This week's magazine

Table of contents

Leaders

Health

Vaccine results show we can end the pandemic, but hurdles lie ahead

Promising early results from vaccine trials offer hope of defeating covid-19, but vaccines may be less effective in the real world and people's safety concerns could hamper take-up

News

---

News

Life

Lizards that lost their legs re-evolved them as the climate got wetter

Brachymeles bicolor has short and stubby legs In the distant past, climate change may have driven limbless lizards to evolve legs – having already lost them once before. The once-four-legged, ancient lizards of the Brachymeles genus first emerged in a dry environment in modern-day South-East Asia. They dropped all four limbs about 62 million years …

News

Life

‘Godzilla’ wasps drag caterpillars out of water to lay eggs in them

News

Space

Dust storms on Mars are tossing water from its atmosphere into space

News

Technology

Gel layer inspired by camel fur could keep food and medicines cool

News

Life

Some male spiders tie up females before mating to avoid being eaten

News

Technology

This touch-sensitive glove is made from stretchy optical fibres

News

Space

Satellites with flashing LEDs could help avoid catastrophic collisions

News

Health

Living electrodes for linking brains to computers tested in rats

News

Health

Bacteria found in yogurt may help bone fractures heal faster 

News

Health

Heidi Larson interview: How to stop covid-19 vaccine hesitancy

News

Space

Repeated radio bursts from nearby star suggest such signals are common

News

Health

Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial produces best results yet

News

Health

We can't be certain the coronavirus vaccines will stop the pandemic

News

Health

What are mRNA vaccines and how useful will they be?

News

Humans

Our supposed earliest human relative may have walked on four legs

News

---

Analysis

Health

We need to be more careful when talking about suicide and the pandemic

AS THE world grapples with the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been widespread predictions that the fallout would lead to a rise in suicide rates . Fortunately, figures available so far suggest that this hasn’t been happening. So it is important that we now rein in this alarmist narrative to avoid creating a …

News

Comment

California's latest erosion of gig worker rights could be going global

News

---

Features

Technology

Emotion-detecting AIs are here – do they work and how should we feel?

Several companies have built AIs designed to figure our when you are angry or sad or excited. But there are serious questions about their accuracy, and the extent to which they should be used in public life

Features

Health

What will it take to get a covid-19 vaccine to the world?

Features

Humans

Systemic racism: What research reveals about the extent of its impact

Features

---

Culture

Vaccine misinformation can be fatal – how can we counter it?

Stuck by Heidi Larson is a book about the devastating effects of vaccine misinformation. Its lessons on how emotions and culture play a part are particularly important now

Culture

Life

Another Round review: Would we benefit from always being a bit drunk?

Culture

Don’t Miss: Can we halt a sixth mass extinction?

Culture

Humans

Away review: An exquisite animated film created entirely by one person

Culture

---

More

Environment

How to grow delicious blackcurrants despite climate change

Blackcurrant bushes struggle with increasingly warmer winters brought on by rising temperatures, but there are new varieties that will fare better, says Clare Wilson

Regulars

Tom Gauld's on why 10001 days is not as long as it seems

Regulars

Twisteddoodles on when there's the wrong type of doctor in the room

Regulars

Puzzle #86: How many yams do three shipwrecked sailors end up with?

Regulars

---

Regulars

Watch out cybercriminals! UK military ditches punch-card secret codes

Using punch-cards for cryptographic keys, plus the UK’s fax problem and when AI gets confused, in Feedback’s weird weekly round-up

Regulars

Regulars

Letters

Regulars

The last word