Produced by Big Data Digest
Author: Liu Junhuan, Da Meng
As of today, according to the data released by the National Health Commission, the cumulative number of confirmed cases of pneumonia infected by the new coronavirus has been reported nationwide, 68,500 cases are suspected, 11,272 cases are serious, 1,665 deaths, 9,419 cases are discharged from the hospital, and 529418 close contacts have been traced cumulatively, and 158764 close contacts are still under medical observation.
Looking back at the outbreak of the new coronavirus, although the source has not yet been determined, the bat population represented by the Chinese chrysanthemum bat has always been a "key suspect". Bats have also become synonymous with "poison king" because of this epidemic, which makes many people avoid it.
But before the pandemic, the impression of bats was not all terrible viruses. This pterodactyl, which has lived in the dark for a long time, also has many good memories with humans.
When we talk about bats, we're talking about something
The discussion about bats has never stopped.
According to the statistics of Baidu Index, in September last year, before the fermentation of the epidemic, people's searches for bats focused on "bats and radar", "bat movies" and some specific types of bats, and the search for "bats carrying viruses" and "bat-borne diseases" was still blank.
In late January, when the epidemic was serious, it was obvious that people's search for bats as a whole improved, and there were related searches such as "bat virus". At this time, people finally remembered the "mink", the "civet cat" during the SARS period in 2003, and the "Ebola virus" that broke out in West Africa in 2014.
At the same time, the search appeared "bat meat", "Wang Mengyun" and other content, it can be seen that netizens still maintain a strong criticism of the relevant behaviors that did not directly trigger the epidemic.
However, it is noted that even at this time, superstitious content such as "the consequences of killing bats" and "what is the omen of bats flying home" are still popular in strong relationship search networks. It is understood that in the eyes of many elderly people, bats are very "auspicious": bats are homophonous with "bats" and "fu", bats sleep upside down, and there is the meaning of blessing (to); five bats refer to "five blessings", red refers to "Hong Fu", appears with deer refers to "Fulu", and appears with osmanthus flowers to refer to "rich". These images have become popular motifs in architecture, ceramics, and embroidery.
It can be seen that for bats in the pathology and epidemiology of related research, has not been able to sink into daily life, most people on bats in the spread of disease is only stuck in the "SARS" period and the new coronavirus period, and even after experiencing "SARS", many people still have good scars and forget the pain.
Bats have nothing but radar and virus reservoirs
Before SARS, people's cognition of bats may only stay in the bionics related to radar: humans have been inspired by the ultrasonic waves of bats, invented radar, and then derived the function of radar emitting electromagnetic waves to illuminate the target and receive its echo, thereby obtaining the distance, distance change rate, orientation, altitude and other information from the target to the electromagnetic wave emission point.
It wasn't until the sarcass outbreak that people finally associated bats with epidemics, but in fact, in addition to inspiring humans to invent radar, bat ultrasound has many other uses.
For example, the new research, led by engineers from Lancaster University and the UK's National Physical Laboratory in conjunction with Hybrid Instruments, is also inspired by the ultrasound of bats.
Related Stories:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/bats-inspire-detectors-to-help-prevent-oil-and-gas-pipe-leaks
According to statistics, there are thousands of kilometers of pipelines around the world for long-distance oil and gas transportation, and pipeline leakage as a major factor will lead to millions of dollars in losses every year, and may lead to accidents causing casualties, and even major environmental pollution. For the inspection of oil pipelines, people usually use ultrasonic or electromagnetic technology for inspection. However, these methods are not suitable for underground pipes or pipes that use cement or plastic as a separation layer.
At this time, bats appeared. Inspired by bat ultrasound, engineers have developed a new scanning system that uses reflected signals from isolated fast neutrons and gamma rays, or backscatter, to detect corrosion in oil pipelines.
It should be noted that neutron rays and gamma rays have complementary properties in the application. Neutron rays act mainly on low-density materials such as plastics, while fast neutrons have high penetration and are suitable for detecting thick materials, while gamma rays act mainly on metallic materials but are not always able to penetrate high-density extremely thick materials.
Because the two rays can produce different electrical signals, this means that the researchers can use a new detection device called "Mixed Field Analyser" to obtain data on both rays at the same time. While working, the system emits pencil-thick neutron rays and gamma rays that hit the inspected segment directly.
