Coronavirus Drug Remdesivir Shortens Recovery, But Is Not a Magic Bullet

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May 01, 2020

Dear Reader, NASA has picked three companies to develop new lunar landers that will carry astronauts to the surface of the moon in 2024 and beyond. SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics will design and build a landing system for the Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term human presence on Earth's closest celestial neighbor. Another update from the space agency, observations from a new NASA satellite are giving scientists one of the most detailed looks yet at glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica. The findings are clearer than ever: both ice sheets are losing billions of tons of mass each year. The ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica combined has contributed more than a half-inch to global sea-level rise since 2003. Also in today's top news, an experimental drug called remdesivir, which could shorten recovery time from COVID-19, will become a standard treatment for the infection in the U.S. And, by the way, honey bees are battling their own global pandemic, for which they were woefully unprepared.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Medicine Coronavirus Drug Remdesivir Shortens Recovery, But Is Not a Magic Bullet Despite conflicting data, the highly anticipated results will make the treatment a standard of care in the United States By Heidi Ledford,Nature magazine

Environment Honey Bees Are Struggling with Their Own Pandemic And there could be more on the way By Alison McAfee

Virus-Infected Bees Practice Social Distancing Bees infected with a virus cut back on interactions within their hive but find it easier to get past sentries at neighboring hives. By Karen Hopkin

NASA Selects Companies to Develop Human Lunar Landers Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX will each design and build spacecraft that could return astronauts to the Moon By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

New Satellite Gives Clearest View Yet of Polar Ice Melt Ice lost by Greenland and Antarctica outweighs any gains from accumulating snow, measurements from NASA's ICESat-2 show By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Camera Traps May Overcount Snow Leopards and Other Vulnerable Species Markings on big cats are hard to distinguish, meaning one animal may be counted as two By Adam Popescu

Recommended Books, May 2020 Mysterious mushrooms, AI for facial expressions, and other new science books By Andrea Gawrylewski

Arts & Culture The Rise of "Health Entertainment" to Convey Lifesaving Messages in the COVID-19 Pandemic The crisis shows the need for public health authorities to get creative in their communications By Maya Adam,Jennifer Gates

Public Health Coronavirus Roundup for April 25-May 1 Pandemic news highlights for the week By Robin Lloyd

FROM THE STORE Unlocking Happiness Take control and retrain your brain to achieve a happier, healthier state of mind. In this eBook, we examine aspects of daily life that affect mood such as perception, social support and time management and offer approaches shown to boost contentment, including reframing negative events, increasing resilience through self-compassion and practicing mindfulness.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Goldfish Eliminate Malaria Mosquitoes Originally published in February 1917 | May 2020

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It may not be the wonder drug that everyone's looking for, but if you can stop some patients from becoming critically ill, that's good enough." Stephen Griffin, virologist at the University of Leeds

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