Brenda Francis settled into the Kingdom Hall in Calhoun, Georgia, in mid-March, surrounded by dozens of familiar faces. Signs cautioning against shaking hands and hugging were posted around the room. It felt weird to her but was certainly understandable with the threat of an outbreak looming. She herself already had stocked up on some masks and gloves.When it came time for members to comment on the Bible readings, Francis noticed the microphones typically passed around the room were now attached to the end of long poles.That was the moment Francis, a 69-year-old widow living in a small, semirural community in the South, realized just how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic was about to reshape her spiritual life, more than anything ever had in the 47 years since she was baptized as a Jehovah's Witness.A few days after the boom mics came out in the Kingdom Hall, word came down from the group's headquarters that, in the interest of safety, Jehovah's Witnesses should stop witnessing, its practice of in-person attempts at converting people to the group."People would be so receptive right now," she said of her ministry, "and we can't knock on doors."Across the country, most religious groups have stopped coming together in large numbers to pray and hold services, in keeping with stay-at-home orders. They have improvised with online preaching and even drive-in services as the faithful sit in cars. Mormons have stopped going door to door in the United States and called home many missionaries working abroad.Jehovah's Witnesses -- with 1.3 million U.S. members who hand out brochures on sidewalks and subway platforms and ring doorbells -- are one of the most visible religious groups in the nation. Members are called on to share Scriptures in person with nonmembers, warning of an imminent Armageddon and hoping to baptize them with the prospect of living forever.The decision to stop their ministries was the first of its kind in the nearly 150 years of the group's existence. It followed anguished discussions at Watchtower headquarters, with leaders deciding March 20 that knocking on doors would leave the impression that members were disregarding the safety of those they hoped to convert."This was not an easy decision for anybody," said Robert Hendriks, the group's U.S. spokesman. "As you know, our ministry is our life."It was for Francis, who became a Jehovah's Witness when she was in her 20s with a newborn and a member knocked on her door in Tennessee and persuaded her to attend a Kingdom Hall meeting. She converted. Her family was angry that she no longer came to holiday gatherings; the group doesn't believe in celebrating holidays or birthdays. Jehovah's Witnesses became her new family.The more she studied the Bible, the more she came to believe it led to eternal life. She needed to spread the word.Showing up cold on someone's doorstep didn't come naturally. She was so shy that once, she recalled, her high school principal -- "this huge Goliath guy" -- stood on her foot in a crowded hallway; she didn't say a word but waited in pain for him to move. She had considered a career going door to door as a Mason Shoes saleswoman, but after receiving a catalog, she never mustered the courage to even try to make a sale.To her, witnessing was different. Her faith had helped her stop smoking. It gave her meaning. She had seen people clean up their lives after attending meetings at Kingdom Hall."By the time I did go to doors, I was so convinced this was the right thing to do that I had no nervousness," Francis said.Through the years, she learned to build her pitch around a theme -- a Bible verse or a current event -- and tried not to sound rehearsed."You don't want to sound like a robot," she said. "You work from the heart. You want enthusiasm."Early this year, Francis had been seeing reports on Facebook about the virus sweeping through Wuhan, China. The host of a show she watched on YouTube, Peak Prosperity, had been warning that the outbreak could spread internationally.She bought masks and face shields, just in case. She started using plastic grocery bags to cover the gas pump handle when she filled up her tank.By early March, the virus still hadn't hit Gordon County, where Francis lives. But the possibility was weighing on her mind. The message on her favorite YouTube show was getting more dire as the host, Chris Martenson, a financial guru-turned-pandemic early warner, ratcheted up his pleadings for viewers to prepare themselves.Francis' 27-year-old granddaughter has a compromised immune system. As a senior citizen, she herself was vulnerable. She did what she always has done and channeled her own feelings into her door-knocking ministry. Do you think, she would ask people as she carpooled with other members to canvass the county, that the virus is a sign of the end of the world?"No one was paying much attention," she said.Elsewhere, in places like New York where infections were starting to climb, Jehovah's Witnesses members were feeling the pinch on their ministries.One of them, Joe Babsky, had been easing into conversations with members of his Planet Fitness gym in the Bronx for weeks. He knew them by first name only: Jerry, who had lost more than 100 pounds; Jason, who seemed to spend an hour on each body part; Bernie, a 78-year-old who was more fit than men half his age. Babsky had shown a few of them Bible verses and had made progress recently with Bernie discussing the logic behind the existence of an intelligent creator.Then the gym closed."All those conversations and others were cut short," Babsky said.Life continued as normal in Francis' town of Calhoun. She was convinced things were about to change, but she was too embarrassed to wear a mask -- until an encounter in Costco when a passing shopper coughed without covering her mouth.In mid-March, her Kingdom Hall meetings went virtual. Members logged into Zoom to share Bible Scriptures. Francis settled on one that she thought would resonate as she knocked on doors in her neighborhood across the county, which had by then registered a handful of COVID-19 cases.At the doorstep, Francis would start her pitch by asking people if they could make one thing in the world go away, what would it be? If the answer had to do with the pandemic, she would recite a couple of verses from the book of Luke:"There will be great earthquakes, and in one place after another food shortages and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and from heaven great signs."All the signs were clear, she would announce. Armageddon was near. Her message finally seemed to be resonating with people.And then she got word to stop knocking on doors."This has been so much a part of our lives, so it was like, wow," she said. "I have often envisioned in paradise where going door to door would not be a thing because everyone knows God."This was not paradise.But Francis was convinced that the end of the world was not far away. There were just too many signs, she said. And so she and many other Jehovah's Witnesses members were more compelled than ever to witness any way they could. Many began writing letters or making phone calls to anyone whose numbers they had managed to collect before the pandemic hit.Masked and gloved, Francis hands out pamphlets and cards with her phone number on them to fellow shoppers at the grocery store.Last week, she sent a text to a woman in Hawkinsville, Georgia, a few miles away, whom she had been contacting from time to time. The woman said her restaurant had to close because of the pandemic and her brother-in-law was sick with the virus. A couple of days later he died.Francis texted Scriptures to the woman and told her that soon all the sickness on Earth would be over; all sins would be forgiven; paradise was near.The next day she received a written response: "Thank you so much for the information. It was such a comfort."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

