From the key concepts of mutation to how coronaviruses get into cells- posts on key background information can be found here.
CovMT: An Interactive SARS-CoV-2 Mutation Tracker
Image credit: “COVID-19 Outbreak World Map per Capita” by Raphaël Dunant is under a CC BY 4.0 license. The article we’re demystifying today can be found here if you’d like to follow along. It’s rare that sequels are an improvement on the original. Thor gave rise to Thor: The Dark World, Call of Duty descended…
The UK Variant: What We Know and What We Don’t
This sidebar was fact-checked by Manolya Sag. Viruses, with their large numbers and fast replication time, are always evolving. For the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2, mutations are constantly occurring during its replication. In fact, it has been estimated by the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium that approximately 4000 mutations have arisen in the virus’ spike protein alone.…
Arabic Translation: Hide-and-seek: how SARS-CoV-2 hides from our immune system
**هذه ترجمة لهذه الصفحة**
Hide-and-seek: how SARS-CoV-2 hides from our immune system
The hidden war between viruses and host cells has influenced the evolution of all life on earth. For millions of years, viruses have acquired and refined weapons to undermine cell defenses and redirect cellular processes to the task of viral replication. Surviving cells created defenses to stave off initial attacks and “remember” attacks, so more…
Q-Z of Research: Science to English Dictionary, Part 3
This is the fourth instalment of our Science to English dictionary. Our first instalment can be found here, the second instalment can be found here and the third instalment can be found here. R S T V W
J-P of Research (Science to English Dictionary: Part 3)
This is the second instalment of our Science to English dictionary. You can find our first instalment (with terms from A-C) here and our second instalment (D-I) here. L M P
Video Sidebar: SARS-CoV-2 vs the Flu
Our author Demitri takes you through some of the key differences between SARS-CoV-2 and the common flu.
Overcoming Middle World
By Jacob L. Fine (Image from here) The world we see is not the world that is. Our sense organs were sculpted by natural selection to help us survive in what the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins calls Middle World. He is quick to distinguish this from the J. R. R. Tolkien’s land of hobbits and…
Video Sidebar: SARS-CoV-2 VS Other Coronaviruses
References Link to Attenuation of replication by a 29 nucleotide deletion in SARS-coronavirus acquired during the early stages of human-to-human transmission paper in Nature Scientific Reports https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33487-8 Link to Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) report https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf Link to Preliminary estimation of the basic reproduction number of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)…
Sidebar: Healthcare Heroes in Wuhan, China
Author’s Note The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for our healthcare heroes. As the on-going pandemic continues, many of our healthcare heroes are continually risking their lives to help fight the battle. I personally wanted to celebrate our healthcare heroes by highlighting research that describes the experiences of healthcare professionals. Thus, I hope this…
Video Sidebar: Wrapping up- Where Did SARS-CoV-2 come from?
Before we launch into the video, we should first define the term “Divergent Evolution,” which Demitri defines as: When at least 2 groups of the same species that originate from the same parent species independently acquire differences that are necessary for persistence in their respective environments. You can find out more about divergent evolution here.…
D-I of Research (Science to English Dictionary: Part 2)
This is the second instalment of our Science to English dictionary. You can find our first instalment (with terms from A-C) here! D
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