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322 articles from Guardian Unlimited Science

Until there's a Covid vaccine, we need to focus on treating longer-term health consequences | Elizabeth Hartland

We don’t know yet how many of the ongoing symptoms could translate to chronic ill health in the future, and that’s worryingAs Covid-19 infection numbers show a welcome downward trend in Melbourne and the city’s residents look forward to some easing of restrictions, it’s time to consider the longer-term health consequences of the pandemic.More than 27,000 Australians – including some...

Salty ponds may be under Mars' icy surface, raising prospect of Martian life

Italian scientists provide further evidence of underground lake and smaller bodies of water in study A network of salty ponds may be gurgling beneath Mars’ south pole alongside a large underground lake, raising the prospect of tiny, swimming Martian life.Italian scientists reported their findings Monday, two years after identifying what they believed to be a large buried lake. They widened their...


MONDAY 28. SEPTEMBER 2020


Ex-lord chief justice: UK parliament must scrutinise Covid rules

Exclusive: Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd joins senior legal figures in calling for MPs to examine emergency legislationCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageLord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the former lord chief justice of England and Wales, has called for greater parliamentary scrutiny of the government’s emergency coronavirus legislation because vital freedoms are being...

Covid-19 tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world

Global initiative will supply 120m rapid antigen tests to low- and middle-income countriesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTests for Covid-19 that show on-the-spot results in 15 to 30 minutes are about to be rolled out across the world, potentially saving many thousands of lives and slowing the pandemic in both poor and rich countries. In a triumph for a global...

Scientists work on nasal spray that could stop Covid virus replicating

Substance has had promising results in ferrets, with hopes it may reduce transmissionCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA nasal spray is under development that could nip a coronavirus infection in the bud, with promising results already seen in ferrets, researchers have revealed.With coronavirus infections surging around the world, the race is on to develop a vaccine....

Covid-19 skin rash website criticised for lack of BAME examples

Only two out of 400 Covid images on British Association of Dermatologists’ website feature black or brown skinCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA website dedicated to sharing images of Covid-19-related skin rashes to help doctors and patients identify whether an unusual rash might be a sign of coronavirus infection has been criticised for containing just two images of...

Coronavirus symptoms: how to tell if you have a common cold, flu or Covid

Fever, runny nose, headache? Lost your sense of taste or smell? Your guide to differentiating between the three illnessesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWith winter approaching, the UK is entering the traditional seasons for colds and flu, with the additional complication this year that symptoms of those two illnesses can be broadly similar to those experienced by...

Support UK farmers to meet climate targets, ministers told

Green campaigners call for clarity on tree-planting and on interim subsidy systemFarmers need more support from the government to plant the trees necessary to meet the UK’s climate targets, ministers have been told, as they consider wide-ranging changes to farming payments after Brexit.Tree-planting is expensive, difficult and requires patience as the trees take years or even decades to yield...

‘There is a fear that this will eradicate dwarfism’: the controversy over a new growth drug

A new treatment could help children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, grow taller and avoid health problems in later life. But there are concerns about whether this is ethicalSamuel Gray is very brave about his daily injections. At six-and-a-half, confident and happy, he was a boy who knew his own mind and made a big decision about his future. His parents had asked him if he...

Coronavirus live news: global deaths near 1m as India poised to pass 6m cases

Travel between New Zealand and some states of Australia possible before end of the year; first virus death among migrants in Greece; Follow the latest updatesRegular ‘circuit breaker’ lockdowns ‘could help control Covid’Boris Johnson faces revolt over forcing through Covid measuresAustralia: ‘We should not pretend everybody is suffering equally’See all our coronavirus coverage 12.29am...


SUNDAY 27. SEPTEMBER 2020


The Harvest Moon – a golden globe to welcome the autumn

The closest full moon to the equinox is known as the Harvest Moon as its extra light allowed farmers to work late into the evening to gather the cropsFor those of us in the northern hemisphere, it is the week of the Harvest Moon. This is defined as the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox, which took place last week on 22 September. In the southern hemisphere, the Harvest Moon takes place in...

UK market flooded with inadequate Covid tests, experts suggest

Lack of clear rules about certification standards may be allowing manufacturers to sell tests based on poor or dodgy dataCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageInadequate tests for Covid-19, based on poor or dodgy data, are proliferating in the UK because there are no clear rules on what companies have to prove before they can sell them, experts believe.The Royal Statistical...

