Science | The Guardian

We now know people and megafauna overlapped by up to 20,000 years, until changes to vegetation, water and fireWhen people first arrived in what is now Queensland, they would have found the land inhabited by massive animals including goannas six metres long and kangaroos twice as tall as a human.We have studied fossil bones of these animals for the past decade. Our findings, published in Nature Communications, shed new light on the mystery of what drove these ancient megafauna to extinction. Continue reading...

Southern European countries ease lockdowns; South Africa reports highest daily increase; global infections pass 4.7 million. This blog is now closed

Eight initial volunteers in US produced an antibody response from Moderna’s RNA vaccine

Health secretary Matt Hancock says anyone with symptoms – now including anosmia – over the age of five can be tested for Covid-19

Public health experts not convinced of plastic shields’ benefits for general users

Staff turned backs on prime minister in protest during weekend hospital visit

The public deserves to know what happened in the secretive scientific debates that have informed government policy

The solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you three sudokus: an anti-knight sudoku, a non-consecutive sudoku and the Miracle sudoku. To read more about these puzzles click here, and to go to a printable page click here. The solutions are below:Anti-knight: Continue reading...

UK direction for those with anosmia to isolate and seek test was overdue, say scientists

Residents also testing positive more than 30 days after showing first symptoms

Art lovers may have to give 1910 version space due to damaging effect of humidity on impure paintIt is a masterpiece that seems to speak to the later horrors of war in the 20th century and even the anguishes of the 21st. Now Edvard Munch’s The Scream has another claim on modernity, after it emerged that an oversight by the artist means the 1910 version of the work needs to practise some physical distancing.An international consortium of scientists seeking to identify the main cause of deterioration of the paint in the canvas has discovered Munch accidentally used an impure tube of cadmium yellow which can fade and flake even in relatively low humidity, including when breathed upon by crowds of art lovers. Continue reading...

The dismissal of coronavirus expertise, the pitting of ‘elites’ against ‘the people’ – it’s Brexit all over again for the high-profile contrariansWithin days of Boris Johnson announcing lockdown restrictions in late March, Toby Young – self-appointed general secretary of the Free Speech Union – had his own take on the government’s tripartite slogan. “Stay sceptical. End the lockdown. Save lives.”Scepticism has a long and venerable history. From Descartes’s musings on metaphysics to Carl Sagan’s “fine art of baloney detection”, sceptics are unafraid to ask unpopular questions. Even if it means being branded a heretic. Continue reading...

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

Many of the people I support in Kinshasa have no money, no soap, no water – and when they are struggling to breathe, no ventilators

Millions tune in to watch British puzzlers solve the Miracle and other spectacular gridsIt may not be as hair-raising as Formula 1, nor as dramatic as Premier League football, but Sudoku solving is acquiring a niche following as a spectator sport.It’s surprisingly thrilling, believe me. Just ask fans of the puzzle-solving YouTube channel Cracking the Cryptic, which has seen its viewing figures shoot up over the last two months. Its top Sudoku video has had more than 3 million views. Continue reading...

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

CCTV footage shows man strolling through exhibits at closed Australian Museum and posing for selfies with head inside mouth of T-Rex skullA Sydney man will face court on Monday after allegedly breaking into Australia’s oldest museum and snapping selfies with the dinosaur exhibit.The man broke into the heritage-listed Australian Museum in Sydney’s CBD just after 1am on Sunday 10 May, and was captured on CCTV cameras wandering around the exhibits for around 40 minutes, according to New South Wales police. Continue reading...

Centre will allow manufacture to begin this summer before it is known whether vaccine works

UK researchers believe blood markers may help them identify those most at risk

Dr Michael Browning is concerned by the limitations of the Roche antibody test, while Dennis Sherwood is worried about the reliability of self-administered swabsPublic Health England’s report on its validation of the Roche Covid-19 antibody test (which the government is promoting for widespread use) reveals a number of limitations that were not mentioned in the public briefings (Public Health England approves Roche test for coronavirus antibodies, 13 May). The test showed inadequate levels of sensitivity for detecting antibodies to Covid-19 until 40 days after the onset of symptoms, so will only be useful from six weeks after the start of infection, and cannot be used for the diagnosis of acute infections; the validation process did not include controls from patients with other coronavirus infections (eg Sars/Mers) to exclude potential cross-reactions with these; it did not address how long antibodies persist following infection; and does not inform whether an individual is protected against reinfection, and therefore does not indicate whether they are safe to return to work, nor whether they are suitable for an “immunity passport”.While the availability of antibody testing undoubtedly represents an important step in the fight against Covid-19, limitations such as these mean that these tests are not as clinically useful as the public has been led to believe.

