Lawyers say failure to provide adequate PPE may amount to corporate manslaughter

Latest deaths also include leading cancer specialist and a ‘legendary’ market trader

‘Challenge’ studies would deliberately give coronavirus to healthy volunteers

Psychologist whose 50-year study transformed attitudes to people with Down’s syndromeIn 1964, Janet Carr, a clinical psychologist, was asked to work on a follow-up study of 54 six-week-old babies with Down’s syndrome at the Maudsley hospital in London. Initially Carr, who has died aged 92, was going to track the children only until they were four, but it became one of the longest follow-up studies in the world.In 2014, a party was held at the House of Lords to celebrate the study running for 50 years. Chris Oliver, the director of the Cerebra centre for neurodevelopmental disorders at Birmingham University, commented: “The longest follow-up studies we have are usually five to seven years. So that 50-year follow-up is absolutely remarkable.” Continue reading...

Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

Some were passed for use in health service but 170,000 await tests in Turkey

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has detailed a gradual opening up of society with the timing the stages to be determined by the states

Head of oversight and reform committee suggests move to seek overseas funding was potentially a violation of the US constitution

Madrid health official resigns over plans to ease lockdown and Russia overtakes Germany and France after record rise in cases. This blog is now closed.

Government misses 100k testing target for fifth day in a row as death toll reaches 30,615

Study based on small number of patients opens up chance of sexual transmission

Researchers say cannibalistic tendency may help explain why the invasive creatures thriveWhen the going gets tough, most parents try to protect their offspring. But the warty comb jelly takes a different tack: it eats them.Despite initial appearances, comb jellies are not jellyfish but belong to a different group of animals, ctenophora, which swim using tiny hair-like projections called cilia. Continue reading...

Official figures show that wide disparity not just due to health and economic differences

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported in each of England’s local authorities

Handing out contracts out to firms like Serco and G4S is now second nature to those in power. We need to rebuild state capacity

Care providers say government did not discuss key Exercise Cygnus concerns with them

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to be our focus on Science Weekly, we also want to try look at other science stories. In this episode, Nicola Davis speaks to Dave Krause about the 66-million-year-old fossil of a cat-sized mammal dubbed ‘crazy beast’. A giant in its day, we hear how this now extinct branch of mammals – known as Gondwanatherians – offers new insights into what could have been Continue reading...

Some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now I hear every day about deaths from Covid-19

US president says ‘we have to be warriors’; while pandemic threatens future of eurozone; and Spain extends state of emergency again

Colleagues raise concerns after Prof Neil Ferguson stepped down from advisory role

Smartphones can be used to digitally trace Covid-19. But not if the public don’t download an app over privacy fears – or find it won’t work on their deviceThe idea of the NHS tracing app is to enable smartphones to track users and tell them whether they interacted with someone who had Covid-19. Yet this will work only if large proportions of the population download the app. No matter how smart a solution may appear, mass consent is required. That will not be easy. Ministers and officials have failed to address the trade-offs between health and privacy by being ambiguous about the app’s safeguards.Instead of offering cast-iron guarantees about the length of time for which data would be held; who can access it; and the level of anonymity afforded, we have had opacity and obfuscation. It is true that we are dealing with uncertainties. But without absolute clarity about privacy the public is unlikely to take up the app with the appropriate gusto. Continue reading...

Britain’s coronavirus death rate is the worst in Europe, yet the front pages of our rightwing media focus on a scientist’s sex life

Tests have been hailed as key to helping end the UK lockdown. But what can they tell us?

Airport’s boss says global standard for screening is crucial to restoring confidence

Studies have examined some of the more unusual signs of Covid-19

The media vilification of the government adviser is about far more than social distancing

Object found in HR 6819 system is the closest to Earth yet known – and is unusually darkAstronomers say they have discovered a black hole on our doorstep, just 1,000 light years from Earth.It was found in a system called HR 6819, in the constellation Telescopium. Continue reading...

Met says scientist will face no further action after UK health secretary says lockdown breach leaves him speechless

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported near you

With attention focused on coronavirus, undiagnosed and untreated TB cases will cause 1.4 million to die, research suggests

Elon Musk reportedly involved in the production, which if confirmed would be first feature film ever made in spaceTom Cruise is in talks with Nasa about working on a movie shot in outer space, according to the head of the space agency.“Nasa is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station!,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...

