Researchers say development could lead to a coronavirus treatment that can be mass produced

Random sample of 20,000 residents finds 23.48% have antibodies, equating to more than 6.5m people

The longer you spend in an aerosol-rich environment such as a poorly ventilated office with someone who is infected, the greater the risk, say Dr Helen Davison, Dr Finola O’Neill, and Dr Jonathan FluxmanThe health secretary is plain wrong when he says face masks do not work in offices because “you’re there for a long time” with other people (Senior doctors warn second coronavirus wave could ‘devastate’ NHS, 19 July). The risk of transmission of Covid-19 is directly related to viral load and exposure time, so the longer you spend in an aerosol-rich environment such as a poorly ventilated office with someone who is infected, the greater the risk.If masks don’t work because people share the same space for a long time, why is it mandatory for hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers to wear them all day at work? Yes, masks can be uncomfortable, they may become damp and need changing, but they are an indispensable tool alongside hand-washing and distancing in indoor environments, which is where most Covid-19 outbreaks occur. Continue reading...

Artefacts from central Mexico cave are strong evidence humans lived on continent 15,000 years earlier than previously thoughtTools excavated from a cave in central Mexico are strong evidence that humans were living in North America at least 30,000 years ago, some 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, scientists said on Wednesday.The artefacts, including 1,900 stone tools, showed human occupation of the high-altitude Chiquihuite cave over a 20,000-year period, they reported in two studies published in the journal Nature. Continue reading...

We The Curious whittles down thousands of questions posed by residents to seven key themesSome of the questions were not unexpected: how does gravity work, do aliens exist, what happens if bees become extinct?But when Bristol’s science and culture centre asked citizens young and old what questions they really wanted answered, it was amazed and delighted at the size and breadth of the response. Continue reading...

‘Celestial sleuth’ says light and shade show when 17th-century cityscape was paintedHe is known as the “Sphinx of Delft” as so little is known about him. But courtesy of research by Donald Olson, a professor of astronomy from the University of Texas, a little of the mystery surrounding the life and works of the Dutch master Johannes Vermeer may now have been cleared up.Vermeer’s View of Delft, judged by the French writer Marcel Proust to be “the most beautiful painting in the world”, is said to be the most famous cityscape of the 17th century. But debate has raged over when it was painted, given the lack of knowledge about the artist’s life and times. Continue reading...

Uncertainty over climate outcomes reduced but experts warn urgent reduction in CO2 levels is essentialDoomsayers and hopemongers alike may need to revise their climate predictions after a study that almost rules out the most optimistic forecasts for global heating while downplaying the likelihood of worst-case scenarios.The international team of scientists involved in the research say they have narrowed the range of probable climate outcomes, which reduces the uncertainty that has long plagued public debate about this field. Continue reading...

What do we know about the way coronavirus is evolving?

More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccineResearchers 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...

Yes, they are selfish. Yes, they are putting lives in danger. But do they deserve to be vilified? NoCostco Karen; Walmart Karen; Starbucks Karen; Target Karen. Name a US retail establishment and there’s probably a viral video of a “Karen” (internet slang for an angry white woman) fuming about face masks in it or getting chased out of the store for refusing to wear one. “Mask meltdown” videos have become a feature of the pandemic, part of a larger trend of mask-shaming. Sneering at people who refuse to wear face coverings has become a particularly viral form of virtue signalling.Britain is a few months behind parts of the US in terms of masks. In New York, where I live, they’ve been compulsory in most public places since April. But with face coverings becoming mandatory for English shoppers this week (and already compulsory in Scotland) I’m sure it won’t be long before mask-shaming is as rampant in the UK as it is over here. Continue reading...

Three new Covid-19 clusters have emerged in Brooklyn, Tottenham and Colac in Victoria

Surge in cases forces the government to create an exclusion zone around the capital and pay out for cancellations

There’s no definition of what stage four might mean, what the new rules would be or when it could come into effect in Melbourne, but Victorian premier Daniel Andrews hasn’t ruled it out

Researchers say potent climate-heating gas almost certainly escaping into atmosphereThe first active leak of methane from the sea floor in Antarctica has been revealed by scientists.The researchers also found microbes that normally consume the potent greenhouse gas before it reaches the atmosphere had only arrived in small numbers after five years, allowing the gas to escape. Continue reading...

