Reuters has a sweet story on honeybees that have been trained by Wim van der Poel at Wageningen University to expect a treat every time they smell a COVID-infected sample – so within… Read the rest “Bees trained to detect COVID can speed up testing.”
This is how public health was handled in the days before a lot of diseases were considered “eradicated.” It’s from The Body and Health: Grade Six by … Read the rest “Science Art: A quarantine safeguards health…, 1936.”
The Scientist has some satisfying news to ring in the New Year. The same genetic mechanism that boosts immunity to one lethal pandemic – the hemorrhagic fever known as Ebola –… Read the rest “The same genes that protect against Ebola also protect against COVID-19.”
Reuters reports on the inevitable – COVID-19 has finally been carried to a research station in the Antarctic, breaking out in more than 30 people stationed in the remote, icy continent… Read the rest “Coronavirus has reached Antarctica”
The Atlantic looks at the problem with the way public responses to the pandemic have evolved into rituals that look “disinfecting” but really aren’t nearly as effective… Read the rest “Hygiene theater: All the hand sanitizer in the world is kinda beside the point.”
Guano mining is a real thing, and a really fascinating thing. And sometimes a really dangerous thing, too. The Bioscience Resource Project revisits the case of some Chinese miners who, … Read the rest “New COVID hypothesis: not bat meat, but bat mines.”
The Lancet looks at pandemic spread in the U.S. and finds that the places that seem to respond the best took precautions and stayed home before there were any government policies in place … Read the rest “Best COVID outcomes were where people stayed home on their own, cell phone data shows.”
Nature has some good news about an infectious disease – the outbreak that had killed 2,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo appears to be over, thanks to a new vaccine:
… Read the rest “The world’s second-deadliest Ebola outbreak just ended.”“We
The New York Times looks at two different batches of genetic data which both indicate that shutting down travel from China didn’t actually affect the spread of the virus in New York,… Read the rest “New York’s coronavirus outbreak came from Europe, not China.”
Or something like that. Scientific American looks at how Shi Zhengli’s kind of obscure area zoological research – looking at how bats contract viral diseases – suddenly… Read the rest “China’s “Bat Woman” is a virus-hunting hero.”
Rather than the usual excerpt of recent research, I thought I’d start collecting some decent sources of info on the ongoing pandemic.
* Vetted and regularly updated numbers, best… Read the rest “COVID-19 Resource List”
Science News has started a vetted Frequently Asked Questions page about the virus that’s on everyone’s mind now. It’s located here, but the most fun question and answer… Read the rest “Some COVID-19 answers from Science News.”
Scientific American and STAT (with the help of the World Health Organization) inch us a little closer to identifying the microbe behind the mysterious outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan:
… Read the rest “Closing in on the virus behind China’s new pneumonia outbreak.”“Coronaviruses
WBUR Boston reports on new hope against a nasty tick-borne ailment, now that Massachusetts researchers are developing an injection against Lyme disease:
… Read the rest “Lyme disease shot to be tested next year”In their latest update, the researchers
Nature reveals research in Science and Science Immunology that describes a one hidden risk of measles – that by catching it, you’ll also become more vulnerable to diseases… Read the rest “Measles makes your immune system forget what it’s defeated before.”
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