As hay fever season approaches, Nicola Davis asks Prof Stephen Durham about the differences between the immune response to an allergen, such as pollen, and a pathogen, like Sars-CoV-2. Should those with allergies should be concerned about Covid-19? Continue reading...

Australian photographers Jacob Vlatko from New South Wales and Christian Bowman from Queensland were both waking up before the sun rose to capture images of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower

Space agency tests design that is billed to replace current Shenzhou module, a copy of Russia’s SoyuzChina has successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft, according to state media, in a major test of its ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon.A Long March 5B rocket took off from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan and eight minutes later an unmanned prototype spacecraft successfully separated and entered its planned orbit, Xinhua reported. A test version of a cargo return capsule also successfully separated from the rocket, Xinhua said. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

Asian otters’ playfulness with rocks a mystery but Exeter study links juggling to hungerWhether tossing pebbles between their paws or rolling stones on their chest and even into their mouth, otters are experts at rock juggling. Now researchers say the behaviour largely appears to be linked to a rumbling tummy.Many species of otters are known to toss pebbles around, often while lying on their backs, in what appears to be an example of animals playing with inanimate objects. Mari-Lisa Allison, of the University of Exeter, said: “[I have seen] an otter at the fence putting a pebble through the mesh and then catching it underneath and rolling it round, round the fence”. Continue reading...

Rick Bright says he was reassigned to lesser role because he resisted pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine

More than 100 cases of unusual illness have emerged in at least six countries as 15 New York patients aged two to 15 hospitalized

If an ice age took hold, the Himalayas might have even taller mountains, a study findsWould Alaska’s Mount Denali – the highest peak in the US – be as tall if it was situated on the equator instead? Might the Himalayas be even taller if an ice age took hold? Every mountain range is sculpted by rain and wind, but some mountain belts are also sliced by glaciers, producing the classic horn-shaped peaks, knife-edge ridges and amphitheatre-like valleys, known as “cirques”. A new study shows that by lightening the load, glacial erosion helps to create higher mountains than might otherwise be expected.Jörg Robl, from the University of Salzburg in Austria, and colleagues analysed 16,000 of the world’s highest mountains, comparing their overall height, their steepness and the thickness of the underlying crust supporting them. They found that some of the steepest mountains are found at the highest latitudes, where glacial sculpting predominates. And because glaciers create such “skinny” mountains, they show that the underlying crust (like icebergs, mountains have extensive crustal roots) does not need to be as thick as it would for a non-glacial peak. Continue reading...

Key expert in coronavirus response resigns from Sage after admitting ‘error of judgment’

UK government science adviser says toll in care settings on rise despite falls in hospital figures

Continue reading...

Testing falls below 100,000-a-day target for third day in a row as UK deaths rise by 693 and trial begins for new contact-tracing app

Plan involves beefing up protection for vulnerable people while easing controls on others

Although the science is not yet settled, researchers say government should be acting on ventilation and other measures now

Figures prompt renewed calls to ensure health and social workers have PPE neededThe number of key workers and members of their families who are testing positive for Covid-19 has overtaken the number of sick people testing positive in hospitals.Figures showing that 2,067 key workers had tested positive at a new daily count prompted calls for a greater focus on how and why health and social workers were contracting coronavirus and for assurances that they were continuing to get the personal protective equipment (PPE) needed. Continue reading...

Tracing the path of the virus is vital, but so is people’s continued willingness to cooperate and isolate if necessaryYour country needs you. Or to be specific, it needs your phone.The new NHS coronavirus tracing app is to be trialled from this week on the Isle of Wight and ministers are pushing it with all the fervent appeal to moral duty they can muster. Since it’s being sold as the nearest thing to a safe way out of this nightmare, unsurprisingly early surveys suggest most islanders are willing at least to try something that promises to alert them when they’ve been in contact with other app users who later show symptoms of Covid-19. Throughout this epidemic the British have proved more willing than anyone imagined to do whatever’s asked of them, to protect the NHS or their own loved ones. But can it really be that simple? Continue reading...

Critical care patients, some on ventilators, sent outdoors for sunshine and fresh air in pioneering Devon project

Scientists welcome ‘initial step’ towards developing antibody to treat or prevent coronavirus