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MÅNEFORMØRKELSE DER MEDFØRER EN RØD MÅNE: 
Lunar eclipse or the red Moon will take place next Wednesday. That is a phenomenon when the Moon moves in the Earth's shadow and can only reflect red light that has been bent due to Earth's atmosphere.

 
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FORSKERE HAR ÆNDRET IONISERINGS-ENERGIEN AF ET ATOM: DETTE ÆNDRER ATOMETS EGENSKABER: With use of photonic crystals researchers have changed ionization energy of an atom. This allows the change of chemical properties of the atom to change and now scientists can use that to synthesize new chemical compounds that were not possible before. In future they plan to collaborate with pharmaceutical centers to study their properties further.
 
 
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MARS HAR ORGANISKE STOFFER PÅ OVERFLADEN: In NASA's Mars rover soil analysis organic salt presence was detected. That might confirm that Mars had microbial life. Due to decades of being exposed to radiation these compounds have been broken down and when scientists receive samples, they will be able to analyse them more thoroughly. In future they plan to analyse soil beneath the higher layer, where more of the original compounds could be preserved.
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LATEST

The Atlantic
The Country Is on the Cusp of a New Era

Trump New York James

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Updated at 5:52 p.m. ET on May 19, 2021. Yesterday evening, New York State’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced , “We have informed the Trump Organization that … We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity.” According to The New York Times , James will be sending two of her office’s prosecutors to join the team of Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan DA. With

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Science | The Guardian
Acid test: scientists show how LSD opens doors of perception

 
Study analysing brain scans of people finds psychedelic drug lowers barriers that constrain thoughts When Aldous Huxley emerged from a mescaline trip that veered from an obsession with the folds in his trousers to wonder at the “miraculous” tubularity of the bamboo legs on his garden chairs, he offered an opinion on how the drug worked. Writing in The Doors of Perception , his 1954 book that took

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Science | The Guardian
Dogs can better detect Covid in humans than lateral flow tests, finds study

 
French trial shows dogs were able to detect presence of coronavirus with 97% accuracy Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Dogs are better at detecting Covid-19 in humans than many fast lateral flow tests (LFTs), according to a French study which could see canines more widely deployed for mass virus screening in crowded places including airports. The trial, conducted in M

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The Atlantic
What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale

 
This time last year, the United States seemed stuck on a COVID-19 plateau. Although 1,300 Americans were dying from the disease every day, states had begun to reopen in a patchwork fashion , and an anxious nation was looking ahead to an uncertain summer. Twelve months later, the situation is very different. Cases are falling quickly. About half as many people are dying every day. Several vaccines

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Futurism
China Bans Banks From Using Cryptocurrency, Causing Worldwide Crash

 
China has banned any financial institutions and payment companies from doing business related to cryptocurrencies, Reuters reports . The cryptocurrency market had been flourishing in the country, despite crypto exchanges and initial coin offerings being banned. The move signifies China’s continued crackdown on any cryptocurrency activity within its borders, which is also having rippling effects f

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Futurism
Doctors Warn of Deadly Fungal Outbreaks Worldwide

 
Tens of thousands of people in the US alone are being hospitalized by fungi a year, with millions more receiving treatment without being admitted, Scientific American reports . Experts are now worried that these often deadly fungi are becoming more common across the world, with increasing numbers of people falling ill and experiencing sometimes devastating symptoms. It’s a stark reminder that whi

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The Atlantic
Trump Is Marching Down the Road to Political Violence

 
A t the beginning of last week, former President Donald Trump referred to the 2020 election as the “greatest Election Fraud in the history of our Country.” By the end of the week, he had issued a statement saying, “As our Country is being destroyed, both inside and out, the Presidential Election of 2020 will go down as THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY!” What else is new? These are the ravings of a 74-yea

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Futurism
The Mars Helicopter Has Survived Longer Than NASA Planned

 
Exceeding Expectations NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter has vastly exceeded expectations. The four pound rotorcraft has an impressive five flights under its belt already since being dropped off by the agency’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface in early April. According to CNN , that was supposed to be the end of the plucky helicopter’s mission. But since it’s still going strong, NASA is n

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Science | The Guardian
EMDR: what is the trauma therapy used by Prince Harry?

 
Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing aims to reduce distress that some memories bring on In a new mental health documentary series with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry is seen undergoing a form of therapy known as EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) to treat unresolved anxiety stemming from the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, when he was 12. EMDR was developed

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The Atlantic
Why Conservatives Want to Cancel the 1619 Project

 
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an award-winning Black journalist. She is also one of the developers of the 1619 Project, a journalistic examination of slavery’s role in shaping the American present. Last year, that work won her a Pulitzer Prize. Now it appears to have cost her a tenured chair at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism. The news outlet NC Policy Watch reported on M

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Science | The Guardian
World expert in scientific misconduct faces legal action for challenging integrity of hydroxychloroquine study

 
Australian and international scientists publish open letter defending Dr Elisabeth Bik and calling for science whistleblowers to be protected A world-renowned Dutch expert in identifying scientific misconduct and error, Dr Elisabeth Bik, has been threatened with legal action for questioning the integrity of a study promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19. The case, filed with the

13h

Science Magazine
Modern theories of human evolution foreshadowed by Darwins Descent of Man

 
Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man , published 150 years ago, laid the grounds for scientific studies into human origins and evolution. Three of his insights have been reinforced by modern science. The first is that we share many characteristics (genetic, developmental, physiological, morphological, cognitive, and psychological) with our closest relatives, the anthropoid apes. The second is that

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Phys.org
Darwin foreshadowed modern scientific theories

 
When Charles Darwin published "Descent of Man" 150 years ago, he launched scientific investigations on human origins and evolution. This week, three leading scientists in different, but related disciplines published "Modern theories of human evolution foreshadowed by Darwin's 'Descent of Man'," in Science, in which they identify three insights from Darwin's opus on human evolution that modern scie

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Phys.org
Rare 4000-year comets can cause meteor showers on Earth

 
Comets that circle the Sun in very elongated orbits spread their debris so thin along their orbit or eject it out of the solar system altogether so that their meteor showers are hard to detect. From a new meteor shower survey published in the journal Icarus, researchers now report that they can detect showers from the debris in the path of comets that pass close to Earth orbit and are known to ret

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Phys.org
Not all theories can explain the black hole M87*

 
As first pointed out by the German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild, black holes bend space-time to an extreme degree due to their extraordinary concentration of mass, and heat up the matter in their vicinity so that it begins to glow. New Zealand physicist Roy Kerr showed rotation can change the black hole's size and the geometry of its surroundings. The 'edge' of a black hole is known as the event

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Phys.org
Researchers design new experiments to map and test the mysterious quantum realm

 
A heart surgeon doesn't need to grasp quantum mechanics to perform successful operations. Even chemists don't always need to know these fundamental principles to study chemical reactions. But for Kang-Kuen Ni, the Morris Kahn associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology and of physics, quantum spelunking is, like space exploration, a quest to discover a vast and mysterious new realm.

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Phys.org
Heavy metal vapors unexpectedly found in comets throughout our Solar System—and beyond

 
A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the Sun. A separate study by a Polish team, who also used ESO data, reported that nickel vapor is also present in the icy interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. This is the first

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Phys.org
Best predictor of arrest rates? The 'birth lottery of history'

 
Social scientists have had a longstanding fixation on moral character, demographic information, and socioeconomic status when it comes to analyzing crime and arrest rates. The measures have become traditional markers used to quantify and predict criminalization, but they leave out a crucial indicator: what's going on in the changing world around their subjects.

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Phys.org
Tardigrades survive impacts of up to 825 meters per second

 
A pair of researchers at the University of Kent has found that tardigrades are able to survive impacts at speeds of up to 825 meters per second. In their paper published in the journal Astrobiology, Alejandra Traspas and Mark Burchell describe experiments they conducted that involved firing canisters containing tardigrades at high speeds at sand targets.

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Research suggests fly brains make predictions, possibly using universal design principles

 
Flies predict changes in their visual environment in order to execute evasive maneuvers, according to new research from the University of Chicago. This reliance on predictive information to guide behavior suggests that prediction may be a general feature of animal nervous systems in supporting quick behavioral changes. The study was published on May 20 in PLOS Computational Biology.

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Phys.org
Viking ship burials shrouded in mystery

 
New detailed surveys of Viking age ship settings in Hjarnø, Denmark have been completed by archaeologists examining the origins and makeup of the Kalvestene grave field, a renowned site in Scandinavian folklore.

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Phys.org
Nickel atom aids carbon dioxide reduction

 
Scientists are closer to finding ways to convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into industrially useful chemicals thanks to a RIKEN study that looked at how nature converts carbon dioxide into more complex organic compounds—one of the processes underpinning the origin of life.

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Phys.org
Tapeworms extend the lifespan of worker ants in western Europe

 
A team of researchers has found that a western European ant lives much longer if it is infected with tapeworms. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes their study of the ants and tapeworms and what they discovered about both.

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Phys.org
Chinese Mars rover beams back first photos

 
Solar panels against an alien landscape, ramps and rods pointing at the Martian horizon—China's first probe on the Red Planet has beamed back its first "selfies" after its history-making landing last week.

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Phys.org
Unexpected 'Black Swan' defect discovered in soft matter for first time

 
In new research, Texas A&M University scientists have for the first time revealed a single microscopic defect called a "twin" in a soft-block copolymer using an advanced electron microscopy technique. This defect may be exploited in the future to create materials with novel acoustic and photonic properties.

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Science Magazine
A brain-computer interface that evokes tactile sensations improves robotic arm control

 
Prosthetic arms controlled by a brain-computer interface can enable people with tetraplegia to perform functional movements. However, vision provides limited feedback because information about grasping objects is best relayed through tactile feedback. We supplemented vision with tactile percepts evoked using a bidirectional brain-computer interface that records neural activity from the motor cort

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ScienceDaily
The 'Great Dying'

 
The Paleozoic era culminated 251.9 million years ago in the most severe mass extinction recorded in the geologic record. Known as the 'great dying,' this event saw the loss of up to 96% of all marine species and around 70% of terrestrial species, including plants and insects.

