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Novavax is ready to start its Phase 3 trial of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the UK.
The US biotechnology firm plans to enrol up to 10,000 volunteers aged between 18 and 84 over the next four to six weeks.

The company joins AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna as its vaccine candidate enters the final step of the regulatory approvals process.
Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around world

Meet the COVID sniffer dogs

There are almost 40 potential vaccines being tested globally and more than 140 others in the early stages of testing, according to the World Health Organisation.

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Half of the volunteers in the Novavax trial will have two shots of NVX-CoV2373 with Matrix-M, the company’s adjuvant which is intended to strengthen the vaccine. Half will be given a placebo.

Up to 400 volunteers will get a seasonal flu vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine to see the effectiveness of combining the two.

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At least 25% of participants will be aged over 65 and the trial will prioritise groups most affected by COVID-19, including those from ethnic minorities, the company said.
In August, the UK government announced that support and infrastructure would be given to Novavax during its Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK.

How close are we to a COVID vaccine? Tracking the global efforts

This includes plans to manufacture the vaccine in the UK and the promise of 60 million doses for the UK if the vaccine turns out to be safe and effective.
The Novavax candidate is the second vaccine to enter Phase 3 clinical trials in the UK – the first was the potential vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca.
Gregory M Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, said the team was “optimistic” that the trial would “provide a near-term view” of the vaccine’s efficacy.
He added: “The data from this trial is expected to support regulatory submissions for licensure in the UK, EU and other countries.
“We are grateful for the support of the UK government, including from its Department of Health and Social Care and National Institute for Health Research, to advance this important research.”

Why do some people refuse vaccinations?

Novavax said that pre-clinical trials showed the potential vaccine was “generally well-tolerated” and produced “robust antibody responses” greater than those seen in recovering patients.
Thomas Moore, Sky’s science correspondent, said the Novavax trial could start as soon as Friday and that the vaccine candidate shows “huge promise”.
Novavax shares were up more than 6% in after-hours trading in the US.

Scientists have solved the mystery of Jupiter’s polygon storms, which were first spotted by NASA’s Juno space probe in 2019.
At the gas giant’s south pole, hidden from view from Earth, is a herd of storms arranged in a perfect geometric pattern.

This is unlike anything else humanity has observed in the universe. The most comparable gas giant we know of, Saturn, has single massive storms at each of its poles – not a collection of them arranged in such a mathematical formation.

Image: The gas giant held a secret geometric pattern at its south pole
But a research team at the California Institute of Technology, working in the Andy Ingersoll laboratory, has now figured out why the storms arrange themselves in this pattern.
The answer – published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – was inspired by a mathematical proof developed long before the space age – and almost 150 years ago by the British mathematical physicist and engineer Lord Kelvin.

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Working alongside American physicist Alfred Mayer, he observed in 1878 that when circular magnets were floated in a pool of water, they would spontaneously arrange themselves into geometric shapes.

“Back in the 19th century, people were thinking about how spinning pieces of fluid would arrange themselves into polygons,” Professor Ingersoll said.

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“Although there were lots of laboratory studies of these fluid polygons, no one had thought of applying that to a planetary surface.”
This is what the scientists at Ingersoll’s laboratory did, building a computer model of what might be happening on Jupiter and running the simulations to see if their model held any value.
The storms are very similar to those on Earth, which form close to the equator and drift towards the poles – but on Earth the hurricanes and typhoons tend to dissipate when they get too far away from the equator.
However, because Jupiter’s storms do not experience any friction from the land or the oceans, they keep on going until they reach the poles.

