Science unscripted

Just how does COVID-19 impact the brain? A look at human brain organoids connects the dots. Also, we hear the latest from Germany's top virologist, Christian Drosten, break down the many types of coronavirus tests, and find out why you should care about a dead wild boar.

We're testing for COVID-19 more than ever, but what does that tell us? With more than 350 products worldwide, what do people need to know about the different types of tests? Today we ask — what's the latest in testing and who's doing it right?

Neurological symptoms like headaches, confusion, memory loss and delirium have been reported in many COVID-19 patients, but how can we study what's going on in the brain at a cellular level? Researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf have been using human brain organoids, or mini-brains, grown in a lab to see how brain cells react to COVID-19.

The carcass of a wild boar discovered in a German forest has confirmed what rangers and pork producers have long feared: African swine fever, which is almost always nearly fatal to the infected animals, is here.

New models can help us predict the damage what colder months will do to coronavirus numbers. But to look further ahead, we'll have to completely change how we think about the way a pandemic "ends". Listen to DW's science podcast for a different angle on the coronavirus — every day from Germany.

Scientists are now able to predict how serious a COVID-19 infection will get — all based on "markers" in a person's immune system. How long, then, until a drop of blood shows if you're vulnerable to other diseases as well? Listen to DW's science podcast for a different angle on the coronavirus — every day from Germany.

It was supposed to be a general survey on attitudes in Poland. And then the pandemic hit. Listen to DW's science podcast for a different angle on the coronavirus — every day from Germany.

As the English Premier League and American football kick off their seasons, cities and team owners will be pondering how to best refill their (currently) empty stadiums. New research from the UK shows that doing it the wrong way has lead to people dying. Listen to DW's science podcast for a different angle on the coronavirus — every day from Germany.

Pause. Investigate. Restart. Such is the protocol when an "adverse reaction" happens during vaccine testing. But just how "routine" is it for a rare medical syndrome to appear in one of these large-scale trials? And when will we know what caused this one? Listen to DW's science podcast for a ifferent angle on the coronavirus — every day from Germany.

Listen to DW's 30-minute science show. This week, "rapid tests" are on the way, but how — and where — will we actually get our hands on them? Also, why countries in Africa have such low coronavirus numbers, and a skin-crawling theory about COVID-19 and (helpful) parasitic worms.