Sheltering under translucent quartz stones shields the moss from heat, cold, drought and intense ultraviolet raysA small moss growing in the Mojave desert in California uses a remarkable protection from the desert sun – it shelters under translucent quartz stones. It is a miniature greenhouse that shields the moss from heat, cold, drought and intense ultraviolet rays.The desert gets extremely...

The government’s desire to pass the buck could put more lives in dangerThe decision to scrap Public Health England in the middle of a pandemic that has claimed 65,000 British lives is cynical and wrong. Few will be persuaded by the attempts of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to portray it as turning a crisis into an opportunity.The opportunity here is purportedly to better serve the public...

Scott Morrison says Canberra has pursued the Oxford vaccine because it is ‘one of the most advanced and promising in the world’Australian stats interactive; Vic cases map; NSW cases map; NSW hotspots listState by state Covid restrictions; Melbourne stage 4 restrictions; Vic stage 3 rulesThe Morrison government says it has reached an agreement with the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca...

The speedy Somali sengi had been lost to science until an expedition to DjiboutiA mouse-sized elephant shrew that had been lost to science for 50 years has been discovered alive and well in the Horn of Africa.The Somali sengi mates for life, can race around at 30km/h and sucks up ants with its trunk-like nose. But it had not been documented by researchers since 1968. Continue...

More than 170 teams of researchers are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine. Here is their progressResearchers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against Covid-19, with more than 170 candidate vaccines now tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO). Continue...

New research suggests that children are at minimal risk, yet their education has suffered greatlyMatthew Snape is associate professor in paediatrics and vaccinology at Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford Department of PaediatricsInto the debate about the full reopening schools across the UK comes some good news from Public Health England (PHE), confirming that children and adolescents are...

As a trial of the revised English coronavirus app gets under way, many of us will be watching closely to see what it can and cannot do, and whether it could help to contain Covid-19. But alongside issues of efficacy are other, deeper questions about what this technology means for the citizens who use it – today and in the future. Split over two episodes, Ian Sample talks to Carly Kind and Seeta...