Bird flu has reached every continent reports Nature Briefing. Maybe H5N1 may never cause a human pandemic — but avian influenza viruses will keep trying, so tracking H5N1 ‘s march to Australia matters. Because when the Big One hits, we will need every bit of data we can get
| The H5N1 strain of avian influenza has been detected in two wild birds in Australia — the first cases of the disease on the continent. There’s no evidence that the virus has killed large groups of birds or mammals, but at least 58 sick or dead birds have been reported on an emergency hotline. Mainland Australia had previously been a stronghold against the virus, but “we all knew we couldn’t be bird flu-free forever”, says Julie Collins, the country’s agricultural minister. BBC | 4 min read & ABC News | 6 min read |
| Older than the stars? The detection of interstellar comets, true visitors to our solar system from far away, has been one of the recent achievements of Astronomy. The Guardian has this story about the latest, from the true depths of time: |
There’s hydrogen in them there hills Imagine what a clean natural source of hydrogen could do for sustainable lifestyles. It may be lurking out there in the tectonic folds of the Alps reports the Guardian
Could mountains be key to unlocking hydrogen’s potential? | Science | The Guardian
| Apes are good for a laugh It seems humans have two types of laugh, neurologically speaking One shared with out great ape relatives, and one more particularly our own according to El País. As Nature Briefing has more on the fascinating theme of primate humour, we decided to throw in their take on it as well. |
Humans and apes share a laugh
| Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and children laugh in similar rhythms when tickled. Researchers found that kids and apes left evenly spaced intervals between laughing sounds during a tickle attack, though children had a faster laughter rhythm compared with apes. Laughter might have picked up pace during the course of human evolution, the team suggests, which could reveal “something about laughter itself, but also, in a way, about the evolution of human speech”, says primatologist and study co-author Chiara De Gregorio. Nature | 4 min read Reference: Communications Biology paper |
| Quote of the week He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. John Stuart Mill On Liberty |
# H5N1 #avian influenza #interstellar comets#astronomy #primatology #evolution #sustainable energy #hydrogen
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