Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Speed science: The risks of swiftly spreading coronavirus research

One scientific post suggests links between the new coronavirus and AIDS, a second says it may have passed to people via snakes, while a third claims it is a pathogen from outer space. The emergence in China of a new human coronavirus that is causing an epidemic of flu-like disease has sparked a parallel viral spread: science – ranging from robust to rogue - is being conducted, posted and shared at an unprecedented rate. Did Neanderthals bury their dead with flowers? Iraq cave yields new clues

A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in an Iraqi cave already famous for fossils of these extinct cousins of our species is providing fresh evidence that they buried their dead - and intriguing clues that flowers may have been used in such rituals. Scientists said on Tuesday they had discovered in Shanidar Cave in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq the well-preserved upper body skeleton of an adult Neanderthal who lived about 70,000 years ago. The individual - dubbed Shanidar Z - was perhaps in his or her 40s or 50s. The sex was undetermined. Robots, clocks and computers: How Ancient Greeks got there first

A humanoid figure dressed as a maid holds a jug in its right hand and, as hidden gears click and whirr, lifts it and pours wine into a cup a bystander has placed into the palm of its left. The robot is a recreation of the automatic servant of Philon, designed more than 2,200 years ago by a Greek engineer and operating though a complex mechanism of springs, weights and air pressure that also allowed it to dilute the alcohol with water.

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