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What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

Pandemic forces even the most conservative companies to rethink their practices and let employees work from home

China announces day of mourning for ‘martyrs’ as city at centre of outbreak seeks to avoid second wave before travel bans lift

Respiratory physician John Wilson explains the range of Covid-19 impacts, from no symptoms to severe illness featuring pneumonia

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Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment aims to pinpoint places where giant particle storms are launched into spaceNasa has selected a new mission that will study how space weather forms on the sun and launches radiation storms into space.Called the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE), the mission consists of six small CubeSats that will provide three dimensional maps of solar activity to pinpoint the places where giant particle storms are launched into space. Continue reading...

Communication Workers Union estimates half of sorting offices have insufficient PPE and sanitiserMany Royal Mail sorting offices are not providing workers with sufficient protection from coronavirus infection, according to a trade union, which argues that some depots should close until staff are safe.The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents thousands of postal workers, told members they should stay away if their local sorting office had not provided equipment such as masks, gloves and hand sanitiser, or implemented government guidelines of two-metre social distancing at all times. It estimates that at as many as half of sorting offices did not have sufficient protection in place. Continue reading...

Concern that centres were too far from both work or home for those working in London

After initially pursuing a centralised policy, the government has now switched to a ‘Dunkirk-style’ effort utilising smaller research units

Health secretary ‘determined’ to reach six-figure goal for England by end of April

Salley Vickers, 70, says those with immunity could ‘lend a hand’ and suggests idea could appeal to Dominic Cummings

Fossil shows the first of our ancestors existed up to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought, researchers sayThe earliest known skull of Homo erectus has been unearthed by an Australian-led team of researchers who have dated the fossil at two million years old, showing the first of our ancestors existed up to 200,000 years earlier than previously thought.The lead researcher Prof Andy Herries said the skull was pieced together from more than 150 fragments uncovered at the Drimolen Main Quarry, located about 40km north of Johannesburg in South Africa. It was likely aged between two and three years old when it died. Continue reading...

Country seen as a model for its response is told it is not doing nearly enough

In 1915 a shortage of shells for soldiers brought down the government. A century on, the prime minister faces a similar challenge

Ex-government adviser says substances such as psilocybin could have medical valueRestrictions on the use of psychedelic drugs in research should be relaxed to help find new treatments for conditions including mental health disorders, the former government adviser Prof David Nutt has said.Nutt was sacked as chair of the advisory committee on the misuse of drugs in October 2009 over his views that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol. Continue reading...

As scientist David Nutt campaigns for drug rules to change, we look at artists who said yes to psychedelic cultureWhile the neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt and colleagues campaign for rules around psychedelics to change to aid research, such drugs have a long history in creative circles.LSD was important to the Beatles, whose song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds is thought to be a nod to the drug, with psychedelics referred to in Day Tripper among others. LSD is also thought to have played an important role in the creation of the album Revolver. John Lennon and George Harrison were enthusiastic about taking the drug, whereas it took Paul McCartney some time to begin taking it. Continue reading...

Grim milestone approaches as WHO chief says he is ‘deeply concerned’ about spread

I can’t tell if my optimism is misguided when experts disagree on everything from mortality rates to preventive measures

Change is coming to the UK, when this crisis is over. Unless progressives have a plan, they will lose out like they did in 2008It can take a grave national crisis to fire a flare, revealing the ugliest features of a society defined by injustices that the wealthy and powerful would rather forget. It took the second world war to achieve what the Jarrow hunger marches of the 1930s struggled for: to illustrate the national shame that millions of people who were called upon to make grand sacrifices were afflicted by poverty and malnourishment. As child evacuees with hungry bellies arrived on the doorsteps of the relatively well-to-do, the other Britain could no longer be ignored. “A revolutionary moment in the world’s history is a time for revolutions, not for patching,” declared William Beveridge as he laid the foundations for the postwar welfare state. Unprecedented state direction of the economy meant that Labour’s ambitious programme of nationalisation no longer seemed quite so scary. The old order perished in the rubble of war-ravaged Britain.Coronavirus has done two things: it has magnified existing social crises and has proved that the government can act decisively when the will is there. Millions are only ever one pay packet away from destitution; the self-employed and gig economy workers lack security and basic rights; private tenants are at the mercy of their landlords; our welfare state is woefully inadequate; and many designated “key workers” are desperately undervalued and badly paid. Who, in good faith, can now blind themselves to these grim truths? Continue reading...

