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Technology

Huawei turns to pig farming as smartphone sales fall

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TipRanks

J.P. Morgan Says These 3 Gold Stocks Could Surge 40% (Or More)

Let’s talk about gold. The precious metal is the traditional safe haven investment, backed by its use – starting 5,000 years ago – as a reliable store of value. Investors looking to protect their portfolio and secure their wealth traditionally bought heavily into gold, and the price of gold has sometimes been used as a proxy (albeit an inverse one) for general economic health. In a recent report, investment firm J.P. Morgan took a long look at the state of the gold industry – specifically, the gold mining industry. Analyst Tyler Langton points out an underlying paradox in two basic facts about gold mines. “Over time, in a commodity business, the lowest cost producers with the longest life assets tend to be the relative winners… Gold mines, when compared to base metals, typically have much shorter mines (sic) lives, and the gold miners have to focus on replacing reserves to maintain levels of production,” Langton noted. At first glance, Langton’s paradox may seem to point away from heavy investments in gold mines. After all, these are high-risk commodity producers. But current times are actually pretty good for gold miners. Prices are elevated compared to recent years; the metal is running just under $1,800 per ounce now, but it peaked above $2,000 in August of last year, at the height of the corona shutdowns, and it was as low as $1,200 just 18 months ago. The current high prices bode well for producers. Langton states his belief that there is support for current prices, with gold and gold mines being seen as a hedge against ‘macro uncertainty.’ He believes that the main sources of support will be found in “real interest rates remaining lower for longer and COVID-19 related stimulus measures continuing to expand central bank balance sheets.” With this in the background, Langton and his colleagues have begun selecting the gold mining stocks they see as winners in the current environment. Unsurprisingly, they like the companies that show discipline on M&A activity, a focus on free cash flow, and solid returns to shareholders. Using the TipRanks database, we’ve pulled up the details on several of their recent picks. Are they as good as gold? The analysts seem to think so; all are Buy-rated and potentially offer significant upside. Let’s dig in. Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) First up, Kinross Gold, is a mid-cap company– valued at $8.6 billion – with active mining operations in the US, Brazil, West Africa, and Russia. Taken together, these operations have proven and probable gold reserves of 29.9 million ounces. The company is guiding toward 2.4 million ounces in total production for 2021, rising to 2.9 million ounces by 2023. The company’s profitability can be seen by cost of sales per ounce, at $790, and the all-in sustaining cost, at $1,025 per ounce. With gold currently selling at $1,782 on the commodity exchanges, Kinross’s near-term success is clear. Two sets of statistics highlight Kinross’ profitability. First, the company’s recent record of quarterly results shows steadily rising revenues and earnings. Aside from a dip in 1Q20, at the start of the corona crisis, Kinross’ revenues have been gaining steadily since the start of 2019 – and even in 2020, every quarter showed a year-over-year increase. After 7 years without dividend payments, Kinross used its strong performance in recent months to restore the company dividend. Payments are still made irregularly, but since announcing in September 2020 that the dividend would be reinstated, two payments have been made and a third has been announced for March of this year. Each payment has been for 3 cents per share, which translates to a modest yield of 1.6%. The key point here is not strength of the yield, but rather, the confidence that management has displayed in the near- to mid-term by restarted dividend payments. Based on current production projections, the payments are expected to continue until 2023. Tyler Langton, in his notes on Kinross, comes to a bullish conclusion: “Given its expected growth projects and pipeline of additional projects, we think Kinross will be able to maintain average annual production of 2.5mm oz. over the next decade. The company has an attractive cost profile, and we expect costs to decrease over the next several years. The company should also generate attractive strong levels of FCF at current gold prices, and we expect Kinross to direct this cash toward internal growth projects and its dividend.” In line with these comments, he selects Kinross as JPM’s ‘top pick in the gold sector,’ and rates the stock as Overweight (i.e., a Buy). His $11 price target suggests a 61% upside potential in the coming year. (To watch Langton’s track record, click here) Kinross gets a Strong Buy recommendation from the analyst consensus, based