What happened
The World Health Organization has sought to calm fears over a string of hantavirus cases – three of which were fatal – linked to the Dutch-flagged cruise ship MV Hondius, saying the incident does not pose a wider global threat. The warning came as health authorities across several countries worked to trace 29 passengers who left the ship before the virus was confirmed on board.

The outbreak involves the Andes strain of hantavirus, a disease primarily carried by rodents that can occasionally spread through close human contact.

Who said what
WHO pandemic preparedness director Maria Van Kerkhove dismissed suggestions that the outbreak could escalate globally. “This is not the start of an epidemic. This is not the start of a pandemic.”

Despite the WHO’s reassurances, “the terror of the medieval plague ship has returned to haunt the world”, said Theodore Dalrymple in The Telegraph. “We have always been terrified, not surprisingly, by diseases with which we are unfamiliar.”

Yet for the public and health authorities considering receiving the passengers from the quarantined ship, “the key message is not to panic”, said public health physician Craig Dalton on The Conversation. “Most hantaviruses are not spread between people”, so we should be clear that “this virus does not spread like influenza or Covid”.

What next?
Former passengers in Britain, Switzerland, Singapore, Denmark and the US are being monitored and remain isolated while contact tracing continues.

What happened
David Attenborough can celebrate his 100th birthday today with a new genus (group of closely related species) of parasitic wasp named in his honour. Scientists from the Natural History Museum have unveiled the Attenboroughnculus tau, a small insect that devours other insects alive, in tribute to the naturalist.

Who said what
The specimen was collected in 1983 in Chile, but “lay forgotten in an unsorted drawer” until a volunteer recently noticed its “unusual characteristics”, said The Guardian. The species name, tau, refers to “a striking T-shaped marking” on its abdomen.

But the 3.5-millimeter insect is “just a weird and wonderful new thing that we couldn’t classify in any of the existing genera”, said Gavin Broad, the museum’s principal curator of insects. “We thought, well, who’s important enough to have a genus named after them? Surely David Attenborough.”

Broad added: “He sent a very nice handwritten note, actually, saying he’s very complimented.”

What next?
More than 50 species have been named after Attenborough, including “a fungus that turns spiders into zombies”, according to National Geographic. But this wasp “joins an even more elite group of just a few genera” that carry his name.

Scientists have created a thin, acrylic film that can kill viruses, according to a study published in the journal Advanced Science. The film contains nanopillars, which are “ultra‑fine structures” that “grab and stretch the outer shell of the virus so much that it ruptures, killing the virus through mechanical force rather than chemical disinfectants”, said a press release about the study. The material was tested on human parainfluenza virus 3 (hPIV-3), which causes bronchiolitis and pneumonia, and it “successfully killed (or damaged irreparably) 94% of the viruses with which it came into contact after just one hour”, said Popular Mechanics.

Other disinfectants, like wipes and sprays, require more effort. Disinfectant “must remain wet for some time to kill germs”, said Ivanova. The surfaces can also be “recontaminated quickly when other people touch them”. Acrylic films, by contrast, are “continually effective (meaning they don’t have to be reapplied over and over again), they don’t harm the environment and they don’t contribute to antimicrobial resistance”, added Popular Mechanics. The film is also much more scalable and could potentially be produced in a similar manner to cling wrap.

While the plastic film shows promise, we are not quite at the place to replace current disinfectants with it. However, “as nanofabrication tools get better, our results give a clearer guide to which nanopatterns work best to kill viruses”, said Samson Mah, the lead author of the study. “We could one day have surfaces like phone screens, keyboards and hospital tables covered with this film, killing viruses on contact without using harsh chemicals.”