US secretary of state said the World Health Organization was responsible for Britons who had died from Covid-19

Senior scientists say it is ‘critical’ Britain improves capacity to spot and contain outbreaks before winter

Head of the government’s vaccines taskforce reveals strategy aimed at ‘exploring the landscape’ and hedging bets

MPs hear ministers were told in April that systematic testing was essential to keep staff safe

Team based in China develop test that identifies cancers up to four years before signs appearA blood test can pick up cancers up to four years before symptoms appear, researchers say, in the latest study to raise hopes of early detection.A team led by researchers in China say the non-invasive blood test – called PanSeer – detects cancer in 95% of individuals who have no symptoms but later receive a diagnosis. Continue reading...

More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccineResearchers 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...

It’s too early to say if the promising therapy can deliver. But it’s a vindication of the UK’s brilliant clinical trial infrastructure

Lifesaving new treatments are at risk due to Covid-19 income slump – unless the government steps in, warns the CRUK chief executiveThe great British tradition of donning trainers to run for charity has been one of the many casualties of the pandemic, with calamitous consequences for the voluntary sector. At Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which funds 50% of all publicly funded cancer research, the cancellation of lucrative fundraising events such as its popular Race for Life series, alongside the temporary closure of its 600 shops, has made the fight to beat cancer that much harder, according to its chief executive, Michelle Mitchell.“It is a blow to our ambition,” says Mitchell, referring to the charity’s aim to ensure that by 2034 three in four people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Continue reading...

US president to restart daily briefings; Melbourne records 374 cases; WHO warns South Africa’s crisis could be precursor for more outbreaks in Africa

It may be a respiratory virus, but studies have repeatedly found traces of Covid-19 in the faeces of infected patients. Using this to their advantage, scientists are sampling untreated sewage from wastewater plants in an effort to track the virus.Hannah Devlin speaks to Andrew Singer about how what we flush down the toilet can help detect emerging outbreaks – days before patients begin presenting with symptoms Continue reading...

Reefs from Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea survived rise of seven degrees, say marine scientistsThe scientists cranked the heat above the lethal threshold, and waited for the corals to die.“We were heating the water one degree above the summer maximum temperature,” says Anders Meibom, a researcher with the Institute of Earth Sciences at the University of Lausanne. “On the Great Barrier Reef, after a couple of weeks of that they’d start dying.” Continue reading...

Belgium sees 66% jump in new infections; South Africa Covid-19 deaths pass 5,000; France reports up to 500 virus clusters. This blog is now closed. You can follow our new blog below

Researchers identify 37 ring-like structures known as coronae that are believed to be living volcanoesScientists have identified 37 volcanic structures on Venus that appear to have been recently active – and probably still are today – painting the picture of a geologically dynamic planet and not a dormant world as long thought.The research focused on ring-like structures called coronae, caused by an upwelling of hot rock from deep within the planet’s interior, and provided compelling evidence of widespread recent tectonic and magma activity on Venus’s surface, researchers have said. Continue reading...

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has welcomed the 'promising news' on Oxford University's coronavirus vaccine.Researchers working on the experimental vaccine said it was safe and generated a strong immune response in the people who volunteered to help trial it, raising hopes it could contribute to ending the pandemic.'Very encouraging news. We have already ordered 100m doses of this vaccine, should it succeed,' Hancock said

The foreign secretary tried to take a tough line but found it wasn’t enough to satisfy any MPsSometimes you just can’t win. Just a week after announcing he was barring Huawei from the UK’s 5G network by 2027 – the Chinese had apparently promised they wouldn’t do any spying in the next seven years – Dominic Raab was back in the Commons to make yet another ministerial statement. This time to indefinitely suspend the extradition treaty with Hong Kong and to impose an arms embargo on the territory.Try to think of it as “tough love”, the foreign secretary insisted. If we didn’t adore the Chinese so much and admire their progress this century then we wouldn’t be making such a fuss. But now we had such high expectations of them, it was only right that we submit China to the same level of scrutiny as we would any other country. Apart from the ones with appalling records of human rights abuses from which we made a small fortune flogging arms. Those could all be safely overlooked. Continue reading...

Early results also indicate vaccine is safe, raising hopes it could help end pandemic

Preliminary results raise hopes experimental coronavirus vaccine could help end pandemic

The combination of anti-vaxxers on the march and a government with woeful health messaging could be lethal for Britain

More than 140 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccineResearchers 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...

