Science | The Guardian

Experts who assess global peril saw a pandemic coming, but they have worse worries for humanity

Prime minister returns to work on Monday to cabinet at odds over easing social distancing

A massive increase in testing and tracing should be the next phase, but decades of cuts and reorganisations have whittled away the necessary regional expertise

Big drugs companies have long favoured outsourcing clinical trials to poor countries with lax regulations to cut costs and maximise profit

Even western countries are starting to accept that shielding our faces could save lives … whether you live in New York or Berlin

Social interaction is vital for young minds, and social media might be the only way of achieving this during lockdownShould we start to use “physical distancing” instead of “social distancing”? Those keen on the change argue that, despite being physically apart, we can still be socially together. So we can connect and support each other even when avoiding unnecessary face-to-face contact.Related: Lockdown is giving my kids a crash course in screen and tween culture | Emma Brockes Continue reading...

Cross-party demand for transparency after chief adviser is revealed as attending meetings of SageBoris Johnson is facing cross-party calls to stop his chief adviser from attending meetings of the secret scientific group advising him on the coronavirus pandemic, as demands grow for the committee’s deliberations to be made public.The former Brexit secretary, David Davis, is among those calling for Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner, an adviser who ran the Tories’ private election computer model, to be prevented from attending future meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). Continue reading...

Objections raised to inclusion of man suspended from Labour over Islamophobia allegations

No evidence former Covid-19 patients protected from a second infection, says body

Party raises concerns independence of group advising ministers on coronavirus has been compromised

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

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

The Guardian’s Beijing bureau chief reflects on four months of risk and emotion at the heart of the Covid-19 epidemicOn 6 January, I wrote a short memo to our newsdesk: “Something we probably want to keep an eye on are these severe viral pneumonia cases that have been racking up (now 44) in Wuhan – China has said that it is not Sars.”Since then, I have been reporting on coronavirus from Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and most recently Wuhan. I could not have known then how my life would soon be consumed by this story. I have spent the four months since constantly weighing the risks to my family, my colleagues and the people we interviewed against my responsibility as a journalist. Continue reading...

In a secular age, we cast doctors and nurses in the role of miracle-workers – it’s an impossible expectation to live up to

Trust is essential in the pandemic and scientists here can set the priorities that make the most sense for our people

Leading US biologist Thomas Lovejoy says to stop future outbreaks we need more respect for natural world

Scott expedition notebooks acquired by Natural History Museum hold ‘crucial data’Detailed century-old observations of penguin behaviour, including sexual activity so depraved and shocking it was recorded in Greek alphabet code, have been acquired by the Natural History Museum.Curators at the museum announced the purchase of original manuscript notebooks made by the explorer George Murray Levick, part of Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic in 1910-13. Continue reading...

Concerns grow as the journal Nature raises alarm on serious heart risks associated with Covid-19 patients taking the drugs

The drug – now a partisan wedge issue – has fueled hype and hope, but evidence of its effectiveness remains limited

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Emergency response body could have moved quicker at beginning of pandemic

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) is advising cabinet on coronavirus response

Europe is in the pandemic frontline but unity among the nations has been rare. That may be changing – not before timeAlmost seven weeks after the World Health Organization confirmed the pandemic, Europe remains in the frontline of the battle to contain the Covid-19 virus. Five of the six countries reporting most cases are in Europe. Seven of the 10 countries reporting most deaths are in our continent too. Yet Europe has struggled to make common cause against the virus. In particular, it has bickered over how to support the most affected European economies against the consequences of the lockdown. In spite of innumerable acts of cross-border solidarity on the medical front, the rich nations of Europe have proved reluctant backers of the continent’s embattled poorer economies.The good news, relatively speaking, is that this divide has not got worse and may, just possibly, have eased a little. This week, leaders of the 27 EU nations finally signed off on a €540bn rescue package. This gives countries such as Italy and Spain, which stand second and third to the United States in Covid-19 cases and deaths, the right to borrow from the eurozone’s bailout mechanism. The problem is that the EU’s southern member states are reluctant to borrow their way out of the problem, in part because they fear that to take on more debt would deepen the inequality between the EU’s south and north. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Leaked list reveals presence of Johnson adviser and Vote Leave ally on supposedly independent body

Video meeting seen as global endorsement of WHO and sign of Trump’s isolation on world stage

Engineering firm has been told by the government that their services are no longer required

Coronavirus has robbed us of life’s markers and left us like prisoners crossing off the days until we can live freely again

Unintentional injuries are the top cause of death for kids in the US and today’s forced confinement raises the riskAs an emergency department doctor in a busy children’s hospital, I am relieved not many children are becoming seriously ill or dying from the coronavirus. However, as an injury prevention expert, I am worried about a hidden danger for America’s children. I am worried about this hidden danger for my now home-bound child.With millions of American children out of schools and daycares, this pandemic is likely to still harm children in a significant way: through injuries instead of infection. The number one killer of children in the United States is not infections like the flu. Year in and year out, it is quietly unintentional injuries, which are more likely to occur in the home, and more likely to arise when routines are interrupted and environments changed. While public health experts have rightfully recommended the closing of schools and daycares to stop the spread of the coronavirus, we must also bring public awareness to the principal danger in millions of children spending their days in homes – a potential rise in unintentional injuries. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Scientists examine whether this route enables infections at longer distances

The pressing need to find a solution to the pandemic means risks and shortcuts may have to be taken

The government’s objections to this seemingly effective measure appear more political and economic than scientific

Medical researchers have been studying everything we know about Covid-19. What have they learned – and is it enough to halt the pandemic?

