Category Archives: Science

Coronavirus: 70 more cases on Japan cruise ship as China infections pass 68,000

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US, Canada and Hong Kong offer citizens on Diamond Princess flights home as death toll inside China reaches 1,665

A further 70 people on the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Japan have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total to 355, as three countries say they will fly their citizens on the ship home. It comes as China’s National Health Commission announced the death toll inside the country had risen to 1,665, with 68,500 infections.

The US embassy in Japan announced on Saturday that more than 400 US nationals would be flown home from the quarantined Diamond Princess, currently docked in the port of Yokohama, south of Tokyo.

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Pressure grows on UK to rescue citizens from coronavirus-stricken ship

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Passengers on Diamond Princess liner ‘disillusioned’ with government over lack of action

• All the day’s developments

Pressure is growing on the British government to airlift citizens stranded on a cruise ship stricken by coronavirus, after a Chinese tourist in France became the first person to die from the disease in Europe.

The US announced late on Friday that it would be evacuating more than 400 nationals from the quarantined ship, which has had nearly 300 confirmed coronavirus cases, and British travellers called on their government to do the same.

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Chinese tourist in France becomes Europe’s first coronavirus fatality

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French health minister confirms death of man from virus that has killed more than 1,500 people

Europe has recorded its first coronavirus fatality, a Chinese tourist in France, it has been confirmed.

The death of the 80-year-old man, who was visiting Paris with his daughter when he was taken to hospital three weeks ago after falling ill, also marks the first coronavirus mortality outside Asia since the start of the outbreak.

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Coronavirus outbreak: senior US official accuses China of lack of transparency

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Top White House official Larry Kudlow questions approach of Politburo as China brings in ‘wartime’ measures in more cities

A senior White House official has called on Beijing to be more transparent over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak as Chinese authorities expanded “wartime” measures to limit its spread.

“We are a little disappointed that we haven’t been invited in and we’re a little disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese,” said Larry Kudlow, the director of the US National Economic Council.

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Scientists find evidence of ‘ghost population’ of ancient humans

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Traces of unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analysed genomes from west African populations

Scientists have found evidence for a mysterious “ghost population” of ancient humans that lived in Africa about half a million years ago and whose genes live on in people today.

Traces of the unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analysed genomes from west African populations and found that up to a fifth of their DNA appeared to have come from the missing relatives.

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Coronavirus: Cruise ship turned away from five countries allowed to dock in Cambodia – latest news

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MS Westerdam, which has 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, will dock on Thursday as WHO chief warns coronavirus threat is greater than terrorism

A paper in the Lancet medical journal, published online, should dispel some of the worries around reported deaths of some babies born to women who have fallen ill with what is now being called COVID-19 infection.

The authors say preliminary evidence suggests the new coronavirus cannot be passed to the baby in the womb.

Hi, Amy Walker here taking over the blog from my colleague Simon Murphy.

Patients who were treated by the two Brighton GPs who have been diagnosed with coronavirus are being traced by health officials, the BBC has reported.

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Moo swings? Cows go through disruptive puberty too – study

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Scientists say animals can become more or less bold and adventurous as they grow up

Humans are not alone in enduring the rollercoaster ride of puberty as powerful hormones flood the body and cause mood swings from one day to the next. Scientists have found that dairy cows pass through a similar phase of emotional confusion that disturbs their otherwise rather stable personalities.

The findings emerged from extensive observations of Holstein dairy cattle as they matured from calves to adulthood. “Our study identified a period of inconsistency in personality traits over puberty,” said Nina Von Keyserlingk, a professor of animal welfare at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

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Coronavirus live updates: Thailand bars cruise ship as deaths in China pass 1,000 – latest news

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Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam tells people to stay at home as nervous global investors turn to safe havens like gold. Follow updates live

Chinese state media is reporting that party secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province, Zhang Jin, and the director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission, Liu Yingzi, have been fired.

Party Secretary of Health Commission of Hubei Province Zhang Jin and director of the Hubei Provincial Health Commission Liu Yingzi were removed from their posts. The two posts will be taken over by Wang Hesheng, a Standing Committee member of the CPC Hubei Provincial Committee. pic.twitter.com/AnGOVOvDOw

The BBC’s correspondent in China, Stephen McDonell, has tweeted about the China’s national health commission changing the way it counts confirmed cases of the virus.

I have seen a lot of this on social media today.

There does however seem to be a suggestion that a change in definition from #China’s National Health Commission re “confirmed case” could’ve soaked up some of the reduction. Patients with no #coronavirus symptoms not counted as “confirmed” any more even if they test positive.

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‘Reaper of death’: scientists discover new dinosaur species related to T rex

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Species is thought to be the oldest member of the T rex family yet discovered in northern North America

Scientists in Canada have announced the discovery of a new species of dinosaur closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex that strode the plain of North America about 80m years ago.

Related: Dinosaurs had feathers ruffled by parasites, study finds

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Xi Jinping appears in public as China returns to work after holiday

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President greets workers in Beijing as WHO chief warns cases could be ‘tip of iceberg’

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has made his first public appearance in weeks, as some people began to return to work following the lunar new year holiday, which was extended as authorities grappled with the coronavirus outbreak.

Xi, who has been absent from public view as the crisis worsened, visited a neighbourhood in Beijing’s Chaoyang district. The president had his temperature taken and greeted residents and workers, according to a brief video posted by the state broadcaster CCTV.

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Fires and floods: maps of Europe predict scale of climate catastrophe

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Without urgent action, rising sea levels by end of century could leave cities under water

A series of detailed maps have laid bare the scale of possible forest fires, floods, droughts and deluges that Europe could face by the end of the century without urgent action to adapt to and confront global heating.

