It’s 1974 and the great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov attempts to present the facts on lunar lifeThe science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote about the colonisation of the moon for his book Our World in Space, extracted by the Observer Magazine (‘Will you emigrate to the moon?’) on 9 June 1974. It’s amazing how quickly the future dates – this feels more nostalgic than being a credible scenario at the moment.He starts on somewhat shaky ground. ‘Consider the analogous case of the arrival of Columbus on the American continent,’ he writes. Let’s not. Suffice to say that at least there are no indigenous lunar peoples to exploit on the moon. Continue reading...

If this outbreak is still caused mainly by animals, it can be controlled. But all-out human transmission could spell disasterScientists are urgently seeking data to resolve one critically important aspect of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 54 people and infected well over 1,000 since emerging in Wuhan, China.Researchers say they desperately need to find out whether most cases have been caused by repeated spillover of the virus from animals into humans, or whether most cases are now being triggered by secondary human-to-human transmission. Continue reading...

We need to look way, way back and embrace the Indigenous antiquity of this landFire and carbon.That’s what I’ll be reflecting on today, 26 January, Invasion Day to me and many I know, Australia Day officially. Continue reading...

As we watch the Harvey Weinstein trial unfold, other horror stories emerge in our own courtsHarvey Weinstein is at last facing justice in a New York courtroom. As I hear in graphic detail the accounts of the women he allegedly raped and sexually assaulted, it’s hard to stop myself imagining what I would do if a 21-stone man suddenly reappeared naked and lunged at me after manipulating me to accompany him to his hotel room on false pretences. Scream? Fight back? Try to escape?It’s impossible to tell unless you find yourself there. Our body’s response to acute danger is not rational: it releases a flood of hormones that trigger an automatic response over which the thinking part of our brain has little control. For decades, that response was understood as fight or flight. But that was a highly gendered understanding developed as a result of tests primarily done on men. (Women were considered too complicated as test subjects because of the hormone fluctuations associated with our menstrual cycles.) Continue reading...

Martin Dove, who was working in Wuhan, thinks government could do more to track peopleA British academic who returned from China this week has said that no one from the UK government has tried to contact him regarding the coronavirus outbreak.Health officials have teamed up with Border Force agents and airlines to try to track down about 2,000 people who have flown to the UK from Wuhan, the area worst affected by the outbreak. Continue reading...

President warns of ‘grave situation’ as the country spends holiday under travel restriction to stop the virus spreading

Whether at work or at home, success depends on how good a listener you areWhen people find out I’m a journalist, they typically tell me they used to write for their school newspaper or that their child wants to be a journalist, or that their cousin is a blogger. Or they might say they loved a film about a newsroom, but can’t remember the name. They might try to look up the film on their phones and, while they are at it, will show me a cat video trending on Twitter.It’s rare that people don’t interrupt and shift conversation to themselves. Bad listeners are not necessarily bad or boorish people. You’re likely to have a dear friend, family member, or maybe a romantic partner who is a bad listener. Perhaps you, yourself, are not the best listener. And you could be forgiven. In many ways, we have been conditioned not to listen. Continue reading...

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has raised the territory’s response to the coronavirus outbreak to emergency level.Immigration and travel from Wuhan will be limited, major events cancelled and school openings delayed by two weeks. Lam said: ‘We have an emergency response level, it means that for this novel infectious disease, the impact on the population will be a high and imminent’

What are the symptoms caused by the China virus and at what point should you go to the doctor?

Barty named young Australian of the year, Prof John Newnham the senior Australian of the year and Bernie Shakeshaft the 2020 Local HeroDr James Muecke, an eye surgeon who has dedicated his professional career to preventing blindness among the poorest people in the world, has been recognised as the 2020 Australian of the year.Adelaide-born Muecke, who began his medical career in Kenya, said it was an “enormous … tremendous honour” to be named Australian of the year for 2020: “such an auspicious year for eyesight”. Continue reading...

Prof Claudia de Rham’s ‘massive gravity’ theory could explain why universe expansion is acceleratingCosmologists don’t enter their profession to tackle the easy questions, but there is one paradox that has reached staggering proportions.Since the big bang, the universe has been expanding, but the known laws of physics suggest that the inward tug of gravity should be slowing down this expansion. In reality, though, the universe is ballooning at an accelerating rate. Continue reading...

Liang Wudong, 62, died after treating patients in Wuhan amid signs that health workers are overwhelmed by the outbreakA doctor treating victims infected with the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan has died from the virus amid further signs that the local health system has been overwhelmed and that the outbreak is worsening.The 62-year-old doctor Liang Wudong died on Saturday morning, state media said, and it was also reported by the Chinese Global Times website that another doctor who had been treating patients in Wuhan died of a heart attack later in the day. It was not clear if Jiang Jijun, 51, had contracted the virus. Continue reading...

