Dwarf planet, believed to be a barren space rock, has an ‘extensive reservoir’ of brine beneath its surface, images showThe dwarf planet Ceres – long believed to be a barren space rock – is an ocean world with reservoirs of sea water beneath its surface, the results of a major exploration mission showed on Monday.Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and...

Enhanced photosynthesis holds promise of higher yields in a drought-afflicted futureTobacco plants have been modified with a protein found in algae to improve their photosynthesis and increase growth, while using less water, in a new advance that could point the way to higher-yielding crops in a drought-afflicted future.The technique focuses on photosynthesis, the complex process by which plants...

Physician who created the UK’s first liver transplant programme and worked with George Best to highlight the dangers of alcoholThe six-decade career of Roger Williams, who has died at the age of 88 after suffering a heart attack, lay at the heart of an astonishing transformation in liver medicine.In 1968, while a hepatologist at King’s College hospital in London, he teamed up with the...

The solutions to today’s hard onesEarlier today I set you the following puzzle:Six friends – Babs, Charles, Hattie, Joan, Kenneth and Sid – are going camping in France. They are travelling across the Channel on a magic carpet that can take only two people at a time. So, in order for everyone to get across there will need to be 9 trips in total from their starting point in England: 5 across...

Research suggests 50% greater risk for children whose mothers report using cannabisChildren born to mothers who report using cannabis during pregnancy have about a 50% greater risk of developing autism, research suggests.While the team behind the work said more research was needed to unpick whether cannabis itself was behind the link, they said the results were concerning. Continue...

Sir, your puzzle is so hard!Today’s puzzle is a seasonal update of a cherished gem of British culture: the river-crossing puzzle, in which people travel back-and forth across a stretch of water in a very small vessel. The earliest-known river-crossing puzzles appear in a manuscript by Alcuin of York in the eighth century.Another British cultural artefact from a distant age is the Carry On film....

US cases pass 5m; French virus ship passengers sue cruise company; UK daily infections pass 1,000 for first time since June. Follow the latest updatesGlobal infections near 20mGreece sees highest daily case riseUS passes 5m Covid-19 cases as Joe Biden says pandemic ‘breaks heart’Brazil scientist’s despair as coronavirus deaths hit 100,000See all our coronavirus coverage 12.54am BST The...