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EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Providing medications for free leads to greater adherence and cost-savings, study shows

 
Free access to essential medicines increases patient adherence to taking medication by 35 per cent and reduces total health spending by an average of over $1,000 per patient per year, according to a two-year study led by Unity Health Toronto researchers that tested the effects of providing patients with free and convenient access to a carefully selected set of medications.

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Science Magazine
Global acceleration in rates of vegetation change over the past 18,000 years

 
Global vegetation over the past 18,000 years has been transformed first by the climate changes that accompanied the last deglaciation and again by increasing human pressures; however, the magnitude and patterns of rates of vegetation change are poorly understood globally. Using a compilation of 1181 fossil pollen sequences and newly developed statistical methods, we detect a worldwide acceleratio

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ScienceDaily
Will COVID-19 eventually become just a seasonal nuisance?

 
Within the next decade, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 could become little more than a nuisance, causing no more than common cold-like coughs and sniffles. That possible future is predicted by mathematical models that incorporate lessons learned from the current pandemic on how our body's immunity changes over time.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Collectivism predicts mask use during COVID-19 [Psychological and Cognitive Sciences]

 
Since its outbreak, COVID-19 has impacted world regions differentially. Whereas some regions still record tens of thousands of new infections daily, other regions have contained the virus. What explains these striking regional differences? We advance a cultural psychological perspective on mask usage, a precautionary measure vital for curbing the pandemic….

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Three genomes in the algal genus Volvox reveal the fate of a haploid sex-determining region after a transition to homothallism [Evolution]

 
Transitions between separate sexes (dioecy) and other mating systems are common across eukaryotes. Here, we study a change in a haploid dioecious green algal species with male- and female-determining chromosomes (U and V). The genus Volvox is an oogamous (with large, immotile female gametes and small, motile male gametes) and…

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Science | The Guardian
Naturalist Jane Goodall wins 2021 Templeton prize for life’s work

 
Prize recognises primatologist’s contribution to work on animal intelligence and humanity The naturalist Jane Goodall has been announced as the 2021 winner of the Templeton prize in recognition of her life’s work on animal intelligence and humanity. Goodall, 87, built her global reputation on her groundbreaking studies of chimpanzees in Tanzania in the 1960s. Her foundation, the Jane Goodall Inst

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The Atlantic
Stop Worrying and Love the F-150 Lightning

 
1. Start with the price—how could you not? The Ford F-150 Lightning, the new electric version of the ur–American pickup truck, will go on sale next spring for $39,974. Because Ford vehicles still qualify for the federal EV tax credit, most Americans will pay a little less than $32,500 for this truck. Thirty-two grand after subsidies—an astonishing price. For years, climate-concerned transportatio

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Futurism
New Cryptocurrency Called $STOPELON Is Dedicated to Bashing Elon Musk

 
It’s time to grab some popcorn. A new emerging cryptocurrency called $STOPELON is — as its unsubtle name suggests — dedicated to excoriating Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s extraordinary and often unpredictable influence on the cryptocurrency market. “Elon Musk is infamous for irresponsibly manipulating the cryptocurrency market with his Twitter account,” the token’s official website reads. “Just recently,

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Science | The Guardian
Stonehenge research at risk if Sheffield archaeology unit closes, say experts

 
University of Sheffield’s archaeology team argue vital work will be lost if threatened closure goes ahead Important research on Stonehenge could be put in jeopardy if the threatened closure of one of the UK’s most renowned university archaeology departments goes ahead, leading experts on the prehistoric monument have warned. Current and former members of the University of Sheffield’s archaeology

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Futurism
Ford’s Electric F-150 Is Poised to Change the Entire EV Market

Ford Lightning F-150

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It sure looks a lot like an F-150 — but under the hood, major changes are taking place. Ford has unveiled its F-150 Lightning all electric pickup truck, a utility vehicle with a familiar design. But rather than guzzling gas, the Lightning can cover 230 miles on battery power alone, as is the case for the $39,974 base model. The extended range version can cover a respectable 300 miles and will go

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TED Talks Daily (SD video)
The cure for burnout (hint: it isn't self-care) | Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

 
You may be experiencing burnout and not even know it, say authors (and sisters) Emily and Amelia Nagoski. In an introspective and deeply relatable conversation, they detail three telltale signs that stress is getting the best of you — and share actionable ways to feel safe in your own body when you're burning out. (This conversation, hosted by TED curator Cloe Shasha Brooks, is part of TED's "How

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Futurism
Elon Musk Says Deluxe Tesla Will Use SpaceX Thrusters for Spine-Crushing Acceleration

 
Rocket Launch Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last night that the automaker’s long-awaited second-generation Roadster will be able to accelerate like no other production car before it, thanks to a specially designed “SpaceX package.” Cold gas thrusters will allow the hypercar to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 1.1 seconds, Musk confirmed in a Thursday tweet — a truly astounding figure considering that co

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The Atlantic
America’s Bluest State Loves Its Republican Governor

 
MONTPELIER, Vt.—For a politician who’s never lost an election, Phil Scott is not much for campaigning. He didn’t formally announce his candidacy last year for a third term as Vermont’s governor until the state filing deadline in May. Scott ran his race, such as it was, out of a small garage on the outskirts of town that he rented to keep his motorcycles. The space had internet but no plumbing, so

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Science | The Guardian
‘Dingoes were here first’: the landowners who say letting ‘wild dogs’ live pays dividends

 
Some farmers see a vicious pest that should be shot on sight, others a native species that plays a vital role in Australia’s ecosystem Read more of our Modern Outback series here Sign up for email notifications from our Modern Outback series By their own admission, John Knight and Caroline Thomas are blow-ins to the cattle country in South Australia’s far north. An Adelaide cardiac surgeon and a

22h

The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: How Obama Really Feels About Trump

 
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. Donald Trump’s 2016 win caught many Americans off guard—including then-President Barack Obama and his second-in-command, current President Joe Biden. The outgoing Democratic leaders spent the next

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Quanta Magazine
Physicists Identify the Engine Powering Black Hole Energy Beams

 
Paradoxically, black holes, those infamous swallowers of light and matter, also spew light and matter outward with unparalleled might and efficiency. They power thin beams of plasma called jets that extend thousands of light-years into space, forming glowing line segments seen all across the cosmos. Physicists know why stuff goes in: Black holes have so much gravity that they trap even light, whi

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Science | The Guardian
Research findings that are probably wrong cited far more than robust ones, study finds

 
Academics suspect papers with grabby conclusions are waved through more easily by reviewers Scientific research findings that are probably wrong gain far more attention than robust results, according to academics who suspect that the bar for publication may be lower for papers with grabbier conclusions. Studies in top science, psychology and economics journals that fail to hold up when others rep

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Futurism
New Microscope Technique Powerful Enough to Watch Atoms Vibrate

 
New Record A team of Cornell University engineers developed a new microscopy technique that’s powerful enough to spot an individual atom in three dimensions — and create an image so clear that the only blurriness comes from the movement of that atom itself. The technique, which according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science relies on an electron microscope coupled with sophistic

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Futurism
Scientists Say a New Coronavirus Jumped From Dogs to Humans

 
Researchers have found a new canine coronavirus that appears to have jumped from a dog to a child. A new study , published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases , examines a child who was hospitalized with pneumonia in Malaysia back in 2018. If confirmed, according to The New York Times , it would be the eighth known coronavirus to infect humans and the first to do so from dogs — as well as

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The Atlantic
The Texas Mask Mystery

 
I n early March, Texas became the first state to abolish its mask mandate and lift capacity constraints for all businesses. Conservatives hailed Governor Greg Abbott’s decision, while liberals predicted doom and death and President Joe Biden disparaged it as “Neanderthal thinking.” Nine weeks later, the result seems to be less than catastrophic. In fact, in a new paper , economists at Bentley Uni

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Futurism
Scientists Say There’s a Clear Link Between Facebook and Depression

 
A growing body of scientific evidence suggests there may be a link between social media use and depression, NPR reports , with depression and suicide rates rising among teens for over a decade — and some experts believe Facebook in particular is attempting to obfuscate any correlation between poor mental health outcomes and social media use. It’s a pertinent topic, since Facebook is trying to bri

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Science | The Guardian
Signs of rise in Covid infections in England amid variant warnings

 
Boris Johnson still plans to end restrictions in June despite experts’ fears over spread of India and Kent variants Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Covid infection levels are showing early signs of an increase in England, data has revealed, as experts continue to warn the variant of concern first detected in India could grow exponentially in the UK. On Friday, Boris

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Science | The Guardian
The perfect partner: how age affects what men and women find attractive

 
Young men look for an attractive partner and young women emphasise personality but as we age, everyone agrees physical attributes are overrated The characteristics that attract people to an ideal partner differ between men and women, but become more similar with age, a survey of more than 7,000 Australian online dating users has found. Researchers asked 7,325 Australians aged between 16 and 65 to

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The Atlantic
What Bosses Really Think of Remote Workers

 
A merica’s CEOs have a message for people who love working from home: Your happy days are numbered. Remote work is “suboptimal,” Jonathan Wasserstrum, the CEO of the New York commercial-real-estate company SquareFoot, told me. “I believe that work is better when most of the people are in the office most of the time together,” he said. As if to prove his point, at that moment our phone connection

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Science | The Guardian
Climate change could make overwinter ‘zombie’ fires more common

 
Study finds burn area from fires that survive winter varies depending on warmth of summers In the boreal forests of the far northern hemisphere, where the climate is warming faster than almost anywhere else, some wildfires are surviving winter snows and picking up again in spring. Now scientists from the Netherlands and Alaska have figured out how to calculate the scope of those “zombie fires” th

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Science | The Guardian
Theoretical physicist Chiara Marletto: ‘The universal constructor could revolutionise civilisation’

 
The scientist on why studying elementary particles is only one way of explaining phenomena, how the 3D printer could change the world, and her optimism about women in science Chiara Marletto is a research fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Her research is in theoretical physics – especially quantum computation, thermodynamics and information theory. Her broader interests include the

4h

The Atlantic
What’s Safe for Kids Now?

