Accolade reflects how use of the short form of ‘vaccine’ rose by 72 times in a year and spread across societyIn a year when talk over the virtual garden fence has focused on whether you have been jabbed, jagged or had both doses yet, and whether it was Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna you were injected with, Oxford Languages has chosen vax as its word of the year.After deciding last year that it...

A scientist and gifted speaker makes a convincing case for calm, informed discussions in the race to avert catastropheIt’s not an exaggeration to say that Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World is one of the more important books about climate change to have been written. Much of the literature to date feeds the appetite of readers who are already...

Last-minute rush of jabs boost vaccination rate to 83% Fox News host gets death threats for vaccinations pleaOne in six New York City municipal workers remained unvaccinated after a Friday deadline to show proof of at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, the city said.Despite opposition the city’s vaccine mandate fuelled by rightwing politicians and media and leading to a protest at City Hall...

Evidence from animal remains shows Norse seafarers settled on the islands centuries before Portuguese explorersThey came from the land of the ice and snow and the midnight sun – but still ended up in some balmy destinations. This is the conclusion of researchers who have discovered evidence to support the idea that the Vikings settled on the clement shores of the Azores several hundred years...

Tens of thousands of people are turning to the drug to treat a range of conditions – but the evidence is patchy and costs can be highWhen Helen was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in her early 40s, her doctor prescribed her a range of opioids. She tried morphine, meperidine and a few others, but none helped ease the constant pain her chronic condition caused.Long before medicinal cannabis was legal...

Losing weight may be tough, but keeping it off, research tells us, is tougher – just not for the reasons you might thinkAs the director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University, Massachusetts, Susan Roberts has spent much of the past two decades studying ways to fight the obesity epidemic that continues to plague much of the western world.But time and again, Roberts and other...

My debut novel is full of the brothers and sisters who were absent though my childhoodPeople often ask me about my brothers and sisters. They have read my debut novel, Girl A, and they expect to find my own family, encrypted in the fiction. There are seven siblings in the Gracie family in my book and between them there is caustic rage, begrudging respect, tenderness and cruelty. Too much love and...

The veteran scientist on Trump’s limited impact, Russia’s ruthless climate stance and on the urgency of COP26 in GlasgowProf Peter Stott is a forensic climate detective who examines the human fingerprint on extreme weather. A specialist in mathematics, he leads the climate monitoring and attribution team of the Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services at the Met Office in Exeter and was...

Scientists say keeping temperature rises to 1.5C is vital physical threshold for planet that cannot be negotiated The 1.5C temperature limit to be discussed by world leaders at critical meetings this weekend is a vital physical threshold for the planet’s climate, and not an arbitrary political construct that can be haggled over, leading climate scientists have warned.World leaders are meeting in...

Nine new cases in ACT as Melbourne and Victoria’s regions reunited and major events to be held at Flemington Racecourse and Sidney Myer Music BowlVictorian Covid restrictions: what rules and regulations have changed?Vaccine rollout tracker; cases and data trackerBiden admits to Macron the US was ‘clumsy’ in Aukus submarine dealGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingWe’re...

Foraging bees keep away from centre of colony when infested with mites, find researchersIn the past 18 months humans have become all too familiar with the term “social distancing”. But it turns out we are not the only ones to give our peers a wide berth when our health may be at risk: research suggests honeybees do it too.Scientists have found that when a hive of honeybees is under threat from...

Prof Stuart Russell says field of artificial intelligence needs to grow up quickly to ensure humans remain in controlA scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb.Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial...

Coronavirus-induced parosmia is surprisingly common and the sensory confusion can have profound effectsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageDeirdre likens her body odour to raw onions; Deepak says his favourite aftershave smells foul, and coffee like cleaning products; Julie thinks coffee and chocolate both smell like burnt ashes.Most people are aware that a cardinal...

How to save the world, by counting to zero: the Guardian's Phoebe Weston breaks down all the climate jargon we have been hearing in the run-up to Cop26, the make-or-break climate summit starting on Sunday, and explains what we – and most importantly, our governments – need to do to help protect our planet and its futureWhy are wildfires getting worse? – video explainerClimate change is...

The virus won’t disappear – it will just become endemic. But it could still put pressure on health systems in years to comeAs Cop26 gets under way in Glasgow this weekend, one collective action problem is taking centre stage against the backdrop of another. Covid-19 has been described as a dress rehearsal for our ability to solve the bigger problem of the climate crisis, so it seems important...

Final preparations begin for Nasa’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to moonNasa’s Orion crew capsule has been secured to the top of the Space Launch System rocket at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Final preparations are beginning for the first uncrewed launch in Nasa’s Artemis programme to return astronauts to the moon.The fully stacked rocket stands at 322ft (98 metres), about...

Heads of man, woman and child found on site of Stoke Mandeville church built in 1080 and abandoned 800 years laterRoman statues of a man, woman and child have been uncovered by archaeologists at an abandoned medieval church on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway.The discovery was “utterly astounding”, according to Rachel Wood, the lead archaeologist at the site in Stoke Mandeville,...

Species was direct ancestor of early humans in Africa and discovery has led to reassessment of epochResearchers have announced the naming of a newly discovered species of human ancestor, Homo bodoensis.The species lived in Africa about 500,000 years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene age, and was the direct ancestor of modern humans, according to scientists. The name bodoensis derives from a skull...

Simon Clarke explained his absence from pre-budget photo op was due to condition that affects thousands in UKA minister has been praised for “leading by example” after he spoke openly about his experience of agoraphobia, a condition that leads to thousands of hospital admissions every year.Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said on Wednesday he would not take part in the...

Physicist hailed as the father of Pakistan’s atomic weapons industry who confessed to smuggling nuclear secretsThe father of Pakistan’s atomic weapons industry and the greatest proliferator of nuclear weapons in history, Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has died aged 85 after testing positive for Covid-19, was heralded as a hero in his native country, but he left a troubling legacy for the west. Along...

Tuberculosis campaigners tell G20 leaders $1bn is needed annually for vaccine research to reverse decades of underfundingA group of tuberculosis survivors are calling for more funding and action to find new vaccines, after the numbers dying of the infection rose for the first time in 10 years.In 2020, 1.5 million were killed by TB and 10 million infected, according to the World Health...

The clocks go back in the UK this Sunday and many will welcome the extra hour in bed. But research suggests that changing the time like this could be bad for the body. Anand Jagatia speaks to the Guardian’s science correspondent Linda Geddes and chronobiologist Prof Till Roenneberg about how daylight saving time affects our biology – and whether we should get rid of it permanently Continue...

Finds at Richborough include skeleton of cat nicknamed Maxipus and potential evidence of figurative arena panelsA big night out for the people of the Roman settlement at Richborough on the Kent coast about 2,000 years ago might have involved gladiatorial contests, wild beast hunting or the occasional execution of a criminal.Taking place in a vast amphitheatre, seating up to 5,000 people, on the...

Study is the first time DNA from a long-dead person was used to demonstrate a familial link between a living individual and a historical figureA sample of Sitting Bull’s hair has helped scientists confirm that a South Dakota man is the famed 19th-century Native American leader’s great-grandson using a new method to analyse family lineages with DNA fragments from long-dead people.Researchers...