The first known comet to visit us from another star system has an unusual make-up.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it has forged a new agreement with Vulcan Inc., the Seattle-based holding company created by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, to share data on ocean science and exploration. The memorandum of understanding builds on an existing relationship between NOAA and Vulcan. “The future of ocean science and exploration is partnerships,” retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, assistant secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and deputy NOAA administrator, said today in a news release. “NOAA is forging new collaborations, such as the one with Vulcan, to accelerate our mission to map, explore… Read More

The impact on human health of an invasive ragweed plant may be "seriously underestimated".

Last year's failed attempt to locate one of the world's great wrecks has lessons for future efforts.

One month after the debut of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset, or CORD-19, the database of coronavirus-related research papers has doubled in size – and has given rise to more than a dozen software tools to channel the hundreds of studies that are being published every day about the pandemic. In a roundup published on the ArXiv preprint server this week, researchers from Seattle's Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Research and other partners in the project say CORD-19's collection has risen from about 28,000 papers to more than 52,000. Every day, several hundred more papers are being published, in… Read More

Surviving trees growing near to an active volcano face an uncertain future for several years after an eruption, a study suggests.

The veteran telescope celebrates three decades in orbit with a colourful image of star formation.

NASA has awarded a $2 million grant to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, The Aerospace Corp. — and Xplore, a Seattle-based space venture — to develop the design architecture for a far-out telescope array that would use the sun's gravitational field as a lens to focus on alien planets. The Phase III award from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC, would cover two years of development work and could lead to the launch of a technology demonstration mission in the 2023-2024 time frame. Xplore's team will play a key role in designing the demonstration mission's spacecraft, which would be… Read More

New techniques are being used to transform images from Hubble into spectacular 3D visualisations.

