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

Trump to halt immigration for 60 days initially; 256m people could starve, says UN; cases worldwide pass 2.5 million. This blog is now closed.

The Noor was launched by a three-stage rocket and, according to Iran officials, had reached a 425 km high orbitIran has claimed it has put its first military satellite into orbit, further raising tensions with the US at a time the two countries are already facing off in the Persian Gulf.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said the satellite “Noor” (Light) was in a 425km (264 miles) high orbit, after a successful launch. Iran launched its first civilian satellite in 2009. Continue reading...

Fox News staffers also backed away from promoting drug after a recent US trial did not go well

Health secretary tells MPs social distancing is working but lockdown will remain

Continue reading...

Climate activist says Covid-19 outbreak shows change can happen when we listen to scientists

Richard Dreyfuss plays a retired engineer who wins a place on the first commercial space flight in an amiable, late-life adventureA likable performance by Richard Dreyfuss livens up this easygoing drama about second chances and late-life adventure from actor-turned-director Shelagh McLeod. Dreyfuss plays a retired civil engineer who, all his life, has dreamed of going to space and is now in with a chance of winning a golden ticket. The role is a nice mirror to Close Encounters, in which Dreyfuss ditched his wife and kids to fly off with the little green men.Here he is a family-oriented man who nursed his wife through dementia and is adored by his grownup daughter. He has lived a good life but perhaps stifles a pang of regret at the average-ness of it all. It’s a film of tender feelings, though perhaps a little predictable and bluntly sentimental. Continue reading...

Elena Manighetti, from Lombardy, and Ryan Osborne told families not to contact them with bad news during Atlantic crossing

Researchers - who stress serious health risks of smoking - plan to test nicotine patches on patients and health workers

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

Helen Whately says shipment is being checked, but fails to explain why offers from British suppliers were ignored

Countries that are actively working to contain coronavirus are buying themselves time to deal with its uncertain outcomes

From the orangutans that lived undisturbed for 700,000 years to the frolicking rhesus macaques of Kathmandu, the BBC’s new nature blockbuster brings us closer than ever to the planet of the apesOne day 23 years ago, scientists were exploring a lost world called Batang Toru when they glimpsed something moving in the forest canopy. What they saw was a great ape that had lived in splendid isolation for 700,000 years. With its kindly black face, orange fur and vast proto-artisanal beard, it looked like the familiar Sumatran or Borneo orangutans, but was neither. In 2017, the Tapanuli orangutan was recognised as a new species. It is smaller, and has paler, thicker fur than its lowland cousins and lives in reproductive isolation on that remote plateau in the north Sumatran jungle 1,000m above sea level.The news about this addition to world species lists prompted producer Nikki Waldron to scramble to the Sumatran jungle, to film the Tapanuli orangutan for the first time. After a few weeks, she and her crew found a mother and daughter in their natural habitat. “When we first arrived, the cameraman sighed. The light levels were really low because of the density of the leaves, and the orangutans live 40m up in the trees.” Continue reading...

Sarah Boseley speaks to Dr Dipesh Patel about the effects of Covid-19 on people with diabetes, including the role that glucose levels and a high BMI might play Continue reading...

Labor and Jacqui Lambie ask for trials of anti-malarial drugs with known side-effects to be truly voluntary

This blog is now closed.

Other democracies have kept death tolls low by using a combination of social distancing, tight travel restrictions, mass testing and contact tracing. Why can’t the UK?

PM will have telephone audience with the Queen while he recovers from coronavirus

Leaders have failed to listen to clear warnings and predictions, but the response to Covid-19 is an inspiring indication of what we’re capable ofThe coronavirus pandemic should be seen as a dress rehearsal for what awaits us if we continue to ignore the laws of science, the physical world and the demands of several catastrophic threats such as climate change.Just as Australia was disturbingly unprepared for the recent bushfires and drought, even though they had recurred many times in our history, the globe was unprepared for the coronavirus, even though there had been many warnings of the risk over many years. Continue reading...