 
Parents of young children have some pressing questions for the CDC. In recent guidance, the public-health agency suggested that fully vaccinated individuals can burn their masks and never wear a face covering again. (I’m exaggerating. Masks are still required on public transit and in medical facilities, among other places.) Meanwhile, unvaccinated people should continue to mask inside as well as

8h

Futurism
Elon Musk: Bitcoin Miners Should Prove They’re Using Green Energy

 
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter yesterday to argue that top Bitcoin miners should reveal how much renewable energy they are using. His tweet comes in response to ARK Invest’s director of research Brett Winton advocating for Bitcoin miners to increasingly adopt renewables. ARK is working on an open source mining model that takes advantage of solar panels and battery storage, as outl

22h

Science | The Guardian
Albert Einstein letter with E=mc2 equation in his own hand sells for $1.2m

 
Only two similar examples of world-changing equation known 1946 letter to physicist Ludwik Silberstein auctioned A handwritten letter by Albert Einstein that contains his famous E=mc 2 equation has sold at auction for more than $1.2m, about three times more than it was expected to get, a Boston-based auction house said on Friday. Related: Albert Einstein's 'God letter' reflecting on religion auct

22h

Futurism
Senator “Can’t Imagine” UFOs Came From Anywhere on Earth

 
Otherworldly Tech New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich recently joined the ranks of prominent public officials suggesting that there may actually be something otherworldly about all of the UFO and unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) footage and reports being scrutinized by military and intelligence leaders. “I don’t know what it is, but any time you have legitimate pilots describing something that d

23h

Futurism
NASA’s New Mars Rover Is Preparing to Gather Samples That May Reveal Ancient Life

 
About Time Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, is gearing up to finally begin its long-awaited mission : gathering samples of Mars rocks and packaging them for a return journey to Earth, where they’ll be tested for signs of ancient microbial life, according to a video update tweeted from the Mars rover’s anthropomorphized Twitter account. “I’m preparing to collect Martian samples in the searc

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The Atlantic
A New Word Is Defining the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Washington

 
In a conflict where words matter (so much so that even using the word conflict invites disagreement ), it’s notable when the words used begin to change. And when it comes to discussing Israel and Palestine in the United States, the words have changed. The first, most obvious shift has come from Congress, where more and more (predominantly progressive) voices have criticized Israel’s human-rights

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Big Think
New AI-based theory explains your weird dreams

 
A new paper suggests that dreaming helps us generalize our experiences so that we can adapt to new circumstances. Therefore, the strangeness of dreams is what makes them useful. This idea is supported by some data, though new experiments could help confirm it. Lots of animals dream, but nobody is quite sure why. Researchers are divided over if dreaming is a mere side effect of other brain functio

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The Atlantic
What’s Missing From the Discourse About Anti-racist Teaching

 
People often remind me that my story is peculiar. “Black Kid From Compton Becomes a Harvard Professor” is the headline, as they see it. Although I am apprehensive to conflate a job at Harvard with some universal vision of success, I do recognize why my family, my friends, and even those with whom I am unacquainted take pride in the accomplishment. But this flattened narrative of individual achiev

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Futurism
The Head of NASA Says There Are Holes in the Roof of Spacecraft Lab

 
Hole Story NASA’s brand-new leader, Bill Nelson, met with Congress this week to plead for an additional $11 billion — that’s billion with a “b” — to get Americans back onto the surface of the Moon by 2024. Buried in his remarks, though, was an eyebrow-raising admission: the Michoud Assembly Facility, where NASA is assembling its heavy-lift, lunar mission launching Space Launch System, has literal

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Big Think
Why Swiss maps are full of hidden secrets

 
The Swiss are not known for their sense of humor, but perhaps we've not been looking hard enough. Over the decades, Swiss cartographers have sprinkled plenty of "Easter eggs" across otherwise serious maps. The oldest one, a naked lady, has been removed — but the marmot, the haunted monk, and others are still there. Switzerland? Pretty, yes. Funny? No. Or is it? Credit : Sam Ferrara / public domai

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The Atlantic
The Abortion Fight Has Never Been About Just Roe v. Wade

 
This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could result in the overruling of Roe v. Wade . The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , involves a Mississippi law that bans abortion starting at the 15th week of pregnancy . Significantly, the statute draws the line before fetal viability—the point at which survival is possible outside the womb . The Court has previously he

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Science | The Guardian
Have we entered the Anthropocene – a new epoch in Earth’s history? – podcast

 
Human beings have transformed the planet. Over the last century we’ve disrupted the climate and impacted entire ecosystems. This has led some to propose that we’ve entered another chapter in Earth’s history called the Anthropocene. Anand Jagatia speaks to Dr Simon Turner from the Anthropocene Working Group, given the task of gathering evidence on whether it will become an official unit of geologi

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The Atlantic
What Introverts and Extroverts Can Learn From Each Other

 
“ How to Build a Life ” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. Arthur C. Brooks will discuss the science of happiness live at 11 a.m. ET on May 20. Register for “In Pursuit of Happiness” here . A year before the pandemic changed all of our lives, a friend sent me a link to a survey based on academic research that rates your personality traits on a numeri

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Science | The Guardian
DNA study sets out to establish true origins of Christopher Columbus

 
Was the explorer from Italy, Spain, Portugal or elsewhere? Researchers hope to find out once and for all Spanish researchers have launched a new attempt to finally settle the dispute over the true origins of Christopher Columbus after various theories have claimed the explorer hailed from Portugal or Spain, rather than Italy as most scholars agree. “There is no doubt on our part [about his Italia

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Futurism
Cryptocurrency Has Absolutely Tanked Since Elon Musk’s Bitcoin Announcement

Musk Bitcoin Tesla BTC

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Just a week ago, on May 12, Bitcoin was soaring to incredible heights. Each token was selling for as much as $57,000, up from just $30,000 at the start of the year. Then came a wrecking ball in the form of Elon Musk, whose electric car company Tesla had lent Bitcoin unprecedented mainstream credibility earlier in the year when it bought $1.5 billion worth of the digital currency and started accep

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Big Think
Aliens are a mirror to humanity

 
Scientists explored the possibility of extraterrestrial life long before aliens became a fascination in popular culture. Aliens serve as a mirror to our species. They represent the creativity and promise — as well as the destruction and terror — of being human. Our conception of aliens can teach us about our fragility and the need to grow up as a species if we are to avoid one of the dystopian sc

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TED Talks Daily (SD video)
How NASA invented a ventilator for COVID-19 … in 37 days | Dan Goods

 
Get the behind-the-scenes story from visual strategist Dan Goods about how a single question launched NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab into action at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling an unprecedented pivot from space-exploring robots to live-saving ventilators. It'll inspire you to wonder: "Is what I'm doing right now the most important thing I can be doing?"

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The Atlantic
How to Actually Prosecute the Financial Crimes of the Very Rich

 
It was tax season 1999. I was a federal economic-crimes prosecutor in Miami, and this was the time of year my colleagues and I brought cases to deter would-be tax cheats. My target was a tax-return preparer operating out of Liberty City’s “Pork & Beans” projects, made famous in the movie Moonlight . This tax preparer had been manufacturing false W-2s and Social Security numbers so that her client

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The Atlantic
The Cancellation of Nikole Hannah-Jones

 
Earlier this week Nikole Hannah-Jones, the New York Times writer in charge of the 1619 Project, was denied a tenured professorship at the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. The faculty recommended her for a job, and a committee headed by a UNC trustee expressed doubts about her suitability. Other trustees reportedly said they would not approve her for tenure. The faculty countered

23h

Futurism
World’s Largest Iceberg Breaks off Antarctica

 
Iceberg Ahead A gigantic iceberg, roughly 70 times the size of Manhattan, has broken off from the Antarctic, in the process becoming the world’s largest iceberg, according to The European Space Agency (ESA). The gigantic slab of ice, 1,668 square miles in size, is now floating in the Weddell Sea south east of South America, and was spotted by the ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-1, a land and sea monito

23h

Futurism
Scientists Gene-Hacked Monkeys to Fix Their Cholesterol

 
In an ambitious new gene-hacking study, scientists used CRISPR base editors to shut off the gene that produces low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in monkeys — an important step toward someday eradicating a major cause of heart disease in humans. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the private company Verve Therapeutics developed a one-time gene therapy which, after being in

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Science | The Guardian
Novavax volunteers in UK threaten to quit over approval delays

 
Participants cannot prove they are fully vaccinated on NHS app leaving them unable to travel to Europe Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage The Novavax coronavirus trial threatens to descend into chaos as exasperated volunteers say they will drop out because they cannot prove they are fully vaccinated on the NHS app, leaving them unable to travel to Europe. Among the 15,0

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The Atlantic
Why Do Police Keep Shooting Into Moving Cars?