The research team tested both imaging techniques in real time in the laboratory with samples of carbon steel of different thicknesses. The results proved that the researchers were able to judge differences in steel thickness through imaging results, and the sensors were still effective for pipes isolated by two layers of concrete or plastic, suggesting that the system had a high probability of distinguishing differences in backscatter due to flaws on the steel or corrosion and rust of the steel.
These results show that when the technology is used to inspect actual pipelines, potential problems can be more easily identified and resolved prior to oil and gas spills.
Dr. Mauro Licata of Lancaster University said that the parallel beams of neutron rays and gamma rays are reflected into the detection array, which can fully and quickly show the internal structure of steel. "The system works similarly to how bats make sounds. These sounds are a superposition of ultrasounds of different bands and are reflected back into the bat's ears. Therefore, while emphasizing the combination of multiple reflection sensing techniques to detect similar corrosion problems, our work further illustrates the important potential value of taking inspiration from or mimicking natural systems. ”
Professor Malcolm Joyce, who works at Lancaster University and Hybrid Instruments, points out that the real-time separation of neutron rays and gamma rays that are backscattered from the steel surface is similar to the brain of a bat separating the backscattered ultrasound to avoid confusion with the sounds it emits. By separating, they were able to more quickly and efficiently distinguish damage on the tube walls.
Neil Roberts of the UK's National Physical Laboratory said it was a good example of the National Physical Laboratory applying world-leading neutron devices to innovative science and making a positive impact.
The purpose of the study is to further develop the detection equipment so that it can detect damage to a certain part of the pipeline externally. In addition, the researchers pointed out that more in-depth research in the field of neutron detection is needed to speed up the detection speed of the system. The researchers say the technology also has other applications, such as detecting the integrity of bridge structures.
Do wild animals only deserve to be eaten by humans?
It can be seen that in addition to playing an indispensable role in the ecologically significant food chain, wild animals also contain great reference significance that may affect the development of human society.
Most people may not know that bats are very important pollinators in tropical climates, and some areas of plants rely directly on bat pollination, without bat pollination, the local ecosystem may gradually collapse. For example, studies in November last year showed that pollination of durian flowers required the Eonycteris spelaea, the central fox (Pteropus alecto) and the Cyribescen celebensis. According to statistics, 67 families and about 528 species of tropical plants are pollinated by bats every year, and more than 300 of them are fruit plants.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, many scholars initially pointed the spearhead of the epidemic at bats, and there was such a paragraph circulating on the Internet, "Bats have worked very hard to evolve themselves into a bad look, hiding in the caves of the deep mountains and old forests day and night, sealing the huge virus reservoir with their own bodies, and the result is still difficult to escape the fate of being eaten."
However, if you want to say, eating bats is too extreme, and after watching the video of eating bats for the first time, I was stunned that I couldn't eat for a whole day.
Taking a step back, even if the bats of the "King of Poisons" are like this, then other wild animals are even more "doomed". Chinese has always maintained a high passion for wild animals: tiger and leopard bones, rhino horns, and nail pieces are used as medicinal herbs, ivory and rhino horns are regarded as collector's treasures, pangolins and bear paws are regarded as highly maintainable supplements...
Taking the potential intermediate host of this outbreak as an example, it is estimated that the annual demand for pangolins in China is as high as 200,000, of which roughly 50% are used as drugs and eaten, which is the largest amount of mammals illegally traded. From the statistics of the number of smuggled pangolins in the country in the following figure, it is not difficult to guess the total annual consumption of domestic wild animals.
Before eating wild game, think about ticks on wild boars, alliciae worms contained in dolphin meat, and plague bacillus on groundhogs, which have not undergone sanitary quarantine, and there are countless cases of infection with viruses after eating, and the harm caused to health is self-evident.
According to the statistics of the Beijing News, the major virus incidents that have broken out in recent years are directly related to wild animals.
The transportation equipment of modern society is so developed, as the novel "Blood Plague: The Story of Ebola" writes: between civilization and the virus, only a flight distance away, dangerous viruses from the rainforest, can reach any city on the earth within 24 hours by plane.
Let the wild animals have a way to live, and let all mankind have a way to live.