Over. Normally these spaces are bustling with people but its hard to imagine how we could maintain social distancing and stay safe under such circumstances. Computer simulations and risk analysis could point the way. In many parts of the world life has been returning to city streets people are travelling on trams buses and trains again but social distancing remains a priority even if its not always easy to maintain and its busier during rush hour but not like it used to be here before the not too crowded social distancing is ok sometimes its a bit overcrowded you cant maintain the minimum distance theres quite a lot of space and people tend to stay apart while they are farmers. But largely negative experiences because people do as they please a lot of people arent being very careful. Preventing overcrowding is something these people specialize in accurate is a munich based startup made up of a team of i. T. And simulation experts. The coronavirus pandemic has brought them new challenges normally they work on emergency evacuation plans Security Concepts for bigger events and passenger flow analyses. Now theyre also working on ways to help protect passengers visitors and workers from infection with the coronavirus. I do because one of the Coronavirus Crisis has shown us that simulations are more than just a way to analyze the behavior of crowns so they can also help us figure out how to maintain a social distancing thats important in Office Buildings for example court but also for ensuring passenger safety in railway stations. The simulations use forecasts based on the behavior of these human avatars agents which follow Realistic Movement patterns social distancing rules have added a new twist to the calculations the agents arent supposed to get too close to each other which is hard in tight quarters. Here weve already incorporated social distancing the agents are surrounded by a green circle with a diameter of 3 meters or a radius of one and a half and. Now they all have to lean back but theres a bottleneck what would be the 1st to leave the doorways just one meter why and what youre supposed to keep a distance of 1. 5 meters some of the agents are now turning red that shows they havent been able to maintain social distancing for a certain amount of time doctors. They dont yet have specifically coronavirus related data to incorporate into their simulations who keeps their distance who tries to barge through but they can draw on many experiments with crowd behavior carried out over the years. Wherever we have pedestrians in downtown areas railway stations airports or accused outside concerts we have to know how the flow of pedestrians tends to work where do bottlenecks develop. Thats useful to know in all sorts of contexts like evacuating crowded sports stadiums or schools or figuring out whether a train station is just busy or whether its actually overcrowded. So far the simulations function without the fear of the. Rhona virus as a parameter to help the agents maintain social distancing research is looking for new ways to guide pedestrian flow. Using we already have queuing systems in place at entrances to supermarkets for example the kind of research were doing now draws on similar concepts. Were trying to understand and describe whats happening when people are waiting in line. Or. Those insights could help us design queuing systems in other contexts. Social distancing can even help to decrease queues and crowding. In railway stations and stairwells a one way system can keep pedestrians flowing smoothly. This is a huge opportunity the authorities have fast tracked through a Research Project that will allow us to expand the scope of our stimulator we could make a real contribution to getting life back to something more like normal. That will entail combining real life pedestrian and commuter volumes flows and well times with true to scale architectural data to help daily life in cities flow more smoothly. The brazilian city of minnows was hit so hard by the corona virus that it was forced to bury its dead in mass graves because symmetries couldnt keep up. But then infection rates suddenly slowed for italian even though few measures had been taken to protect people from the virus. It looked as though the city might have managed to write the 1st wave of coded 19 paradoxically due to widespread infection a phenomenon called herd immunity. Sadly rising numbers now seem to say otherwise. But how can we even gauge immunity. Am i already immune some people hope a rapid Antibody Test could answer that question and potentially provide reassurance. The test involves taking a blood sample and generates a result within minutes but it doesnt detect the virus itself and it shows the presence or absence of antibodies that may indicate past infection. Unfortunately there is a chance that you will test positive if you have antibodies linked to other types of corona virus including the common cold. False positives of this kind are possible. And even if the test rectally identifies antibodies against the corona virus it doesnt automatically mean that person is immune. Our bodies produce different kinds of antibodies in response to the virus but only those that actually help put it out of action offer protection the so called neutralizing antibodies to be sure you would have to perform a 2nd test to demonstrate the presence of neutralizing antibodies using real viruses in a cell culture these kinds of tests are complicated and have to be carried out and specialized labs. So immunity can only really be shown in a follow up test but even if you do detect neutralizing antibodies specific to the corona virus one problem remains its unclear for now how Long Community actually lasts following an infection. Aspects of the immune system could also explain why africa has been less hard hit by kevin 19 than feared its possible that the immune systems of People Living there are more used to coping with infections. We asked one researcher why certain parasites might be linked to milder cases of covert 19. 