 
When Pasquotank County, North Carolina, sheriff’s deputies went to serve an arrest warrant on drug charges on Andrew Brown Jr. on the morning of April 21, they found him in his car in his driveway in Elizabeth City. As the deputies leaped out of a truck and ran toward Brown, he reversed his car away from them. The deputies surrounded the car, weapons drawn, and shouted at Brown to surrender, but

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Science | The Guardian
UK Covid: India variant case numbers rise to 3,424 – up 160% over past week – as it happened

 
Total of 3,424 cases of the India variant of coronavirus B1.617.2 have now been confirmed in the UK . This live blog is now closed – please follow the global live blog for updates England test and trace delays blamed for spread of Indian variant New Covid wave could worsen NHS surgery backlog, experts warn Britain in talks to waive vaccine patents to improve global access Public Health England pu

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Science | The Guardian
You Are Here review – 1969 moon landings spark musical midlife adventure

 
Southwark Playhouse, London Wendi Peters seizes the role of a suburbanite who is inspired by the lunar broadcast to embark on a spontaneous trip Two men walked on the moon in the summer of 1969. Ten more followed in their footsteps over the next three years. All giant leaps for man – but what did it mean for womankind? You Are Here, given its UK premiere by the new musical-theatre company the Gre

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MIT Technology Review
The race to understand the exhilarating, dangerous world of language AI

 
On May 18, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced an impressive new tool: an AI system called LaMDA that can chat to users about any subject. To start, Google plans to integrate LaMDA into its main search portal, its voice assistant, and Workplace, its collection of cloud-based work software that includes Gmail, Docs, and Drive. But the eventual goal, said Pichai, is to create a conversational interf

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Futurism
NASA Is Asking For an Enormous Amount of Extra Money

 
NASA needs a lot of money to ensure it has a shot at returning astronauts to the lunar surface. During a House hearing on Wednesday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced that the agency is requesting more than $11 billion for its Human Landing System (HLS) program as well as upgrading existing facilities, SpaceNews reports . It’s yet another sign that NASA is facing a massive uphill battle to

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Phys.org
We know the cost of free choice and locality—in physics and elsewhere

 
Do we have free choice or are our decisions predetermined? Is physical reality local, or does what we do here and now have an immediate influence on events elsewhere? The answers to these questions are sought by physicists in the Bell inequalities. It turns out that free choice and local realism can be skilfully measured and compared. The results obtained reveal surprising relationships of a funda

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Singularity Hub
Google Is Developing a Hologram-Like 3D Video Conferencing Tool Called Project Starline

 
The end of the pandemic seems to be in sight, but it has likely brought lasting changes to the way we work, live, and connect with each other. As traveling starts to take off again and many employees return to their offices, others are choosing to stay put, both in their home towns and inside their homes. “Why fly across the country for a meeting when you can do it over Zoom?”, the reasoning goes

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The Atlantic
You Can Only Maintain So Many Close Friendships

 
The Oxford evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar is best known for his namesake “Dunbar’s number,” which he defines as the number of stable relationships people are cognitively able to maintain at once. (The proposed number is 150.) But after spending his decades-long career studying the complexities of friendship, he’s discovered many more numbers that shape our close relationships. For instanc

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Big Think
Francis Bacon and the four barriers to truth

 
The human mind is designed to experience the world a certain way, and so it leads us to biases, prejudices, and heuristics. Francis Bacon, the father of the scientific method, identified four of the most common of these, 400 years before our modern idea of "cognitive biases." If we are serious about finding truth, we ought to minimize these biases and use logic, science, and reason as much as pos

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Livescience.com
Can the universe learn?

 
The universe could be teaching itself how to evolve into a better, more stable, cosmos. That's the far-out idea proposed by a team of scientists who say they are reimagining the universe just as Darwin revamped our view of the natural world.

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MIT Technology Review
The American West is bracing for a hot, dry, and dangerous summer

 
Water levels are running dangerously low in rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers across much of the American West, raising serious dangers of shortages, fallowed agricultural fields, and extreme wildfires in the coming months. Monitoring stations across California’s Sierra Nevada range are registering some of the driest conditions on record for this point in the year. High spring temperatures already

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Futurism
Incredible: Mixing Vaccines Works, and Is Safe, According to New Study

 
One of the major initial challenges of the COVID vaccine rollout? Making sure anybody who got an initial dose of the Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca vaccines could be matched with a second dose of the same vaccine. Besides not knowing what it would do if we did vax-mix-and-match, combining different brands of a brand-new vaccine, developed under a year, to fight a brand-new virus? It just sounds

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Science | The Guardian
The Psychedelic Drug Trial review – a mind-bending magic mushroom mission

 
Helmed by Prof David Nutt, this documentary follows volunteers as they swap antidepressants for psilocybin … and it’s the closest they’ve come to joy in years In 2008, Prof David Nutt was made chair of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. A year later, Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist, was sacked by the same government after insisting – I paraphrase minimally – that fags a

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Futurism
Tesla Driver Caught Sleeping at 82 MPH With Autopilot Engaged

 
Asleep at the Wheel A man in Wisconsin was busted for sleeping behind the wheel of his Tesla, which had Autopilot turned on, while gunning down a highway at over 80 mph, according to NBC News . Before 8 a.m. on Sunday, a deputy found that a 2019 Tesla driver was clearly dozing off behind the wheel while traveling down Interstate 94. He found that “the driver was not pulling over as he followed be

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Science | The Guardian
Wastewater monitoring being used to track India variant, says Hancock

 
Health secretary says sewage testing has helped identify places where vaccinations and testing are being stepped up Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Wastewater monitoring is being used to identify cases of the India variant and track its spread, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said. Although coronavirus predominantly infects cells lining the respiratory tract,

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Futurism
Scientists Loaded Tiny Organisms Into a Gun and Shot Them At Targets

 
A team of researchers have fired tardigrades, which are the tiny microscopic invertebrates also known as water bears, out of a gun to see if they could survive in extreme conditions like in outer space, as Science Alert reports . The tiny organisms are extremely hardy and can survive practically any conditions. Their survivability could have far-reaching consequences on our understanding of how l

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Science | The Guardian
Help, it’s 1,000 trillion degrees in here! The Big Bang artwork that makes scientists cry

 
What would it have been like to be inside the Big Bang? We meet the ultra-hi-tech art duo who are using light, sound and sub-atomic astro data to recreate the biggest explosion ever ‘Step into the heart of the Big Bang,” says the advert for Halo, a walk-in, 360-degree, audiovisual installation about to open in Brighton. Come off it, I want to retort. You couldn’t “step” into the Big Bang without

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Quanta Magazine
Mathematicians Answer Old Question About Odd Graphs

 
For decades, mathematicians have debated a simple question about graphs and the number of connections they have. Now, using arguments an undergraduate math student could have come up with, Asaf Ferber of the University of California, Irvine and Michael Krivelevich of Tel Aviv University have finally provided the answer in the form of a proof posted in March . “It’s a bit of a surprise, at least f

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Futurism
Chinese Rover Sends Back First Photos From Surface of Mars

 
Snapshots China has shared the first pictures taken by its Zhurong Mars rover after touching down on the Red Planet’s surface over the weekend. It’s a momentous occasion. Early Saturday morning Beijing time, China made history by becoming only the third country after the US and the USSR to successfully land a remotely operated probe on the surface of Mars. Nothing But Plain China says Zhurong wil

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Science | The Guardian
China’s Mars rover drives across planet a week after landing

 
Solar-powered Zhurong rover is expected to be deployed for 90 days to search for evidence of life China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the planet, China’s space administration has said. The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10:40am on Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), the China National Space Administration said. Continue r

10h

Futurism
Passenger Jets May Get Blasted by Dangerous Radiation, Scientists Warn

 
It turns out that traveling in a passenger airplane could expose you to dangerous levels of cosmic radiation — under specific circumstances. A team of scientists from the University of Toulouse modeled existing flight plans and found that they would be exposed to the cosmic rays given off by particularly severe radiation storms, according to a research summary in Eos . The research shows that, gi

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Big Think
Single dose of psilocybin may treat migraines

 
Migraines afflict more than ten percent of the U.S. population, yet treatments are often unreliable and there is no cure. The new study involves giving migraine sufferers a placebo and, two weeks later, a single dose of pure synthetic psilocybin. The results showed that participants reported significantly fewer migraines in the two weeks after the study. Psychedelics research is enjoying a renais

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The Atlantic
The Electric-Car Lesson That China Is Serving Up for America

 
Would you drive an electric sedan with a single-charge range of more than 400 miles and automated driving functions, one that costs less than a Tesla Model 3 and, at least according to the manufacturer, can pull off a 2,000-mile road trip along chaotic highways during which the person behind the wheel needed to steer only about once every 60 miles? Those are the advertised specs of the P7, the sl

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Phys.org
New material could harvest water all day long

 
Tiny structures inspired by the shape of cactus spines allow a newly created material to gather drinkable water from the air both day and night, combining two water-harvesting technologies into one.

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Science | The Guardian
Britain in talks to waive Covid vaccine patents to improve global access to jabs

 
Pressure growing for UK and others to follow Biden’s lead at WTO to avoid ‘moral and public health failure’ The UK government is in talks about a plan to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents to boost the production of shots in low and middle-income countries, the Guardian can reveal. The discussions come amid growing calls for Britain and other European countries to follow the US in supporting the prop

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Science | The Guardian
India’s suffering isn’t just the fault of a new Covid variant | Rukmini S

 
Instead of sequencing or data collection, the government is offering patriotic bluster in the face of this deadly second wave The variant that threatens the British summer has already done far more damage in India. In October last year a sample from the western state of Maharashtra containing what would later be identified as the B.1.617.3 variant was sequenced and uploaded to Gisaid , a global d

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The Atlantic
I Felt More Welcome in Combat Than I Did on Base

 
In 2012, I was deployed to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to serve alongside Green Berets and infantry soldiers. As a member of an all-female cultural-support team, I was trained to interact with Afghan women and children, something that is culturally inappropriate for men to do. At the border, we encountered mortar attacks, improvised explosive devices, and firefights. Even though this time was

8h

The Atlantic
A Culture of Free Speech Protects Everyone

 
Last week, the journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who led The New York Times Magazine ’s 1619 Project, was named the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Faculty at its Hussman School of Journalism and Media recommended her for tenure too. But the university’s board of trustees didn’t approve the faculty recommendation. Instead, UNC ap

21h

Big Think
Climate catastrophes can reshape religion

 
Climate-related catastrophes have struck the world in several previous eras, such as gigantic volcanic eruptions. From the 1300s to the 1800s, four major climate catastrophes reshaped global religion. We must be wary that religion or ideology combined with external shocks like climate change can cause war or revolution. We presently hear a great deal about global climate change and the disasters

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Phys.org
Swarms of robots could dig underground cities on Mars

 
Underground habitats have recently become a focal point of off-planet colonization efforts. Protection from micrometeorites, radiation and other potential hazards makes underground sites desirable compared to surface dwellings. Building such subterranean structures presents a plethora of challenges, not the least of which is how to actually construct them. A team of researchers at the Delft Univer

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Futurism
Space Force Launches Satellite to Detect Enemy Missiles

 
Space Force Satellite The US Space Force successfully launched a satellite on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, building out an existing missile detection system, CBS News reports . The 197-foot rocket took off on Tuesday from the Space Force’s launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s yet another sign that the Space Force is playing an increasingly prominent role within the Americ

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Phys.org
ALMA discovers the most ancient galaxy with spiral morphology

 
Analyzing data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers found a galaxy with a spiral morphology by only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This is the most ancient galaxy of its kind ever observed. The discovery of a galaxy with a spiral structure at such an early stage is an important clue to solving the classic questions of astronomy: "How and when di

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Big Think
Does quantum mechanics favor Buddhist philosophy?

