England’s medical chief gives three situations in which it would be important to wear face covering Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageProf Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, has set out three simple personal guidelines for when to continue wearing face masks after the Covid restrictions have been lifted.Boris Johnson and Whitty were asked at Monday’s...

Black patterns used to attract mates can cause the insects to overheat in hotter climatesMale dragonflies are losing the “bling” wing decorations that they use to entice the females as climates get hotter, according to new research.The results have led to the scientists calling for more work on whether this disparate evolution might lead to females no longer recognising males of their own...

My friend Tony Black, who has died at 89 of pneumonia and emphysema, was my predecessor as chief psychologist at Broadmoor, the high-security psychiatric hospital in Berkshire.The son of Walter, a civil servant, and Rose (nee Foster), a former nurse, Tony was born between the wars in Sanderstead, Surrey, into a secure, loving family. Early experiences of growing up with a mentally and physically...

Endurance22 will launch early next year with aim of locating and surveying wreck in the Weddell SeaThe location of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance has been one of the great maritime mysteries since the ship became trapped in ice and sank in 1915. Finding this symbol of the “heroic age” of polar exploration at the bottom of the Weddell Sea was long thought impossible because of the...

At the furthest point in its orbit, Earth is now 5m kilometres more distant from the sun than in JanuaryToday the Earth reaches the furthest point in its orbit around the sun. We are about 5m kilometres more distant from our central star than we were in early January.This happens because Earth’s orbit is mildly elliptical in shape. The point at which Earth is furthest from the sun is known as...