The RECC’E - DAY 64 | 03.05.22 | BIOLOGY

Day 64 / 365

464YEARS ago today the smoking of tobacco was introduced into Europe by Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes. He brought back the “herb panacea” after being sent to Mexico to investigate their flora.

RECC’E OF THE DAY

2UKRAINIAN cities - Mariupol and Volnovakha - have been granted a temporary ceasefire as of 10am Moscow time (7am GMT) to allow residents surrounded by Russian forces to evacuate; 90% of all structures in Volnovakha have been damaged by bombing. 

16mUKRAINIANS are expected to need humanitarian aid in the coming months according to the UN; this will encompass the 4m fleeing the country and 12m remaining who will have increasingly complex needs. 

50TONNES of fuel procured for Ukraine is all that was achieved by NATO yesterday according to President Zelensky as he delivers a scorching and emotional attack on the alliance – criticising it for refusing to enforce a no-fly zone and accusing it of leaving his people to die.

15YEARS in jail is the threat attached to a new law formally signed in by Putin for people who spread “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces. This includes the fact this is a “special operation” not an “invasion” or “war”. Putin also signed in a law meaning those who called for sanctions against Russia would be held criminally responsible. 

4CITIES - Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol and Sumy - are now likely fully encircled by Russian forces according to a new British intelligence update. It adds that the priority of Russian forces at this time will be to make ground on Odessa.  

26CASES of discrimination against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020 is the allegation by Russian state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor. Now Russia has banned both Facebook and Twitter nationwide. This comes as Snapchat has turned off its public heat map for Ukraine. 

331CIVILIAN deaths have now been confirmed by the UN however Ukraine states the number will be closing in on 2.5k. Ukraine states the Russian military death toll now stands at 9166, more than 18x what Russia have confirmed. 

3ASSASSINATION attempts on the life of President Zelensky have taken place in the last week; 2 different outfits - Wagner group and Chechen special forces - had been sent to kill the Ukrainian leader. Both had been thwarted by anti-war elements within Russia’s own Federal security service (FSB). 

49PEOPLE are now confirmed to have died in a cluster bomb attack in the city of Chernihiv. This comes as Putin tells German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Russia is not bombing Ukrainian cities and dismisses all reports of Russian attacks near civilians as 'fake'.

2HISTORICAL references - Brutus and Claus von Stauffenberg - by U.S Senator Lindsey Graham have sparked Russian outrage as he calls for Putin’s inner circle to assassinate him. Brutus was a Roman politician who assassinated Julius Caesar, while German army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is best-known for trying to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944.

3DAYS since Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites restored internet to parts of Ukraine the worlds richest man is warning users in the region to use it covertly. As Starlink is the only non-Russian communications system still working in some parts of Ukraine the probability of it, and those using it, being targeted is high.

NEED-TO-KNOW

936kELECTRIC vehicles were delivered by Tesla last year in its bid to covert the world to EV. However this morning Elon Musk has stated that the world needs to increase oil and gas output immediately because extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures. He acknowledged this would negatively affect Tesla but admitted sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports.

64mWOMEN - at least - lost their jobs globally in 2020 as a result of the Pandemic which resulted in $800bn in lost income. Now research shows that while the labour market is resurging, it’s women - 49.6% of the global population - who are feeling the effects for longer. In the U.S in January 60% of jobs new jobs were taken by men and almost all markets from Canada to New Zealand are recording the same results in whats being dubbed a ‘she-cession’. 

2CASES of Hantavirus - a virus which festers quietly in rodent populations and can potentially cause deadly respiratory and hemorrhagic diseases - have become the first known cases in Washington DC; highlighting the rat problem there. The severity of the virus varies by which Hantavirus you catch, but fatality rates can reach up to 15%. This strain is one of the milder forms, with a fatality rate of only about 1%.

SHOULD-KNOW

4mmIS THE AVERAGE length of a typical Zebra fish brain but now researchers have been able to take a live fish and watch a memory form in it’s living brain. Neuroscientists looked at the formation of an unpleasant associative memory in the brains of zebra fish and were able to observe the actual re-wiring of synaptic connections.

10kAPPS have reportedly been throttled by internal performance limits built into Samsung devices; dropping performance by up to 45%. Samsung has stated it’s aware of the issue but hasn’t disclosed a date for a fix. This isn't the first throttling accusation put to Samsung, in 2018, the company was fined millions for slowing down smartphones through software updates.

8kYEAR OLD human remains from the Sado Valley in Portugal have become the earliest known evidence of mummification; around 2400 years before evidence suggests the Egyptians began performing the practice. The findings extend the scope of mummification research by at least 1000 years after 7000 year old remains highlighted the practice being used in Chile.

GOOD-TO-KNOW

168mYEAR OLD fossil of one of the most well known dinosaurs - the Stegosaur - has become the oldest ever discovered in Asia after being unearthed in China. They roamed the Earth during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods and fossils of the animals have been found on every continent save for Antarctica and Australasia.

7MONTHS is how long it took Bonobo infants - a species of great ape - to adjust to a new sibling according to a new study, with striking similarities to human counterparts. Cortisol levels jumped 5 fold on a siblings birth and remained high until month 8. Bonobos share 98.7 per cent of their DNA with humans – making it our closest living relative alongside the chimpanzee.

100%OF MICE with ovarian cancer and in seven of eight with colorectal cancer have been cured within a week after implants carrying cellular machinery were able to produce and deliver continuous doses of anti-cancer compounds. On average humans share 85% of protein-encoding genes with mice and 50% of non-coding genes.

SIGN-OFF STAT

2SECONDS would be the winning margin for Usain Bolt over even the quickest dinosaurs in the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic park. At 9.5 meters per second squared the sprinter was producing 2.6 kilowatts of power (3.5 horsepower) with an average ground speed of 37.58 km/h and a top speed of 44.72 km/h. For reference a T-Rex could only run 11-17mph; the latter being 27.35km/h. 

  

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There is no Recc’e tomorrow as we rest on Sunday’s but we’ll see you again bright and early Monday morning for the most interesting data from around the world.