Robert Audley obituary

My former colleague Robert (Bob) Audley, who has died aged 91, was a leading psychologist at University College London (UCL) for more than 30 years and a major contributor to mathematical psychology in the 1950s and 60s. His research involved creating models to explain how people make choices. The work looked at how people take a sequence of samples of their experience until they have sufficient...

Britain's failure to learn the hard lessons of its first Covid surge is a disaster | William Hanage

Despite now having evidence that test and trace is the only way to fight the virus, the UK has lost control at the crucial moment• Dr William Hanage is professor of the evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease at HarvardBritain is in the grip of an extraordinarily dangerous outbreak of forgetfulness. During the spring, more than 50,000 people died – far more than the yearly total for...

The irresistible lure of island life

What is it about islands which so fascinates, and soothes after time spent in cities?The love of islands is a widespread affliction – why else are we still reading Robinson Crusoe after 300 years? Why Treasure Island? Why after 75 years and over 2,000 episodes are we still listening to Desert Island Discs? From the blessed isles of Tír na nÓg and Thomas More’s Utopia to the island-dramas of...

Coronavirus live updates: global death toll nears 1m, Australian state of Victoria set to ease restrictions

France records more than 14,000 new Covid cases; Colombia passes 800,000 infections; Saudi Arabia plans to resume tourist visas by early 2021. Follow latest updatesBoris Johnson faces revolt over forcing through Covid measures Australia: ‘We should not pretend everybody is suffering equally’ Ex-care home bosses charged over dozens of Covid deaths in MassachusettsWhy dogs might be a Covid...


SATURDAY 26. SEPTEMBER 2020


Welcome to libertarian Covid fantasy land – that’s Sweden to you and me | Nick Cohen

The right fails to recognise that the Swedes’ real virtue in this pandemic is their social cohesionSweden is to the 21st-century right what the Soviet Union was to the 20th-century left. Conservatives have transformed it into a Tory Disneyland where every dream comes true. On the shores of the Baltic lies a country that has no need to curtail civil liberties and wreck the economy to curb...

Dreading a dark winter lockdown? Think like a Norwegian

Studies show people living in the Arctic Circle are armed with a mindset that helps combat the long ‘polar night’. It might come in handy for us all…When Kari Leibowitz first arrived in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, she was both intrigued by, and fearful of, the approaching winter. Two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, the city does not see the sun from mid-November to mid-January....

The next pandemic is on its way. Coronavirus must help us prepare for it | Sally Davies

Scientists estimate we will face a health emergency at least once every five years. Our new initiative seeks a better response• Sally Davies is a former chief medical officer for England We are at a crossroads. As the impacts of Covid-19 continue the world over and the second wave moves through Europe, we have a choice to make. Will we simply respond to the here and now, or do we take a moment...

UK risks losing contract for new climate research centre because of Brexit

Proposed centre with up to 250 jobs is linked to EU Copernicus satellite programmeThe UK is at risk of losing the contract for the expansion of a flagship European weather research centre based in Reading because of Brexit.The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has been based in Berkshire for the last 45 years but its future EU-funded activities are now the subject of an...


FRIDAY 25. SEPTEMBER 2020


What Australia needs to do to avoid a third Covid wave

Lessons from other parts of the world show we should lock down early, rely on evidence – and get used to wearing masksVictoria and Melbourne trend mapVic hotspots list; Australia interactive; NSW trend mapMelbourne’s stage 4 rules; Victoria’s ‘step 3’ rulesSign up for Guardian Australia’s Covid emailAs Victoria reaches the end of its second wave of the coronavirus, the focus is now on...

The Guardian view of golf's wedge issue: the triumph of brain and brawn | Editorial

Art gives way to science in yet another sport. But won’t we all lose out when the magic is gone?Bryson DeChambeau sounds like a character from a novel, one perhaps set on the Côte d’Azur in the 1930s, a raffish figure with a taste for the high life. He is, in fact, a 27-year-old golfer from California, and the only high life that interests him is the flight of a golf ball, which when hit by...

'Any breed could do it': dogs might be a Covid tester's best friend

Researchers around the world are training canines to sniff out the virus – could they be deployed for mass testing?Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIt is simple and pain-free, could be used to test for coronavirus in care homes, airports and schools, and might just be more realistic than the UK government’s £100bn “Operation Moonshoot” mass screening plan. Its...

UK scientists begin study of how long Covid can survive in the air

Researchers will test length of time virus stays infectious in different climatic conditionsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIt is the question scientists around the world are trying to answer: how long can the coronavirus survive in the tiny aerosol particles we exhale? In a high-security lab near Bristol, entered through a series of airlock doors, scientists may be...