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A group of botanists have discovered a new species of flower on a remote Hawaiian hillside. The new plant is called Cyanea heluensis and features curved white flowers.

The newly discovered flower is so rare that there is only one plant of its species.

Cyanea heluensis

The plant was discovered in the city of Lahaina by botanists Hank Oppenheimer and Jennifer Higashino, as the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources press release notes. Scientists were studying the area's steep, rugged slopes when they found the flower. The inaccessibility of the site and the difficulty of traversing the terrain probably contributed to the fact that this plant had not been found before.

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The white flower has similarities to a native plant called Haha, but its curved flowers are quite different. They are pollinated by birds and eventually produce orange fruits that are eaten by local fruit-eating birds while they disperse the seeds. Botanists have been scouring the area where the rare plant was found, trying to find more seeds of this type, but they haven't achieved it yet.

The plant has been added to the list of 250 species monitored by the University of Hawaii's Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP). Safeguards have been installed at the discovery site, especially against slugs, rats, pigs and goats.

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The news

This newly discovered plant is so rare that only one of its kind has been found so far

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.

Various media they have been quick to affirm that Countries led by women have had fewer victims from COVID-19, which is surely done with the purpose of valuing their good management in a world led by men.

But, in addition to the risk involved in entering into evaluations of this type (if we value people based on their sex, then we can approach a slippery slope of the type: why not do it based on their skin color or their height or your age?), this statement is false.

More victims the more women

In fact, not only are there no significant differences between countries in terms of victims based on the sex of their leaders, but Countries where there are more women in their legislature (Parliament or Congress) have more victims.

These are the findings that reveal a new study based on an analysis carried out through multiple methodological approaches. In it no statistically significant differences are found between Covid-19 death rates reported in countries led by men or women.

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To be sure, mortality rates depend on many variables, including population density, access to healthcare, reporting protocols, and possibly temperature and humidity levels... so it's difficult to isolate the impact of the sex of the leader. . But when it comes down to it, the opposite happens: the more women there are in the legislature, the more deaths are reported.

Also the freest countries They tend to have higher reported mortality rates in the month after the first case, but as time progresses, the differences between Free, Partially Free and Not Free become less marked.

The richest countries and those with older populations have more reported deaths.

The length of land borders has no effect on reported Covid-19 deaths, and land area matters at some times but not at others.

Definitely, the country's cultural values offer a more substantive explanation for the COVID-19 results. However, there is a general perception that countries led by women have fared better during the pandemic, perhaps due to data selection bias and the bias of Western media that amplified the successes of women leaders in countries of the OECD.

Beyond the validity of this study, the reliability of its statistical analyses, and all the nuances that we can use, we should try to look further: in the face of a multifactorial pandemic, focus on a single factor (sex), with which we can only establish correlations and not causal links is bad science, even bad propaganda: It is important to value women who do it well; and to the men. But it is important that our assessment does not tend to be crude by grouping people by categories (sex, race, religion, etc.). And, above all, it is important that if we are going to use this form of claim, we do so with reliable data:

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The news

Countries led by women have not had a significantly lower rate of COVID victims, and some have had more.

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

.