Sunday 11 October 2020

God's work, or man's? Storm-battered Louisianans are unsure

Daniel Schexnayder has water up to his ankles as he stands outside, surveying damage to his home inflicted by Hurricane Laura six weeks before Louisiana was pummeled by a second storm, Delta.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-god-storm-battered-louisianans-unsure.html

Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket

The jig may be up for an "asteroid" that's expected to get nabbed by Earth's gravity and become a mini moon next month.

source https://phys.org/news/2020-10-fake-asteroid-nasa-expert-ids.html

As virus fills French ICUs anew, doctors ask what went wrong

During a single overnight shift this week, three new COVID-19 patients were rushed into Dr. Karim Debbat's small intensive care ward in the southern French city of Arles. It now has more virus patients than during the pandemic's first wave and is scrambling to create new ICU beds elsewhere in the hospital to accommodate the sick.

UN: New daily record as COVID-19 cases hit more than 350,000

The World Health Organization has announced a new daily record high in coronavirus cases confirmed worldwide, with more than 350,000 infections reported to the U.N. health agency on Friday.

Madrid back in lockdown as Europe virus cases up 28% over week

Spain's government declared a state of emergency and new partial lockdown for virus-hit Madrid on Friday after a court struck down previous measures, in a sign of the difficult battles waged across a restriction-weary Europe.

Immune cell activation in severe COVID-19 resembles lupus

In severe cases of COVID-19, Emory researchers have been observing an exuberant activation of immune cells, resembling acute flares of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), an autoimmune disease.

Four in ten extra deaths in Lombardy not linked to COVID-19

The study, published in PLOS ONE, looked at the number of deaths in each of the 7,251 local authority areas of Italy during the first four months of the year and compared these figures with predictions based on data from 2016-2019.

Italy 'second wave' fears grow as virus cases top 5,000

Italy was grappling Friday with fears of a second coronavirus wave similar to the ones seen in Britain, France and Spain, as it registered over 5,000 new infections in 24 hours.