Portrait of a virus: How the perfect pathogen swept the globe and shut down our world
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1of5The San Francisco skyline is seen covered in dark clouds during a rainstorm at Treasure Island on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020 in San Francisco, California.Gabrielle Lurie / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
2of5Hand sanitizer stations are placed throughout a new housing project at 950 Gough Street on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 in San Francisco, Calif.Brian Feulner / Special to The Chronicle 2020Show MoreShow Less
3of5Stanford scientist Yvonne Maldonado is photographed during a phone conference call at her home office on Stanford campus, in California on March 27, 2020. Maldonado is one of the 10 scientists who is working on the coronavirus.Josie Lepe / Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
Governor Newsom hosted a virtual conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci and discussed the variant. I don t think that Californians should feel this is something odd. This is something that s expected, said Dr. Fauci, who said this about the variant: There s no indication at all that it increases the virulence, and by virulence I mean the ability to make you sick or kill you.
Shannon Bennett is the chief of science at California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She s a virologist specializing in viruses that emerge from non-human animals - like coronavirus.
She explained why the variant may be spreading faster than the viruses we ve seen before.
A miniaturised snake
The snake is described as a miniaturised genus and species, much smaller than its closest relatives, Mr Weinell said.
While Levitonius mirus reaches at most 17 centimetres in length, the size of a pencil, he said, the closest relatives could be three to four times larger. That has a lot of consequences, like reduction of the number of bones, a sort of simplification of the body, Mr Weinell said. Miniaturisation hasn t been observed that often, at least in snakes, the KU graduate research assistant said, and this snake represents one of the most extreme cases within the larger clade it belongs in, called Elapoidea.
What s Undetermined
The relationship between the two penguins and their emotional state in the photograph remains unclear. The suggestion that the two birds were “widowed” was based on speculation.
Origin
An award-winning photo circulated on the internet in mid-December 2020 appearing to show two “widowed” fairy penguins consoling one another as the duo romantically gazed at the city lights of Melbourne, Australia.
Captured by Tobias Baumgaertner, the photograph was dubbed the community choice winner in the 2020 Ocean Photography Awards for Oceanographic Magazine and madeheadlines after receiving the award. But were the two penguins really widowed and comforting each other? That remains to be seen.