, says expert

Pandemic stress can be relieved by cultivating greenery, which makes people happier and more relaxedThe essayist Jia Tolentino wrote last year about people being in the grip of “houseplant fever”; ads for houseplants called “Ken” or “Pippa” pop up on the internet; a Zoom call isn’t complete without a plant somewhere in evidence; and social media abounds with tips and pictures. It should surprise no one that greenery offers an antidote to pandemic anxiety.Caring for a living object and creating a tranquil indoor sanctuary can be soothing activities in an uncertain and stressful time. The Royal Horticultural Society reported a 23% rise in plant sales in July compared to 2019. Rare plants are sold on eBay and traded on Facebook. Many come from overseas and might look green in a living room but leave a large ecological footprint. Before the pandemic, in the US, getting paid to style houseplants was becoming a career. We are nowhere near the levels of mania that led to tulip bulb prices soaring and then collapsing in the 17th century. Still, today’s rarity-chasers will pay £4,000 for a four-leaf variegated minima – and such high prices pose a temptation to others: a variegated monstera, a cutting of which might fetch £1,500, was stolen last month in New Zealand. Continue reading...

Experts say the policy prompts people happy to vaccinate their children but doesn’t work on those who oppose vaccination scienceAustralia’s “no jab, no pay” policy has been associated with a drop in the number of children catching up on their first dose of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, suggesting the policy has had little impact on those who reject vaccination science.However, the policy was associated with more children catching up on their second dose of the vaccine and on their diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis vaccine, especially in lower socioeconomic status areas, the study published in the Medical Journal of Australia on Monday found. Continue reading...

Can how much you love someone be judged by how comfortable you are in their kitchen?I am always falling in love in kitchens.Or rather, I suppose it’s not so much that I’m falling in love in kitchens but that I’m always realising I’m in love in kitchens; that the kind of love I love to fall into is the kind of love that’s most at home in the kitchen; a domestic kind of love; an intimate, easy, buttery kind of love. Continue reading...

Variety has only ever been found in Caribbean more than 4,000 miles across AtlanticEurope’s rarest fern has been discovered in Killarney, Ireland, leaving botanists baffled over how it remained undetected for so long.The neotropical fern, Stenogrammitis myosuroides, has only ever previously been found in the mountainous cloud forests of Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic – more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic. Continue reading...

Cardiologists are finding that problems aren’t related to age or severity of infection

Research into antibodies could explain children’s protection against disease, or why virus causes life-threatening effects

This coronavirus blog has closed. Head to our latest blog for all the developments3.01am BSTThere’s a lot of news around today, so we will shortly be consolidating our live blogs. For continuing global coverage of the pandemic as well as the latest on President Donald Trump, please head here:Related: Trump says 'I feel much better now' in video posted from hospital – live2.46am BSTAAP: after New South Wales recorded its ninth consecutive day with no community transmission cases, state premier Gladys Berejiklian said today the state’s public sector workers would be urged to return to offices over coming weeks in a move considered to be a significant step in the virus recovery.“The health and safety of the people of NSW has always been our number one priority, however we are also focused on firing up the economy,” she said.

With dozens dying each day and staff shortages, doctors and nurses banded together, treated and even carried out researchThere is only one Covid-19 patient left in Melbourne’s St Vincent’s hospital, where intensive care physician Dr Barry Dixon works. He still finds it hard not to focus on the bad days he experienced during the peak of Victoria’s second wave when upwards of 60 patients were in the facility.At one point, a person he knew well was admitted to the intensive care ward, their lungs struggling, and Dixon worried about their prognosis. They pulled through, but he says it was a traumatising time. Continue reading...

Neither remdesivir nor REGN-COV2 have completed large-scale randomised trials, say UK scientists

Scientists concerned that soaring infection rates in capital’s care homes and hospitals may be occurring in other UK regions

Oxford University professor says experimental treatment is promising and ‘very potent’

The British astronaut describes a close call on arriving at the International Space Station• ‘Coming home was a harsh transition. Gravity sucks!’: read an interview with Tim PeakeYuri Malenchenko is one of the most accomplished Russian cosmonauts in history. By December 2015 he is already the veteran of five separate missions and has logged just over 641 days in orbit, which means he has spent more time off the planet than almost anybody.He is also the calmest man I have ever met. A quietly spoken, undemonstrative 53-year-old, Yuri is one of those naturally composed people who can reassure you with the smallest gesture. All in all, I could not have hoped for a steadier commander to be strapped in beside on my first voyage into space. Continue reading...

Four years after leaving orbit, and with a second mission on the horizon, how is life on Earth for the first Briton to walk in space?• Read an exclusive extract from Limitless, Tim Peake’s autobiography

This blog has closed – coverage of the coronavirus pandemic continues here12.25am BSTThis blog has closed – our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic continues here.12.15am BST Continue reading...

President’s doctor reveals treatment with experimental antibody cocktail REGN-COV2

Donald Trump’s positive test after hectic week puts White House into crisis mode

Infections among year 7 to 11 pupils show steady increase since end of August

Almost all planned work against the disease has gone ahead this year, delivering nets, drugs and the world’s first malaria vaccineMore than 90% of anti-malaria campaigns planned this year across four continents are on track, despite disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research.The delivery of insecticide-treated nets and provision of antimalarial medicines in the majority of malaria-affected countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas were still going ahead, a high-level meeting organised by the RBM Partnership to End Malaria heard on Thursday. Continue reading...

Exclusive: concerns raised that switch to prioritising NHS could delay identification of outbreaks

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 president has been cavalier throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Now, a month before the election, this changes everything

To survive the challenges we must reinforce respect for science and nature, sensible public policy and the interconnected world

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The new $23m loo better accommodates women with a tilted seat, new shape and redesigned funnels for urinationNasa’s first new space potty in decades – a $23m titanium toilet better suited for women – is getting a not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon.It’s packed inside a cargo ship set to blast off late Thursday from Wallops Island, Virginia. Continue reading...

Covid pandemic sets back exploration that aims to shed light on origin of life on Earth

Researches find that athletes with larger gluteus maximus are more likely to be faster sprintersA large gluteus maximus - the muscle that forms the bottom - is key to athletes achieving top speeds on the track, according to a study.After examining the anatomy of elite athletes, researchers discovered that a large bottom is key for sprint performance. Continue reading...