2021: The year of variants

The year began with Alpha, and ends with Omicron. What have we learnt?

• 27 mins

Corbevax – A vaccine for the world?

Could a cheap and conventional vaccine for Covid-19 end the pandemic?

• 27 mins

Have we got it wrong on Omicron?

It seems to be no more viable than the earlier delta variant

• 28 mins

Tonga eruption – how it happened

Why a small volcanic eruption had a global impact

• 29 mins

The roots of Long Covid

Detecting the early signals for long Covid

• 26 mins

Identifying a more infectious HIV variant

A new form of HIV has been uncovered in the Netherlands.

• 29 mins

Inside Wuhan's coronavirus lab

The inside story of Wuhan’s coronavirus lab

• 30 mins

Bone repair from Covid-19 vaccine technology

Messenger RNA used in vaccines against Covid-19 has been used to encourage bone healing

• 30 mins

Reforming the ‘China Initiative’

US scheme accused of persecuting scientists is to be refocused

• 26 mins

Covid -19 origins

New analysis shows where inside the Wuhan market the virus first showed itself

• 30 mins

Why are Covid-19 cases rising in Hong Kong?

The territory is experiencing a rapid increase in infections and deaths

• 29 mins

Covid in the sewers

Could novel forms of the virus be lurking in wastewater?

• 30 mins

Warming world

Extreme temperatures recorded in Antarctica and the Arctic.

• 32 mins

Radioactive Red Forest

Are Russian troops in forests around Chernobyl receiving a dangerous dose of radiation?

• 29 mins

Tsunami detective in Tonga

What really happened in the cataclysmic eruption of the volcano Hunga Tonga in January?

• 34 mins

How ‘magic mushroom’ chemical treats depression

Brain scanning study reveals how psilocybin can help people with severe depression

• 30 mins

Climate techno-fix would worsen global malaria burden

Solar geoengineering to curb climate change could worsen global malaria burden.

• 33 mins

The Indian subcontinent’s record-breaking heatwave

The Indian subcontinent is roasting in a prolonged heatwave. Is climate change to blame?

• 31 mins

Mekong Delta will sink beneath the sea by 2100

Vietnam’s vast Mekong Delta is set to sink beneath the sea by the end of the century

• 29 mins

Portrait of the monster black hole at our galaxy’s heart

Astronomers image the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy

• 29 mins

Death in the rainforest

Climate change may have doubled the death rate of rainforest trees over the last 50 years

• 29 mins

Heat death by volcano and other stories

New insights into Tonga’s cataclysmic volcanic eruption revealed

• 29 mins

Should we worry about the latest Omicron subvariants?

Two recent subtypes of the Omicron virus are much better at evading our immune defences.

• 29 mins

Body scan reveals HIV's hideouts

A medical scan which reveals where HIV and other viruses hide in the body.

• 29 mins

Thirty years after the Earth Summit

Thirty years on, we ask what has the Earth Summit in Rio achieved?

• 29 mins

Monster microbe

Gigantic bacterium discovered in the Caribbean. It’s the size and shape of an eyelash.

• 34 mins

Extreme heat death risk in Latin America

New study reveals risk of death as temperatures rise in Latin American cities

• 32 mins

Long Covid ‘brain fog’

New insights into the cause of Long Covid ‘brain fog’

• 30 mins

First images from the James Webb Space Telescope

A sensational new view of the universe from the James Webb Space Telescope.

• 31 mins

Heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere

Heat waves in the Northern Hemisphere - how and why more frequent and more extreme?

• 29 mins