Study Reports First Case of Coronavirus Spread By Asymptomatic Person

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January 31, 2020

Dear Reader, Yesterday, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency. Researchers also reported that people showing no symptoms of the disease appear to be able to spread it. If confirmed, the finding will make it much harder to contain the virus. A separate alarming situation is happening across parts of Africa and southwest Asia: mass swarms of desert locusts. In other news, scientists designed a soft robot that "sweats" to cool itself when temperatures rise.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Public Health Study Reports First Case of Coronavirus Spread By Asymptomatic Person A woman from China infected a person in Germany before she began displaying symptoms By Andrew Joseph,STAT

Public Health "Unprecedented" Locust Invasion Approaches Full-Blown Crisis The spreading swarms, triggered by cyclone rains, threaten crops in East Africa By Nathanial Gronewold,E&E News

Engineering Sweating Robot Beats the Heat By leaking water, a soft robotic gripper cools itself more efficiently than humans do By Sophie Bushwick

Arts & Culture Sign Languages Display Distinct Ancestries Well more than 100 distinct sign languages exist worldwide, with each having features that made it possible for researchers to create an evolutionary tree of their lineages. By Susanne Bard | 03:00

Evolution Squishy Cephalopod Was Almost a Pterosaur's Lunch The fossil of an ancient squid relative tells paleontologists something new about the reptile that tried to feed on it. By Riley Black

Public Health The New Coronavirus Outbreak: What We Know So Far A virus that originated in Wuhan, China, has sickened thousands in the country and spread to numerous other nations By THE EDITORS

FROM THE STORE Ask the Experts: Human Body and Mind The third eBook in our Ask the Experts series, Human Body and Mind tackles questions about our own strange and mysterious biology, from how we evolved to exist this way to feats of body and mind.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Global Infections by the Numbers Outbreaks of infectious diseases are rising around the world, although deaths are dropping. Here we show several snapshots that capture these trends. By Jen Christiansen

QUOTE OF THE DAY "A [locust] swarm the size of Rome can eat enough food in one day as everybody in Kenya." Keith Cressman, Senior Agriculture Officer, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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