on a 6 to 2 split between the Buy and Hold reviews. Wall Street’s analysts have set an average price target of $11.25, slightly more bullish than Langton’s, and implying a one-year upside of 64% from the current trading price of $6.85. (See KGC stock analysis on TipRanks) SSR Mining, Inc. (SSRM) Moving up north to Canada, we now take a look at Vancouver-based SSR Mining. This is another mid-cap mining company, producing gold and silver in quantity through four active mines in Canada, the US, Argentina, and Turkey. The Canadian, US, and Turkish operations produce primarily gold, while the Puna operation is Argentina’s largest silver mine. Although SSR missed on both the top- and bottom-line estimates in its latest quarterly report, for the 2020 full-year production numbers, the company met the previously set guidance. Gold production for the year hit 643,000 ounces, with 31% of that total coming in the fourth quarter. Silver production at the Puna mine reached 5.6 million ounces, beating the guidance figures. Fourth quarter production was 39% of the total. Last November, the company announced that it will be initiating a dividend policy starting in 1Q21. The ‘base dividend’ will be set at 5 cents per share, or a 1% yield; as with KGC above, the key point is not whether the dividend is high or low, but that management is starting to pay it out – a sign of confidence in the future. Langton bases his assessment of SSRM on its strong free cash flow forecast, writing, “At current gold forward prices, we estimate that SSR will generate close to $400mm of FCF in 2021 and around $500mm per year from 2022-2024. Furthermore, starting from a 2021 base, we forecast that SSR would generate cumulative FCF from 2021- 2025 of US$2.3bn, or roughly 59% of its current market cap…” In line with his comments, Langton puts an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating on the stock, along with a $24 price target that indicates a 60% upside for the next 12 months. (To watch Langton’s track record, click here) There are 8 recent reviews on SSRM shares – and every single one of them is a Buy, making the Strong Buy analyst consensus rating here unanimous. The stock is selling for $15.25, and its robust $28.78 average price target suggests a high 89% one-year upside. (See SSRM stock analysis on TipRanks) Newmont Mining (NEM) Last on the list, Newmont, is the world’s largest gold miner, boasting a $45.78 billion market cap, and active production in a variety of metals, including gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead. The company has assets – both operations and prospects – in North and South America, Africa, and Australia, and is the only gold miner listed on the S&P 500. With that last detail in mind, it’s worth noting that NEM shares are up 29% in the last 12 months – more than the S&P’s gain of 16% over the same period. In 3Q20, the company showed $3.12 billion in revenue. While this missed the forecast, it did improve on the prior year’s Q3 by 5.4%. The Q3 results were also a company record, with a free cash flow of $1.3 billion. Results below expectations were a common pattern for the company’s 2020 performance in Q1 and Q2, as well. The corona crisis depressed results, but even the depressed results were up year-over-year. Newmont has an active capital return program for shareholders. Since the beginning of 2019, the company has used both dividends and share repurchases to return capital to stakeholders, to the tune of $2.7 billion. This past January, Newmont announced a $1 billion continuation of the share repurchases. Looking ahead to 2021, the company has also announced a new dividend framework, setting the base payment at $1 per share annualized, and reiterated its commitment to capital return. JPM’s Michael Glick led the note on Newmont, starting out by acknowledging the company’s strong production: “We are forecasting NEM’s attributable gold production to remain relatively steady over the 2021-2025 time frame at around 6.5-6.7mm oz…” Of the company’s mid-term production prospects Glick went on to say, “In terms of production, the ongoing expansion at Tanami should deliver incremental production and lower cash costs starting in 2023. Additionally, we expect Newmont to approve its Ahafo North and Yanacocha Sulfides projects this year, which should bring on incremental production for the company after the projects’ roughly three-year development time-line.” Glick likes Newmont’s FCF and production numbers, using them to back his Overweight (Buy) rating. His $83 price target implies an upside of 46% for the months ahead. (To watch Glick’s track record, click here) Newmont, for all its strength, still gets a Moderate Buy rating from the analyst consensus. This is based on 8 reviews, including 5 Buys and 3 Holds. The average price target is $74.97, suggesting room for 31% growth from the current trading price of $56.99. (See NEM stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for gold stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Sports

