BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

Greetings, number lovers. It's that time again for time for your guide to the numbers in the news and in life.

It's time for more or less.

This week, a real stinker of a claim.

75% of our emotions are driven by our sense of smell.

And an answer to last week's celebrity question about guns and homicide rates.

But first, stepping into the more or less studio, it's Ruth Alexander.

Hi Tim, yes, I'm here to talk about coronavirus, because we've been keeping up to date about its spread.

The death toll from the coronavirus rises to 41 with authorities.

More than 100 people have now died in China as a result of the virus.

China says there are now 9,500 cases of coronavirus in the country, and that at least 210 people have died.

There are now confirmed cases here in the UK.

And the virus has generated a lot of chatter on social media.

This tweet from last Saturday peaked our interest.

Holy Mother of God, the new coronavirus is a 3.8.

How bad is that reproductive or not value?

It is thermonuclear pandemic level bad.

I'm not exaggerating.

Are you sure you're not? Not even a little?

This message was part of a thread posted last Saturday by Dr Eric Ding, an epidemiologist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Even if you don't know what an R-naught value is, and we'll explain that in a moment,

his tweet does sound alarming.

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