Project to revive climate-boosting wonder plant in Pembrokeshire could spur similar schemesSeagrass is a wonder plant but unrecognised and sorely neglected. This is a flowering plant with long ribbon-like leaves that often grows in the sea in lush underwater meadows.It is an unsung hero in the fight to clean up carbon dioxide and the climate emergency. Its credentials are astonishing: it absorbs...

Readers express their frustration with the utter shambles of England’s test-and-trace regimeDespite what Matt Hancock says, there just aren’t enough tests available (Report, 15 September). There are still no routine tests for medical professionals and other frontline services. Paramedics I have spoken to in Liverpool have been tested only once in the past six months and attend emergencies not...

Oil and gas companies make far more money churning out new plastic than reusing old. Meanwhile, the public gets the blamePlastic recycling is a scam. You diligently sort your rubbish, you dutifully wash your plastic containers, then everything gets tossed in a landfill or thrown in the ocean anyway. OK, maybe not everything – but the vast majority of it. According to one analysis, only 9% of all...

Responding to coronavirus with an over-centralised and semi-privatised design was never going to turn out wellCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCovid-19 was never going to be easy to tackle. It’s contagious. It can be spread by infected people who have no symptoms. And it is lethal for a considerable proportion of the population. Furthermore, in the absence of an...

Experts warn the long-term effects of virus are causing an ‘epidemic in primary care’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTens of thousands of people may require kidney dialysis or transplants because of coronavirus, according to experts who warn the long-term effects of Covid are causing an “epidemic in primary care”.Up to 90% of coronavirus patients admitted to...

Chief epidemiologist puts low number of cases down to light-touch ‘sustainable’ approachCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWhile many European countries are seeing their infection rates surge to levels not seen since the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sweden – whose light-touch approach has made it an international outlier – has recorded the fewest daily cases...

The discovery of phosphine in the planet’s atmosphere is part of our long search to understand our place in the universeThe recent detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, the excitement around several spacecraft currently bound for Mars and discoveries of distant rocky Earth-sized exoplanets fuel an optimism about extraterrestrial life. However, despite the promise, there are good...

Covid has got experts thinking urgently about the risk of diseases passing from farmed animals to humans. We examine the major outbreaks of the past two centuries Continue reading...

In climate change, the Four Horsemen have a perfect force of destruction. Maybe these fires and floods will be a wake-up call to stop stallingAs the west coast burns into an orange hellscape you have to wonder if those preaching the end of time aren’t on to something. The people smart enough to make a cellphone have been warning that we have no more than a decade to tamp down the climate crisis....

Key government adviser cautioned PM against setting 10m daily testing target Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA key government adviser has said he warned Boris Johnson not to describe his mass coronavirus testing plan as a “moonshot” and cautioned against setting a target of carrying out 10m tests a day.As ministers faced further criticism over the struggling...

You can’t just ‘solve’ big complex problems like coronavirus, they need steady and unshowy work. This narrative is just a distractionThere are some words that, when used with respect to technology, bring about a collective groan, slump of the shoulders and eye-roll from the broader tech community. It’s normally on stage at a big conference, or in a newspaper headline, or in an elevator...

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...

Pandemic could result in a ‘lost decade’ for developing countries says co-chair of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in stark reportThe world’s poorest countries risk a lost decade of development unless leaders move quickly to help them recover from the fallout of Covid-19, Melinda Gates told the Guardian.The co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has committed $350m...

Would you be willing to have a dose of Sars-CoV-2 sprayed up your nose for medical research? For thousands around the world, the answer is yes. Eager volunteers have already signed up to take part in human challenge trials, where participants would be deliberately infected with the virus in order to better understand the disease, and rapidly develop a treatment or vaccine. But should such studies...