Pictures taken by Perseverance rover show how water helped shape planet’s landscape billions of years agoImages from Mars reveal how water helped shape the red planet’s landscape billions of years ago, and provide clues that will guide the search for evidence of ancient life, according to a new study.In February, Nasa’s Perseverance rover landed in Jezero crater, where scientists suspected a...

Material retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft sheds new light on the moon at a time when it was thought to be cooling downGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingAnalysis of the youngest lunar material ever retrieved suggests that the moon was volcanically active for longer than previously expected.China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft retrieved 1.7kg of lunar material when it...

The rage we all feel today will create the politics of tomorrow. I’m not sure we’re ready for thatEvery chapter of this pandemic has had its attendant emotions – and since we’re all in this together, it’s possible to sense a collective emotional experience along with the physical experience of lockdowns and restrictions.Initially there was confusion, then deep fear and anxiety, then when...

Jabs could begin within weeks if US government approves request, with children getting a third of dose given to adultsPfizer asked the US government Thursday to allow use of its Covid-19 vaccine in children ages five to 11 – and if regulators agree, shots could begin within a matter of weeks.Many parents and pediatricians are clamoring for protection for children younger than 12, today’s age...

Highlights of the Royal Society of Biology’s photography competition 2021, from ants feasting on honeydew to zebras drinking in the savannah Continue reading...

Not for the first time, England is Europe’s odd one out – which may be why its neighbours are achieving better Covid outcomesOnly two months after being forced at the last minute to “cancel Christmas” in 2020, Boris Johnson committed to a “cautious and prudent” roadmap out of lockdown that recognised the evolving epidemiology of the virus. But memories are short. On 19 July, all social...

Our powers of reason have undoubtedly made the world a better place. So why are we so in thrall to fake news? ‘Rationality ought to be the lodestar of everything we think or do.” This is the opening sentence of Steven Pinker’s call for a return to reason at a time when critical thinking and the grounding of belief in evidence is in short supply. Everyone, he argues, should want to be...

Last week the pharmaceutical company Merck released promising early data on a pill for Covid-19, which trials suggest halves hospitalisations and deaths. So what do we know about this experimental treatment? Madeleine Finlay talks to the Guardian’s science correspondent Hannah Devlin about whether this antiviral could be a gamechanger. And as some UK experts warn ‘there isn’t much A&E...