@HeartyBeast@kbin.social
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HeartyBeast

@HeartyBeast@kbin.social

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HeartyBeast,
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“True nature” in this case appears to be slow and cautious. Shocking stuff!

Unnatural evolutionary processes of SARS-CoV-2 variants and possibility of deliberate natural selection (zenodo.org)

As a result, we concluded that the formation of a part of Omicron isolates BA.1, BA.1.1, and BA.2 was not the product of genome evolution, as is commonly observed in nature, such as the accumulation of mutations and homologous recombinations. Furthermore, the study of 35 recombinant isolates of Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2...

HeartyBeast,
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Given what we know about the infectivity of Omicron, the combinatjion "Omicron was around in 2020" seems pretty astonishing. Combine this with "Omicron variants were formed by an entirely new mechanism that cannot be explained by previous biolog" and I'm going to suggest that the most likely explanation is that they cocked up their data somewhere.

I'm not qualified to peer review this - and it looks like no-one else has yet.

HeartyBeast,
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If that’s correct - it is what it is and it’s better to know the truth. Evidence isn’t compelling at the moment though.

HeartyBeast,
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It's simply because a headline like this is much more useful for people coming to the story for the first time, or who aren't deeply familiar with the story. It's not a sleight on her. Also at the time of publication, I think her name had only recently been released by the police.

I agree that the BBC's style of headline is better, though https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66942594

HeartyBeast,
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Good stuff in the UK the NHS is only offering Covid boosters to those in front-line medicine/caring and the over 65s. In that context 50% of the US population planning to get jabbed sounds (literally) quite healthy

HeartyBeast,
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but - aliens? You guys are bonkers.

That’s what they were very careful to_not_ say. They just says there’s no evidence

HeartyBeast,
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Not if you are looking at mitigating heat in cities. A 6ft tree will be giving a decent amount of shade after 5 years' growth if you pick the right species. The trick is looking after them.

HeartyBeast,
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What does it matter whether it was a lab leak or zoonotic transmission at this point?

Well, possibly quite important if you want to assess the risk posed by wet markets. And if it was a lab leak (personally, I think less likely) you'd want to know where processes failed, and possibly some heads to roll.

HeartyBeast,
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An explanation of how this works from the article:

JWST is able to analyse the light that passes through the faraway planet's atmosphere. That light contains the chemical signature of molecules in its atmosphere. The details can be deciphered by splitting the light into its constituent frequencies - rather like a prism creating a rainbow spectrum. If parts of the resulting spectrum are missing, it has been absorbed by chemicals in the planet's atmosphere, enabling researchers to discover its composition.

Note that they say the identification is ‘tentative’ and not robust yet.

HeartyBeast,
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It’s also typical when researchers notice an interesting phenomenon and decide they need to gather more data.

HeartyBeast,
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implying it’s unsafe

Implying it may or not be safe.

HeartyBeast,
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Seem to get a lot of pharmaceutical spam in the science magazine.

Very happy to volunteer as co-mod if you would like help squashing it.

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