Science | The Guardian

Some nations have managed to maintain surprisingly low death rates – even without imposing draconian measures on people

In a rapidly evolving situation, we must think ahead and react fast, says a special envoy of the WHO director general

Supermarket giants are not the only game in town as local firms reinvent themselves to bring groceries and more to your door

Our reporter visits the Florida launchpad and wonders if he has the right stuffFor the 25 September 1983 issue of the Observer Magazine, Clive James began a series on modern monuments – those buildings that had taken on a ‘peculiar and enduring significance’ even though they weren’t designed as monuments. His first choice was the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.Rockets go up with no more delay than an InterCity 125 from Paddington to Bristol, and about the same sense of adventure Continue reading...

Outbreak will get worse before it gets better, PM tells nation as death toll hits 1,000

Mali records first death ahead of election and Trump considers New York quarantine. This blog is now closed

Leading scientist Adam Finn warns of stumbles along the way to Covid-19 immunisationThe chances of an individual Covid-19 vaccine project producing a successful outcome are low, one of Britain’s leading immunisation experts has warned. “Science does not have a track record where most of our vaccine projects work,” Professor Adam Finn, of Bristol University said last week. “We have a track record where most of them don’t work.”Finn’s warning came as doctors and epidemiologists stressed how difficult it would be to contain the disease until people can be immunised against it. Continue reading...

Scientists are tracing the path of Sars-CoV-2 from a wild animal host – but we need to look at the part played in the outbreak by industrial food production

The behaviour of birds, reptiles and fish has much to teach us about the perilous leap into adulthood for our own offspringFor more than a decade we’ve been immersed in the chaos, exasperation and delight of adolescence. Professionally, we were researching how wild animals across the globe make the perilous leap from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile at home, we were each raising animal adolescents of the Homo sapiens variety. We’re often asked how studying the behaviour of adolescent animals shaped our own experiences as parents and the short answer is, profoundly.We discovered that adolescence is a dangerous phase of life across the animal kingdom. And while there are many differences between species, the time-limited purpose of adolescence is universal. We observed that there are four main skills that define the development of adolescence to adulthood: staying safe from predators and exploiters; navigating social hierarchies; learning to communicate and understand sexual signals; and learning how to leave the nest (or den or warren or house) without starving to death. Continue reading...

Proponents of modern monetary theory believe that countries can and should keep printing as much money as they needTreasury officials have spent the last couple of weeks asking themselves how much the exchequer should spend fighting coronavirus. Curled up with laptops in the spare room or on the kitchen table, banished from their neoclassical headquarters, they have debated how many borrowed billions ought to be devoted to rescuing companies from bankruptcy and households from destitution.Thinking about what a nation should spend when its income falls off a cliff, and how much it will owe as a consequence, is especially mind-boggling for conservative policymakers emerging from 10 years of austerity. Many have spent their entire careers telling voters that paying back what the country has borrowed is of paramount importance. Continue reading...

Numerous warnings were issued in medical journal but not heeded, Richard Horton writes

Reptiles inhabited prehistoric Morocco 100m years agoScientists have discovered three new species of flying reptiles that lived in the Sahara 100m years ago.Prof David Martill, a palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, made the discovery with a team of researchers from Morocco and the US. Continue reading...

Health professionals are seeing more relapses as the US takes drastic measures to limit the spread of coronavirus

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

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

People across Europe are finding increasingly inventive ways to protect themselves against the psychological risks of isolationIn Italy they are singing and sharing recipes. In France, humour is saving the day. In Spain, communal staircases have become the new running tracks, and in Germany, ordinarily disorderly hackers are busy coding corona-busting apps.As hundreds of millions of Europeans languish in lockdown, people are finding increasingly inventive ways to keep themselves entertained – and to counter what the continent’s psychologists warning are the very real risks of confinement. Continue reading...

From antibody testing to virus mutations, here’s what we have learned this week

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

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

Tests due next week will confirm whether self-isolating healthcare workers can return to work

From lending a hand to local charities to bolstering the efforts of the NHS, there are many ways to get involved

Supermarket says it will prioritise deliveries amid concern over food supplies for vulnerable people

Simon Wood on the expertise of epidemiologists, Graeme Henderson on the PPE shortage, Martin McKee, Mark Flear and Anniek de Ruijter on the EU’s ventilator scheme, Dr Jeremy Holmes on mourning a lost way of life and Dr Helen Lucas on hope in these dark times

The US president has been exposed by the coronavirus crisis. The only small comfort for the rest of the world is that he’s not their leaderPity the people of America. They do battle now with one of the greatest challenges in their history, led by a man who is not only among the worst ever occupants of the White House but whose character makes him the last person on the face of the Earth you would nominate to be in charge at this moment. On Thursday the US reached the top of the global league table for coronavirus infections, edging ahead of its closest rival for that honour, China. No law of nature dictated that outcome. Much of it is directly attributable to one dreadful fact: that Donald Trump is president of the United States.It’s become a commonplace to note Trump’s lack of basic human empathy, his tendency to be unmoved by others’ loss. But that gap in his mindset matters now far beyond an inability to offer consolation to the bereaved: it is warping his approach to a lethal disease. Continue reading...