Serena Williams Turns Back Time at Australian Open

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Sabalenka, a nine-time winner on the WTA Tour, and Swiatek, the reigning French Open champion, are the latest in a long string of polished phenoms threaded through Williams’s career. One of the biggest stars to emerge, Naomi Osaka, saved two match points to beat Garbiñe Muguruza on Sunday. Still, from Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles to Maria Sharapova and Sloane Stephens, Williams has watched many young talents come and go and, on occasion, stray far from tennis.

A sport with a history of suffocating its young has not stifled Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion in singles whose love for the game seems to have deepened over time. Against Sabalenka, she studied a page of written notes during changeovers as if she were back in high school. She fiddled with her “Queen” necklace. She dug balls out of the corners and ran from side to side as if she were on a school blacktop at recess.

Darren Cahill, one of Halep’s coaches, described Williams’s movement as the best he had seen from her “in a long, long time” and said, “If you can stay in more points and get more balls back, stay alive, then she’s got the power to turn those points around.”

What Williams is doing is also inconceivable to the younger Americans, three of whom have followed her into the second week. Marveled, one of the three, the 28-year-old Shelby Rogers: “What she’s been able to accomplish is absolutely incredible because some days I wake up now and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not 21 anymore.’”

Williams’s serve usually allows her to win her share of easy points. But against Sabalenka, her main weapon continually misfired. Williams put 52 percent of her first serves in play and recorded eight double faults, including one in the fifth game of the third set, which gave Sabalenka two break points.

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Sports

Ohio State Linebackers Coach Al Washington Turns Down Defensive Coordinator Offer from Tennessee to Stay with Buckeyes

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Al Washington is staying with the Buckeyes.

According to multiple reports, Washington has turned down an offer to become Tennessee’s defensive coordinator and will stay at Ohio State for a third season as the Buckeyes’ linebackers coach.

Washington’s decision was first reported by 247Sports. Lettermen Row’s Austin Ward reported Thursday that “a raise and new responsibility as the run-game coordinator was already in the works” for Washington, though Ohio State has not yet announced a new title for Washington.

Following the retirement of former co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison, Washington is now set to coach Ohio State’s entire linebacker unit in 2021. If he is promoted to run game coordinator, he’ll be second in command on Ohio State’s defensive coaching staff behind defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs, though defensive line coach Larry Johnson and recently promoted secondary coach Matt Barnes will also be integrally involved in the Buckeyes’ defensive game planning.

Washington, now 36, has never previously been a coordinator in his coaching career, but was reportedly offered $1.5 million – nearly three times the $515,000 he made at Ohio State in 2020 – to become the defensive coordinator at Tennessee. Ultimately, however, Washington decided he should stay at Ohio State rather than joining a Tennessee program that is going through a coaching staff transition after Jeremy Pruitt was fired for committing NCAA recruiting violations.

While Ryan Day previously said on Feb. 3 that Ohio State would not have a co-defensive coordinator this year, he did say Washington would take on a bigger role this year following Mattison’s departure.

“Al’s going to take on an added responsibility,” Day said. “I think Al Washington’s done a really good job with those linebackers.”

Washington’s decision to stay at Ohio State is crucial not only to maintain continuity in the linebacker room, but also for the Buckeyes’ recruiting efforts, as he has been one of their aces on the trail. 

In addition to Washington’s status as Ohio State’s only returning linebackers coach from last season, he has always been one of the Buckeyes’ aces on the recruiting trail, making it increasingly important for them to keep him in the fold. Washington is currently ranked by 247Sports as the No. 1 recruiter among all assistant coaches for the class of 2022, having led the way in landing commitments from linebackers Gabe Powers, C.J. Hicks and Dasan McCullough as well as offensive tackle Tegra Tshabola.

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Science

Happy Martian new year! The Red Planet turns 36

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Happy (Martian) new year! A new year on Mars began yesterday Feb. 7, 2021 and these images show the planet shifting over into the new year. The image on the left was taken Feb. 6 and the image on the right was taken Feb. 1, both captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiting probe.  Years on Mars last about 687 Earth days, as the planet takes almost twice as long to orbit the sun. This new Mars year is designated Mars Year 36.  (Image credit: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

Happy new year! On Mars at least. 