Image: Jupiter’s south pole was hidden from eyes on Earth
In the early trial runs of the simulations, the team found that the cyclones tended “to merge at the pole due to the rotation of the planet” said Dr Cheng Li, lead author of the study and a researcher at UC Berkeley.
But they found that the stable geometric arrangement could occur when the storms were each surrounded by a ring of winds turning in the opposite direction to the storms themselves, called an anticyclonic ring.
The made the storms repel each other rather than merge.
This phenomenon could help researchers understand how Earth’s weather behaves – but also solves a particularly fascinating and modern mystery.
“Other planets provide a much wider range of behaviours than what you see on Earth, so you study the weather on other planets in order to stress-test your theories,” Professor Ingersoll said.

The upward trend in positive cases continues in the latest statistics for Test and Trace, which show that 19,278 new people in England tested positive between 10 September and 16 September.
In the previous week, that number was 18,371, so this is a rise of 3% – which, inevitably, begs all sorts of questions.

Does a 3% rise mean the outbreak is flattening off? Does the fact that it comes after last week’s big jump of 167% show that the outbreak is still heading in the wrong direction?
Coronavirus live – latest UK news updates

Starmer: ‘Testing is near collapse’

In truth, it’s hard to be sure, because the recent struggles of the testing system mean that this already noisy data is now positively cacophonous.

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Looking at the overall trend, alongside other data, it’s clear that cases are rising: up 180% since the end of August. How fast and how far remains to be seen.

Of course, we are testing far more, which increases the number of cases, but you can account for that by seeing how many people test positive per test conducted – a measure known as the positivity rate. This produces a worrying result.

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In the previous week the rate was 0.97%. This week it’s 1.78%. That’s a jump of 80% in a week.

‘We’ll get through this winter together’

Deaths and hospitalisations haven’t spiked in the UK yet, but they are increasing, and in recent days they have risen sharply in France. It’s still possible they might stabilise in the UK, but altogether the signs aren’t encouraging.
One big caveat: any rise could be prevented by new measures like the rule of six, but their impact won’t be felt in these numbers for some time. We’re looking back here, not forward.
Yet when it comes to measures to protect against the virus, these statistics also tell a gloomy tale. Speed is essential in this crisis, but only 28.2% of in-person test results were received within 24 hours compared to 33.3% in the previous week.

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What’s more, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Test and Trace in England is not going to be able to reach every contact.
This week’s figures show it successfully reached 77.7% of people who tested positive – or, if you prefer, missed 22.3%.
Dig a bit further into the data and you see that, of the community contacts they handed over, only 64.3% were reached.

Download NHS contact tracing app to ‘make country a safer place’

As the outbreak spreads into the general population, missing three in 10 contacts makes it hard to be confident about England’s ability to stop cases turning into clusters.
It’s worth stressing that in absolute terms, these numbers are nowhere near as bad as anything the UK experienced during the crisis – and there’s still so much we don’t know about how this second spike will develop.
But on the face of it these numbers provide little room for encouragement.

Every person who downloads the NHS coronavirus contact tracing app will be helping “make the country a safer place”, the health secretary has told Sky News.
Speaking to Kay Burley, Matt Hancock said the app – which has finally been launched in England and Wales after months of delay and questions about its effectiveness – was a “helpful tool” in the fight against COVID-19.

Live updates on coronavirus from UK and around the world

Asked what percentage of the population would need to download it for it to be effective, Mr Hancock said “there isn’t a figure for that”.
“Every single person who downloads the app is helping to improve how it can keep us safe. It helps you to keep yourself and your loved ones safe,” the health secretary said.

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“Every additional person downloading it will make the country a safer place.”

He added: “Even if only two people downloaded it and they came into close contact and one had tested positive, then it would work for the other.

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“Of course it’s true that the more people download it the more effective it will be, but this is just one part of our overall plan for tackling coronavirus.”
Scotland and Northern Ireland have already launched their own contact tracing apps.