The discovery that the badger-like animal lived alongside dinosaurs challenges ideas about mammals.

Bill Gates has been big on vaccines since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, but in a new blog posting, the Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist says the only way to end the pandemic for good is to offer a vaccine to almost all of the planet's 7 billion inhabitants. That's big. "We've never delivered something to every corner of the world before," Gates notes. It's especially big considering that a vaccine hasn't yet been approved for widespread use, and that it may take as long as a year to 18 months to win approval and start distribution. Some… Read More

NASA has selected teams led by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX to develop lunar landing systems capable of putting astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024. "We want to be able to go to the moon, but we want to be a customer," NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters today during a teleconference. "We want to drive down the costs, we want to increase the access, we want to have our partners have customers that are not just us, so they compete on cost and innovation, and just bring capabilities that we've never had before." Fixed-price contracts totaling… Read More

The space agency announces the companies that will work on landers to return astronauts to the Moon.

For the first time, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane flew free in the skies over New Mexico's Spaceport America, its new base of operations. The SpaceShipTwo plane, known as VSS Unity, has made rocket-powered flights beyond the 50-mile space milestone during tests at California's Mojave Air and Space Port, but today's unpowered test flight was the first to be flown from Spaceport America. "Today's VSS Unity flight is another exciting milestone for Virgin Galactic's progress in New Mexico," Dan Hicks, executive director of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, said in a news release. "We are extremely happy and proud of… Read More

Native woodlands can resist the spread of invasive species if they block light reaching the ground.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has confirmed in a tweet that the space agency is working with movie star Tom Cruise on a project that involves shooting a film on the International Space Station. Deadline Hollywood reported on Monday that a space movie project involving NASA and SpaceX is in the works, but that "no studio is in the mix at this stage." Bridenstine followed up with a tweet saying that NASA was "excited" to be working with Cruise, and explaining that "we need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make NASA's ambitious plans a… Read More

Areas such as India, Australia and Africa are predicted to be among the worst affected.

One of the hardest tasks in Earth observation is tracking tiny changes in the shape of the ground.

An unseen object is found to be lurking in a double-star system a mere 1,000 light-years from Earth.

NASA has awarded the University of Washington a $499,864 grant to develop a competition that calls on students to turn a simulated lava tube into a habitat suitable for harboring humans on the moon or Mars. The exploration and habitation skills competition will be funded as part of NASA's Artemis Student Challenges program, which plays off the themes of the Artemis moon program to inspire the next generation of explorers and engineers. The competition will involve navigating a rover through a facsimile lava tube and surface structures, generating maps, identifying valuable resources and deploying an airtight barrier to seal the… Read More

Funding for English local authorities is likely to be unveiled to encourage people to be more active.

The following is a brief roundup of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. A new antibody test is highly accurate at determining whether people have been infected with the novel coronavirus, according to a study published on Friday in The Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found the test, manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, had a specificity rate of 99.9% and a sensitivity rate of 100%, suggesting little chance of incorrectly diagnosing a healthy person as having been infected and virtually no chance of a false negative readout.

The ancient Roman city’s House of the Lovers has reopened to the public 40 years after it was severely damaged in 1980 by an earthquake

• Pompeii’s House of Lovers reopens to public

There are decisions being made right now that could have an effect on global populations for generations to come. As part of this project, we commissioned an artist to investigate some of the themes raised in the podcasts. This work of fiction imagines a future where gene editing has become mainstream and discusses the moral, ethical and political divides that this might create

As Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos's Project Kuiper race to create high-speed internet using satellites orbiting Earth, there's a small problem that could get in the way: debris. From dead spacecraft that have been around since the dawn of the space age to flecks of paint smashing windows on the International Space Station, rubbish is clogging up our orbits. And with objects moving as fast as 15,500mph (25,000 kmph), the satellite services we've come to depend on are at constant risk of collision. So how to fix the problem with junk in space? Ian Anderson investigates

The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades started to show on Tuesday evening over Europe, Latin America, the US and the Middle East. This year, the supermoon was expected to come nearer to Earth than at any time since 1948, astronomers have said. A supermoon occurs when the timing of a full moon overlaps with the point in the moon's 28-day orbit that is closest to Earth, and about every 14th full moon is a supermoon. If skies are clear, this time the full moon will appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual, according to Nasa

Two gems from the wizard of recreational maths

UPDATE: Puzzle solutions can be read here.

