The highly transmissible variant emerged with a host of unusual mutations. Now scientists are trying to work out how it evolved. Little more than two months after it was first spotted in South Africa, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has spread around the world faster than any previous versions. Scientists have tracked it in more than 120 countries, but remain puzzled by a key question: where did Omicron come from? There’s no transparent path of transmission

While most of us can expect to live to around 80, some people defy expectations and live to be over 100. In places such as Okinawa, Japan and Sardinia, Italy, there are many centenarians. The oldest person in history – a French woman named Jeanne Calment – lived to 122. When she was born in 1875, the average life expectancy was roughly 43. But just how long could a human actually live? It’s a question people have been asking for centuries. While average life expectancy (the n

Worms, flies, and yeast live longer if the fidelity of their protein-making machinery is improved, a study shows.