Understanding the Wuhan coronavirus

Unexpected Elements

BBC

Science

4.4 • 570 Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2020

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Parts of China are on lockdown, a small number of cases have been reported in other countries and the past week has brought widely conflicting views on the potential danger presented by the new virus.

We look at the scientific facts, analyse why it’s so difficult to predict the spread of the virus, look at the nature of virus infection and discuss why treatments such as vaccines are not available. We look at why some viruses can jump from animals to humans and examine hi-tech solutions designed to speed up the process of drug development.

And CrowdScience heads to Freetown, Sierra Leone for a panel debate in front of a live audience to answer listener questions about how artificial intelligence is helping tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues. Anand Jagatia is joined by regional science experts to explore how robots, drones and big data are transforming sectors such as agriculture, health and governance. Could clever machines help eradicate invasive species? Will block chain IDs eventually replace physical documents? And while this technology is heralded as a force for change we’ll ask whether fears of an AI takeover are unfounded?

(Image: Medical staff member helps a couple at a hospital in Wuhan. Credit: Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might
0:04.7	like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw.
0:09.2	And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural
0:14.0	happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can
0:19.7	also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and
0:22.6	live radio. Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start
0:29.2	with our podcast sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC
0:33.7	Sounds. You've downloaded the Science Hour from the BBC World Service. And later in the
0:38.4	podcast, the crowd science team are in Sierra Leone to hear how the latest technology could help
0:44.2	Africa in tackling locust swarms, for example. Definitely you could use drones to get a sense
0:50.3	of where the locust swarm is moving at that point in time and to be able to warn the next city
0:56.1	that we predict that the swarm could be heading towards you and then maybe put mitigating
1:01.4	features between where the swarm is now and where you think it's going to go later.
1:07.1	That's in half an hour. Before that, we're again focusing science in action on the developing coronavirus epidemic in China and the danger it may pose worldwide.
1:17.4	As we record the material, the World Health Organization is holding a second meeting to consider whether to declare a global emergency.
1:25.5	A week ago, they chose not to on a split vote. I'm Roland P's and guiding me
1:30.2	through the program is virologist Jenny Rhone from University College London. Jenny, the idea
1:36.1	of a global emergency was invented actually during the similar SARS outbreak in 2003 with the aim
1:41.6	of freeing up funds to act and lowering the diplomatic barriers
1:45.5	to scientific cooperation. But that's actually going very well in any case at the moment.
1:50.8	But last week's decision was based on this idea that the infection's replication rate was
1:56.4	between 1.4 and 2.5. So perhaps you could first explain what that means and why it matters.
	...

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