An average one-metre rise in sea levels by the end of the century – without any flood prevention action – would mean 90% of the surface of Hull would be under water, according to the European Environment Agency.

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Coronavirus live updates: China goes back to work as cases exceed 40,000 – latest news

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Death toll inside China rises to 908 as the WHO dispatches a team of experts to Beijing

A memorial for whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang has been held in New York. Li’s death sparked an outpouring of anger inside China. Li was silenced by the government for trying to warn people over the threat of the new virus, and later died after contracting it.

The memorial for Doctor #LiWenliang at Central Park, NYC. The crowd repeated his famous line three times: “一个健康的社会不应该只有一种声音 There should be more than one voice in a healthy society,” followed by a long whistle. pic.twitter.com/fIERhUowH0

Some welcome news for the 3,700 people onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which is quarantined in Yokohama harbour after several cases of coronavirus among passengers.

The quarantine period of the #DiamondPrincess will come to an end on 19 February.
The period will be extended beyond the 19 Feb as appropriate only for close contacts of newly confirmed cases. They need to remain in quarantine for 14 days from last contact with a confirmed case pic.twitter.com/SlaPaKFfwE

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‘Contact is limited’: inside the world’s coronavirus quarantines – video

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People who are being held in facilities in dozens of countries explain what daily life is like and their hopes for returning home soon. China's Hubei province, where the coronavirus originated from, is under lockdown to limit contagion. The death toll has risen to 724, with 86 more people dying in mainland China, according to officials. This is the highest one-day jump so far

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If China valued free speech, there would be no coronavirus crisis

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Country could have contained spread of disease if only it had learned lessons from Sars outbreak

The death of the whistleblower Chinese doctor Li Wenliang has aroused strong emotions across China. Social media is awash with posts mourning the death of a martyr who tried to raise alarm over the coronavirus but was taken into a police station instead for “spreading false rumours” and “disrupting social order”.

Grief quickly turned into angry demands for free speech. The trending topic “we want freedom of speech”, which attracted millions of views, and links to Do You Hear the People Sing, a song popularised in recent Hong Kong protests, were quickly censored by police.

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Coronavirus economic impact: Australia could be among world’s hardest hit nations

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Australia’s economy is unusually dependent on China, and a coronavirus-driven slowdown could mean billions in lost revenue

Australia could be one of the countries worst affected by the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak as factories in China remain shuttered and millions of people are confined to their homes and banned from travelling.

The Reserve Bank of Australia on Friday stuck to its forecast of strong growth this year thanks to a rising housing market, and the stock market – along with others around the world – has largely shrugged off concerns about the global impact of the virus to remain close to all-time highs.

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China trials anti-HIV drug on coronavirus patients

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News of Kaletra being tested as a possible treatment for the disease sparks panic buying

Coronavirus – latest news

A drug used to treat people with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is being trialled in patients in China as a possible therapy against the coronavirus.

News that HIV drugs are being deployed in hospitals, however, has led to panic buying on the black market by people who fear they are ill or are going to get sick. They have been obtaining the drug, Kaletra, from generics companies in India and even from people with HIV in China willing to sell or donate their own stocks.

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Concerns coronavirus is going undetected in Indonesia

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World’s fourth most populous country says it has no confirmed cases despite close links to China

There is growing concern that the new coronavirus may be going undetected in Indonesia, where officials have not confirmed a single case of infection among the 272 million-strong population despite the country’s close links to China.

As of Thursday, Indonesia said it had no confirmed cases of the coronavirus and that 238 people evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, had not shown symptoms, although it said they hadn’t been tested.

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Coronavirus live updates: cruise ship cases rise to 61 as China mourns whistleblower doctor – latest news

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Li Wenliang’s death in Wuhan comes as Hong Kong prepares to impose quarantine on mainland travellers. Follow live updates

Toyota has extended the closure of its 12 factories in China by a week.

Officials at the Beijing press conference said they had confidence in the economic system and that the impact on the economy from the outbreak would be “temporary. It will be limited and will not affect the fundamentals, and the economy is sound and stable”.

They added:

The outbreak has taken place during the spring festival and the impact on services is notable. The holiday has been extended and the construction sector and other sectors will be affected. There will be an impact on economic performance in Q1 but the economy will return to productivity when the epidemic is over. Look at 2003 Sars outbreak. There was disrupted growth in Q2 but in Q3 it rebounded. When the epidemic is controlled, the economy will rebound and pent-up investment and consumption released. The Chinese econony will have a quick recovery. it is promising and resilient. The funadmentals will not change. There is ample room for macro regulation – China is one of the few major economies that have normal monetary policy so we have sufficient tools to repsond.

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Bumblebees’ decline points to mass extinction – study

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Populations disappearing in areas where temperatures are getting hotter, scientists say

Bumblebees are in drastic decline across Europe and North America owing to hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures, scientists say.

A study suggests the likelihood of a bumblebee population surviving in any given place has declined by 30% in the course of a single human generation. The researchers say the rates of decline appear to be “consistent with a mass extinction”.

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Christina Koch returns to Earth after record-breaking space mission

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Koch lands in Kazakhstan after 328 days in space, the longest continuous spaceflight by a female astronaut

She would miss the friendship of her crewmates, she said, and of course the spectacular views.

But after 328 days on the International Space Station – the longest continuous spaceflight ever undertaken by a female astronaut – Christina Koch could not deny last week that she was looking forward to experiencing some very simple pleasures back on Earth, including “the feeling of wind on my face”.

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