19 articles from FRIDAY 1.1.2021

Extend Covid measures or households face 'cliff edges', says Labour

Universal credit boost, ban on evictions and mortgage holiday must continue, party saysSee all our coronavirus coverageMany low- and middle-income households will face financial hardship unless ministers maintain support for those who have lost their jobs or experienced steep cuts in income during the second wave of Covid-19, Labour has said.The shadow chancellor, Anneliese Dodds, said in a new...

Comb of a lifetime: a new method for fluorescence microscopy

Conventional fluorescence microscopy provides poor quantitative information of the sample because it only captures fluorescence intensity, which changes frequently and depends on external factors. Now, scientists have developed a new fluorescence microscopy technique to measure both fluorescence intensity and lifetime. Their method does not require mechanical scanning of a focal point; instead, it...

Coronavirus live news: Turkey bans arrivals from Britain after variant cases confirmed; 53,285 new UK infections

Latest updates: 15 cases of UK variant confirmed in Turkey; 613 Covid-linked deaths recorded in UK; France to impose earlier curfews in 15 departmentsBioNTech criticises EU failure to order enough Covid vaccineKey London hospital preparing for Covid-only care as cases surgeNew coronavirus variant may have been in US since OctoberUK doctors despair over public’s disregard for rulesSee all our...

Ministers urged to strip away red tape to hit UK vaccine rollout target

GPs say 24/7 vaccine centres and recruiting retired health workers could help reach goal Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageRed tape should be stripped away to allow retired health workers help the coronavirus vaccine effort and vaccination centres should open around the clock to meet the target of immunising 30 million people by the summer, ministers have been told.So...

Here's what to look forward to in space for 2021

A January meteor show and a space mission to find out whether life ever existed on Mars are just two of the many space-related events to look forward to in 2021. While we can’t predict everything that will happen out there, we can tell you it's going to be an exciting 12 months. Here's what you can expect this...

The pandemic taught us how not to deal with climate change.

There’s a case to be made that 2020, for all the sacrifices it demanded and tragedies it inflicted, could at least mark a turning point on climate change. It’s now possible that global oil demand and greenhouse-gas emissions may have already peaked in 2019, since the pandemic could slow economic growth for years, accelerate the demise of coal, and bring about long-lasting declines in...

Giving people false hope about the pandemic isn't 'balanced' – it's dangerous | Owen Jones

The media should not promote disinformation under the guise of debateCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageProfessor Karol Sikora, an oncologist at the private Buckingham University, has become a social media star and a regular on TV screens, thanks to his viral tweets. You can see why the “Positive Professor” has developed such a wide fanbase: in an era of death,...

Comb of a lifetime: a new method for fluorescence microscopy

Conventional fluorescence microscopy provides poor quantitative information of the sample because it only captures fluorescence intensity, which changes frequently and depends on external factors. Now, scientists from Japan have developed a new fluorescence microscopy technique to measure both fluorescence intensity and lifetime. Their method does not require mechanical scanning of a focal point;...

Nanoparticle drug-delivery system developed to treat brain disorders

To facilitate successful delivery of therapeutic agents to the brain, a team of bioengineers, physicians, and collaborators at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital created a nanoparticle platform, which can facilitate therapeutically effective delivery of encapsulated agents in mice with a physically breached or intact BBB. In a mouse model of traumatic brain injury (TBI),...