The world waits for a coronavirus vaccine. But this isn’t the first time it’s taken a little longer than ideal.

For nearly forty years, scientists have searched for a vaccine for HIV, the virus behind the AIDS epidemic. Although they’re still searching, drugs, treatment and technology have made an HIV diagnosis a little better. The good news is that coronavirus shares more in common with other viruses than a devious trickster like HIV... and it all comes down to copying skills.

Written and reported by Brenna Biggs.

References:

Picheta, R. What happens if a coronavirus vaccine is never developed? It has happened before. CNN Health (2020).

Bazell, R. Finding the way again after failed AIDS vaccine. NBC News (2007).

Ries, J. COVID-19 Will Mutate — What That Means for a Vaccine (https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-to-know-about-mutation-and-covid-19#Just-how-long-will-immunity-last?). Healthline (2020).

Global pandemic have skyrocketed downloads of video conferencing apps. Soon after, many found themselves zoomed out. It turns out that some of the most important communication is in nonverbal. How do we recapture the details lost to pixelated video?

References

The video apps we're downloading amid the coronavirus pandemic, World Economic Forum

Dimberg, Ulf, Monika Thunberg, and Kurt Elmehed. "Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions." Psychological science 11.1 (2000): 86-89.

Sonnby-Borgström, Marianne, Peter Jönsson, and Owe Svensson. "Emotional empathy as related to mimicry reactions at different levels of information processing." Journal of Nonverbal behavior 27.1 (2003): 3-23

Wi-Fi Calling Up 78%, Voice Calls 29%, MediaPost

Pandemic: quite a BUZZ word these days. We stay home, wear masks, and wash hands like crazy. But what would bees do? Hint: dance party!

For over a century, bees have faced their own pandemic, V. destructor mites. Western honey bees are not as well-equipped to deal with them as their Eastern counterparts. Eastern honey bees throw mite-cleaning shindigs and even turn to more desperate measures, but Western honey bees might need a little help from their human friends.

Written and reported by Brenna Biggs.

References:

McAfee, A. Honey Bees Are Struggling with Their Own Pandemic. Scientific American (2020).

Werner, R. Co-adaptation of Apis cerana Fabr. and Varroa jacobsoni Oud. Apidologie, Springer Verlag 30 (2-3), pp.97-110 (1999).

Page, P., Lin, Z., Buawangpong, N. et al. Social apoptosis in honey bee superorganisms. Sci Rep 6, 27210 (2016).

Trying to destroy coronavirus? The World Health Organization says get to scrubbing! Twenty seconds at the sink should do it. But what if you don’t have soap… or clean water?

As cities have developed, water sources and waste streams develop with them. Even Paris began as a cesspool of typhoid and other diseases. For areas still developing, this poses a real challenge in times of extra handwashing. What can we learn from history, and how can that help our future?

Written and reported by Brenna Biggs.

References:

 

Kepnes, M. Unusual Place of the Month: Paris Sewers. Nomadic Matt (2018).

Hugo, V. Les Misérables. A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie (1862).

Lesté-Lasserre, C. Coronavirus found in Paris sewage points to early warning system. Science (2020).

Singhal, S. Every drop counts in these times of COVID-19. Down to Earth (2020).

Gharib, M., Huang, P. 6 Solutions To Beat COVID-19 In Countries Where The Usual Advice Just Won't Work. NPR (2020).

1 in 3 people globally do not have access to safe drinking water – UNICEF, WHO. WHO (2019).

With so many options, it can be difficult to know which cleaning products are best - even when there isn’t a pandemic going on. Fortunately, there are many options that are effective against killing viruses. The main difference is in how you use them to clean a surface. And no, you cannot use them inside the body.

For more information, you can access an article by C&EN here (https://cen.acs.org/safety/consumer-safety/chemists-guide-disinfectants/98/web/2020/05?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=CEN), or this helpful graphic and description by Compound Chem here (https://www.compoundchem.com/2020/03/31/destroy-coronavirus/). Written and reported by Kellen Kartub, Ph.D. with production consultant Anny Celsi.

Stuck in a house packed with snacks and limited ways to exercise? Tempted to turn to Ben and Jerry for sweet, sweet solace? Experts say this is normal...but not healthy! During times of stress or grief, even insects turn to sugary sweets to feel more calm. To curb our cravings, experts suggest improving our mental health. Exercise, paint, or express yourself! The great painter Pablo Picasso turned to art during tough times… should we do the same?

Written and recorded by Brenna Biggs.

References:

* Robinson, B. What Is "Quarantine 15"?. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-right-mindset/202003/what-is-quarantine-15) Psychology Today (2020).

* Berinato, S. That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief. (That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief.) Harvard Business Review (2020).

* Julia. Creativity in a Time of Uncertainty. (https://www.decodingcreativity.com/creativity-in-a-time-of-uncertainty/) Decoding Creativity (2016).

As weird as their name sounds, antibodies are actually quite friendly! They help our bodies fight off infection. And their presence indicates if we have had a disease and if we are immune. That’s why researchers in the Weiss and Penner labs are hard at work developing a test to count the amount of antibodies in our blood!

For more information on the Weiss (https://www.gweisslab.net/)and Penner (https://www.chem.uci.edu/~rmpenner/PennerGroup.html)labs, you can read about their detector here (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c00534) and their research here (https://www.phagetech.com/copy-of-our-approach-1)! Based off an interview with Kristin Gabriel (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristingabriel/), written and reported by Kellen Kartub, Ph.D. with production consultant Anny Celsi. Photo by Apurva Bhasin and the Penner Lab. Many thanks to Emily Sanders and Apurva Bhasin as well as other members of the Weiss and Penner labs for their time and work!

Quarantine is taking no-shave November to a whole new level. But can beards be hotspots for the coronavirus?  Before you grab your clippers, let’s grow through history!

 

Written and reported by Emily Sarah Sumner, PhD

 

References

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/3/30/21195447/beard-pandemic-coronavirus-masks-1918-spanish-flu-tuberculosis

Barbeito, Manuel S., Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor. "Microbiological laboratory hazard of bearded men." Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 15, no. 4 (1967): 899-906.

Wakeam, E., R. A. Hernandez, D. Rivera Morales, S. R. G. Finlayson, M. Klompas, and M. J. Zinner. "Bacterial ecology of hospital workers' facial hair: a cross-sectional study." Journal of Hospital Infection 87, no. 1 (2014): 63-67.

https://historycooperative.org/a-short-history-of-beard-styles/

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/pdfs/FacialHairWmask11282017-508.pdf

Knopf, Sigard Adolphus. Tuberculosis as a Disease of the Masses and how to Combat it. The Survey, 1901.

https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/3/17/14939608/beard-popularity-economics

The traffic in Los Angeles is doomed to live in infamy. Is there any benefit? With the outbreak of coronavirus, it’s become clear (again) that some cities have bigger outbreaks. Generally, bigger cities equal bigger outbreaks. The twist? Cities with the most efficient public transportation systems are the worst off! The good news is we may be able to use this information to target hitchhiking viruses.

Written and reported by Sumner L. Norman, Ph.D.

References

Dalziel, Benjamin D., Babak Pourbohloul, and Stephen P. Ellner. "Human mobility patterns predict divergent epidemic dynamics among cities." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280.1766 (2013): 20130763.

Tian, Huaiyu, et al. "An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in China." Science (2020).