Image: If you show symptoms, the app will message other users you have been in contact with
The NHS app for England and Wales – which is available to download on iPhone and Android – was trialled first on the Isle of Wight and in the London borough of Newham, and was used to send alerts to users after someone had tested positive.
It uses an Apple and Google-developed system, using Bluetooth to keep an anonymous log of people a user has been close to.
It does this by exchanging randomised keys while the Bluetooth signal strength measures proximity.
If someone falls ill, they can tell the app, which will then ping their keys to a central server and in turn send them off to all app users in search of a match.
Should the system determine a person as a close contact, they will be automatically sent a notification and issued with further guidance.

Contact-Tracing apps: The problems and potential

A QR code scanning feature is available, allowing people to check in to venues they visit and easily share their contact details for human tracing efforts.
Some 160,000 businesses have already downloaded QR codes for use in their facilities.
However, as the software is voluntary, its success will depend heavily on how many people choose to download and use it.
The government had originally tried to develop its own app software before deciding in June that it needed to co-operate with companies which provide the technology powering smartphones to come up with an effective product.
A TV advertising campaign with the slogan “Protect your loved ones. Get the app” is being used to encourage people to install the software.

COVID testing programme ‘in chaos’ amid 185,000 swab backlog, leaked documents show

The UK’s major network operators, including Vodafone, Three, EE and O2, giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and Virgin Mobile have all agreed to not charge for using it.
Baroness Dido Harding, executive chair of England’s NHS Test and Trace Programme, said: “We want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to engage with England’s NHS Test and Trace service.
“The NHS COVID-19 app enables the majority of people with a smartphone to find out if they are at risk of having caught the virus and need to self isolate, order a test if they have symptoms, and access the right guidance and advice.
“The features of this app, including QR code check-in at venues, work alongside our traditional contact tracing service and will help us to reach more people quickly in their communities to prevent further spread of the virus.
“This is a welcome step in protecting those around us.”

British volunteers are to be deliberately infected with COVID-19 to test whether a vaccine offers any protection.
In the first trial of its kind, participants will be injected with an experimental vaccine and around a month later exposed to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the disease.

According to FT, the studies – which are known as human challenge trials – will begin in January and are government funded.

Image: Around 2,000 people are thought to have volunteered
It is reported that the trials will take place in a secure facility in Whitechapel, east London, and that 2,000 potential volunteers have signed up in the UK.
A government spokesperson said it is looking into collaborating on the potential development of a vaccine through human challenge studies.

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“These discussions are part of our work to research ways of treating, limiting and hopefully preventing the virus so we can end the pandemic sooner,” they added.

Any trial that involves exposing people to the virus would need the approval of the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), as well as an independent research committee.

More from Covid-19

Challenge trials are controversial.
Even young people have a very small risk of serious disease from the virus and some doctors believe that goes against medical ethics.
There is also the risk they could suffer from “long COVID” symptoms similar to chronic fatigue syndrome.

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But with levels of the virus spreading in the population still relatively low, the trials are the fastest way of testing the level of protection from a vaccine.
Scientists need to know whether the vaccines being developed stop people getting the virus, or whether they just take the edge off symptoms.
Dr Claire Waddington, clinical lecturer in infectious diseases at the University of Cambridge, said challenge trials are “well established as a way to accelerate the development of vaccines”.
She pointed to similar trials being used for typhoid vaccines, which are now being rolled out in affected countries.

Here’s how the government could make lockdown measures even tougher

“As we gain more understanding of COVID-19, we are increasingly in a position to identify those people for who COVID-19 infection is a mild illness, and these people could safely participate in a controlled human infection study after a thorough medical assessment and consent process,” she said.
“Such a model could give us some extremely useful information on how the immune system responds to COVID and what responses are protective, as well as providing a model for early testing of candidate vaccines.”
The MHRA said: “The safety of trial participants is our top priority and any proposal from a developer to include a human infection challenge as part of a clinical trial for development of a vaccine would be considered on a benefit-risk basis, with risks monitored for and minimised in the proposed trial design.”