Today’s column is a celebration of John Horton Conway, the legendary British mathematician, who died of coronavirus earlier this month, aged 82.

Conway was an inspirational, iconoclastic genius who invented and studied countless puzzles and games, in addition to his more highbrow work in group theory, number theory, geometry, topology and many other fields.

The answers to today’s puzzles

Earlier today I set you two puzzles that the late John Horton Conway suggested for this column:

1) The Miracle Builders

Puzzles for kids in quarantine

Update: Solutions can now be read here.

Today’s teasers are from my new puzzle book, Football School: the Ultimate Puzzle Book, which is aimed at 8 to 13-year-olds. No pressure. I have extracted some of the problems that I thought might also provide entertainment for grown-ups.

We kick off with a problem for everyone tending their lawns, plant pots, and window boxes during lockdown.

The solutions to today’s puzzles

Earlier today I set you the following four puzzles from my new book, Football School: the Ultimate Puzzle Book:

1. Which of these two watering cans can carry the most water?

Smartphones can be used to digitally trace Covid-19. But not if the public don’t download an app over privacy fears – or find it won’t work on their device

The idea of the NHS tracing app is to enable smartphones to track users and tell them whether they interacted with someone who had Covid-19. Yet this will work only if large proportions of the population download the app. No matter how smart a solution may appear, mass consent is required. That will not be easy. Ministers and officials have failed to address the trade-offs between health and privacy by being ambiguous about the app’s safeguards.

Instead of offering cast-iron guarantees about the length of time for which data would be held; who can access it; and the level of anonymity afforded, we have had opacity and obfuscation. It is true that we are dealing with uncertainties. But without absolute clarity about privacy the public is unlikely to take up the app with the appropriate gusto.

Some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now I hear every day about deaths from Covid-19

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It is the sixth week of lockdown, and for many people things are getting progressively more intense. Most families are physically distancing at home. People are only leaving the house for their weekly shop – and spending a lot of that time waiting in the queue – or to exercise once a day.

In my family things are a bit different. Our driveway is usually empty during the day as my parents, who are doctors, go in to work. It is difficult to imagine how only some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now every day, I hear about deaths from coronavirus. I cannot help but feel a surge of fear for my parents as I watch these updates with my brother. I’m painfully aware of the many healthcare workers who have lost their lives.

The chance to put biodiversity and the environment at the heart of recovery from the pandemic should not be squandered

One night in April, birdwatchers from around Britain stepped outside their doors and listened intently to something most of them had never experienced before: the fluting, mysterious, melancholy cry of the common scoter on the wing.

Flocks of these dusky sea ducks were beating their way over Britain on their long migratory journey towards their Arctic breeding grounds, easily audible to the naked ear. The first great wave was heard on the Wirral before being picked up in the Peak District, and at last by the Humber. A second wave was made out as flocks made their way along the line of Hadrian’s wall, from the Solway Firth in the west to Northumberland in the east. A third wave flew above listeners from the Severn estuary to the Wash. The birds were heard in urban Blackburn, Stalybridge, Bristol and London. It was thanks to social media that so many listeners were alert to the birds’ progress – and thanks to the silence of lockdown that they could be heard.

