What kind of viruses could we be passing on to animals?

We have to improve our capabilities to predict the next emerging infectious disease.

It's Friday, March 29th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm Cyfry producer D. Peter Schmidt.

When we talk about emerging diseases, one of the looming threats is the so-called

zoonotic disease, pathogens that somehow make the jump from an animal host to a human one,

think COVID-19 or bird flu, which sometimes crosses the species divide.

But new research finds that when it comes to viruses,

more of them appear to have jumped from humans to animals

instead of the other way around.

So how can scientists better predict these future outbreaks?

But first, Gestos Ariel-Erel Dum Ross talks with space journalists

swap Nacrishna about the top news and science this week.

A large section of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed earlier this week after

container ship lost power and collided with the structure. The structural failure of the bridge, which

cut off a key roadway and a major international shipping port has many wondering why this happened.

Does the fault lie in the initial design, in aging infrastructure, or is it unreasonable to assume that parts of a bridge or all of it

might survive this kind of collision?

Here to talk about the bridge's engineering and other science stories this week is Swapna

Krishna, a space journalist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you so much.

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