1 of the dominant features is that there was ensure their survival for 10 years and longer in the body by suppressing the immune response and the prophesied hour is that this overshooting immune reaction that comes with were probably 90 cases might be mitigated because the people who are was in heaven eunice oppressed general. Status. These insights about parasites help us find drugs to treat cavite 19. Has long sought to sort of carve out the beneficial parts of the immune response of a parasite immunosuppressive mold and avoid the talking parasitic infections but this is very tricky you have to imagine that the parasite horrors of 10000 different proteins and even more of the molecules d that it can play with in order to exert down regulate the resistance not to speak about the infection in the locality and all these things its very complicated so far. Except for a few molecules that for example. I have been shown to the. Outcomes of those decision kollek receptus as it is part of the immune. System also played a. Role in setting infections they can be addressed by small molecules but they are still in the Group Clinical development so we are not yet there and definitely the longer. Perspective. Seeing which seems to be moralists. Tiny parasites are in the scientific spotlight some insect species are quietly disappearing. To assess the situation of 6 legged friends a german Conservation Organization is harnessing the help of the general public to keep tabs on the insect numbers is. A prime example of citizens selling us. These people are in the garden. Heres something really tiny and i meet these 2 in a Farmers Field down there. And these people are in a Forest Meadow there you see. But theyre all doing the same thing. Theyre counting insects for germanys nature and Biodiversity Conservation union for the past 2 summers the organization has called on the general public for help in the world its a fun thing to do but the situation is serious because insects are on the decline in germany part of a global trend. Among my studies the results of the insect count she says the initiative was very important. Work on song we have a greater decline now than what we saw in the past and we urgently need to start collecting data so that we can show whats happening on the. The goal is to take an inventory of insects in various locations for one week members of the public were asked to count insects for one hour of following a set pattern within a radius of 10 meters gobby and new to our searching in a wildlife garden a pamphlet showing pictures of various insects plus a photo app on their phone helped them to identify the most common species their garden is a treasure trove. Hes been quiet about im happy and surprised to see so many honeybees theres these everywhere back here. And perhaps even more important the pair also finds bumble bees and other wild species population numbers for wild bees in particular have plummeted. Hover flies have also taken a good 30 percent of hover fly species are threatened with extinction bats and hartman meanwhile are struggling to find much of anything in their chosen field until recently that was we growing here now after the harvest the field is a desert. Millipede here. And despite there and thats it. It was a long time before we found anything. Another and then only small insects that probably arrived after the harvest and. Before that the fields would have been treated heavily with chemicals of course to use the eels. Intensive farming monocultures on the use of pesticides have taken their toll pests that damage the harvest like the colorado beetle are being targeted but many useful insects like the green dot people that eat sweets are also suffering other species that live in the forest like the stag beetle are also endangered. In this forest many of the user on semen are being kept busy theres plenty going on at ground level he. They find grasshoppers in particular this area is the launch of the wild life to nature butterflies are also out in force here. Butterflies are also in decline they make up the 2nd Largest Group of insects after beetles but in the last 10 years alone their numbers have dropped 10 percent. But its not clear which species of butterfly are most at risk in order to understand whats happening in detail precise scientific studies are needed. Entomologist kellems lima has set up traps with bottles of alcohol to attract flying insects so that she can check their numbers for traps that look like tents have been set up in nature reserves that are located near agricultural fields. The project is funded by the German Government and continues a long term study into insects that ran for 30 years. In 2017 that study showed a dramatic drop in flying insects in western germany at reste in terms of the overall numbers of insects caught. In our study weve chosen 21 representative locations that are spread all over germany and we record the specific species not just overall numbers we decode the d. N. A. Of insects to produce a barcode and then we can say exactly which species were in the trash can all based on. The study will run for 4 years allowing the scientists to see which insects are endangered and to what extent then they hope to have exact numbers. On the civil side goal is to produce recommendations for the politicians on how best to preserve insect diversity in germany 1. 1 useful practice is to plant a flower bed along the edge of fields while not sufficient it does show how important diverse vegetation is for insects. Alive and just whats flying in the air there is a 100 times whats here. After a whole hour banton hot found only a handful of insects the reasons so mostly grasshoppers and butterflies in the Forest Meadow but still they counted more than 70 of those. And as i think thats quite good because they play an Important Role in nature bees are of course vital for our lives and theyre declining fast from. All of us can do something to help and insect friendly garden is one option. To find the most insects by far counting more than 150. 00 in one hour they also have the largest range of species. Not some other and even amazing result we found so many insects its great. Next summer germany will launch any other insect count in the hope of safeguarding very future and ours. Development is right why are they glad i did it do you have a science question youd like us to answer. Send it in if we featured on the show youll get a little surprise as a thank you. Come on just ask. Bill find us on the web at g. W. Dot com slash science or check us out on twitter at. This weeks question comes from canada. Why are mammals born blind. Some not all mammals are born especially helpless blinded with no fur to protect them this means their parents have to spend more time caring for them before they can fend for themselves. Its not until theyve developed sight and the ability to roam by themselves that the young animals leave their nests cames or hideouts a model is common among predators. Thats because along pregnancy is not advantageous for the mother it would stop her from hunting. Thats why her compass are born before theyre fully mature and are not yet properly developed. Mammals are born fully developed they can live in their nests right away and are born with