Science | The Guardian

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...

From cucumber-crunchers to cranial exams, YouTube is full of ASMRtists provoking the strangely pleasurable autonomous sensory meridian response. Now they’ve got their own euphoric museum showSome whisper gently into the microphone, while tapping their nails along the spine of a book. Others take a bar of soap and slice it methodically into tiny cubes, letting the pieces clatter into a plastic tray. There are those who dress up as doctors and pretend to perform a cranial nerve exam, and the ones who eat food as noisily as they can, recording every crunch and slurp in 3D stereo sound.

Exscientia to use AI to hunt through compounds which have passed human trials

Study will follow 1,000 people in Heinsberg to create plan for how to deal with virus

President Sisi may have nothing to hide, but his crackdown on anyone who challenges the official line only fuels speculation

Healthcare workers including a physiotherapist and a radiographer on how they are helping to battle the virus

Tuesday’s top story: NY governor says state’s coronavirus deluge is a harbinger of what’s to come for the US. Plus, a heatwave in the coldest place on EarthGood morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories. Continue reading...

Every country needs to keep preparing for large-scale community transmission, says regional director

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 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?

Hannah Devlin speaks with Prof David Smith about the various ways in which clinicians can test whether or not someone is infected with Sars-CoV-2. And, following the recent announcement that the UK government has bought millions of antibody tests, explores what these might be able to tell us Continue reading...

Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in self-isolation; Moscow announces lockdown of 12m people; Syria records first death. This blog is now closed

System uses machine learning to offer new way to screen for hard-to-detect cancersA new blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer has been revealed by researchers in the latest study to offer hope for early detection.The test is based on DNA that is shed by tumours and found circulating in the blood. More specifically, it focuses on chemical changes to this DNA, known as methylation patterns. Continue reading...

First comprehensive study of deaths and hospitalisations in mainland China shows just how much of a factor age is

German researchers studying how lockdown restrictions could be lifted for some people

ONS to publish additional data but chief medical officer doesn’t expect a large increase in reported deaths

There’s a surreal calm in the last country in Europe to hold out against lockdown. But the death toll is rising and some are voicing dissent

UK data shows the number of new cases has fallen, but experts say only time will tell if this is a trend