We constructed one of the few (if not the only) mathematical models that can predict outbreaks of the MERS coronavirus in Saudi Arabia by incorporating human social behaviour and disease incidence from past outbreaks. Our results confirm there are currently two strains of the virus co-circulating in the most populated regions of the country, and highlight the high risk of large future outbreaks of MERS-CoV in Riyadh and Mecca (1).
Regarding climate, we participated in a study that traced and quantified the fingerprint of the heatwave and drought that hit Europe in the summer of 2018, by studying alterations in atmospheric CO2. This study was possible thanks to the deployment in recent years of a network of atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring stations (2).
