Human Viruses Can Jump into Animals, Too—Sowing the Seeds of Future Epidemics

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May 20, 2020

Dear Reader, The coronavirus pandemic might have led to the largest reduction in CO2 ever recorded. Last month, global carbon dioxide emissions dropped to levels not seen since 2006, according to a study released yesterday. In space news, a massive galaxy similar to our own Milky Way spotted shockingly early in the universe's history is challenging astrophysicists' understanding of galaxy formation. Also featured in today's roundup: a new artificial eye that mimics the retina's spherical shape. Researchers hope this could lead to sharper robotic vision and prosthetic devices. And, although scientists say COVID-19 likely originated in bats (then possibly transmitted to people through an intermediate host), viruses can also jump from humans to animals. Our lead story looks into the risk of major outbreaks from "reverse zoonosis."

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Public Health Human Viruses Can Jump into Animals, Too--Sowing the Seeds of Future Epidemics "Reverse zoonosis" may foster the right conditions for the next COVID-19 By Stacey McKenna

Space Astronomers Get Earliest Ever Glimpse of Ancient Giant Galaxy The disk of gas and stars resembles our own Milky Way but somehow formed when the universe was only about 10 percent of its current age By Nola Taylor Redd

Medical & Biotech New Artificial Eye Mimics a Retina's Natural Curve Researchers have crafted a device that replicates the shape of the eye's sensory membrane By Sophie Bushwick

Environment Global CO2 Emissions Saw Record Drop During Pandemic Lockdown The decline shows how far there is to go to curtail greenhouse gases over the long term By Benjamin Storrow,E&E News

Space The First Footprints on Mars Could Belong to This Geologist NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins is at the forefront of a new crop of space explorers destined for the moon and maybe one day Mars By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine

Space Satellites in Low Orbits Are Taking over the Skies Earth monitoring and high-speed Internet are driving demand By Mark Fischetti,Nadieh Bremer

Behavior & Society Hello, I'm Your Doctor--Please Go Home We need to get patients out of the hospital as quickly as possible if we want them to heal By Steven Zhang

Policy & Ethics One of the World's Most Powerful Scientists Believes in Miracles NIH Director Francis Collins, winner of 2020 Templeton Prize, answers questions about God, free will, evil, altruism and his Christian faith in a 2006 interview. By John Horgan

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Lie Detectors Are Selling Like Crazy (True) Originally published in January 1967 | May 2020

QUOTE OF THE DAY "We still think of humans as this clean, higher-level species and the animals being the ones with all the pathogens. But if you think about human society and our densities and our contact structures, we are incubators for pathogens." Martha Nelson, scientist at the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center

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