The government will finally release a mobile phone app on Thursday that people in England and Wales can use to establish whether they may have been exposed to coronavirus.
The launch follows the ignominious scrapping of the previous app despite months of development, although some features are being incorporated into the new design.

It comes after the NHS and government seem to have recognised that to get a working app on to Britons’ smartphones they needed to work with, rather than against, the companies which provide the technology powering them.

Image: A previous app was scrapped after it ran into technical issues
What’s different this time?
The new app will use a COVID-19 exposure notification system which Apple and Google have built in to the new versions of their mobile operating systems, iOS and Android.

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Privacy has been a big focus for both companies, and even before downloading the new app users will need to turn on the exposure notifications feature, but can turn it off at any time.

If it is on, instead of sending data to a public health authority, the phone will use Bluetooth to retain on the device a collection of protected IDs remembering all of the other phones it has been near.

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The team developing the app across government and NHSX – the health service’s digital unit – have built an algorithm which they say is able to establish how great the risk is that someone has caught the virus, based on Bluetooth signals.
Not everyone who passes each other by will be considered a potential contact. Instead, their contact score will be given a weighting based on the distance between the phones and the duration they were close together.

Exposure notifications are alerts people will receive when someone they have been close to for a significant amount of time – perhaps within two metres on a long bus journey – tests positive for coronavirus.
If, after receiving an alert, a user gets tested and finds out they too are positive for COVID-19, they can voluntarily send an alert to the protected IDs stored on the device.
If these contacts recorded by the phone meet the bar set by the NHS algorithm, then the app will instruct them to self-isolate too.
This kind of functionality was planned for the previous app – but because the government had not complied with Apple and Google’s requirement to keep this data on the devices themselves, it struggled to record potential exposures.
One of the other new features is a QR code system. Businesses including pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and cinemas are being urged to ensure they have NHS QR code posters visible for customers to scan using the app and check-in.
The QR codes are designed to help businesses automate the new legal requirement to record customers’ contact details, along with details for staff and other visitors to the premises.
The businesses themselves will continue to take customers’ details just as they have done throughout the pandemic, but the app itself will help the user keep a record of where they’ve been.
In this way the app will assist traditional manual contract-tracers while also allowing users to check any symptoms and see if they need to self-isolate.

Image: The app will anonymously track who people have come into contact with
The app will have problems gaining people’s trustAnalysis by Rowland Manthorpe, technology correspondent
For its second attempt at a contact tracing app, the UK government has introduced several new elements – but the essential problems it faced the first time round still haven’t gone away.
Perhaps the most notable new element is the contact-tracing technology. Whereas the first app was built in-house, this time it uses the toolkit provided by Google and Apple.
This has been deployed in many other countries, including Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
Results on its effectiveness are still few and far between, but there are no complaints about its privacy protections, so at least on that front people should feel safe using it.
The app also has some new features, in particular a QR code scanner for checking into venues.
The government has changed the law in England to make it illegal for certain premises not to display a QR code and collect people’s details, so this is going to become a big part of everyday life.
And this is where the problems come in: not technical ones, but trust and transparency.
Anecdotally, there are still real issues of trust about this app; yet as the government hasn’t released any data from its pilots, it’s impossible to know whether these have been overcome.
Crucial elements of the app’s functionality, such as the decision whether or not to share your test results with contacts, are entirely voluntary. Gaining trust for them is going to be vital if this tool is going to work.

The British government is launching a new telecoms diversity task force to find a supplier capable of filling the void left by a ban on Huawei’s equipment within the UK’s 5G infrastructure.
Mobile networks in the UK will be banned from purchasing 5G kit from Huawei from the end of this year, leaving only two large-scale suppliers active in the British market: Ericsson and Nokia.

Although the ban took place on security grounds, according to the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) the dependence on just two suppliers also introduces a significant risk for the long-term security of UK networks.

