Coronavirus Antibody Tests Have a Mathematical Pitfall

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June 18, 2020

Dear Reader, An Australian utility has drawn up plans that would marry the country's renewable energy power with a decades-old trick of hydro engineering. If successful, the design could help solve one of the biggest hurdles of renewable energy: finding a way to store excess power generated by wind turbines and solar panels. Critically for the global fight against climate change, it also could reduce the country's reliance on coal. Another story from today's roundup is about how the mosquito-borne malaria parasite, Plasmodium, trades genes. A new study finds that all the genetic diversity within an actively infected human host—up to 17 parasite strains—can come from just one bite. And lastly, our lead story explains the massive impact infection rates can have on the predictive value of antibody tests.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Math Coronavirus Antibody Tests Have a Mathematical Pitfall The accuracy of screening tests is highly dependent on the infection rate By Sarah Lewin Frasier

Cognition The Brain Interprets Smell like the Notes of a Song The sequence in which clusters of olfactory neurons switch on can evoke the smell of an apple instead of a pear By Bret Stetka

Biology Genetic Diversity of Malaria in a Single Mosquito Bite May Be Huge New blood tests help to track disease-causing Plasmodium strains By Viviane Callier

Mental Health COVID-19 Worsens Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder--but Therapy Offers Coping Skills The pandemic has heightened OCD phobias such as fear of germs. Yet some patients say experience with anxiety, and treatment for it, gives them an advantage By Elizabeth Lawrence,Kaiser Health News

Energy To Boost Renewable Energy, Australia Looks to Water and Gravity Pumped storage hydropower could store intermittent energy from wind and solar power to de-carbonize the nation's electricity supply By Nathanial Gronewold,E&E News

Behavior & Society One Upside of COVID-19: Kids Are Spending More Time with Dads Among the benefits are more resilience and better emotional health By Josh Levs

Climate Science On the Hill: Calculating Climate For the fourth Science on the Hill event, "Future Climate: What We Know, What We Don't", experts talked with Scientific American senior editor Mark Fischetti about what goes into modeling our climate and how such models are used in addition to long-term climate prediction. By Mark Fischetti,Steve Mirsky | 59:55

Mental Health To Process Grief over COVID-19, Children Need Empathetic Listening The pandemic creates both a need and an opportunity to help kids deal with difficult emotions By Lynn Burrell

Policy & Ethics The Truth about Scientific Models They don't necessarily try to predict what will happen—but they can help us understand possible futures By Sabine Hossenfelder

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FROM THE ARCHIVE French Firm Sells Cars Made from Plaster Originally published in July 1914 | June 2020

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