An infection by a coronavirus belonging to the same family of that responsible for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has been reported in the United Kingdom. A 49 years old man from Qatari with a travel history to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha, Qatar, on 7 September, with symptoms of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure. He has been transferred to the UK on 11 September, where the Health Protection Agency confirmed the presence of a novel coronavirus, whose sequence was 99.5% similar to that responsible of a previous fatal case reported earlier this year in a 60 year-old Saudi national.
Given that coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause different kinds of diseases, from the common cold to the SARS, WHO is currently trying to gather further information about these two cases and did not recommended any travel restrictions.
A new coronavirus found in UK
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Carnivorous plants can be a source of inspiration for new materials
Drosera capensis. Wikimedia.
Carnivorous plants can be a source of inspiration for new materials with specific mechanical properties, according to researchers from the Centre for Complexity and Biosystems (CC&B) of the University of Milan. In a paper recently published on PNAS– and selected for the journal’s cover –they analysed the mechanics by which one of these plants, Drosera capensis, folds its leaves around insects trapped on their sticky surface in order to digest them.