Yesterday (Feb. 7) marked the beginning of a new year on the Red Planet. While a year on Earth lasts 365 days, every Mars year lasts 668 sols (Mars days) — or 687 Earth days, as each sol lasts a little longer than an Earth day at 24 hours and 39 minutes. Because the Red Planet takes almost twice as long to orbit the sun as Earth, on Mars, you would celebrate your birthday every 23 Earth months. 

This is now “Mars Year 36” on Mars as tracked by humans on Earth. “Mars Year 1” began after a significant dust storm was detected in 1956, named “the great dust storm of 1956.” To calculate how old you would be on Mars, you can divide your age by 1.88 (but  take note: traveling to Mars wouldn’t actually make you younger).

The Martian new year begins as three different missions are closing in on the Red Planet. The United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter is due to arrive in orbit around Mars on Tuesday (Feb. 9). A day later, China’s Tianwen-1 mission is also expected to enter orbit. Tianwen-1 is carrying three different probes: an orbiter, lander and small rover. Then on Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance will make a daring landing via a parachute and sky crane in a region known as Jezero Crater. So, it’s going to be a busy year on the Red Planet.

Related: How long does it take to get to Mars

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Mars has four seasons just like we do on Earth, with cooler winters and warmer summers. The Martian year always begins with the northern hemisphere’s spring equinox, which begins autumn in the southern hemisphere. 

However, unlike Earth’s, Mars’ seasons are not all the same length. This inequality is because the Red Planet’s orbit around the sun is a more extreme elliptical shape than Earth’s. The season we are now entering, spring in Mars’ northern hemisphere, is the longest season on the planet, lasting 194 sols. 

Also unlike Earth, Mars experiences much more extreme temperatures. The planet’s yearly average temperature is minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius). 

Additionally, during the Martian spring and summer in the planet’s southern hemisphere, the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud, a strange weather phenomenon that is essentially a giant ice crystal cloud stretching 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) can form and last for over 80 sols. 

Because of the planet’s more elliptical orbit, Martian seasons can additionally bring a variety of strange effects. For example, during spring and summer in the planet’s southern hemisphere, Mars is closer to the sun and moving faster. The closer proximity to the sun warms the planet’s atmosphere, and the increased warmth and the planet’s increased speeds whipping around so close to the sun stir up particles in the Martian soil, which can lead to intense dust storms that can stretch around the entire globe. 

In fact, in 2019, NASA’s Opportunity rover “died” after a global dust storm covered the craft’s solar arrays, preventing its batteries from charging and causing it to lose contact with mission teams on Earth. 

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Technology

This $300 Meowth turns a meme into a five-foot-tall plushie

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The Pokémon Center is selling a Gigantamax Meowth that, while not true to size, is still pretty damn big. This Long Meowth measures 65 inches, which is just over five feet, and has a “dangerous smile.” A bad boy.

Gigantamax Meowth is a 1:20 scale version of its Pokémon Sword and Shield counterpart, and it costs $299.99 for the pleasure of its company. Now the bad news: it’s currently sold out. Will it restock? I have no idea, but kudos to the unknown number of people who dropped $300 for a 5-foot-something body pillow. If this isn’t love, I don’t know what is:

I’m not thrilled that there is no light in Meowth’s eyes, but who can blame him. At least it’s better than Pikachu centipede.

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Science

Whale That Washed Up on Florida Beach Turns Out to Be an Entirely New Species

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A 38-foot-long (11.5 meters) whale that washed ashore in the Florida Everglades in January 2019 turns out to be a completely new species. And it’s already considered endangered, scientists say.

 

When the corpse of the behemoth washed up along Sandy Key – underweight with a hard piece of plastic in its gut – scientists thought it was a subspecies of the Bryde’s (pronounced “broodus”) whale, a baleen whale species in the same group that includes humpback and blue whales. That subspecies was named Rice’s whale.

Now, after genetic analysis of other Rice’s whales along with an examination of the skull from the Everglades whale, researchers think that, rather than a subspecies, the Rice’s whale is an entirely new species that lives in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The discovery, detailed January 10 in the journal Marine Mammal Science, also means that there are fewer than 100 members of this species living on the planet, making them “critically endangered,” according to a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Related: Amazing new video shows baby humpback whales nursing from their moms

According to the study, the researchers looked at records of the Bryde’s whale in the Caribbean and greater Atlantic Ocean and concluded the whales they spotted were evidence “of an undescribed species of Balaenoptera from the Gulf of Mexico.” 