Researchers say SNG001 can reduce need for ventilation and improve survival chances

4,000 music fans to attend gig as part of study into how virus spreads in large gatherings

Ruth May tells MPs she was told she was no longer needed after failing to back Johnson adviser

Mixed messages from government don’t help, but face masks must become a social norm to have an impact on coronavirus

The narrative is that Covid-19 patients are either hospitalized near death, or ride out a ‘mild’ Covid flu at home. The reality is more complex

Government says agreements ensure Britain has best chance of protecting those at risk

Twenty-two new cases reported day after ‘wartime’ measures introduced in Urumqi

Sprinkling rock dust on fields can suck up some carbon − but reducing emissions must be the mainstay of our effortsWhat should we do? The world is rapidly approaching 1.5C of warming above pre-industrial levels − the target limit of the Paris agreement − and is on track for 3C unless we take action. So what is the best action to take?In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted that to have a good chance of limiting heating to 1.5C, we should reach net-zero CO emissions by around 2050, give or take five years. In fact, for any stable climate we’ll need to reach net-zero emissions at some point in our future. Continue reading...

Planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson describes how the latest mission to Mars builds on centuries of discoveries about the red planet, our nearest neighbourNasa plans to launch its latest mission to Mars this month, which aims to place the Perseverance rover on the surface of the planet in February 2021.It is the latest attempt to explore a planet that has loomed large in the popular imagination for centuries. As the planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells Rachel Humphreys, there is a long history of hopes, theories and fictional representations of life on Mars. But so far none has been discovered. Continue reading...

A rocket carrying the unmanned probe, known as Al-Amal in Arabic, joins China and US in race to red planetThe first Arab space mission to Mars has blasted off aboard a rocket from Japan, with its unmanned probe – called Al-Amal, or Hope – successfully separating about an hour after liftoff.A live feed of the launch showed the rocket carrying the probe lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan at 6.58am (9.58pm GMT). Continue reading...

South Africa fatalities pass 5,000; Sport stars attack NFL over lack of Covid plan; France to issue fines for breaches of mask rules. This blog is now closed

Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund aims to reverse impact of Covid-19 on study into biggest killersAt least 50 cross-party MPs are calling on the government to back a UK medical research fund they say will reverse the devastating impact of Covid-19 on research into the UK’s biggest killers, including dementia, coronary heart disease and cancer.The Life Sciences-Charity Partnership Fund, developed by the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), has the support of politicians including Labour’s Hilary Benn, Ed Davey from the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives’ Sir Roger Gale. They are asking the government for £310m, which would be matched by funding from charities for at least three years. Continue reading...

Researchers claim system could save lives in situations like the Whakaari/White Island eruption in 2019, which killed 21 peopleNew Zealand scientists say they have invented a warning system to predict volcanic eruptions that may prevent future tragedies such as the blast that killed 21 people on White Island/Whakaari in 2019.University of Auckland academics David Dempsey and Shane Cronin say their research “shows patterns of seismic activity before an eruption that make advance warning possible”. Continue reading...

Neowise, one of the brightest comets since Hale-Bopp, can be seen with the naked eye, but you’ll need binoculars to see the tailThere’s only one thing to see this week: comet C/2020 F3 Neowise. Discovered on 27 March on images taken by the Nasa NEOWISE space telescope, by the beginning of this month the comet had grown in brightness to become visible to the naked eye. It passed its closest approach to the sun on 3 July and this week, on 23 July, it will make its closest approach to Earth.To see the comet from the UK, look north in the early hours of the morning. Find the Plough, which is conveniently located between the bright yellow star of Capella to the east, and the orange star of Arcturus to the west. The comet will appear as a misty spot, close to the horizon. Its tail will be pointing straight up, although you are unlikely to see this with the naked eye. The best you can hope for is a slight elongation of the central patch of light. However, if you take binoculars with you, this will increase the amount of detail you can see. Unfortunately, the comet is too far north to be visible from the southern hemisphere. It is one of the brightest comets since comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Curators seek answers about puzzling photos, devices and other objects

Curators of the Science Museum Group collection are keen for the public to help better understand the purpose of the items they care for on behalf of the nation