Introduction

The angel of death. Beautiful, isn’t it? A perfect sphere radiating from some kind of inner light, punctuated by trumpet-shaped protrusions that might be arms, sensor probes, ornaments, or even the eyes of a strange new insect or alien being. Is it a disco ball discovered in your granny’s basement, an exotic planet in a distant galaxy, or an artificial neuron whipped up in a lab? It could be a Christmas ornament, or even a Christmas angel, sparkling with the message of hope and dazzling in its brilliance.

But it’s none of these things. It’s the well-known image of the novel coronavirus.

As I write this, the world is deep into the ...

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