A huge fleet of diggers has been deployed in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, to begin the ambitious task of building a 1,000-bed hospital by 3 February to treat victims of the epidemic Continue reading...

In a move that would please Gene Roddenberry – or make him ask for royalties – the president showed off a familiar looking symbol

Public transport suspended in at least 13 cities in China as death toll rises and France identifies Europe’s first cases

It’s time to turn away from the World Economic Forum and its mass-polluting ‘affiliates’. We need new, radical solutions

Companies aim to have vaccine in production within 16 weeks before entering testing stageThere are no vaccines or treatments approved for the new coronavirus, but the race is on to develop one.This week the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi) announced it would commit $11m (£8.4m) to three programmes led by the companies Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Moderna and the University of Queensland. Continue reading...

UK emergency committee discuss outbreak as more than 33 million people affected by lockdown measures in China

Individual recently travelled from the Wuhan region of China, where the virus is believed to originate

Chief medical officer says tests on 14 people so far have come back negativeHealth officials have teamed up with Border Force agents and airlines to try to track down around 2,000 people who have recently flown into the UK from Wuhan, the Chinese province at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak.So far, tests on 14 people in the UK have come back negative as the government seeks to calm concerns over the spread of the virus. Continue reading...

At a UN briefing in Geneva, WHO spokesman says it is too early to draw conclusions on the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.‘We may see more mild cases as surveillance intensifies. So the issue is not so much on numbers that we know will go up,’ says Tarik Jašarević.

Michael Hope says he struggled to get GP appointment until he revealed he had been in China

The once-sleepy Mahia peninsula is now the site of regular rocket launches but a plan to put US spy satellites into space is causing concernLife on the Mahia peninsula on New Zealand’s North Island used to be quiet: surfing beaches, historical monuments, and good snapper fishing.Then space came to town. Continue reading...

With resources at breaking point and a pervading sense of panic, the Chinese city of Wuhan battles coronavirus

What are the symptoms caused by the China virus and at what point should you go to the doctor?

Death toll stands at 26 and 1,000-bed hospital being built in Wuhan to deal with outbreak is due to open next week

Students going to China for new year may not be readmitted without quarantine period

A new virus, never before seen in humans, has emerged from the city of Wuhan in China. Since the start of the outbreak, the virus has spread to more than seven countries and more than 500 people have been infected. Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Ian Jones about exactly what a coronavirus is. And we hear from epidemiologist Dr Rosalind Eggo about how scientists model the spread of novel viruses, often with very little information Continue reading...

Capital of Hubei province sits on the Yangtze river and is the birthplace of China’s steel industryThe city of Wuhan is one of China’s largest industrial hubs and a major crossroads. The capital of Hubei province has 11 million people and is under an unprecedented, open-ended lockdown to try to prevent the spread of a virus that first appeared in the city last month. Continue reading...

After preventing travel from Wuhan, China has locked down several more cities as it attempts to contain the deadly coronavirus. Footage online reveals the quarantine measures the country is taking to prevent the spread

Residents in cities affected by coronavirus hoard supplies and isolate themselves at home

Astronauts on the ISS baked chocolate chip cookies from raw ingredients for the first time although no one has yet tasted themThe results are finally in for the first chocolate chip cookie bake-off in space.While looking more or less normal, the best cookies required two hours of baking time last month up at the International Space Station. It takes far less time on Earth, under 20 minutes. Continue reading...

Crew Dragon capsule’s abort test means Nasa may return to launching astronauts from US soil as early as springNasa could return to launching American astronauts from US soil as early as the spring now that the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule has completed a high-altitude abort test.The successful test took place on 19 January, when a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center at 1030 EST (1530 GMT). Continue reading...

With 18 deaths in China, several countries introduce screening for arriving passengersThe World Health Organization has called on the global community to work together to fight the new coronavirus that is causing an epidemic of viral pneumonia and deaths in China, but stopped short of declaring it a public health emergency of international concern.After the second day of meetings of the emergency committee, WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday that nobody should assume there was no risk that it would become a dangerous global epidemic. Continue reading...

Institutions are monitoring staff and students who have recently come from areas affected by the coronavirusUK universities with links to China have issued warnings to staff and students travelling to and from areas affected by the coronavirus, urging anyone with symptoms to seek medical advice.With concern growing about the spread of the virus, universities in the UK are keeping a check on staff who have recently returned from Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, as well as Chinese students who come from affected areas, many of whom will be concerned about loved ones at home. Continue reading...

Public Health England says five cases confirmed negative with nine awaiting results

Oil and travel shares slide amid fears outbreak could hit growth in second largest economy

Authorities believe new strain of coronavirus came from a market in Wuhan where wildlife was sold illegally

Cancellations mean lucrative films including The Rescue and Detective Chinatown 3 also cannot be seen in UK and US

Researchers in UK recreate Nesyamun’s sound using 3D version of his vocal tractThe “voice” of an ancient Egyptian priest has been heard for the first time since he died and was mummified 3,000 years ago, researchers have said.Nesyamun lived under the pharaoh Rameses XI, who reigned around the beginning of the 11th century BC. Continue reading...

