|
Selected Sci-News Items May 23 - May 29, 2020
|
General Interest Cosmos
Innovation Health Nature Environment Climate
Next (zoom) event so far scheduled for late June -will update a.s.a.p.
CORONAVIRUS
A Monday Is a Tuesday Is a Sunday as COVID-19 Disrupts Internal Clocks Scientific American, May 22, 2020 A global natural experiment examines the time warp of life under quarantine.
'It's Something I Have Never Seen': How the Covid-19 Virus Hijacks Cells STAT, May 21, 2020 "It's something I have never seen in my 20 years of studying viruses," said virologist Benjamin tenOever...referring to how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, hijacks cells' genomes.
That Office AC System Is Great - at Recirculating Viruses Intelligencer (New York Magazine), May 22, 2020 "It's frustrating that neither the CDC nor the WHO has issued guidance on the potential for airborne transmission, because our whole field has been talking about this since February," says Joseph Allen (Harvard professor & author of Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity).
How Polar Explorers Survived Months of Isolation Without Cracking National Geographic, May 26, 2020 With his ship the Endurance being crushed by pack ice and sinking fast, Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton ordered his men over the side, telling them to take only the barest of personal possessions, a limit of no more than two pounds each. Scratching the Surface: Drones Cast New Light on Mystery of Nazca Lines The Guardian, May 24, 2020 New research with drones has helped uncover hundreds of figures carved in the desert near the lines in Nazca but which predate them by as much as 1,500 years
Novel Insight Reveals Topological Tangle in Unexpected Corner of the Universe Phys.Org, May 26, 2020 A certain geometrical structure of knots, which scientists call a Hopfion, manifests itself in unexpected corners of the universe, ranging from particle physics, to biology, to cosmology. Like the Fibonacci spiral and the golden ratio, the Hopfion pattern unites different scientific fields, and deeper understanding of its structure and influence will help scientists to develop transformative technologies.
Half the Universe's Ordinary Matter Was Missing - and May Have Been Found Science News, May 27, 2020 The long-sought (ordinary) matter appears to have been hiding in the gaps between galaxies.
Growing Anomalies at the Large Hadron Collider Raise Hopes Quanta, May 26, 2020 Recent measurements of particles called B mesons deviate from predictions. Alone, each oddity looks like a fluke, but their collective drift is more suggestive. Astrophysicists Capture New Class of Transient Objects Phys.Org, May 26, 2020 CSS161010, in fact, has produced some of the fastest outflows in nature, launching gas and particles at more than 55% the speed of light. The Galaxy That Grew Up Too Fast New York Times, May 20, 2020 A vast wheel of gas in the primordial cosmos is forcing astronomers to rethink how some of the universe's largest structures may have formed. ATLAS Telescope Discovers First-of-Its-Kind Asteroid Science Daily, May 22, 2020 We often think of asteroids and comets as distinct types of small bodies, but astronomers have discovered an increasing number of "crossovers."
INNOVATION
3 Ways Scientists Think We Could De-Germ a Covid-19 World Wired, May 27, 2020 Researchers want to know if we can create an antiviral infrastructure that would protect humans from transmission. Here are a few ideas.
Nanoparticle Antivirals Offer New Way to Fight Coronaviruses But Therapy Is Still in Its Infancy Chemistry World, May 22, 2020 This is a new approach to tackling viruses - including coronaviruses - that takes advantage of the unique properties of nanoparticles.
This Bionic Eye Is Better Than a Real One, Scientists Say Futurism, May 20, 2020 "A human user of the artificial eye will gain night vision capability."
Mathematics Can Save Lives At Sea Phys.Org, May 27, 2020 Haller's research team obtained mathematical results predicting that objects floating on the ocean's surface should congregate along a few special curves (invisible to the naked eye) which they call TRansient Attracting Profiles (TRAPs).
75 Technological Innovations for Our Future Farming Toolbox Anthropocene, May 22, 2020 New agricultural technologies are swiftly being developed. But, they will need the right social, economic, and political conditions to truly take off.
HEALTH
How Animals Sense Earth's Magnetic Field Astrobiology, May 18, 2020 If you have ever wondered how homing pigeons make round trips without GPS, or how pregnant sea turtles find the same beach on which they were born decades earlier to lay their own eggs, it is all thanks to their sense of magneto-reception.
These Researchers Spent a Winter Trapped in Arctic Ice to Capture Key Climate Data Nature, May 2020 (great images) They circled the region a few times and, when they spotted a seemingly solid section nearby, the pilot repeatedly tapped the helicopter against the ice to test whether the surface was stable.
Can Planting a Trillion Trees Stop Climate Change? Scientists Say it's a Lot More Complicated Inside Climate News, May 27, 2020 Compared with cutting fossil fuels, tree planting would play only a small role in combating the climate crisis.
What Will It Take to Cool the Planet? New Yorker, May 21, 2020 (Bill McKibben) Description and links allowing you to change different variables to see what it would take to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions enough to get us off our current impossible track (screeching toward a world something like four degrees Celsius hotter) and onto the merely miserable heading of 1.5 to two degrees Celsius envisioned in the Paris climate accords.
Democrats Launch Climate Change Task Force Living On Earth, May 22, 2020 (w/audio) Discussion about a unity task force on the climate crisis with members pulled from both the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic party.
Atlantic Hurricanes Will be More Frequent and More Severe This Mother Jones, May 22, 2020 In terms of actual weather events, that translates to between 13 and 19 storms severe enough to be named and up to six major hurricanes.
|
Science for the Public is a volunteer organization, whose mission is to provide accurate information about science concepts, innovations and issues from outstanding scientists.
We produce public lectures, an interview program (
Contemporary Science Issues and Innovations), and a mini-documentary series (
Working Science). All of our productions are videotaped and are available on our
website and our online channels, as well as on
WGBH Forum Network and Belmont Media Center Community TV.
Visit our website at
www.scienceforthepublic.org and sign up for our newsletter.
Contact us at scienceforthepublic@gmail.com.
|
|
|
|
|
|