At least 213 people have died as a result of the outbreak of the new virus, which has been declared a global emergency....
At least 213 people have died as a result of the outbreak of the new virus, which has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of confirmed cases in China has reached almost 10,000 and infections have been reported in at least 18 other countries, surpassing the epidemic of Sars - severe acute respiratory syndrome - in 2003.
With no vaccine currently available against the new virus, social media has been awash with dubious health advice. “Please don’t think that if you read someone’s tweet and it has been retweeted a lot, it’s an accurate source of information. It is not. Look for reputable organisations such as WHO to get your information from,” says Dr Mikhail Varshavski.
A newly discovered neon-green spider that uses math to build its incredibly precise and consistent webs has just been named after the “Lady Gaga of mathematics.” The bright-green arachnid is part of the orb-weaver spider family (Araneidae), whose members “tend to build beautiful and architecturally aesthetic webs” that look like they adhere to the golden ratio.
In fact, a close relative - the garden orb-weaver spider (Araneus diadematus) - creates about 30 radial threads (the spoke-like lines extending from the web’s middle) that form an astonishingly constant angle of about 15 degrees, which the spider carefully measures using its front legs.
The newfound spider has similarly precise webs. To highlight the spider’s fastidious weaving, the newly discovered species was named Araniella villanii, after French mathematician Cedric Villani - the winner of the 2010 Fields Medal, a prize awarded to mathematicians under the age of 40.
