Brainchild of Dominic Cummings will seek to return Britain to its ‘pioneering scientific roots’, says chancellorThe government will pump at least £800m into a new “blue skies” science research agency as part of a series of pro-business measures designed to boost Britain’s competitive edge.The UK agency, the brainchild of Boris Johnson’s closest political adviser, Dominic Cummings,...

In Vanuatu, where cyclones regularly interrupt trade, we are watching the west’s collective panic with bemusementI’ve lived in the south Pacific island nation of Vanuatu for 16 years. Tropical weather regularly interrupts trade. Even when they’re hundreds of kilometres away, cyclones wreak havoc on shipping. Isolation and deprivation define our lives. We know better than most how to cope.So...

Grapefruit-sized tracks are first evidence that iconic dinosaurs roamed ScotlandGrapefruit-sized depressions found in rocks on the Isle of Skye have revealed that a type of stegosaurus once wandered the landscape, researchers say.The newly discovered tracks form a single line, a few metres long, with a right-left pattern and two different-sized prints – as would be expected for an animal on all...

The chancellor might claim the Tories are ‘the real workers’ party’ but there’s no sign the state will intervene on the side of labour or redistribute wealthRishi Sunak’s first budget reveals a politician who will not squander the opportunity presented by a crisis. The Conservative chancellor has acted to shore up confidence in the economy by rolling out a series of emergency spending...

Study suggests number of cases could have been cut by 66% if China had acted a week earlierCoronavirus latest - liveThe rapid spread of coronavirus around the world could have been substantially curtailed if the broad swath of measures China brought in to control the outbreak were introduced just weeks earlier, researchers say.Sophisticated modelling of the outbreak suggests that China had 114,325...

China is worst hit as lack of financial support leaves small-scale farms struggling to survive while big companies continue to expandSmall farmers across the globe are losing out in the aftermath of the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak that killed a quarter of the world’s pig population, argues a new report.Nowhere is this more evident than China, where swine fever has hit the country’s...

Director general says his organisation is ‘deeply concerned … by alarming levels of inaction’ Coronavirus latest - live updatesThe World Health Organization has declared a coronavirus pandemic, warning that countries are not doing enough to stop the spread of the virus around the globe.The WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said “pandemic” was not a word to use...

The WHO has declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. But what does that mean?Coronavirus latest - live updatesPandemics have nothing to do with the severity of a disease but are to do with its geographic spread. According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic is declared when a new disease for which people do not have immunity spreads around the world beyond expectations. Continue...

Losses of ice from Greenland and Antarctica are tracking the worst-case climate scenario, scientists warnThe polar ice caps are melting six times faster than in the 1990s, according to the most complete analysis to date.The ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is tracking the worst-case climate warming scenario set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists say....

Conditions on Wasp-76b in Pisces include temperatures of 2,400C and 10,000mph windsWasp-76b is what astronomers call an exoplanet, one that orbits a star outside our solar system. Scientists have discovered that the local weather conditions include 2,400C temperatures, winds in excess of 10,000mph and a steady pelting of iron rain.The observations of the distant planet’s unusually hostile...

Covid-19 essential guide: can it be caught on public transport, how is it different from the flu, and how sick will I get?Follow our latest coronavirus blog for live news and updatesHow to protect yourself against coronavirusCoronavirus symptoms: what are they and should I see a doctor?The Covid-19 virus is a member of the coronavirus family that made the jump from animals to humans late last...

From technology for remote consultations to better education about hygiene, Covid-19 is forcing the health service to evolveCovid-19, or more precisely the reaction to it, is playing havoc with our economic and healthcare institutions. So why is the waiting room in my surgery quieter than usual for this time of year? The sense among some other GP colleagues is that the NHS 111 phone line is doing...

Some leaders claim virus is less likely to infect in spring but data still insufficient to proveWill coronavirus infections slow down as spring arrives in the northern hemisphere? Certainly this is what some political leaders seem to think. Donald Trump told a meeting of the nation’s governors in February that “the heat, generally speaking, kills this kind of virus”. Meanwhile, the UK’s...

What is Covid-19, how does it spread, what are the symptoms, and at what point should you call a doctor?Coronavirus – live news updatesFind all our coronavirus coverage hereHow to protect yourself from infectionIt is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Continue...

No wonder immuno-compromised people are heading online to share strategies as to how to stay safeIt won’t come for you. This is the general message about coronavirus, as the UK prepares for the outbreak to possibly worsen. Read the many media reports and a common line comes out: “Most people recover, and fatalities are largely only among those with underlying health conditions.” It is a...

Ai Fen says in interview, which censors are trying to erase, how superiors reprimanded her for warning about outbreakCoronavirus – latest updatesA doctor in Wuhan has spoken out after seeing several of her colleagues die from the coronavirus, criticising hospital authorities for suppressing early warnings of the outbreak in an interview censors have been trying to erase from the internet.In an...

What is a super-spreader and when does an epidemic become a pandemic? Here’s our guideAs the coronavirus spreads around the world and scientific understanding of the virus and the disease it causes grows, technical terms are increasingly bandied about. Here is a glossary of words that are cropping up in the context of the outbreak.Coronavirus Continue...

We must take care, but not lose sight of the bigger picture. Fixating on the virus means we often ignore wider social and economic prioritiesCoronavirus has become inescapable, with more than 100,000 confirmed cases and almost 4,000 deaths globally to date. Even for those of us who have not had direct contact with the virus, it has our attention. It dominates the news and our conversations....