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5 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Rise of the dinosaurs traced back to their adaptation to cold

Covering of feathers left them able to cope when other creatures died off in mass extinction event, scientists sayFossil hunters have traced the rise of the dinosaurs back to the freezing winters the beasts endured while roaming around the far north.Footprints of the animals and stone deposits from north-west China suggest dinosaurs became adapted to the cold in polar regions before a mass...

Scientists are still fleshing out Darwin’s theory of evolution | Letters

There can be no one unifying theory, writes Prof Jonathan Bard, while Nicholas Maxwell looks to the role of purposive actions and Pete Bibby says the fittest theory will surviveStephen Buranyi misses some key points in his article (Do we need a new theory of evolution?, 28 June). Darwin saw novel speciation as resulting from natural selection acting on anatomical variants, but that simple skeleton...

Where’s the herd immunity? Our research shows why Covid is still wreaking havoc | Danny Altmann

‘Living with the virus’ is proving much harder than the early vaccine success suggested: this fight is far from overDanny Altmann is a professor of immunology at Imperial College LondonWe are all so very tired of Covid-19, and there are many other crises to wrestle with. This pandemic has been going on since the beginning of 2020, and a state of hypervigilance can only be maintained for so...

Australia’s 10,000 deaths and the paradox of ‘Covid normal’

The country has fared better than others – but those on the frontline are still wrestling with the agony of the coronavirus pandemicNot just a number: families of five Australian pandemic victims reflect on loss during CovidTen thousand Covid deaths and counting … the road to Australia’s grim milestoneGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingIn August 2020, staff at the Menarock...