The lead study author Patricia Rosel and her co-author, Lynsey Wilcox, both at Southeast Fisheries Science Center, completed the first genetic tests of this whale in 2008, finding that the skull of the Rice’s whale was different than that of Bryde’s whales.

 

In addition to having different skulls, Rice’s whales are slightly different in size than Bryde’s whales, the new analysis showed. They can weigh up to 60,000 pounds (27,215 kilograms) and grow up to 42 feet (12.8 meters) long, according to NOAA, whereas Bryde’s whales have been known to reach upwards of 50 feet (15.2 m) and weigh more than 55,000 pounds (24,947 kg).

Rosel and her colleagues think the whales in the new species can live approximately 60 years, but given that there are so few in existence, researchers need further observation of the whales to get a better idea of their life expectancy.

Given their location in the Gulf of Mexico, Rice’s whales are particularly vulnerable to oil spills, vessel strikes and energy exploration and production, NOAA added.

Related content
50 of the most endangered species on the planet
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Big miracle: The real rescue in images

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

 

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Technology

This DIY project turns an iPod into a click wheel-powered Spotify player

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Classic iPods have their fans, but they’re not built for the modern age of music streaming — except for this one, which has been turned into a Spotify player by tinkerer Guy Dupont. While it may look like an iPod from the outside, inside, it’s got a Raspberry Pi loaded with software custom-built by Dupont to interface with Spotify, while still keeping the classic iPod style. He calls it the sPot.

In a video showing off the project and the process behind it, Dupont says he was inspired when his mother-in-law gifted him the old iPod. In a Hackaday post, he says he “had forgotten how good it feels to hold and use one of these things,” but he wanted to update it with some modern features, including (obviously) Spotify streaming, Bluetooth audio, and search. That’s right, the device can search the entirety of Spotify’s library and stream it.

We don’t need an iTunes library where we’re going.
GIF by Guy Dupont

Dupont put a Raspberry Pi Zero W inside the iPod because Spotify requires an internet connection — something most iPods don’t support. It also allows for the custom interface and Bluetooth audio. The sPot also needs a larger battery to power the Pi, but all of the hardware still fits inside the original iPod case.

iPod on the outside…
Photo by Guy Dupont

…all custom on the inside.
Photo by Guy Dupont

Dupont was able to keep the scroll wheel interface — and he even managed to improve it. There’s now haptic feedback when scrolling, instead of just the audible click. But while many of the original buttons are present, they haven’t all been as faithfully preserved as the click wheel has.

The hold switch now controls the power, instead of locking the iPod to prevent pocket-scrolling. And while the headphone jack is still there, it no longer does anything (RIP to a real one), as audio output is handled by Bluetooth. It also ditches the original 30-pin connector for an easier-to-find-in-2021 Micro USB port that handles charging.

The headphone jack is now just for decoration.
Photo by Guy Dupont

That beautiful scroll wheel action.
GIF by Guy Dupont

If you wanted to make one of these yourself, Dupont has posted all of the code you’ll need on GitHub. He also created a Hackaday page detailing the other software that’s needed to get Spotify working.

If you’re like me and are wishing for your own sPot, the video should give you pretty much all you need to get started. Doing the quickest of searches for the parts he’s listed, the project will cost around $100, plus the price of the iPod if you don’t already have one. But even if you have no desire to make one of these, the video is totally worth a watch just to experience the glory of what a modern iPod could look like and to see this really cool project come together.

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Business

Silver prices hit highest since 2013 as Reddit army turns to commodities

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Price of silver rose by more than10% on Monday. Photo: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

The price of silver (SI=F) rocketed more than 10% to its highest since February 2013 on Monday, briefly trading over the $30 (£ ) per ounce mark, as retail investors piled in on the commodity.

It became the latest target after a retail frenzy last week saw the likes of heavily-shorted GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) surge in revolt to large institutional investors.

Recently amateur traders have been buying stocks and assets that Wall Street funds bet against. Similarly, traders are looking to squeeze silver shorts.

