From government systems to family units to our own psyches, the pandemic brought revelation. What will we change?A retreating ocean is often the first sign of a tsunami. The water along the shoreline is dragged back dramatically, exposing parts of the shore and seabed that are normally underwater.It’s helpful to frame the first two years of the pandemic in similar terms to this ocean drawback....

Messages may contain unhinged expletives, threatening tropes … or one of my interviews set to musicCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage“You scaremongering ignorant fucking cunt, you and your retarded team made predictions that could have fucked this country for billions of pounds, fucked Christmas for a second time and cost thousands thier [sic] jobs only to have your...

Exclusive: Guardian survey shows level of intimidation, including death threats, against scientific and medical advisersCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe “appalling” scale of abuse, intimidation and threatening behaviour directed at the UK government’s scientific and medical advisers has been laid bare in a Guardian survey of experts working on the...

Paxlovid found to be ‘safe and effective’ at reducing hospitalisation and death among vulnerable adultsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageUK regulators have approved Pfizer’s “life-saving” antiviral drug Paxlovid, which boasts nearly 90% success in preventing severe illness among vulnerable adults if taken soon after becoming infected with Covid-19.The...

Scientists are working at speed to assess transmission rates, vaccine effectiveness and severity of casesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageSince the first cases of Omicron were reported in the UK just over a month ago it has spread rapidly across the UK, fuelling a surge of infections. But scientists have also been working at speed. Here is an overview of the expanding...

Scientific consensus absent as impasse between China and west continues to hamper tracing effortCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageRobert Garry, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane medical school in Louisiana, got a call from his university management telling him that agents from the FBI and CIA had requested a chat about his research into the origins of...

Covid expert hopeful about signs variant makes people less ill but warns restrictions still neededCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageGermany’s leading coronavirus expert has expressed optimism that his country could expect a “relatively normal” winter in 2022, after data from other countries firmed up the impression that infections with the Omicron variant of...

A look back at 12 months of key summits, devastating weather and alarming discoveriesThe year began with a counting up of the damage after the catastrophic extreme weather events of 2020, from fires to floods. Looking at the US alone, California more than doubled its previous annual wildfire record with more than 1.7m hectares (4.1m acres) burned and Nasa concluded that 2020 had been the joint...

In December 2019 the WHO was told of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China. These charts show how Covid-19 has spread across the world since thenSee all our coronavirus coverageTwo years ago today, as New Year’s Eve fireworks lit up skies across the world, news reached the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of “pneumonia” in Wuhan, China, the cause of which was...

Travellers will now be required to return a negative rapid antigen test instead of a PCR test before travel as state records 3,118 new casesFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingVaccine rollout and rates tracker; Cases and data trackerQueensland is due to change travel restrictions into the state despite a surge in fresh...

Analysis by Zoe Covid app team shows increase from about 50% last week, with cases among 55- to 75-year-olds ‘rising sharply’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThree-quarters of people in the UK with new cold-like symptoms are likely to have Covid, but the rate of case growth is no longer exponential, scientists have said.According to analysis by the Zoe Covid study,...

Key to understanding the next part of the pandemic will be the number, and length, of hospitalisationsPublic holidays are notoriously difficult for epidemiologists – people may avoid or delay both testing and hospital visits, making for slightly unreliable numbers. But some things are still clear from the latest Covid data released by the government. Omicron is now responsible for more than 90%...

SpaceX founder says planned 42,000-strong network will not dominate slots or radio frequenciesElon Musk has rejected criticisms that his company is taking up too much room in space, saying his tens of thousands of planned satellites would be able to coexist with many others.As well as building up Tesla into the world’s most valuable carmaker by pioneering electric cars, Musk has shaken up the...

I can endure anger, pain and frustration without the need to scream. But I realised that that could, in fact, be a problem. So I travelled to the countryside to try yellingIn the summer of 2020, the London-based psychotherapist Zoë Aston hit the headlines with a scream-therapy campaign she had devised for the Icelandic tourism board. On a website called Looks Like You Need Iceland, visitors were...

From electrons behaving as both particles and waves to a cat in a box that’s both dead and alive, the consequences of quantum physics are decidedly weird. So strange, that over a century since its conception, scientists are still arguing about the best way to understand the theory.In the second of two episodes, Ian Sample sits down with the physicist Carlo Rovelli to discuss his ideas for...

‘Hell herons’, metallic beetles, tiny shrimp – scientists have been busy describing unusual creatures despite Covid restrictionsSix new dinosaurs, an Indian beetle named after Larry the cat, and dozens of crustaceans critical to the planet’s carbon cycle were among 552 new species identified by scientists at the Natural History Museum this year.In 2021, researchers described previously...

Party says ministers failing to stand up to social media giants as posters continue to churn out disinformationCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMinisters have been urged to take tougher action against companies that fail to stamp out anti-vaccination content online, as it was revealed posters with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media are still churning...

In time for new year resolutions, a cultural historian chooses some of the best guides to making a better life, dating back to some of our earliest literatureIt is easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we must also take self-help more seriously. Valued at $11bn (£8bn) worldwide, self-help is a major global industry. It both reflects...

Restrictions return in China, South Africa and Germany as countries around the world struggle to contain new variantCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe World Health Organization has warned that the Omicron coronavirus variant could lead to overwhelmed healthcare systems even though early studies suggest it sparks milder disease, as daily case records fell across...

Scientists say ancient human DNA can be recovered from the cement made by head lice to stick eggs to hairAn unusual source of ancient human DNA could help scientists unpick details of our ancestors’ lives and answer longstanding questions. The source? Nit glue.Scientists studying mummified remains from South America that date back 1,500-2,000 years say they have recovered ancient human DNA from...

My father, Alan Ward, who has died aged 96, was a physicist who profoundly influenced science education in Africa.Born in Woodford, Essex, to Ursula (nee Vale) and Edward Ward, who worked in a bank, Alan went to Chichester high school for boys in West Sussex. Following a wartime degree in physics at the University of Birmingham, he completed a PhD in 1949, after which he was sent by the Atomic...

The US has cut the self-isolation period to five days, while in England it is seven with negative testsThe US has announced it is cutting the recommended self-isolation time with Covid to five days. How long are people with Covid infectious for, and why do the rules vary between countries?What are the rules for self-isolation in the UK? Continue...

Amenhotep I ‘unwrapped’ digitally by Cairo scientists, revealing details from his grave jewellery to his teethWith his narrow chin, small nose and curly hair he physically resembles his father, said radiologist Sahar Saleem. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who lived about 3,500 years ago, he also has strikingly good teeth.Saleem is talking about the mummified body of the pharaoh Amenhotep I,...

It has been more than a century since the groundwork of quantum physics was first formulated and yet the consequences of the theory still elude both scientists and philosophers. Why does light sometimes behave as a wave, and other times as a particle? Why does the outcome of an experiment apparently depend on whether the particles are being observed or not? In the first of two episodes, Ian Sample...