Policy will only apply to named staff in approved workplaces who are fully vaccinatedWorkers from 16 key services including health, transport and energy will not have to isolate after being pinged by the NHS Covid app, as it was revealed that more than 600,000 people in England and Wales were sent self-isolation alerts last week.The raft of changes, after days of frantic talks with industry...

Hospitals are filling up, especially in areas with low vaccinationsCDC offers no change in guidance on mask wearingThe US is “at another pivotal moment in this pandemic” as rising Covid-19 cases show no signs of abating, driven by the Delta variant, and some hospitals are filling up, especially in areas with low vaccination rates, government officials warned on Thursday.The US government did...

Sulphur-crested cockatoos are learning to pry open bins, with researchers finding the new skill has caught on in 44 Sydney suburbs in just two years. With help from the public, Australian and German ecologists have documented cockatoos learning the bin-diving behaviour through social interactions. The research, published in the journal Science, also found differences in the cockatoos’...

Scientists say efforts to increase vaccinations by tactics seen as coercive are less useful than good communication via role modelsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageClearer information and messages from role models are needed to boost Covid vaccination uptake among young people, experts have said, as figures showed that fewer than 60% of 18- to 25-year-olds had received...

Several factors, including the portion of those at highest risk among the double-vaccinated and antibody levels, account for the dataCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe next wave of Covid will be different. When cases soared in spring and winter last year lockdowns rapidly brought them back under control. This time it will be vaccines that do the hard work.But Covid...

Chest-mounted video camera and vibrating wristbands developed by US team reduce collisions by 37% in small study Vibrating wristbands could help visually impaired people to avoid collisions when out and about, a study indicates.According to the NHS, about 360,000 people in the UK alone are registered as blind or partially sighted, with long canes and guide dogs among the methods used to help...

AlphaFold program’s prediction of nearly 20,000 human protein structures now free for researchersLast year the artificial intelligence group DeepMind cracked a mystery that has flummoxed scientists for decades: stripping bare the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life. Now, having amassed a database of nearly all human protein structures, the company is making the resource available...

The flight by the Amazon boss could mark the unchecked commercial exploitation of the ultimate virgin environmentOne very small step for mankind, one giant ego trip for Jeff Bezos. The world’s richest man ejaculated himself into space this week, in what was not quite the first suborbital tourist flight – Richard Branson beat him up there – but definitely the fastest. “Everybody who’s...

Exclusive: Waning antibody levels are possible warning sign of lower protection in months after vaccination Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageScientists have backed proposals for Covid boosters in the autumn after blood tests on hundreds of people revealed that protective antibodies can wane substantially within weeks of second vaccine shots being given.Falls in...

Research suggests that chronic loneliness may be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. But do we know what loneliness actually is?As a clinical psychologist who specializes in friendships and social connection, I am deeply concerned about the feelings of loneliness that so many of us are experiencing.Three in five American adults report feeling lonely and 18% (roughly 46 million...

WHO proposal to audit Chinese laboratories is ‘arrogance towards science’, says health ministerCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChina’s government has refused to cooperate with the second stage of an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19, labelling a proposal to audit Chinese labs as “arrogance towards science”.Chinese health officials...

On a visit to the UK from the US, I have seen how incoherent government policy is allowing Delta to run rampantWilliam Hanage is a Harvard epidemiology professorEngland ended all pandemic restrictions on Monday. Nightclubs reopened, along with other large events and gatherings – with masks, testing and other mitigation measures “encouraged” (which is another way of saying “optional”)....

Researchers find ‘significant relationship’ between stony coral tissue loss disease and nearby shippingA virulent and fast-moving coral disease that has swept through the Caribbean could be linked to waste or ballast water from ships, according to research.The deadly infection, known as stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), was first identified in Florida in 2014, and has since moved...

The politics of this new, extreme individualism will make collective responses to social crises impossibleSoon, a few of the more shameless newspaper commentators will urge the rest of us to “learn to live” with climate breakdown. Soon, a couple of especially sharp-elbowed cabinet ministers will sigh to the Spectator that, yes, carbon emissions should ideally be slashed – but we must make a...

Scott Morrison apologises for missing vaccine targets as New South Wales reports record cases during fourth week of stay-at-home orderSee all our coronavirus coverageAustralia’s prime minister has apologised for failures in the disastrous coronavirus vaccine rollout as cases in the states of New South Wales and Victoria grew further despite millions living in lockdown.One day after notably...

Shinzo Abe ‘not attending’ opening ceremony in Tokyo; US president says it is ‘gigantically important’ that Americans get vaccinated; YouTube removes Bolsonaro videosStark silence in Tokyo speaks volumes about Olympic fears‘Never thought this would happen in France’: day one of vaccine passFiji records its highest number of weekly deaths from CovidSee all our coronavirus coverage...

We learned in our previous episode about the very real consequences that extreme heat has on human health and wellbeing, but there is little research into what actually happens to our bodies when exposed to extreme heat apart from in the world of sports science. In the second part of our discussion, as fears mount that the Tokyo Olympics will be the hottest on record and the world gears up for...

Guardian Australia picture editor Carly Earl explains the dos and don’ts of taking pictures of the July 2021 full moon, which is also known as the buck or thunder moon.When a full moon rises, many people will pull out their mobile phones to try and get an Instagram-worthy photograph, but unfortunately the moon is really challenging to get a great photo of.Two reasons: it is very far away and...