Human trials will begin imminently – but even if they go well and a cure is found, there are many barriers before global immunisation is feasible

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

AI companies and scientists are cooperating, but they desperately need access to pharmaceutical companies’ data

What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

Sarah Boseley speaks to Prof Sonja Rasmussen about how the virus might affect mothers who are expecting and their unborn child Continue reading...

Rhinos keep turning up for their belly rubs, and giraffes have been keeping their appointments, but there is no one to watch them

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Some self-employed workers and high earners at risk despite subsidy plan, warn thinktanks

Health officials urged to abandon strict rules hampering introduction of mass testing

Dr Alfa Saadu, 68, was volunteering in Welwyn when he fell ill with coronavirus

Feline transmission to humans not shown but infected pet owners warned to be careful

Experts say new evidence from Cretaceous period ‘shows us what carbon dioxide can do’Think of Antarctica and it is probably sweeping expanses of ice, and the odd penguin, that come to mind. But at the time of the dinosaurs the continent was covered in swampy rainforest.Now experts say they have found the most southerly evidence yet of this environment in plant material extracted from beneath the seafloor in west Antarctica. Continue reading...

Instead of endless mass isolation or just waiting for a cure, the UK needs a data-driven, targeted approach to coronavirus testing

No 10 urges hospitals to test as many staff as possible as data shows many in isolation may not be infected

Study finds fashionable hoppy brews lose their characteristic taste while sitting on the shelfIt will be music to the ears of Belgian beer enthusiasts: drink up.Scientists studying how well the fashionable hoppy-tasting beers of today keep in the cupboard have highlighted the particular propensity for them to lose their flavour over time. Continue reading...

As Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos's Project Kuiper race to create high-speed internet using satellites orbiting Earth, there's a small problem that could get in the way: debris. From dead spacecraft that have been around since the dawn of the space age to flecks of paint smashing windows on the International Space Station, rubbish is clogging up our orbits. And with objects moving as fast as 15,500mph (25,000 kmph), the satellite services we've come to depend on are at constant risk of collision. So how to fix the problem with junk in space? Ian Anderson investigates

What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

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

Pursuing a controversial herd immunity strategy put the government on the back foot. Now it’s struggling to catch up

Two who died confirmed to have had Covid-19, with nine others onboard testing positive

Respiratory physician John Wilson explains the range of Covid-19 impacts, from no symptoms to severe illness featuring pneumonia

With scientists still racing to find treatments for Covid-19, Nicola Davis speaks with Prof Pall Thordarson about why soap is so effective at deactivating Sars-CoV-2 and how this differs from hand sanitiser. Continue reading...

Carrier with thousands onboard is docked in Guam, which is struggling to handle local caseload of Covid-19 infections

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Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, thought to be youngest victim in England, died in the capital on Monday

Seven out of 10 trusts with highest death tolls are in the capital, with 590 reported so far

Huge repatriation effort sees German government charter 42 flights as 300,000 Britons remain stranded worldwide

Regulatory approval expected for machine being adapted by Oxfordshire-based Penlon

Some venues that had reopened were told by the government to close yet again

Elderly and vulnerable people on the stresses of the crisis while receiving no contact from the government

After the financial crash, Britain’s young shouldered the burden. The Conservatives must not let that happen againThe kids are boomeranging back again. Up and down the country, overgrown children are shuffling home to roost, refugees from a virus that has stalled their adult lives mid-launch. University lectures and supervisions have all been moved online, so there’s no point student children moping around deserted halls when they could be home ransacking the parental fridge. Gap years too are ending abruptly in a mad scrabble for the last flight out. And for those losing wobbly first jobs in the early wave of coronavirus redundancies, from bar and shop workers to freelancers whose commissions have dried up overnight, home is the refuge of last resort. But now what?Everyone rightly sympathises with forlorn GCSE and A-level students, left in limbo when their exams were cancelled and still unsure of their path to university. But the worst hit in many ways are 18-year-old school leavers and final-year university students, due to emerge this summer into the world of work. Who will be hiring in the wake of what looks like a vertiginous crash? It’s hard to see many openings at the bottom of the ladder, and the temporary jobs in pubs or coffee shops that graduates took during the last recession when the “milk round” recruiters stopped calling are precisely the ones now going to the wall. Continue reading...