15 articles from SUNDAY 3.10.2021

Sir Antony Hewish obituary

Radio astronomer who won the Nobel prize for physics for his role in the discovery of pulsarsIn 1967, a team led by the radio astronomer Antony Hewish, who has died aged 97, discovered pulsars, rapidly pulsating radio sources that turned out to be due to rotating, magnetised neutron stars, the ultra-dense collapsed remnants of massive stars. This was one of the most exciting astronomical events of...

Covid: scientists warn UK may have worst to come; Israel tightens vaccine passport rules – as it happened

Fears the indoor socialising will spread virus in UK; Israel says people only eligible for green pass if they have received a booster jab. This live blog has closed – for the latest on the global Covid situation, please see our dedicated pageUK might not be over the worst, scientists warnNew Zealand widens Covid lockdown as Delta spreadsUK to slash international travel ‘red list’ to just...

Jim Townsley obituary

My father, Jim Townsley, who has died aged 85, was a gentle, generous and thoughtful man who spent his working life as an industrial chemist. In retirement, his aptitude for listening, understanding and supporting the emotional needs of others found expression through voluntary work as a trained counsellor.Born in Ilford, east London, to Jim Sr, a post office worker, and Gertrude (nee Knight), a...

Rules and advice don’t slow the spread of the virus – human behaviour does | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

Surveys can help us understand how the pandemic is influenced by our choicesRecent queues for fuel have shown the consequences of abrupt changes in behaviour. Almost as sudden were the changes around the first lockdown in March 2020, when close meetings between people plummeted by about three-quarters. We know this through the CoMix contact survey from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical...