Researchers find Sars-CoV-2 survives longer at lower temperatures and lasts 10 days longer than influenza on some surfaces Australian scientists have found that the virus that causes Covid-19 can survive for up to 28 days on surfaces such as the glass on mobile phones, stainless steel, vinyl and paper banknotes.The national science agency, the CSIRO, said the research undertaken at the Australian...

Guardian supporters around the world tell us about the sustainable lifestyle changes that they have committed to during lockdown – and beyond Support Guardian journalism today, by making a single or recurring contribution, or subscribingWe started to order food from the local store for curbside pickup. We went online and bought a freezer. Bought a food vacuum sealer and ordered bulk orders from...

Former Conservative leader says government should assess China’s influence in areas from 5G to Covid-19 researchChinese ownership of British businesses should be subject to a national security review by the UK government to assess the impact of Beijing’s growing economic power, according to the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.The senior backbencher – a leading figure in the...

Humour makes us more resilient, creative and resourceful – so is more important than ever during a pandemicFive years ago my brother awoke to dreadful news. His close friend was on a business trip in Mali, staying in the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako. It had been stormed by Islamist militants and, ultimately, 170 hostages were taken, 20 killed. My brother’s friend, a Canadian, was on the...

Boris Johnson to outline three-tier system of restrictions, with pubs closed and mixing bannedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMayors and local authorities in the north of England were given until midday on Sunday to submit their proposals for coronavirus restrictions as swathes of the country prepared for stricter lockdown rules.As metro mayors and local authorities...

Ancient artefacts from Samarkand will go on display in London before being returnedThe British Museum is to help repatriate six glazed tiles from a medieval memorial complex on the edge of Samarkand, which were brought into Heathrow in a suitcase.The man who smuggled them in after a flight from Dubai in January even forged paperwork declaring them as replicas that were “made to look old”. He...

The ‘Great Barrington declaration’ makes claims about herd immunity that its signatories have failed to back upCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA ski resort once crowned “the best small town in America” may seem an unlikely venue for three scientists to issue an edict about the global response to a pandemic. But Great Barrington, Massachusetts, is the home of...

BBC documentary shows fragile sunken vessel in which enslaved Africans died is being destroyed by trawlersA 17th-century English shipwreck, the world’s earliest vessel linked to the transatlantic slave trade, is facing complete destruction by 21st-century fishing trawlers.The 1680s Royal African Company trader – seen as a burial ground of slaves who perished on its final voyage – lies on the...

The west has been wary of China’s rise as a scientific superpower, but the pandemic has made it impossible to ignoreCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIt started badly, with gag orders, cover-ups and ignored offers of help from overseas, but then the Chinese government seized the narrative. It reined in the burgeoning epidemic of Covid-19 at home, and started exporting...

In an extract from his new book, a colleague recalls a meal with the mathematician who shared the 2020 Nobel prize in physicsI had the pleasure of meeting Roger Penrose, the great mathematician from Oxford, when he was passing through Italy for the Festival of Science in Genoa. Penrose is a polyhedral intellectual. Readers know him for several books, among them the dense and wonderful The Road to...