Science News Roundup: Pregnant women being infected at higher rates; Mars rover sends home movie of daredevil descent to landing on red planet and more

Pregnant women infected by COVID-19 at higher rate Chinese state fund invests in gene firm BGI The Chinese government has made an investment in BGI Genomics Co, a listed Chinese company that has supplied millions of COVID-19 tests globally as the gene firm seeks to fund exponential growth driven by the pandemic.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Pregnant women being infected at higher rates; COVID-19 from UK variant lasting longer

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Pregnant women infected by COVID-19 at higher rate Chinese state fund invests in gene firm BGI

The Chinese government has made an investment in BGI Genomics Co, a listed Chinese company that has supplied millions of COVID-19 tests globally as the gene firm seeks to fund exponential growth driven by the pandemic. BGI Group, which runs a massive gene databank in China and has DNA sequencing contracts with health firms and universities worldwide, has in the past responded to claims from U.S. security agencies that it is closely linked to the Chinese government by saying it has no Chinese government capital.

Mars rover sends home movie of daredevil descent to landing on red planet

NASA scientists on Monday unveiled first-of-a-kind home movies of last week's' daredevil Mars rover landing, vividly showing its supersonic parachute inflation over the red planet and a rocket-powered hovercraft lowering the science lab on wheels to the surface. The footage was recorded on Thursday by a series of cameras mounted at different angles of the multi-stage spacecraft as it carried the rover, named Perseverance, through the thin Martian atmosphere to a gentle touchdown inside a vast basin called Jezero Crater.

Battered stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall get the full treatment

The ancient stones that make up Jerusalem's Western Wall are showing the scars of weathering from two millennia of scorching sunlight and driving rain. To stop them getting worse and to ensure their integrity, Israeli conservators are giving the stones a face lift, mending the cracks and filling out their battered surfaces.

(With inputs from agencies.)