Italy and France now prescribing hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus despite fact its effectiveness is unknown

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

Pistols from Die Another Day, Walther PPK from A View to a Kill and special chrome Magnum from Live and Let Die among items taken in burglaryAn “irreplaceable” collection of prop guns used in James Bond films has been stolen from a house in Enfield, north London.Five deactivated guns, including Beretta Cheetah and Tomcat pistols from Die Another Day and the iconic Walther PPK handgun used in A View to a Kill are among the weapons reported taken. Continue reading...

Experts warn leaders of huge social and economic consequences of failing to support developing states against ‘unprecedented threat’Economists and global health experts have called on G20 leaders to provide trillions of dollars to poorer countries to shore up ailing healthcare systems and economies, or face a disaster that will rebound on wealthier states through migration and health crises.Twenty experts, among them four Nobel prizewinners, including Joseph Stiglitz, Lord Nicholas Stern and seven chief economists of the World Bank and other development banks, have written to G20 leaders to warn of “unimaginable health and social impacts” as coronavirus rips through the developing world, taking overburdened healthcare systems beyond breaking point, and causing economic and social devastation. Continue reading...

Dr James Niven in Manchester achieved UK-wide fame during Spanish flu pandemic in 1918

Batch with only 30% detection rate was bought by health officials from Chinese supplier

Phonecall between leaders came as China prepares to seal itself off from the world to stem ‘imported’ coronavirus cases

Around the world, more than 40 teams are working on a vaccine for Covid-19. We followed one doctor in the most urgent quest of his life. By Samanth Subramanian

Bacterium is able to break down polyurethane, which is widely used but rarely recycledA bacterium that feeds on toxic plastic has been discovered by scientists. The bug not only breaks the plastic down but uses it as food to power the process.The bacterium, which was found at a waste site where plastic had been dumped, is the first that is known to attack polyurethane. Millions of tonnes of the plastic is produced every year to use in items such as sports shoes, nappies, kitchen sponges and as foam insulation, but it is mostly sent to landfill because it it too tough to recycle. Continue reading...

Restrictions would need to remain in place until a vaccine or other treatment was developed

Spain death toll passes 4,000; IMF urges G20 to double emergency funding; US now has more cases than any other country. This blog is now closed

People urged to inform social media firms if they see falsehoods shared online

NHS England medical director tells MPs tests may be available within a couple of weeksCoronavirus – latest updatesAll our coronavirus coverageSelf-testing at home to find out whether somebody has had Covid-19 is an efficient way to find out if they are safe to return to work, a senior health official has said.Prof Yvonne Doyle, the medical director of Public Health England, told the health select committee that finger-prick home tests would be available very soon. “We expect that to come within a couple of weeks, but I wouldn’t want to promise on that,” she said. Continue reading...

Discovery adds to growing evidence that Neanderthals were very similar to modern humansNeanderthals made extensive use of coastal environments, munching on fish, crabs and mussels, researchers have found, in the latest study to reveal similarities between modern humans and our big-browed cousins.Until now, many Neanderthal sites had shown only small-scale use of marine resources; for example, scattered shells. But now archaeologists have excavated a cave on the coast of Portugal and discovered a huge, structured deposit of remains, including from mussels and limpets, dating to between 106,000 and 86,000 years ago. Continue reading...

PhD and master’s students worry their funding will run out as libraries and labs shutPhD and master’s students have signed an open letter asking to be given extensions to their funding by research councils so they can finish work disrupted by the coronavirus.

Remains of agile meat-eater show raptors were thriving right up to point asteroid struck 66m years agoA meat-eating dinosaur with a feathered body, iron grip and a tail for agile pursuit of prey, has been discovered by fossil hunters, revealing that raptor dinosaurs were thriving right up to the point the asteroid struck, 66m years ago.The remains, comprising about 20 bones, were found in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico, in rocks dating to about 67m years ago. They are believed to be from a type of dromaeosaurid – a family of theropod dinosaurs that includes raptors – which appears to have been a close cousin of the velociraptor. Continue reading...

Prosecutors issue warning after reports of emergency workers being coughed and spat at

Lifting restrictions in March could lead to new peak of cases in August, study suggests

We don’t know exactly how many people have already been infected with the virus, but there’s no evidence it’s half the population• Adam Kucharski is an epidemiologist and author

Human trials will begin imminently – but even if they go well, there are many hurdles before global immunisation is feasible

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

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

Tokyo governor warns of measures to prevent ‘explosion’ of cases as Hong Kong health expert calls for curfew to handle cases arriving from overseas

The country already has the most deaths in south-east Asia, but research suggests the official 800 infections so far may only be 2% of the total