There have been thousands of Reddit posts with multiple mentions of the hashtag #silversqueeze, and a string of videos on YouTube encouraging small investors to buy the precious metal.

The surge sent silver miner Fresnillo (FRES.L) almost 20% higher in early trading in London, while Glencore (GLEN.L), BHP (BHP.L) and Anglo-American (AAL.L) also rose.

Users in the Reddit forum Wallstreetbets argued that silver is a heavily manipulated market, and that a rise in the silver price could hurt large financial services companies.

“Think about the Gainz. If you don’t care about the gains, think about the banks like JP Morgan you’d be destroying along the way,” a Reddit user posted.

“Whether it will be quite so easy to shunt around silver as it was GameStop remain to be seen,” Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, said.

“You can understand why silver is attracting the attentions of the social media traders who are looking to vent their fury upon, and profit from, short sellers. Allegations about, and fines for, investment banks rigging precious metal markets have abounded for some time. More fundamentally, money supply is surging, markets more generally are watching carefully for any signs of inflation and precious metals are traditionally seen as a potential hedge here.

“In addition, gold currently trades at 70 times the silver price, against the long-run average of 58 times, so on paper silver is the cheaper of the precious metals. This will be an interesting test of the conspiracy theories that precious metals prices have been kept artificially low.”

READ MORE: How the tale of Reddit, GameStop, Robinhood is really about 5 big trends

The world’s largest silver-backed exchange traded fund, iShares Silver Trust (SLV), posted almost $1bn (£730m) in inflows on Friday, according to data from BlackRock, the fund’s sponsor. It was the biggest one-day rise since the ETF started trading in April 2006.

Meanwhile, US bullion broker APMEX said it saw demand hit as much as six times a typical business day and more than 12 times a normal weekend day on Friday.

“Combined with the extremely high demand levels, we are also seeing a surge in new customers. On Saturday alone, we added as many new customers as we usually add in a week,” it said.

In November, around $6bn worth of silver traded hands in the silver market, according to the latest statistics from the London Bullion Market Association. London’s vaults hold around 33,500 tonnes of silver, valued at some $24bn.

WATCH: Dissecting the swampy backstory to GameStop stock controversy

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Health

How the Coronavirus Turns the Body Against Itself

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The coronavirus can warp the body’s defenses in many ways — disarming the body’s early warning systems, for example, or causing immune cells to misfire. But a spate of new studies suggests another insidious consequence: The infection can trigger the production of antibodies that mistakenly attack the patient’s own tissues instead of the virus.

The latest report, published online this week, suggests that so-called autoantibodies can persist months after the infection has resolved, perhaps causing irreparable harm. If other studies confirm the finding, it may explain some of the lingering symptoms in people who have recovered from Covid-19. The syndrome, sometimes referred to as long Covid, can include dementia, “brain fog” and joint pain.

Autoantibodies are not new to science: They are the misguided soldiers of the immune system, tied to debilitating diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, which arise when the body attacks its own tissues.

The newest study is small, with just nine patients, five of whom had autoantibodies for at least seven months. It has not yet undergone peer review for publication, and the authors urged caution in interpreting the results.

“It’s a signal; it is not definitive,” said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, medical director of the special pathogens unit at Boston Medical Center, who led the study. “We don’t know how prevalent it is, and whether or not it can be linked to long Covid.”

The question of autoimmunity following coronavirus infection is urgent and important, Dr. Bhadelia added. As many as one in three survivors of Covid-19 say they still experience symptoms.

“This is a real phenomenon,” she said. “We’re looking at a second pandemic of people with ongoing potential disability who may not be able to return to work, and that’s a huge impact on the health systems.”

A growing body of evidence suggests that autoimmunity contributes to the severity of Covid-19 in some people. A study published online in October found that among 52 patients with severe Covid-19, more than 70 percent carried antibodies against their own DNA and against proteins that help with blood clotting.

In another study, also published online in October, researchers discovered autoantibodies to carbohydrates made by the body in Covid-19 patients, which could explain neurological symptoms. And a study in the journal Science Translational Medicine in November found that half of patients hospitalized for Covid-19 had at least transient autoantibodies that cause clots and blockages in blood vessels.

The gathering research raises the worrying possibility that lingering autoantibodies might lead to autoimmune disease in some people infected with the coronavirus.