 
Quantum mechanics is so weird that it has challenged scientists and philosophers to divine some greater insights about the nature of reality. One attempt is known as the Copenhagen interpretation, and some believe that this interpretation lends itself to a Buddhist worldview. Even though I'm a Buddhist, I reject the notion that physics proves my worldview. The first book I read about quantum mech

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Phys.org
Research team presents a new type of particle accelerator

 
Since they are far more compact than today's accelerators, which can be kilometers long, plasma accelerators are considered as a promising technology for the future. An international research group has now made significant progress in the further development of this approach: With two complementary experiments at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Univers

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The Atlantic
Don’t Sleep on Asian American Voters

Biden Asian anti-Asian

•

 
When Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and other prominent Democrats appeared online at a major fundraiser last night, they spotlighted one of the least discussed lessons of the 2020 election: Asian Americans are poised for a major leap in electoral influence. In Democratic circles, the bloc’s impact on the 2020 election has been largely obscured by the intense focus on understanding how Donald Tru

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Futurism
Amazing Simulation Shows the Moment That a Star First Ignites

 
A team of researchers from Northwestern University have created a high-resolution 3D simulation of the moment a star is formed. The gorgeous animation is the most realistic of its kind to date, according to the team, and could teach us valuable lessons about how stars are formed in the universe. The computational framework, called STARFORGE (Star Formation in Gaseous Environments), simulates a ga

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Science | The Guardian
I had a trial Covid vaccine and now feel lost in the approvals system | Francis Beckett

 
Assurances that I would be looked after as a participant in the Novavax trial now sound hollow Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Before I signed up as a guinea pig for the Novavax Covid-19 vaccine last year, I asked what would happen when it was my turn to have an authorised vaccination. All would be well, said the government and the researchers: I would be looked afte

7h

Phys.org
Deeper insight into Higgs boson production using W bosons

 
Discovering the Higgs boson in 2012 was only the start. Physicists immediately began measuring its properties, an investigation that is still ongoing as they try to unravel if the Higgs mechanism is realized in nature as predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. Earlier this spring, researchers at CERN's ATLAS Experiment announced they had measured the Higgs boson in its decays to W bos

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The Atlantic
COVID-19 Vaccine Makers Are Looking Beyond the Spike Protein

 
In the race to build the world’s first round of coronavirus vaccines, the spike protein—the thorny knobs that adorn each of the pathogen’s particles—was our MVP. Spike is a key ingredient in virtually every one of our current pandemic-fighting shots; it has been repeatedly billed as essential for tickling out any immune response worth its salt. “People put all their eggs in the spike basket,” Jul

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Futurism
Elon Musk Congratulates Ford on Electric F-150

Ford 150 Lightning

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Ford made a big splash with the unveiling of its Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup on Wednesday. The new truck was met with plenty of praise , with media outlets like The Verge calling it the “electric truck for the masses.” Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk congratulated the company “on embracing an electric future,” in a Thursday tweet . It’s a refreshing sign of good faith between the two automakers

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Phys.org
Arctic sea ice succumbs to Atlantification

 
With alarm bells ringing about the rapid demise of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, satellite data have revealed how the intrusion of warmer Atlantic waters is reducing ice regrowth in the winter. In addition, with seasonal ice more unpredictable than ever, ESA's SMOS and CryoSat satellites are being used to improve sea-ice forecasts, which are critical for shipping, fisheries and indigenous communiti

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Phys.org
Salts could be important piece of Martian organic puzzle, scientists find

 
A NASA team has found that organic salts are likely present on Mars. Like shards of ancient pottery, these salts are the chemical remnants of organic compounds, such as those previously detected by NASA's Curiosity rover. Organic compounds and salts on Mars could have formed by geologic processes or be remnants of ancient microbial life.

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The Atlantic
Capitalism Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

 
When is enough enough? This simple, vital question—How much monetary gain does a person or a company need in order to feel satisfied?—has little place in the finance industry or in contemporary capitalism more broadly. The capitalism that has become dominant in the years since the 1980s is not about enough ; it’s about more , and no amount of more is ever enough. For many of its critics, capitali

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Science | The Guardian
New Zealand’s budget needed to allocate more than small change to the climate crisis | Robert McLachlan and Paul Callister

 
Climate politics is a long game but people must see more positive changes to really appreciate the benefits of ending fossil fuels The New Zealand emissions trading scheme (ETS), now in its fourteenth year of operation and much criticised for (so far) failing to cut emissions, is the centrepiece of the government’s climate action. Judging from Budget 2021 , it will remain that way for years to co

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Phys.org
The entire genome from Peştera Muierii 1 sequenced

 
For the first time, researchers have successfully sequenced the entire genome from the skull of Peştera Muierii 1, a woman who lived in today's Romania 35,000 years ago. Her high genetic diversity shows that the out of Africa migration was not the great bottleneck in human development but rather this occurred during and after the most recent Ice Age. This is the finding of a new study led by Matti

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Science | The Guardian
Divisive 2016 US election linked to higher risk of heart trouble

 
Researchers say election may have increased abnormal heart rhythms and worsened high blood pressure How stressful can an election campaign really be? Potentially life-threatening, researchers say, at least in the case of the 2016 US presidential election. The divisive campaign may have raised the risk of abnormal heart rhythms and worsened high blood pressure in people with underlying cardiovascu

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Phys.org
Ultra-sensitive light detector gives self-driving tech a jolt

 
Realizing the potential of self-driving cars hinges on technology that can quickly sense and react to obstacles and other vehicles in real time. Engineers from The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Virginia created a new first-of-its-kind light detecting device that can more accurately amplify weak signals bouncing off of faraway objects than current technology allows, giving aut

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Livescience.com
How does time work?

 
From the beginning of the universe to the present day, it's one of the few things we regard as regular and unchanging. But is it really so constant? We take a look at the physics of time.

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MIT Technology Review
How space weather could wreck NASA’s return to the moon

 
Is NASA really going to return humans to the moon in 2024? That was the increasingly unlikely mandate issued to the agency by the Trump administration . President Biden hasn’t changed that goal yet, although most experts expect him to give NASA some much-needed breathing room and reset that deadline for later in the decade . The problem is, 2024 might actually be a safer option. A new study publi

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Science | The Guardian
Britain could steer a global vaccination programme – but where is the leadership? | Emily Thornberry

 
In the absence of proposals from the government, we have a plan to ensure the world is safe now and secure in the future Emily Thornberry is the shadow secretary of state for international trade We are 140 days into what Boris Johnson has proudly called “the year of British leadership”. But looking at this government from the outside, you would never know it. Where is the British leadership over

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Nautilus
Science Isn’t Here for Your Mommy Shaming – Issue 100: Outsiders

 
A few years ago, Time magazine published an article titled, “Cell-Phone Distracted Parenting Can Have Long Term Consequences.”1 It reported research supposedly showing that “distracted parental attention” could hurt infant development, and especially a baby’s ability to feel pleasure later on. What exactly did this research study? Did it directly measure parental cell phone usage and test infant

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Futurism
Google Debuts Dystopic 3D Prison-Style Video Chat: Project Starline

 
It’s been a long, long year during which you and everyone you know did more video chat than they ever thought they would over a twelve-month period. Could you, at any point, think of a way video chat could be more in-your-face than it already is? Well, Google did — and they’re now debuting a new video chat system they’re calling “Project Starline.” Here’s the demo: “Imagine, instead of looking at

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Science | The Guardian
Covid ‘booster’ trial will give third vaccine dose to UK volunteers

UK Covid Booster Seven

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Scientists to test seven vaccines for possible protection against new variants in effort to avert winter surge in infections Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage Thousands of volunteers will be injected with a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine as part of a trial to investigate which ones could be used as “booster” doses to protect against new variants and prevent hospitals f

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Science | The Guardian
More than 50m Covid vaccine doses given in England

 
NHS opens bookings for first dose to about 1 million people aged 32 and 33 as Hancock lauds ‘national effort’ Coronavirus – latest updates See all our coronavirus coverage More than 50m Covid-19 vaccination doses have now been given in England, latest figures show. A total of 50,246,402 Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered in England between 8 December and 21 May, according to NHS England dat

5h

Science | The Guardian
How genetic sequencing is helping scientists find the next Covid variant | Manon Ragonnet-Cronin

 
The new Global Pandemic Radar is a welcome step towards comprehensive sequencing of the Covid-19 genome “Nun’s office Tivoli safe!” When I was a child, we used to play a game where several of us whispered a message to one another in sequence. The fun of the game is when errors pop up along the way – and the final listener announces with glee something quite different from the original message. As

8h

Phys.org
China's Mars rover starts roaming the Red Planet

 
China's Mars rover drove from its landing platform and began exploring the surface on Saturday, state-run Xinhua news agency said, making the country only the second nation to land and operate a rover on the Red Planet.