After a string of studies that highlight the possible link between air pollution and Covid-19 deaths, Ian Sample hears from Prof Anna Hansell about the complicated relationship between pollution, health and infection with Sars-CoV-2

Hannah Devlin speaks to Prof Sabra Klein about why women are much less likely to become seriously ill or die from Covid-19, and what the implications of this knowledge for future treatments might be

With false information linking the coronavirus to 5G telecoms or Chinese labs being widely shared on social media, Ian Sample speaks to social psychologist Dr Daniel Jolley about why the pandemic is such fertile ground for conspiracy theories

As hay fever season approaches, Nicola Davis asks Prof Stephen Durham about the differences between the immune response to an allergen, such as pollen, and a pathogen, like Sars-CoV-2. Should those with allergies should be concerned about Covid-19?

Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

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Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

Lawyers say failure to provide adequate PPE may amount to corporate manslaughter

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The deaths of more than 50 hospital and care home workers have been reported to Britain’s health and safety regulator, which is considering launching criminal investigations, the Guardian has learned.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which investigates the breaking of safety at work laws, has received 54 formal reports of deaths in health and care settings “where the source of infection is recorded as Covid-19”. These are via the official reporting process, called Riddor: Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences.

Sage told widespread use of antibody tests could lead to criminal behaviour, papers reveal

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Downing Street’s scientific advisers feared people might intentionally seek to contract coronavirus and that a black market in fake test results could emerge if employers allowed workers to return only when they had a positive antibody test.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as Sage, was warned last month by its behavioural psychology subgroup that the widespread introduction of antibody tests could lead to a range of potentially dangerous and even criminal “negative behavioural responses” if not handled well.

Recent deaths have stood out, but scientists say they must be interpreted with caution

Amid the steady stream of stories on the lives lost to coronavirus are cases that stand out as remarkable. In the past month, at least two pairs of twins have died in Britain and two pairs of brothers, all within hours or days of each other. But do the deaths point to genetic factors that make some more likely than others to succumb to the disease?

Most scientists believe that genes play a role in how people respond to infections. A person’s genetic makeup may influence the receptors that the coronavirus uses to invade human cells. How resilient the person is to the infection, their general health, and how the immune system reacts will also have some genetic component.

Studies have examined some of the more unusual signs of Covid-19

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The World Health Organization lists the most common symptoms of Covid-19 as fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Others include a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion, pain, diarrhoea and the loss of sense of taste and/or smell. But there are also other more unusual symptoms that patients have presented.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to be our focus on Science Weekly, we also want to try look at other science stories. In this episode, Nicola Davis speaks to Dave Krause about the 66-million-year-old fossil of a cat-sized mammal dubbed ‘crazy beast’. A giant in its day, we hear how this now extinct branch of mammals – known as Gondwanatherians – offers new insights into what could have been

Official figures show that wide disparity not just due to health and economic differences

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Black people are more than four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than white people, according to stark official figures exposing a dramatic divergence in the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in England and Wales.

The Office of National Statistics found that the difference in the virus’s impact was caused not only by pre-existing differences in communities’ wealth, health, education and living arrangements.

‘Challenge’ studies would deliberately give coronavirus to healthy volunteers

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Controversial trials in which volunteers are intentionally infected with Covid-19 could accelerate vaccine development, according to the World Health Organization, which has released new guidance on how the approach could be ethically justified despite the potential dangers for participants.

So-called challenge trials are a mainstream approach in vaccine development and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu, but there are treatments available for these diseases if a volunteer becomes severely ill. For Covid-19, a safe dose of the virus has not been established and there are no failsafe treatments if things go wrong.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford dropped by his cottage last month, days after asking the province’s residents to stay away from theirs. His office says Ford "drove alone" and was there for less than an hour to check on construction.

Lethbridge police are being investigated by an outside force after handcuffing a woman in a stormtrooper costume outside a Star Wars-themed business earlier this week. But still the force faces accusations that not enough is being done to investigate what happened.

A young wild horse likely wouldn't have survived the night if a group of animal lovers hadn't stumbled across the filly struggling — and failing — to drag itself out of a two-metre deep mud hole.

Danish Chagani was excited when the lawyer who lived down the hall from his Toronto condo wanted to rent his unit after he bought a house for his young family. But the first-time landlord says the feeling was short-lived.