Huawei: The company and the security risks explained

The security provided by a more diverse marketplace was the main reason NCSC gave for initially assessing that Britain’s 5G networks were safer for including Huawei equipment as well as that manufactured by Ericsson and Nokia.
However, following a decision by the White House to ban American companies from providing computer chips to Huawei – potentially pushing it to adopt chips produced by less trusted manufacturers – the NCSC was forced to upgrade the risk posed by Huawei equipment.

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The US sanctions were criticised as “arbitrary and pernicious” by Huawei, which has confirmed that 40% of the roles within its enterprise business group in the UK are being made redundant as a result.

On Wednesday the government said it planned to publish a telecoms diversification strategy later this year “to address a market failure where mobile companies are limited to using just three major suppliers in their telecoms networks”.

More from Huawei

“This restricts choice and poses a risk for the security and resilience of the UK’s future digital networks,” the statement added.
It comes ahead of the government introducing a Telecoms Security Bill this autumn, around the same time as which the government will also be publishing its telecoms diversity strategy.
The bill will make the prohibition on purchasing new Huawei equipment from the end of this year, and the requirement to remove all existing Huawei equipment from 5G networks by 2027, a legal obligation.

‘We convinced many countries not to use Huawei’

A task force to develop and implement the strategy will be led by Lord Livingston of Parkhead, a Conservative peer and the former chief executive of BT Group, who will be joined by senior executives within the telecoms sector to ensure that the government is listening to the industry’s needs.
Lord Livingston said: “It is vital that we position ourselves for the next generation of technology, particularly 5G, by having a wide choice of secure, innovative and high quality suppliers.
“I look forward to chairing this team of experts from industry and academia who can provide advice to government as to how it can best achieve these aims,” Lord Livingston added.
Although the digital secretary Oliver Dowden described the task force’s role as to “break through the barriers stopping suppliers from entering the UK,” there are currently no obvious third companies who could replace Huawei.
NCSC already requires that mobile operators use at least two vendors to provide the radio antennas in their network, meaning from the end of this year the UK mobile companies will effectively be required to purchase Nokia and Ericsson equipment.
Part of the task force’s work will be to enable other companies who provide Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment, such as Samsung, to be interoperable with the core equipment used in the core of the 5G infrastructure.
Speaking to Sky News, Matt Warman MP, who has the infrastructure portfolio under the Digital Secretary, said he did not expect that the key cause of the UK’s change in approach – the US decision to restrict Huawei’s computer chips – would be reversed.
“The most important thing to say is that we’ve taken the right decision for this country,” Mr Warman said.
“If I look across the Atlantic, actually this is an issue where – while the language might be different – there is considerable bipartisan support that is in line with the decision we’re taking,” he added.

An asteroid the size of a bus is set to pass Earth at a distance closer than both the Moon and satellites, according to NASA.
The asteroid, named 2020 SW, will fly past 13,000 miles (22,000 kilometres) above the Earth’s surface.

This distance means it will be closer than both the Moon and satellites – used for GPS, television and weather – that orbit our plan.

Image: After passing, the asteroid will continue its orbit around the sun
The rock was only discovered on 18 September by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona.
It is estimated to be around five to 10 metres (15 to 30ft) wide, making it equivalent to the “size of a small school bus”.

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Further observations carried out by astronomers identified a trajectory which ruled out any chance of the asteroid colliding with Earth.

“Although it’s not on an impact trajectory with Earth, if it were, the space rock would almost certainly break up high in the atmosphere, becoming a bright meteor known as a fireball,” the space agency said.