10h

Science | The Guardian
Coronavirus live news: Covid jabs opened up to people aged 32 and 33 in England; Taiwan reports 321 new cases

 
Germany to bar visitors from UK over Covid variants of concern ; sewage samples being tested across England to monitor Covid variants Scientist faces legal action for challenging hydroxychloroquine study Nepal calls new elections amid worsening Covid outbreak Brazil: Bolsonaro never wanted vaccines, says senator See all our coronavirus coverage 9.53am BST The spread of variants such as the one di

11h

Vetenskap | SVT Nyheter
Svensk forskning: Möjligt att ha fler än 150 vänner

 
Det är fullt möjligt att ha fler än 150 meningsfulla sociala kontakter. Det menar svenska forskare som anser sig ha motbevisat teorin ”Dunbars tal”. Men nu får de mothugg – av självaste Robin Dunbar. – De verkar inte ha förstått vad sociala nätverk hos primater och människor handlar om, säger han till The Academic Times.

17h

The Atlantic
Vaccine Lottery Tickets Are Sad, but Also Perfect

 
Every American state has laws requiring vaccination . If you want your children to attend kindergarten, you must vaccinate them against rubella. Most parents comply because they don’t want anyone going deaf from congenital rubella. And if that isn’t convincing enough, then there is the ominous threat of having to homeschool. But these laws have holes , and more people are going through them. In t

22h

Phys.org
Sand's urban role demands key part on sustainability stage

 
Over 20 Indonesian islands mysteriously disappear. One of the world's deadliest criminal syndicates rises to power. Eight cities the size of New York will be built every year for the next three decades. What connects them is sand, embedded in the concrete of nearly all of the world's buildings, roads, and cities, the glass in the windows, laptops and phone screens, and COVID-19 vaccine vials.

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Phys.org
Using CRISPR to lower cholesterol levels in monkeys

 
A team of researchers from Verve Therapeutics and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a CRISPR gene-editing technique that lowered the levels of cholesterol in the blood of test monkeys. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers describe their technique.

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The Atlantic
The Sperm Donation Is Free, but There’s a Catch

 
Madison Hess and her partner are looking for sperm donors and hoping that the third time’s a charm. Hess has already tried clinical insemination twice with sperm from a cryobank, a method that her private insurance fully covered. On both occasions, she didn’t get pregnant. “Since neither time worked, and because I want to cut costs, I’m trying an at-home method,” she told me via email. By this, H

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Phys.org
Bees can tell time by temperature, research finds

 
Bees are known to tell time by light and social cues. Now, postdoctoral scholar in biological sciences Manuel Giannoni-Guzmán and researchers from Brandeis University, University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras, University of Pittsburgh and East Tennessee State University have shown that the circadian clocks of bees can be altered by another surprising factor: temperature cycles inside the hive.

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MIT Technology Review
We could see federal regulation on face recognition as early as next week

 
On May 10, 40 advocacy groups sent an open letter demanding a permanent ban on the use of Amazon’s facial recognition software, Rekognition, by US police. The letter was addressed to Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy, the company’s current and incoming CEOs, and came just weeks before Amazon’s year-long moratorium on sales to law enforcement was set to expire. The letter contrasted Bezos’s and Jassy’s vo

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Undark Magazine
Interview: Risk Expert Heidi J. Larson on Vaccine Hesitancy

 
The reasons why people choose not to get vaccinated are complex and vary from person to person, from community to community, and from country to country. Heidi J. Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, discusses the social, economic, and political forces that inform attitudes toward vaccines.

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MIT Technology Review
Could the ransomware crisis force action against Russia?

 
What touches the American psyche more deeply than a gas shortage? If the Colonial Pipeline attack is any measure, nothing. Ransomware has been a growing problem for years, with hundreds of brazen criminal hacks against schools , hospitals , and city governments —but it took an attack that affected people’s cars for the US to really take notice. The strike on the Colonial Pipeline may have only le

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ScienceDaily
A plant-fungi partnership at the origin of terrestrial vegetation

 
450 million years ago, the first plants left aquatic life. Researchers have now succeeded in demonstrating that this colonization of land by plants was made possible by a partnership between plants and fungi. Validating this 40-year-old hypothesis allows us to understand a stage that was crucial to the development of life on Earth.

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Futurism
These Alien-Looking Skulls Are Actually Human, Expert Says

 
Cone Heads A viral Facebook post is claiming that strange-looking skulls found in Peru are evidence of alien life, USA Today reports . But fortunately — or disappointingly, depending on your frame of reference — the skulls are almost certainly from plain-old human beings. “The eye sockets are normal and perfectly within the range of human variation and look like eye sockets of other human skulls

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Science Magazine
Biphenylene network: A nonbenzenoid carbon allotrope

 
The quest for planar sp 2 -hybridized carbon allotropes other than graphene, such as graphenylene and biphenylene networks, has stimulated substantial research efforts because of the materials’ predicted mechanical, electronic, and transport properties. However, their syntheses remain challenging given the lack of reliable protocols for generating nonhexagonal rings during the in-plane tiling of

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Phys.org
Chandra discoveries in 3D available on new platform

 
A collection of the 3D objects from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is now available on a new platform from the Smithsonian Institution. This will allow greater access to these unique 3D models and prints for institutions like libraries and museums as well as the scientific community and individuals in the public.

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Phys.org
Researchers flip the motion of electrons on ultrafast time scales without slowing them down

 
To change the direction of motion of a massive object, such as a car, it has to be slowed down and brought to a complete standstill first. Even the tiniest charge carriers in the universe, the electrons, follow this rule. For future ultrafast electronic components, however, it would be helpful to circumvent the electron's inertia. Photons, the quanta of light, show how this could work. Photons do

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Sciencemag
CRISPR Editing in Primates

 
There’s some really interesting CRISPR news out today, and it’s likely to be a forerunner of much more news to come. A research team has demonstrated what looks like robust, long-lasting effects in a primate model after one injection of the CRISPR enzymatic machinery. There have been plenty of rodent reports on various forms of CRISPR, and there are some human trials underway, but these is the fi

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Futurism
This ‘Euphoric Beverage’ Is a Non Alcoholic Drink That’s Actually Worth Drinking

 
If you’re familiar with the concept of euphoric beverages , then you already know they make a great alternative to alcohol. They offer the social lubrication and mood enhancing properties commonly associated with alcohol, but without the blackouts and hangovers that come with heavy drinking. Now, Kin, the biggest name in euphoric beverages, is adding a new flavor to the mix: Kin Lightwave . It’s

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Phys.org
Solving a natural riddle of water filtration

 
For many engineers and scientists, nature is the world's greatest muse. They seek to better understand natural processes that have evolved over millions of years, mimic them in ways that can benefit society and sometimes even improve on them.

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forskning.se
Så kan butiker överleva coronapandemin – handelsforskarens förslag

 
Butiker som vill överleva måste nischa sig. Se butiken som en teaterscen – med konserter, utställningar och matservering – och sälj in en "story" till kunden, så som resebranschen gör med sina resmål, tipsar handelsforskaren. Om du bara vill köpa en tröja har många insett att nätet funkar lika bra eller bättre. Under coronapandemin har dessutom helt nya grupper tagit steget över till att börja e-

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The Atlantic
The Literary-Abuser Trope Is Everywhere

 
A t the end of April, Eve Crawford Peyton published in Slate her account of being groomed and assaulted by the author Blake Bailey. Bailey, she wrote, had been her English teacher in middle school before he held her down and raped her when she was 22, years before he was hand-selected as the most simpatico candidate to tackle a biography of Philip Roth. (Bailey has forcefully deni ed this and oth

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The Atlantic
Podcast: The Political Gains and Lost Faith of Evangelical Identity

 
Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts Lecrae Moore came up in a Christian culture deeply entwined with politics: Evangelicals were Republicans, and Republicans were evangelicals. As a Black college student, he found a sense of belonging in Bible study. His mentors and community were predominantly white and very conservative, but that didn’t really bother him.

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Phys.org
Study: War, climate displaced tens of millions in 2020

 
A key group that monitors internal displacement is reporting Thursday that violence and disasters—often caused or worsened by the impact of climate change—forced people to relocate within their countries more than 40 million times last year, the highest such tally in over a decade.

