Sci-News Roundup September 11 - September 17 2021
General Interest  Cosmos   Innovation   Health  Nature  Environment  Climate

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Sept 14 Galileo and the Science Deniers (video available)




STAT, September 15, 2021
The assessment by the agency’s staff...sets up a high-stakes debate over who will need an additional booster dose — and when they will need it — at the meeting of experts being convened by the Food and Drug Administration.

Politico, September 08, 2021
In 1905, the high court made a fateful ruling with eerie parallels to today: One person’s liberty can’t trump everyone else’s.

Washington Post, September 15, 2021
At a certain point, it was no longer a matter of if the United States would reach the gruesome milestone of 1 in 500 people dying of covid-19, but a matter of when.

New York Times, September 15, 2021
Ventilation improvements, adding portable air cleaners and simply opening windows can lower the risk of infection in the office.


GENERAL INTEREST

Deutsche Welle, August 08, 2021
Most every kid learns a² + b² = c² in math. Pythagoras, right? Wrong. Babylonians used trigonometry 1,000 years before the Greeks. Time to rewrite history?

Science Daily, September 10, 2021
A team of researchers is using a novel technique to comb through the data and to reconstruct major branches in the linguistic tree.

BBC, September 15. 2021
A fresh study puts the camels at between 7,000-8,000 old. Their age makes them even older than such ancient landmarks as Stonehenge (5,000 years old) or the Pyramids at Giza (4,500 years old).

Quanta, September 13, 2021
The concept of dimension seems simple enough, but mathematicians struggled for centuries to precisely define and understand it.

CNN, September 14, 2021
Flat-breads were made starting about 10,000 years ago, but it took a while longer for humans to discover how to make dough rise.


COSMOS

Universe Today, September 14, 2021
When NASA’s next-generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launches this November, its sensitivity and advanced infrared optics will make it the first observatory capable of seeing the Cosmic Dawn.

Science News, September 13, 2021
The catch: We have to wait until about 2037 for an answer.

Phys.Org, September 13, 2021
An increase in experimental observations that deviate from the predictions of the Standard Model provides even stronger evidence for the existence of "new physics."

Cosmos, September 10, 2021
Sorry, but the heat death of the universe is actually the nice option.

Quanta, September 07, 2021
For over two decades, physicists have pondered how the fabric of space-time may emerge from some kind of quantum entanglement.

INNOVATION

New York Times, September 13, 2021
With $15 million in private funding, Colossal aims to bring thousands of woolly mammoths back to Siberia. Some scientists are deeply skeptical that will happen.

Phys.Org, September 10, 2021
Forget about online games that promise you a "whole world" to explore. An international team of researchers has generated an entire virtual universe, and made it freely available on the cloud to everyone.

BBC, September 14, 2021
What counts as a green job? The simplest answer is that it directly contributes to tackling climate change, although many think it should also cover roles that indirectly support that ambition.

Wired, September 12, 2021
You shouldn't mess with some of them—but there are others you should be aware of.

Solar Power World, September 08, 2021
The department aims for solar to power 40% of the nation's electricity by 2035.


HEALTH 

Medical XPress, September 15, 2021
Resistance-band exercises have been all over social media during the pandemic.

Phys.Org, September 14, 2021
Consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with higher risks of obesity, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and other noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

Science Daily, September 09, 2021
Researchers are developing a smart dental implant that resists bacterial growth and generates its own electricity through chewing and brushing to power a tissue-rejuvenating light. The innovation could extend the usable life of an implant.

STAT, September 13, 2021
For nearly a century, obesity research has been predicated on the belief that the cause of the disorder “is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended.”

New York Times, September 08, 2021
Climbing stairs, doing jumping jacks or even taking as few as 15 steps during mini-breaks improved blood sugar control among office workers.

Environmental Health News, September 15, 2021
"We already know enough about the harm being caused by these very persistent substances to take action to stop all non-essential uses and to limit exposure from legacy contamination."


NATURE

Particle, August 27, 2021
Why your brain then responds emotionally to faces in everyday objects.

Treehugger, September 08, 2021
Learn all about some of the most immense dust storms on Earth.

ECO, September 07, 2021
The tropics host incredible shark and ray diversity, but too many of these inherently vulnerable species have been heavily fished for more than a century by a wide range of fisheries that remain poorly managed, despite countless commitments to improve.

New York Times, September 13, 2021
A group of scientists and adventure athletes are venturing into icy labyrinths to study their relationships with glacial melting and climate change.

Smithsonian, September 08, 2021
Researchers think birds can hear hurricanes and tsunamis—a sense they’re hoping to tap into to develop a bird-based early warning system


ENVIRONMENT 

EOS, September 10, 2021
As floods increase in frequency and intensity, chemicals buried in river sediments become “ticking time bombs” waiting to activate.

Science News, September 10, 2021
Chemical pollution — from sewage and agricultural runoff to pharmaceutical waste — muddles aquatic animals’ senses with potentially dire effects, decades of research has shown.

The Guardian, September 15, 2021
Scientists say ozone hole is unusually large for this stage in season and growing quickly

Common Dreams, September 10, 2021
"Deep seabed mining is an avoidable environmental disaster," said one expert on global ocean policy.

Treehugger, September 13, 2021
The world’s urban areas still have a lot to do to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.


CLIMATE

CNN, September 16, 2021
None of the world's major economies -- including the entire G20 -- have a climate plan that meets their obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to an analysis published Wednesday, despite scientists' warning that deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are needed now.

Common Dreams, September 14, 2021
International survey reveals 'shocking' rise of eco-anxiety and hopelessness. "If this isn't a wake up call for world leaders, what is?"

Inside Climate News, September 15, 2021
Former NASA climate scientist James Hansen urged Congress decades ago to act on climate change. Now he says he expects reduced aerosol pollution to lead to a steep temperature rise.

Environmental Health News, September 12, 2021
As surely as day follows night, many GOP leaders renounced previous concerns they had about climate change. Will this odd rite of passage end any time soon?

Grist, September 07, 2021
More than 230 publications said unchecked climate change could have “catastrophic” and irreversible consequences for global health.

The Conversation, September 13, 2021
Food production is a big contributor to climate change, so it’s critically important to be able to measure greenhouse gas emissions from the food sector accurately.