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After the asteroid passes at noon, UK time, it will continue its journey around the sun.
This means it will not pass Earth again until 2041, where it will be a greater distance away from the planet.
Although the minor planet’s passing will not be visible to the naked eye, people with 12-inch telescopes should be able to spot it.
The passing will also be streamed in a live video feed broadcast by the Virtual Telescope Project.
Paul Chodas, a director at NASA’s Jet Propulsions Laboratory, said: “There are a large number of tiny asteroids like this one, and several of them approach our planet as close as this several times every year.
“In fact, asteroids of this size impact our atmosphere at an average rate of about once every year or two.”
There are believed to be more than 100 million small asteroids, similar to 2020 SW. However, they are hard to discover until they get very close to Earth.
Larger asteroids, which hold a greater threat if they did collide with Earth, can be detected while further away because they are brighter than small ones.
On 20 August, an asteroid made the closest fly-by of Earth ever recorded. At the time, NASA admitted it had not seen it until after it passed.

Tesla’s share value dropped by $50bn (£39bn) last night as investors reacted to speeches by Elon Musk and other company executives at the company’s battery day event.
The astronomical figure – in the range of the UK’s annual spending on defence (£38bn) – is more a mark of how much the company has grown over the past year than it is the billionaire chief executive’s celebrity status.

Last September, all of Tesla’s shares were worth around $39bn, but even after last night’s drop the company remains valued at around $390bn – a 1,000% increase in 12 months.

Image: Tesla’a shares have increased by roughly 1,000% in a year
Tesla overtook Toyota to become the world’s most valuable car company earlier this year, despite the Japanese company manufacturing and producing more vehicles.
Its shares closed 5.6% lower and fell another 6.9% in after hours trading on Tuesday as investors, who expected the company to announce a significant milestone in reducing the price of an electric vehicle, were left disappointed.

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Musk and Tesla’s other executives instead gave presentations on the company’s new battery technologies and manufacturing strategies, but their outlook was cautious – explaining that the new developments wouldn’t be ready for a number of years.

“In three years… we can do a $25,000 car that will be basically on par [with], maybe slight better than a comparable gasoline car,” Musk told an online audience of more than 270,000.

More from Elon Musk

Manufacturing an affordable electric car “has always been our dream from the beginning of the company,” Musk added – but the only new vehicle announced was far outside of this range.
Deliveries of the new Model S Plaid, a 520-mile sedan with a top speed of 200 miles per hour (320km), will start in 2021 and is listed on Tesla’s website for nearly $140,000 (£117,00).
Even further into the future – about three years away – Musk said the company was developing a new generation of batteries which will be more powerful, longer lasting and half the price of the ones it currently produces.
Battery development is the key focus for investors, but the company failed to excite everyone.
“Nothing Musk discussed about batteries is a done deal. There was nothing tangible,” Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin told Reuters.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station had to carry out an “avoidance manoeuvre” to prevent it from being hit by space junk, NASA has said.
Its trajectory was changed to move it further away from the “unknown piece of space debris”, the US space agency wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.

The three crew members – two Russians and an American – relocated to their Soyuz spacecraft attached to the ISS during the operation, so they could evacuate if necessary.

How scientists found signs of life on Venus

Experts expected the space junk to pass within “several kilometres” of the ISS, but decided to move it “out of an abundance of caution”.
Russian and US flight controllers worked together to adjust the station’s orbit in an operation which took minutes.

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The crew were able to continue with their regular activities after the manoeuvre was complete.

NASA said the crew were not in danger at any time.

More from International Space Station

“Maneuver Burn complete. The astronauts are coming out of safe haven,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said on Twitter.

Southern lights (and UFOs at the end?)

It is the third time this year the International Space Station (ISS) has had to manoeuvre to avoid space debris, he said.
He tweeted: “In the last 2 weeks, there have been 3 high concern potential conjunctions. Debris is getting worse!”
Astronomer Jonathon McDowell, at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tweeted the unknown object was a part of a 2018 Japanese rocket which broke into 77 pieces last year.
The ISS is orbiting around 260 miles (420km) above the Earth, travelling at a speed of about 17,130mph (27,568km/h).
At this velocity, even a small object has the ability to cause serious damage to the space station.
NASA has said these kinds of manoeuvres occur on a regular basis, with 25 having occurred between 1999 and 2018.