In his Commons statement, health secretary adopts the tone of a disaster movie superhero singlehandedly saving the planetVery few MPs were taking any chances with the new coronavirus outbreak in China. Which is why the Commons chamber was almost entirely empty for the ministerial statement about it. Some clearly appear to believe the risk of contagion is so high that even talking about it can spread the disease.Fortunately the health secretary, Matt Hancock, is more selfless than many. And more fearless. One of the more charming things about Matt – other than his gullibility: he consistently remains the only person in the entire country who believes Boris Johnson will actually build 40 new hospitals – is his tireless dedication to the cause. Tigger doesn’t just wear his NHS badge on the lapel of his suit; he has it attached to his pyjamas in bed at night. As does his Pooh bear teddy. Continue reading...

Beijing is determined to crush this disease as firmly as it crushes dissent. But there is no guarantee a lockdown will workA new disease arrives in a Chinese winter – is history repeating itself? At the end of 2002, Sars erupted in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Nearly two decades on, another new virus has struck at roughly the same time of year, this time in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.Though the diseases are similar – Sars and the new Wuhan virus are from the same coronavirus family, and both attack the lungs – there is a great deal of difference in the way China has responded to these outbreaks. Continue reading...

Why does supporting one club mean you have to hate another?By Paul Hyland for The BlizzardEveryone reading this probably has a favourite football team. I’d also be willing to bet that all of you have at least one football club that you hate. Maybe it’s because their star player is a diver, or because they once broke your hearts in a season-defining, must-win game. Though probably it’s because you have to. Being a fan of one club means being expected to hate at least one other. But isn’t it just a little bit arbitrary? Who told you that you have to hate United or City? Arsenal and not Spurs? Then again, who told you that you have to hate anyone at all? Why does supporting one football club even have to mean hating another? In other words, why do we as football fans choose our rivals? And more to the point – how?Our motivations for choosing rivals are an interesting psychological phenomenon, one which the work of the Austrian psychoanalysts in the early 20th century can help to explain. The contemporaries Otto Rank and Sigmund Freud might go a long way to explaining why rivalry is meaningful, why it is that we’re so viscerally connected not just to seeing our local team do well, but also to cheering on just about anyone who crosses paths with rival clubs. Continue reading...

Supermarket shelves empty and face masks sell out as residents retreat indoorsA sense of panic has spread in Wuhan as the Chinese city of 11 million people was put on lockdown in an attempt to quarantine a deadly virus believed to have originated there.On Thursday, authorities banned all transport links from the city, suspending buses, the subway system, ferries and shutting the airport and train stations to outgoing passengers. Continue reading...

Experts fear latest strain of virus from Wuhan may spread across world

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Species such as this one contain a remarkable reservoir of potentially medicinal chemicalsGreen feathers in the wood, the plumage of moss: it appears unaffected by a squall that rattles up the lane. Its rain washes around the old, laid trunks of hedge sycamores, its wind blows goldfinch from mullein seedheads under power lines into hazels; its noise silences the thrush who, for some days in his ash tree, has been auditioning an oratory of fragmented phrases repeated in short bursts that will become a heart-stopping song before too long. The moss appears unaffected by the traffic of people, dogs and birds, unaffected by the seasons and the sudden appearance of snowdrops from a recurring dream.Common feather-moss, Kindbergia praelonga, has branching ferny shoots up to 3cm long, with divided leaves that in some woodland forms are bipinnate or tripinnate with triangular-shaped tips so they look like feathers; they can be found in moist, shady places on a variety of surfaces. Continue reading...

Government unveils new countermeasures as country prepares for lunar new year and death toll doubles to 17

American citizen in his 30s was admitted to Washington state hospital on Monday after trip to ChinaDoctors have been using a robot to treat the first person known to have been admitted to hospital in the US with a new strain of the coronavirus, as part of an effort to prevent the spread of the disease, which has killed at least 17 people in China and infected hundreds more.The man in his 30s was admitted to the special pathogens unit in a hospital in Everett, Washington, on Monday. The US citizen had recently returned from a trip to central China and had been diagnosed in Seattle. Continue reading...

Scientists discover vitrified remains caused by immense 520C heat of disaster in AD79When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, the damage wreaked in nearby towns was catastrophic. Now it appears the heat was so immense it turned one victim’s brain to glass – thought to be the first time this has been seen.Experts say they have discovered that splatters of a shiny, solid black material found inside the skull of a victim at Herculaneum appear to be the remains of human brain tissue transformed by heat. Continue reading...