Hospital in Wolverhampton believed to be first in NHS to resort to in-house production

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

Exclusive: academics’ data on excess deaths shows peak in England was higher than Italy’s

Discovery of a single vertebra of an elaphrosaur in Victoria hugely expands known range of the group, which had teeth as juveniles but beaks as adultsA dinosaur relative of T. rex and Velociraptor with an unusually long neck, and which may have transitioned from predator to plant-eater as it reached adulthood, has been unearthed in Victoria.The elaphrosaur was a member of the theropod family of dinosaurs that included all of the predatory species. It stood about the height of a small emu, measuring 2m from its head to the end of a long tail, and had short arms, each ending in four fingers. Continue reading...

As grey roots appear, imagine the plight of a wary partner asked to stand in for the experts… A cautionary taleRecently, my wife has started walking towards me and bowing her head, as if in penitence. In fact, she’s showing me the roots of her hair. “Howdsit look?” she asks.Yesterday, she sent me an email from her “office” in the kitchen to mine in the converted loft upstairs. This contained a web link, with no explanation. I clicked the link. It took me to a very long article in American Vogue, “How Hair Salons Will be Transformed by the Global Pandemic”, about what hair salons might be like in the future: face masks, nobody getting too close, that kind of thing. It could have been summarised in a paragraph, but this being Vogue it went on and on and on. I’m sure it was brilliant. Just not for me, and I didn’t finish it. Continue reading...

Where did the virus come from? And can hydroxychloroquine treat it? Some answers to fight the misinformation out there

Some studies show pupils are less likely to become ill if infected, while others show they are as infectious as adults

In Amsterdam, 102 members of one choir fell ill, and cases have been reported in Europe, America and the UK. But scientists cannot agree on the cause

Charity raises concerns over ‘hidden victims’ in a socioeconomic group known to be reluctant to seek help

Children’s Covid symptoms are usually mild, but a lack of education can be severe

Researchers hope llama antibodies could help protect humans who have not been infected

Russia records highest daily fatalities; German football gets back under way; French child dies of Kawasaki disease. Follow the latest updates

Facility to open next summer, with earlier deployment possible to make coronavirus vaccine

‘Following the science’ is a disingenuous policy because mathematical reckoning and human judgments are very different things

Businessman Simon Dolan says ministers must disclose science behind lockdown

Nine-year-old from Marseille had been ‘in contact with’ virus before dying in hospital

Unveiling the flag for his new space force, Donald Trump said the US was developing a 'super-duper missile' to outpace its military adversaries. 'We have no choice, we have to do it with the adversaries we have out there. We have, I call it the super duper missile and I heard the other night [it’s] 17 times faster than what they have right now,' the US president said on Friday

Study prompts experts to issue guidance for maternity workers about increased risk

Europe ‘could face deadly second wave of winter infections’; Spain hails large-scale antibody study; no Danish virus deaths for first time since March

£500,000 government funding for project that ‘could revolutionise’ screening

London has seen steeper decline in R rate but north has slower fall in infections, and estimates vary

Researchers keen to work out why some people are suffering from ‘long tail’ form of the virus

If used with adequate testing, isolation and social distancing, tracing could be key to reducing the spread of Covid-19

Stockholm gambled in its response to coronavirus, but neither its economy nor its healthcare system have collapsed

Locals report confusion and lengthy waits as officials aim to test 11m residents in 10 days

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

Exclusive: Boris Johnson’s coronavirus announcement has no scientific basis, source says

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

But continent will have fewer deaths than Europe and US because of its younger population and other lifestyle factors

Children can return to playgrounds, families can meet and restaurants can seat groups of 10 under new rules