How Coronaviruses Cause Infection—from Colds to Deadly Pneumonia

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February 05, 2020

Dear Reader, As the new coronavirus outbreak continues in China and around the world, scientists are rushing to understand how far and fast it might spread. One key number used by epidemiologists is a critical part of this effort. Watch our video explainer to learn more. For the February issue we investigated what's really inside meatless patties such as the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger. You might be surprised by some of the ingredients.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Public Health How Coronaviruses Cause Infection--from Colds to Deadly Pneumonia The novel coronavirus outbreak raises questions about how such pathogens evolve and what makes infections mild or severe By Simon Makin

Public Health Will the New Coronavirus Keep Spreading or Not? You Have to Know One Little Number Whenever there's a new outbreak, scientists rush to calculate a number called R0, or R-naught. Why? It's been a critical part of the scientific effort to understand just how transmissible the new virus is. Here's how. By Jeffery DelViscio,Tanya Lewis,Amanda Montañez | 6:10

Public Health What's Inside? Meat vs. Meatless Burgers A look at ingredients and nutrition By Mark Fischetti,MSJONESNYC

Climate Trump Touts Tree Planting, But Ignores Climate in State of the Union Speech Several GOP lawmakers have pushed tree planting as a climate mitigation strategy, though scientists say it alone will not curb emissions By Scott Waldman,E&E News

Medical & Biotech Step Aside, CRISPR: RNA Editing is Taking Off Making changes to the molecular messengers that create proteins might offer flexible therapies for cancer, pain or high cholesterol, in addition to genetic disorders By Sara Reardon,Nature magazine

Environment Peru's Peatlands Could Greatly Accelerate Global Warming The vast region may stay wet—or dry up and burn—depending on whether indigenous people want to continue to work the land By Daniel Grossman

FROM THE STORE Playing Politics: The Science of Elections Politics makes strange bedfellows, and that becomes even more apparent when trying to analyze the science of politics. Pulling from an array of disciplines including social science, behavioral science and mathematics, this eBook analyzes key factors in the process of electing a leader.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Meteor Strikes Much Greater than Thought Originally published in February 1960 | February 2020

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