US president is accused of ‘xenophobic scapegoating’ with tweet announcing executive order

More than 1,000 die in week before Easter, with private homes deaths more than tripling

Court injunction aims to stop Florida group, but others are repackaging bleach and advertising ‘dangerous’ treatments on Facebook and elsewhere

Experts say a link is plausible as dirty air is known to harm lungs, but more research is needed

While some are doubling down on their rejection of vaccines, the scale of the Covid-19 crisis is eroding resistance in others

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

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

People are searching for certainty about coronavirus, and that’s the opposite of what leads to scientific breakthroughs

Buxton, Derbyshire: A two-metre wall is the most obvious obstacle to mating. But at least we can do something about thatMuch as I love toad breeding season for the way it brings thousands to Lightwood’s ponds, it’s actually a dangerous time for them. For seven evenings a friend’s daily exercise involved patrolling a stretch of river with a bucket to retrieve trapped toads. This year we estimate that he, with minor contributions from others, including me, has saved 1,100.The problem is that toads arriving from the north and west are channelled, before they reach the spawning ground, into a stone-lined culvert that contains the flow of Hogshaw Brook. They are then blocked by a two-metre wall and are doomed, unless they can find a way over. One route for 30 of them was in the pockets of my smock, after which I released them on the lip of the water – a moment that felt wonderful for the old toad in my soul. Continue reading...

How long should you remain in isolation if you have symptoms of Covid-19? It depends on who you ask. The UK government guidelines recommend seven days from the onset of symptoms, whereas the World Health Organization advises 14. To get to the bottom of this apparent disparity, Nicola Davis discusses viral shedding with Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, and asks what the evidence currently tells us about how long we stay infectious for Continue reading...

Herd immunity hopes dealt blow by report suggesting only 2%-3% of people have been infected

For 65 years the drug hydroxychloroquine has been used to treat a number of diseases, including malaria. But after a French study claimed it was effective against coronavirus it has been hailed by the US president and other people around the world as a cure. But there is scant evidence it is effective – and it could actually be harmful when takenThis episode first aired on Today in Focus, the Guardian’s global daily news podcast made by the Guardian team in London.You can read Julia Carrie Wong’s article on how hydroxychloroquine became Trumps ‘miracle cure’ to coronavirus here. Continue reading...

A solution to one of Chris Maslanka’s Pyrgic conundrums has convinced Malcolm Fowles of the importance of wearing face masks in public places

The answers to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set you two puzzles that the late John Horton Conway suggested for this column:1) The Miracle Builders Continue reading...

Two clinical trials aim to give transfusions to ailing patients to bolster immune systems

NHS promises unmet, local government ignored, care homes forgotten. Has any British politician got their hand on the tiller?

Pioneering immunologist who improved the lives of millions of hay fever sufferers by inventing the pollen countWhen Bill Frankland began practising in the 1940s, allergy medicine was barely a discipline. The allergist Adam Fox said: “To say Bill Frankland was the grandfather of allergy medicine doesn’t do it justice. He wasn’t the grandfather in the sense of being the oldest but in the sense of being the originator of the speciality. He did the original trials and founded the British society. He was still practising in his 90s and 100s, and remained the doctor people wanted to see.”On his release from a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1945, Frankland, who has died aged 108, returned to St Mary’s hospital, Paddington, in London, where he had trained. He had suffered with hay fever since he was nine, and when he saw an advertisement for a part-time assistant in the allergy department, he applied. In February 1946 he became full-time and for the next 70 years was gripped by allergy medicine, which he said was like a fascinating detective story. 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 near you

I am fearful for the future, uncertain for how my skills will hold up when put to test

Two gems from the wizard of recreational mathsToday’s column is a celebration of John Horton Conway, the legendary British mathematician, who died of coronavirus earlier this month, aged 82.Conway was an inspirational, iconoclastic genius who invented and studied countless puzzles and games, in addition to his more highbrow work in group theory, number theory, geometry, topology and many other fields. Continue reading...

A host of factors determines whether a virus survives and thrives in humans. Sars-Cov-2 struck it lucky