Doctors warn US president’s musings on disinfectant as a cure for coronavirus could lead to death

Some people are angry at bats which is ridiculous. There are a lot more things to be angry at

24 April 1984: Researchers could be within two years of developing a cure for the ailmentWashington: The US Government announced yesterday that state-sponsored researchers have discovered the probable cause of the disease, Aids, which has caused panic among homosexuals in recent years.The researchers could be within two years of developing a cure for the ailment, the Health and Human Services Secretary, Margaret Heckler, said here. Continue reading...

Unemployment in US up by 4.4 million to a total of over 26 million; world has ‘a long way to go’, warns WHO chief; Iran reports lowest new daily infections for a month. This live blog is now closed –follow our new live blog below

Wildlife Trusts warn of effects from neglected reserves and species loss, to fly-tipping and illegal shooting

WHO draft put online states remdesivir does not benefit severe coronavirus patientsCoronavirus latest: at a glanceRemdesivir, a drug thought to be one of the best prospects for treating Covid-19, failed to have any effect in the first full trial, it has been revealed.The drug is in short supply globally because of the excitement it has generated. It is one of the drugs Donald Trump claimed was “promising”. Continue reading...

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Ministers accused of abdicating political duty to narrow field of opaque expertise on Covid-19

People are dying. It is time to give up on the fantasies of British exceptionalismIf there is a simple way of showing how out of step this government is with the rest of the world on coronavirus, it can be found in the gap last week between the five criteria that Dominic Raab said the country must fulfil before the lockdown was lifted and the six tests the World Health Organization set. Missing from Mr Raab’s list was that health system capacities ought to be “in place to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”.What divides these two approaches is the “science”, which is why claims of following it ring so empty. On one side we have those who believe that testing, tracing and the isolating of infected individuals is needed to defeat coronavirus. In this camp are public health experts such as Anthony Costello of University College London and Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary. Continue reading...

Scientists say insects are vital and the losses worrying, with accelerating declines in Europe called ‘shocking’The biggest assessment of global insect abundances to date shows a worrying drop of almost 25% in the last 30 years, with accelerating declines in Europe that shocked scientists.The analysis combined 166 long-term surveys from almost 1,700 sites and found that some species were bucking the overall downward trend. In particular, freshwater insects have been increasing by 11% each decade following action to clean up polluted rivers and lakes. However, this group represent only about 10% of insect species and do not pollinate crops. Continue reading...

Unmet coronavirus test promises have put the health secretary in the firing line. But scientists may be made the real scapegoats

Results from the study will be vital for planning an exit strategy from the Covid-19 pandemic

The tech giant’s pledge to go carbon negative by 2030 leans heavily on nascent technology such as machines that suck carbon out of the airMicrosoft drew widespread praise in January this year after Brad Smith, the company’s president, announced their climate “moonshot”.While other corporate giants, such as Amazon and Walmart, were pledging to go carbon neutral, Microsoft vowed to go carbon negative by 2030, meaning they would be removing more carbon from the atmosphere than they produced. Continue reading...

Since the coronavirus lockdown started, many have been having vivid dreams – but is there any point in analysing them?

How to search the sky and what to see, from moon and stars to planets and the International Space Station. Go on a journey of billions of miles … from your gardenTo begin looking for objects in the heavens, you’ll need to know where north, south, east and west are. Make a note of where the sun rises (east) and sets (west), use Google maps or use the compass on your phone. Now, download a free astronomy app to your phone AND computer. My favourite, for ease of use and features, is Stellarium .Once the app is installed, set your location. This ensures that, when opened, the app indicates what is in the sky above you – wherever you live in the world. Stellarium automatically sets the time and date but also has a function that speeds up time, so you can fast forward to night-time and explore the sky from your sofa. It’s even possible to set it to show the sky on the night you were born. Continue reading...

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The bird’s song is sharp and yellow as celandines, soft and blue as violets“The sun never sets on the empire of the dandelion,” said Alfred Crosby, the historian of science and technology, talking about the biological expansion of Europe and the “portmanteau” of plants and animals carried by colonists to establish in new worlds.The vibrant solar voice of the dandelion speaks for the global flow of species but some remain particular and personal. There is a voice inside my head and it’s not mine. The voice belongs to a song thrush. He began singing at the waxing moon, a couple of days before it was full, and sang until it began to wane. He would start at dawn from the topmost branch of one tree, then move to the topmost branch of another in the afternoon until the moon rose. Each day he did the same and his song followed the same patterns but never exactly: each phrase repeated three or four times, some sharp and yellow as celandines, some soft and blue as violets. Continue reading...

Hannah Devlin speaks to Dr Miraz Rahman about how to find drugs to treat a new disease like Covid-19, and discusses repurposing old drugs such as the anti-malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine Continue reading...

Cats are believed to have contracted virus from local humans, adding to small number of confirmed cases in animals worldwide