For too many, Johnson’s ‘freedom day’ will bring fear rather than release“The purpose of the state is freedom,” the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote. Its aim is to liberate everyone from fear, he argued, “so that they may live in security so far as is possible, that is, so that they may retain, to the highest possible degree, their right to live and to act without harm to...

Animal Resource Centre decision catches many researchers off guard as others urge Australia to phase out animal researchDownload the free Guardian app; Get our morning email briefingA major supplier of laboratory animals to Australian researchers since 1988 will close within the next 18 months due to financial difficulties, renewing debate about the use of animals in medical and scientific...

Research combines data from fossils with climate models, revealing the effect of climate on body and brain sizeA well-known pattern in human evolution is an increase in body and brain size. Our species, Homo sapiens, is part of the Homo genus and emerged about 300,000 years ago. We are much bigger than earlier Homo species and have brains three times larger than humans who lived a million years...

Fibromyalgia sufferer Vicky Naylor was successfully managing her condition – until she developed Covid-19. In the second part of our exploration of chronic pain, the Guardian science correspondent Linda Geddes tells Anand Jagatia what we know about the connection between chronic pain, Covid and mental health, and why it affects women more than men Continue...

The fossil-fuel multinationals fund ‘thinktanks’ and ‘research institutes’. But it’s gullible public service broadcasters that give them credibilityYes, we should rake over the coals. And the oil, and the gas. Democratic accountability means remembering who helped to stoke the climate crisis. We should hold the fossil fuel companies to account.In 1979, an internal study by Exxon...

Too often the prevailing attitude seems to be: ‘They’re knackered and lonely – what do you expect?’When I was a kid, I couldn’t understand why old people weren’t in a constant state of panic. I would look at my grandad, sitting there quietly reading the Birmingham Evening Mail, and wonder how he could stay so calm. How come he wasn’t as horrified as I was at the prospect of him dying...

Exclusive: Exscientia to use AI in proposed fast-track development of ‘low-cost’ pill for Sars virusesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageExscientia, an Oxford-based firm that uses artificial intelligence to develop medicines, has won a $1.5m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a Covid-19 treatment that also works for new mutations or other...

Doctors say children haven’t been exposed to range of bugs due to lockdowns, distancing and sanitiser and their immune systems are sufferingNew Zealand hospitals are experiencing the payoff of “immunity debt” created by Covid-19 lockdowns, with wards flooded by babies with a potentially-deadly respiratory virus, doctors have warned.Wellington has 46 children currently hospitalised for...

Measure increases the likelihood that the Games in Japan will be held without a single spectatorSee all our coronavirus coverageJapan’s government is to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo that will be in force during the Olympics, as the capital battles a sharp rise in coronavirus infections.The measure, expected to be made official by the prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, later on Thursday,...

More than 8 million women globally have taken the BGI test, which the US sees as a national security threatA prenatal test taken by millions of pregnant women globally was developed by Chinese gene company BGI Group in collaboration with the Chinese military and is being used by the firm to collect genetic data, a Reuters review of publicly available documents has found.The report is the first to...

More people died of cold than heat in past 20 years but climate change is shifting the balance More than 5 million people die each year globally because of excessively hot or cold conditions, a 20-year study has found – and heat-related deaths are on the rise. Continue...

More than 100 scientists and doctors say move risks creating a generation with problems due to long CovidCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLifting the remaining Covid restrictions in England this month is “dangerous and premature”, according to international scientists and doctors, who have called on the UK government to pause reopening until more people are...