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Big Think
Deepfake geography: Why fake satellite images are a growing problem

 
Research indicates that "deepfake geography," or realistic but fake images of real places, could become a growing problem. For example, a fire in Central Park seems to appear as a smoke plume and a line of flames in a satellite image. In another, colorful lights on Diwali night in India, seen from space, seem to show widespread fireworks activity. Both images exemplify what the new study calls "l

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Phys.org
Silicon chips combine light and ultrasound for better signal processing

 
The continued growth of wireless and cellular data traffic relies heavily on light waves. Microwave photonics is the field of technology that is dedicated to the distribution and processing of electrical information signals using optical means. Compared with traditional solutions based on electronics alone, microwave photonic systems can handle massive amounts of data. Therefore, microwave photoni

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The Atlantic
A Surge of Migrants Into a Spanish Enclave

 
Over the past two days, amid a diplomatic dispute between Morocco and Spain, more than 8,000 Moroccan migrants swam or climbed across the border into the small Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa. Border controls on the Moroccan side appear to have been relaxed recently, and thousands took advantage of the situation to flee to Spanish territory in search of opportunity. While about half o

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The Atlantic
Restaurants Have a New Problem, and It Has Red Eyes and Is Super Loud

 
Restaurants are back, baby! Head over to that reopened neighborhood joint, and snag a table with some friends you haven’t seen in a year. Overpriced cocktails have never sounded so good. Sit on the patio, and take in late May for all it’s worth. Oh, the waiter’s coming over; have you decided on drinks yet? Sorry, what’s that? I can’t hear you. Can you shout a little louder? Uh … did something j

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Phys.org
NASA's Webb to study how massive stars' blasts of radiation influence their environments

 
In a nearby stellar nursery called the Orion Nebula, young, massive stars are blasting far-ultraviolet light at the cloud of dust and gas from which they were born. This intense flood of radiation is violently disrupting the cloud by breaking apart molecules, ionizing atoms and molecules by stripping their electrons, and heating the gas and dust. An international team using NASA's James Webb Space

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MIT Technology Review
Embracing the rapid pace of AI

 
In a recent survey, “2021 Thriving in an AI World,” KPMG found that across every industry—manufacturing to technology to retail—the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing year over year. Part of the reason is digital transformation is moving faster, which helps companies start to move exponentially faster. But, as Cliff Justice, US leader for enterprise innovation at KPMG posits,

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Computational modeling can predict mutation hotspots in SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

 
SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to acquire mutations on the spike protein—the part of the virus that protrudes from its surface and latches onto cells to infect them—that enhance the coronavirus' ability to bind to human cells or evade antibodies. A new study from the Centers for Genomics and Systems Biology at New York University and NYU Abu Dhabi uses computational modeling to assess the biological signi

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Phys.org
Fruit crops reached the eastern peninsula almost 3,000 years ago

 
Guillem Pérez Jordà and Salvador Pardo Gordó, researchers from the Department of Prehistory, Archaeology and Ancient History of the University of València, sign an article in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports that looks into the arrival of fruit crops to the Iberian Peninsula by studying archaeobotanical remains. It is estimated that the cultivation of these species began in the curren

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Phys.org
Why frogs can't regenerate lost limbs like axolotls

 
In Lake Xochimilco of central Mexico dwells a rare salamander, the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum). In the wild, the axolotls do not metamorphose: adults very much resemble their larval counterparts and keep the external gills that ornate their head. Throughout their lives, axolotls have the ability to regrow lost parts of their body, such as a limb munched by a predator. The process may take months

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Futurism
Augmented Reality Is Changing the Cosmetics Industry Forever

 
Trying on lipstick before you bought it once meant dealing with an apathetic store assistant and the dubious hygiene of putting your lips on the same surface as countless fellow shoppers. Now, amplified by the pandemic, a flurry of prominent cosmetics brands are trying to reproduce that experience in apps that superimpose digital representations of cosmetic products, from brows to eyeliner to con

5h

forskning.se
Fler byter vårdcentral när de kan jämföra vårdens kvalitet

 
När patienter kunde jämföra vårdcentralers kvalitet bytte fler vårdcentral. Det är ett tecken, menar forskarna, på att patienter inte har tillräcklig information för att göra ett bra vårdval idag. – Det finns utrymme för förbättringar på den här marknaden för att få en bättre matchning mellan patient och utförare, säger Gustav Kjellsson, docent i nationalekonomi på Handelshögskolan vid Göteborgs

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Phys.org
A new method to better study microscopic plastics in the ocean

 
If you've been to your local beach, you may have noticed the wind tossing around litter such as an empty potato chip bag or a plastic straw. These plastics often make their way into the ocean, affecting not only marine life and the environment but also threatening food safety and human health.

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Phys.org
Image: Meet the world's largest iceberg

 
An enormous iceberg has calved from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, lying in the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica. The iceberg, dubbed A-76, measures around 4320 sq km in size—currently making it the largest berg in the world.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Chromatin remodeler Arid1a regulates subplate neuron identity and wiring of cortical connectivity [Neuroscience]

 
Loss-of-function mutations in chromatin remodeler gene ARID1A are a cause of Coffin-Siris syndrome, a developmental disorder characterized by dysgenesis of corpus callosum. Here, we characterize Arid1a function during cortical development and find unexpectedly selective roles for Arid1a in subplate neurons (SPNs). SPNs, strategically positioned at the interface of cortical gray…

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MIT Technology Review
This animated chart shows how the world’s vaccine rollout is going

 
More than 1.5 billion covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in over 180 countries. That works out to roughly 21 doses for every 100 people. However, as you can see from the animated chart below, the pace—and coverage—of vaccination programs has been highly uneven. If you hit play on the chart, produced by Our World in Data, you can see how the vaccination programs have evolved over time f

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Phys.org
Super blood moon: Your questions answered

 
This month brings the "most super" of the year's supermoons, and on top of that, a total lunar eclipse. In other words, on May 26, 2021, the full moon will enter Earth's shadow—and, when the moon is not in our planet's shade, it will appear even bigger and brighter than usual.

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ScienceDaily
High levels of contaminants in killer whales

 
Little is known concerning environmental contaminants in predators at the top of a food chain. A study has demonstrated that new types of brominated flame retardants accumulate in the tissues of killer whales near Norway and are also passed on to nursing offspring.

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ScienceDaily
Swifts set new record for swiftness

 
Swifts aren't called 'swifts' for nothing. They're known for being among the fastest migrating small birds around. When they aren't breeding, common swifts stay in the air most of the time — up to 10 months of the year. Scientists had thought they travel about 500 kilometers per day on average. Now, new evidence shows that's a conservative estimate.

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Science Magazine
Lipid exchanges drove the evolution of mutualism during plant terrestrialization

 
Symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) improves plant nutrition in most land plants, and its contribution to the colonization of land by plants has been hypothesized. Here, we identify a conserved transcriptomic response to AMF among land plants, including the activation of lipid metabolism. Using gain of function, we show the transfer of lipids from the liverwort Marchantia paleacea t

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Palm oil plantations change the social behavior of macaques

 
Due to the extensive clearing of their habitat, these primates sometimes turn to palm oil monocultures while foraging. This often leads to conflicts with farmers. The macaques do not damage the palm oil fruits to any great extent. On the contrary, they can even benefit palm oil cultivation, as they are excellent hunters of the masses of rats found on plantations, the main pest found there. As a ne

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Phys.org
Mushrooms on Mars? Five unproven claims that alien life exists

 
A recent study claims to have found evidence for mushroom-like life forms on the surface of Mars. As it happens, these particular features are well known and were discovered by cameras aboard Nasa's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, shortly after it landed in 2004.

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Phys.org
Sex-specific social learning prepares young orangutans for adulthood

 
Immature female and male orangutans direct their social attention to different types of individuals, potentially to acquire the sex-specific ecological knowledge they will need in later life, according to a study publishing 19th May, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Caroline Schuppli of the Max-Planck Institute of Animal Behavior.

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Sciencemag
Coronavirus Origins

 
I’m going to regret writing about this, but it’s not a topic to be ignored. Where did the current coronavirus come from? If you ask that question, you get all sorts of answers from all sorts of people. Let me downgrade some of those right up front. To start at the far end of the fever scale, I do not think that this virus is some sort of deliberately engineered (and/or deliberately released) biow

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The Atlantic
Photos of the Week: Soho Coffee, Sava Bridge, Poppy Dog

 
The end of a drought in Australia, sand art in northwest England, vaccinations in remote Turkey, COVID-19 testing in Nepal, migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, wildfires in Greece, Eurovision 2021 in the Netherlands, Israeli air strikes in Gaza, continued protests in Colombia, bears in trees, and much more

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Phys.org
The data-driven future of extreme physics

 
By applying modern machine learning and data science methods to "extreme" plasma physics, researchers can gain insight into our universe and find clues about creating a limitless amount of energy.

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The Atlantic
America Offline

 
My most intimate relationship of 2020 was with the internet. I did my job online, and talked to my friends online, and streamed hundreds of hours of TV that I’d already seen online, just to fill my empty apartment with human sounds. I used the internet to put scary Instagram filters on my face, and join a mutual-aid Slack group , and reflexively refresh the coronavirus case count in my zip code,

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EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Study finds high-speed ferries, recreational boats are big noise polluters in SF Bay

 
In a new study, researchers at the Anthropocene Institute and San Francisco State University found that recreational boats and high-speed ferries contribute significant underwater noise in San Francisco Bay, a highly urbanized coastline that is increasingly becoming a stop along the migratory routes of gray and humpback whales and home to bottlenose dolphins and harbor porpoises.

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Phys.org
Wildfires threaten river networks in the western U.S.

 
A new study conducted by researchers from The University of New Mexico has found that wildfires—which have been increasing in frequency, severity and extent around the globe—are one of the largest drivers of aquatic impairment in the western United States, threatening our water supply.

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forskning.se
Få hundar borstar tänderna varje dag

 
Merparten av svenska hundar över tre år har tendens till tandlossning. Störst är problemen i vissa småvuxna raser. Och väldigt få hundägare borstar tänderna på hunden varje dag, visar forskning. Tandköttsinflammation och tandlossning är mycket vanligt hos hundar – precis som hos människor – och över 80 procent av alla hundar över tre år anses vara drabbade. Trots detta har vi tidigare haft ganska

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The Atlantic
Pop’s Buzziest New Songwriter Knows Exactly What to Say

 
Great breakups aren’t just painful; they’re surreal—a space-time fissure, a smack from God, a bulletin that you’re not the world’s protagonist. Someone who was always there just vanishes. A future crumbles into a past. This is heavy stuff at any age but especially when you’re dealing with it for the first time, which means that some of the most mystic meditations on breakups have come from teen s

6h

Science Magazine
Spatiotemporal pattern of COVID-19 spread in Brazil

 
Brazil has been severely hit by COVID-19, with rapid spatial spread of both cases and deaths. We used daily data on reported cases and deaths to understand, measure, and compare the spatiotemporal pattern of the spread across municipalities. Indicators of clustering, trajectories, speed, and intensity of the movement of COVID-19 to interior areas, combined with indices of policy measures, show th

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Phys.org
When will the first baby be born in space?