“Once these autoantibodies are induced, there is no going back,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University. “They will be a permanent part of the person’s immune system.”

She added: “What does it do to vaccine response? What does it do to newly acquired infections? These are all questions that will have to be addressed.”

Dr. Iwasaki’s team showed in December that severely ill patients had dramatic increases in a wide array of autoantibodies that target parts of the immune system, brain cells, connective tissue and clotting factors.

“We really see broadly reactive autoantibody responses in these patients,” Dr. Iwasaki said. She had suspected that autoimmunity might play some role, but “even I didn’t expect to see this much auto-reactivity.”

Dr. Iwasaki and her colleagues collected blood from 172 patients with a range of symptoms, 22 health care workers who had been infected, and 30 uninfected health care workers.

One in five infected patients had autoantibodies to five proteins in their own bodies, and up to 80 percent to at least one protein, the researchers found. Patients with severe Covid-19 had many more of these antibodies, which hindered their immune responses and exacerbated illness. Of 15 patients who died during the study, 14 had autoantibodies to at least one constituent of the immune system.

The study convincingly shows that autoantibodies “alter the course of disease,” said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle who was not involved in the research.

Autoimmunity after an illness is not unique to the coronavirus. Other intensely inflammatory infections, including malaria, leprosy and respiratory viruses, are also known to trigger autoantibodies. But autoimmunity and Covid-19 may be a particularly hazardous mix, experts said.

One analysis of nearly 170,000 people with rare autoimmune rheumatic diseases like lupus and scleroderma indicated that they face increased odds of death from Covid-19. And a study of more than 130,000 people found that autoimmune conditions like Type 1 diabetes, psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis increase the risk of respiratory complications and death from Covid-19.

Some of the antibodies seemed to be the result of inborn defects in the immune system. For example, a study in the journal Science in October found that about 10 percent of severely ill Covid-19 patients had existing autoantibodies that attacked key components of the immune system that were supposed to kick in after exposure to the virus. Without that rapid response, the body’s defense is hopelessly delayed, fighting a losing battle against the multiplying virus.

Yet the mere presence of autoantibodies does not indicate harm. They are in the general population and don’t always lead to illness, some experts noted.

“Anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the population has some level of this auto-reactivity,” said Dr. Iñaki Sanz, an immunologist at Emory University. “The issue is that you need many other events downstream of the autoantibodies to induce disease.”

At least in some patients, autoantibodies clearly emerged as a result of the illness, Dr. Iwasaki’s study showed. Extreme inflammation caused by viral infections can cause cells to burst open, spewing their contents and befuddling the immune system’s ability to distinguish “self” from “other.”

But autoantibodies induced in this manner may level off after a few months, said Dr. Shiv Pillai, an immunologist at Harvard University: “Probably in the vast majority of Covid-19 patients, autoantibodies emerge in the acute phase, then decline.”

“That being said — yes, it would be interesting if long Covid might be explained by specific autoantibodies,” he added.

Several researchers, including Dr. Bhadelia and Dr. Iwasaki, are following patients over time to see how long autoantibodies persist and whether they wreak permanent damage. Although scientists have known that acute infections can trigger their presence, the phenomenon has never been studied in such detail.

“That’s maybe the one silver lining here,” Dr. Pepper said. “We’re going to learn some fundamental principles about acute viral infections in people which haven’t been easy to study in this way before.”

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Technology

Chrome OS 88 turns your Chromebook into an impromptu smart display

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The lock screen also displays the time and local weather and provides you with easy to access media controls so you can pause or play a song. You’ll find your WiFi and battery status on the bottom right corner and the option to sign out from your account if you want. You enable the feature by digging into the settings menu of Chrome OS and finding your way to the Personalization section. Once enabled, it will turn on when the operating system detects that your device has been idle for some time. 

Google

The update also introduces a feature that allows you to use your pin or fingerprint, instead of a password, to log into websites that support the WebAuthn standard. What’s nifty here is that you can use your pin or fingerprint as a form of two-factor authentication on websites where you’ve enabled the extra security measure. Some platforms that support the WebAuthn standard include Dropbox and GitHub. You can expect Chrome OS 88 to roll out to your device over the next few days.

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