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BBC Inside Science: Coronavirus outbreak in China; Genetic diseases in Amish communities and getting an Egyptian mummy to speak

Coronavirus outbreak in China; Genetic diseases in Amish communities and getting an Egyptian mummy to speak

BBC Radio 4 - BBC Inside Science, Coronavirus outbreak in China; Genetic diseases in Amish communities and getting an Egyptian mummy to speak

Coronavirus outbreak in China, Amish genetic diseases and Egyptian mummy speaks.

Scientific overview of the coronavirus outbreak in China, helping the Amish to understand their genetic diseases, and how to make a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy talk.

With news reports moving as quickly as the virus may be spreading, the latest coronavirus outbreak which is thought to have started in Wuhan in central China is fast becoming a global health concern. Adam Rutherford speaks to BBC Inside Science's resident virologist Professor Jonathan Ball from Nottingham University, who says one of the most urgent things to do is to find out where the virus came from, and what animal it jumped to humans from.

The Anabaptist Amish communities are some of the fastest growing populations on the planet. They came to the US from the Swiss-German border in the 18th and 19th centuries and  have maintained their plain, simple community-minded way of life.  Partly because they all descended from the same geographical area and partly because they tend to marry within their own communities, they can suffer from a particular spectrum of genetic disorders. Professor Andrew Crosby and Dr. Emma Baple from Exeter University have been studying these diseases, including a number new to medicine, and in return they are helping the Amish to understand and treat some of these debilitating diseases.

He may currently sound more like a sheep baa-ing, but in a proof of concept experiment, Professor David Howard, an electrical engineer at Royal Holloway University of London, has been able to scan, 3D print and electronically reanimate the vocal tract of Nesyamum, a 3000 year old Egyptian mummy. The eventual hope is to recreate his tongue and try to get him to sing.

Producer - Fiona Roberts

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Coronavirus outbreak in China; Genetic diseases in Amish communities and getting an Egyptian mummy to speak

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