vision theyre also quick to get on their feet. The Group Includes jarana. An elephant. To them survival means being able to seen and fully speed off and the babies are able to feed themselves. Up 3rd group and get carried around one parent usually the mother carries the offspring around with her kangaroos are an example. Blind when born. Others in this group. Are born. Only some kinds of mammals are born blind. So what about humans. Newborns can see time distance of about 30 centimeters they can hear too but they cant walk so are carried around by their parents. But there are also some young people who take their time playing the nest science has yet to come up with an official term to describe that phenomenon. Of the. The age at which young people leave their parents homes varies a lot across europe well many swedes leave when theyre 18 people in montenegro 33 on average the e. U. Average is 26 just like in the us. In south american countries there are also like stasis. There its not just about money or the need to look off. Elderly relatives living in extended families is just mall part of the culture. But yet people would love. To set it streets abandon stations but this time its not because of the pandemic. And unexploded world war 2 bomb has been on earth in a residential neighborhood jimmy still has lots of undetonated ordinance on the ground to find like this means Emergency Services have to organize large scale and disruptive evacuations. Every senator in southern germany is trying to help them against the risk more accurately with some rather dramatic experiments. On. This is the kind of destruction that could be unleashed if an unexploded bomb from the 2nd world war suddenly detonates. But the device creation that shockwave is not old munition but a compressed air con and. This is a controlled experiment of the frown over in situ for high speed dynamics and southwestern germany. Feel. The pressure wave shatters windowpanes and cause a cloud of glass and even hurled chairs across the test room. For alexander stalls the destruction delivers vital insights his aim is to optimize the evacuation of locations following the discovery of unexploded bombs. Among the tools at his disposal are high speed cameras which can identify the size speed and direction of the glass flying through the air right down to the tiny a shards. The engineer has conducted dozens of such experiments under a variety of different conditions the results are fed into a Simulation Program the more data he collects the better he can predict the physical fallout from an explosion. As it was here when the authorities always cordoned off a huge area around the mission to find. Out but if theres a hospital in that area with intensive care patients thats a problem. Hes in to be then to be evacuated to teach a danger to those patients. But does the bomb really pose a threat to the hospital or is a vacuum raising or perhaps unnecessary. The red spots in the simulation represent areas that are extremely vulnerable to the shock wave the blue regions less so. Here the hospital takes a direct hit some sections see a convergence and amplification of the shock waves. The subsequent analysis the red areas show where windows would be shattered this hospital would be devastated despite being 200 metres away and theoretically shielded by the buildings in between. Under shockwave is not the only danger when old munitions go off. The researchers conduct a 2nd test to look at the effects of shrapnel. This is not your typical 200 kilogram bomb but a small metal cylinder containing just 250 grams of explosive material. The damage incurred is evaluated by its impact on the shooter. Metal safety 1st which means the researchers retreating to an observation bunker. Even the high speed camera it seems has trouble capturing exactly what happened during the explosion. But one broken down the footage shows how the shrapnel pierces the metal she said on the wooden board behind us. The force of the explosion took its toll not only on the concrete block but also on the metal and its just anyone standing here would have sustained serious injuries from the shrapnel possibly fatal ones. With a real bomb that kind of damage could be caused up to 100 meters away another factor for the researchers to incorporate into their simulations as they seek to pinpoint areas that really would need evacuating. Thats all for now thank you for joining us. For morning dressing stories about science and technology visit our website. Well be back next week with a fresh edition of tomorrow today until then but i. Mean. How can a vision loss be combated. Eye problems are increasing all over the world and the patients are getting younger and younger. Doctors and scientists are researching new treatments from groundbreaking diagnostic procedures to pharaoh with rico gray am stem cells healthy our eyes clear vision. In 15 minutes. On d w. Im not laughing at the germans well i guess somebody slammed but i said nothing with the damage to the budget and i think even to jam a culture up. Meudon seem to take this drama day oh. Its all out who they know im rachel join me to meet again if i think ill be forced. To fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Where does science stand. And what new findings have researchers named. Information and background into. The corona up to. Convert 19 special. Monday to friday on d w. Every 2 seconds a person is forced to flee their home nearly 71000000 people have been forcibly displaced the consequences come into sastra so our documentary series displaced depicts dramatic humanitarian crises around the world you know. What a good thing we dont need and i didnt go to university to kill the paint i dont know i threw the or to have my boss come to me and tell me to kill someone and he got mad and if i dont theyll kill me. People feel for their lives and their future so they seek refuge abroad but what will become of those who stay behind and its a way our capital my husband went to peru because of the crisis that im under that if he hadnt gone there we would have died of hunger nonanalogous caught up. Displaced starts october 16th on the job. This is d. W. News live from berlin a shaky cease fire in the caucasus as warring parties come to the table armenia and azerbaijan agreed to halt the conflict over the disputed region of not gone all kyra back but each side quickly blames the other for breaking the armistice also coming up donald trump makes his 1st public appearance since returning to the white house from a 3 day stay in hospital for a cold with 19 he tells a cheering crowd that he feels great and the coronavirus will disappear