Latest figures show protection against hospitalisation for over-65s at 90% three months after third jabCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA fourth Covid vaccine shot is not yet needed, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said, as booster shots are still providing strong protection against severe disease from Omicron in older people.Latest figures show...
Likely to contain dozens of undiscovered species, the site is so well-preserved that the contents of fish stomachs and breathing apparatus of spiders can be seenThe Australian paleontologist Matthew McCurry was digging for Jurassic fossils when a farmer dropped by with news of something he’d seen in his paddock – a fossilised leaf in a piece of hard brown rock.Fossil leaves are not usually...
Palaeontologists from the Australian Museum have made a remarkable discovery outside of a small town in New South Wales, Australia. Encased in the hard brown rocks of McGrath's Flat are the inhabitants of a rainforest that existed about 15 million years ago. Thousands of fossils have been revealed – from flowering plants to fruits and seeds, insects, spiders, pollen and fish Continue...
After missteps and controversy, the quick and easy tests are well on way to becoming part of daily lifeOnce obscure diagnostic devices, lateral flow tests have had a rocky path to mainstream use, but some experts now view their rise to ubiquity as a “heroic” step in the fight against Covid-19 and say they could be here to stay.As the first wave of Covid crashed down in early 2020 and...
At pioneering facility in London, researchers use wearable tech to see how toddlers’ brains developWith her Mickey Mouse backpack, coloured Duplo blocks and disarmingly cute smile, Serena could be any young child constructing a toy house for an imaginary character – were it not for the wires and nodules sticking out of her head. But Serena is a pint-sized pioneer at the cutting edge of...
Maximiliano Herrera, watcher of extreme weather, says last year likely to be in top five or six hottest in historyMore than 400 weather stations around the world beat their all-time highest temperature records in 2021, according to a climatologist who has been compiling weather records for over 30 years.Maximiliano Herrera keeps track of extreme weather around the world, and publishes an annual...
The saola is so elusive that no biologist has seen one in the wild. Now they are racing to find it, so they can save itWeighing 80-100kg and sporting long straight horns, white spots on its face and large facial scent glands, the saola does not sound like an animal that would be hard to spot. But it was not until 1992 that this elusive creature was discovered, becoming the first large mammal new...
Biden wants to extend the operation of the ISS to 2030 before replacing it – will Russia approve?The deadline for the decommissioning of the International Space Station (ISS) is worryingly close, and there is a danger that the commercial replacements the US was hoping for will not be ready to launch in time.With that in mind, on New Year’s Eve, Nasa announced that the Biden-Harris...
Science, art – and religion – can all help us build towards a new conception of humanity in the wake of the pandemicRowan Williams is a former archbishop of CanterburyRather more than half of the population of Afghanistan is facing levels of food shortage not seen for decades. Just under 1,500 people died in the Mediterranean during 2021, attempting to flee to a safer environment. The...
Experts describe data from first study of its kind as shocking and warn of ‘rapidly growing threat’The number of adults living with dementia worldwide is on course to nearly triple to 153 million by 2050, according to the first study of its kind. Experts described the data as shocking and said it was clear that dementia presented “a major and rapidly growing threat to future health and...