 
When the first baby is born off-Earth, it will be a milestone as momentous as humanity's first steps out of Africa. Such a birth would mark the beginning of a multi–planet civilization for the human species.

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Phys.org
Less forest, more species: Declining biodiversity in Tibet in response to climate change

 
Normally, mountain forests are among the most diverse habitats in alpine regions. Yet, as a team from the Alfred Wegener Institute discovered in the Tibetan Plateau, the higher, treeless areas are home to far more species. Their findings, which were just published in the journal Nature Communications, can help to predict how the biodiversity of alpine regions will decline in response to global war

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Retraction Watch
Paper likening human sperm to “playful otters” retracted

 
Everybody out of the pool. The authors of a 2020 paper in Science Advances on how human sperm propel themselves in a corkscrew fashion like “playful otters” have retracted their article after concluding that their analysis didn’t support their conclusions. The article, by Hermes Gadêlha, of the University of Bristol, in England, and several colleagues … Continue reading

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Phys.org
Hubble gazes at a galactic menagerie

 
This packed image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases the galaxy cluster ACO S 295, as well as a jostling crowd of background galaxies and foreground stars. Galaxies of all shapes and sizes populate this image, ranging from stately spirals to fuzzy ellipticals.

10h

NeuroLogica Blog
The Neuroscience of Robotic Augmentation

 
Imagine having an extra arm, or an extra thumb on one hand, or even a tail, and imagine that it felt like a natural part of your body and you could control it easily and dexterously. How plausible is this type of robotic augmentation? Could “Doc Oc” really exist? I have been following the science of brain-machine interface (BMI) for years, and the research consistently shows that such augmentatio

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Phys.org
A plant-fungi partnership lies at the origin of terrestrial vegetation

 
450 million years ago, the first plants left aquatic life. Researchers from the CNRS and the Université de Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier, in collaboration with INRAE, have succeeded in demonstrating that this colonization of land by plants was made possible by a partnership between plants and fungi. Validating this 40-year-old hypothesis allows us to understand a stage that was crucial to the develop

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Nautilus
The English Professor Who Foresaw Modern Neuroscience – Issue 100: Outsiders

 
In the 21st century, neuroscience has been able to extend our understanding of the brain beyond brain anatomy to an increasingly functional view of cognition. Every year brings new insights on memory and imagination, and reveals often surprising areas of convergence with fields such as anthropology and philosophy. Yet it was a Cambridge professor of literature, almost a century ago in the afterma

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Nature Communications – current – nature.com science feeds
Qki activates Srebp2-mediated cholesterol biosynthesis for maintenance of eye lens transparency

 
Nature Communications, Published online: 21 May 2021; doi:10.1038/s41467-021-22782-0 Eye lens cells are highly enriched in cholesterol that sustains lens transparency, and disruption of cholesterol biosynthesis leads to cataracts. The authors show that cholesterol biosynthesis regulated by Qki is essential for maintenance of membrane integrity of lens cells and proper protein folding.

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The Atlantic
When Social-Justice Horror Goes Wrong

 
This story contains spoilers for the film Spiral: From the Book of Saw . Saw , that undying paean to torture porn, finally started running out of stamina when its eighth— eighth! —entry hit theaters in 2017. The once-popular Lionsgate series had gotten predictable; the death traps were rusty, the box-office returns waning . Even B-listers hadn’t joined the cast in years. It needed a new star and

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Nautilus
The Man Who Drank Cholera and Launched the Yogurt Craze – Issue 100: Outsiders

 
When Ilya Metchnikoff was 8 and running around on his parents’ Panassovka estate in Little Russia, now Ukraine, he was making notes on the local flora like a junior botanist. He gave science lectures to his older brothers and local kids whose attendance he assured by paying them from his pocket money. Metchnikoff earned the nickname “Quicksilver” because he was in constant motion, always wanting

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Singularity Hub
How Early Humans Used Fire to Permanently Change the Landscape Millennia Ago

 
Fields of rust-colored soil, spindly cassava, small farms and villages dot the landscape. Dust and smoke blur the mountains visible beyond massive Lake Malawi. Here in tropical Africa, you can’t escape the signs of human presence. How far back in time would you need to go in this place to discover an entirely natural environment? Our work has shown that it would be a very long time indeed: at lea

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ScienceDaily
Most ancient galaxy with spiral morphology discovered

 
Analyzing data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers found a galaxy with a spiral morphology by only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This is the most ancient galaxy of its kind ever observed. The discovery of a galaxy with a spiral structure at such an early stage is an important clue to solving the classic questions of astronomy: 'How and when di

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Phys.org
'E-nose' can discriminate various mint scents

 
In nature, scents emitted by plants attract animals such as insects. However, scents are also used in the industry, for example in the production of perfumes and aromas. In order to achieve a reliable, quick, and objective discrimination of mint scents in particular, researchers at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) embarked on an interdisciplinary collaboration and developed an electronic no

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The Atlantic
Podcast: Dealing With Post-pandemic Trauma

 
We’ve all been suffering during the coronavirus pandemic in one way or another, and as the U.S. starts to emerge, we'll need to reckon with that. The Atlantic’ s Ed Yong discusses his piece on pandemic trauma, how to think about it, and what he’s learned through talking to psychiatrists and other experts. What follows is a transcript of their conversation, edited and condensed for clarity: James

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Phys.org
An updated understanding of how to synthesize value-added chemicals

 
Researchers have long been interested in finding ways to use simple hydrocarbons, chemicals made of a small number of carbon and hydrogen atoms, to create value-added chemicals, ones used in fuels, plastics, and other complex materials. Methane, a major component of natural gas, is one such chemical that scientists would like to find to ways to use more effectively, since there is currently no env

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Phys.org
Research team develops new method for studying atomic structures in material surfaces

 
Chemical reactions, such as those that occur when charging and discharging a battery, take place primarily on surfaces and at interfaces. While it is very easy to study the macroscopic products of a reaction, it has so far been difficult to gain a more accurate picture of the course of chemical reactions at the atomic level. This requires measurement methods that allow observations to be made on t

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Science | The Guardian
Europe and Russia plan to put spacecraft on surface of Mars

 
Joint mission next year will try to replicate China’s recent success of landing robotic craft on planet On Saturday 15 May, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the country had landed a robotic spacecraft on Mars . This is an important moment and it could be a taste of things to come. Until China’s Zhurong rover touched down in the Utopia Planitia region of the Mars, only the US had

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Biochemistry Research News — ScienceDaily
An illuminating possibility for stroke treatment: Nano-photosynthesis

 
Blocked blood vessels in the brains of stroke patients prevent oxygen-rich blood from getting to cells, causing severe damage. Plants and some microbes produce oxygen through photosynthesis. What if there was a way to make photosynthesis happen in the brains of patients? Now, researchers have done just that in cells and in mice, using blue-green algae and special nanoparticles, in a proof-of-conce

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Science Magazine
Balancing conservation priorities for nature and for people in Europe

 
There is an urgent need to protect key areas for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (NCP). However, different values of nature are rarely considered together in conservation planning. Here, we explore potential priority areas in Europe for biodiversity (all terrestrial vertebrates) and a set of cultural and regulating NCP while considering demand for these NCP. We quantify the spat

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ScienceDaily
Self-organizing human heart organoids in a dish

 
Biologists have used human pluripotent stem cells to grow sesame-seed-sized heart models, called cardioids, that spontaneously self-organize to develop a hollow chamber without the need of experimental scaffolds. This advance allows for the creation of some of the most realistic heart organoids to date.

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Phys.org
New FAST discoveries shed light on pulsars

 
Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), a research team led by Prof. Han Jinlin from National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) has discovered 201 pulsars, including many very faint pulsars, 40 millisecond pulsars (MSPs), and 16 pulsars in binaries.

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Phys.org
New technology completes vital class of industrial reactions five times faster

 
Everything from the production of fertilizers and plastics, to liquid fuels and pharmaceuticals require an important chemical reaction known as hydrogenation. This is a process involving the addition of hydrogen to unsaturated chemical bonds. Enhancing the rate of hydrogenation can lead to higher yields for industries and lower environmental impacts.

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Evolutionary medicine looks to our early human ancestors for insight into conditions like diabetes

 
Like all living things, humans are the product of a complex evolutionary history. Our ancestors' environment and diets, and the limits of human biology, have led to adaptations that have improved our survival through natural selection. Despite these adaptations, our bodies remain prone to illness and disease. If we have evolved and adapted to our environment, why do we still get sick?

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Phys.org
New biological and safer soaps

 
An international research team led by Professor Charles Gauthier from the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has discovered a new molecule with potential to revolutionize the biosurfactant market. The team's findings have been published in Chemical Science, the Royal Society of Chemistry's flagship journal.

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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences current issue
Oncogenic KRAS engages an RSK1/NF1 pathway to inhibit wild-type RAS signaling in pancreatic cancer [Medical Sciences]

 
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy with limited treatment options. Although activating mutations of the KRAS GTPase are the predominant dependency present in >90% of PDAC patients, targeting KRAS mutants directly has been challenging in PDAC. Similarly, strategies targeting known KRAS downstream effectors have had limited clinical success…

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Phys.org
'Alien' plants could pose risk to fruit bats

 
Led by the University of Sydney, a scientific team has analyzed the nutritional content of Christmas Island flying foxes' diets and found that introduced plant species do not provide a balanced meal.

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Phys.org
Missing the middle: The importance of regional-scale field research

 
Hundreds of biological field stations exist across the globe, supporting highly local, single-site projects as well as endeavors spanning continents. Yet few are networked on a regional scale. Likewise, current funding structures do not support regional science research over the long term. These omissions hamstring efforts to understand the climate crisis and its impacts plants and animals.

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Undark Magazine
As Neighborhood Watch Apps Ascend, so Do the Threats They Pose

 
The neighborhood watch app Citizen recently began rolling out a feature that lets users opt to be monitored by virtual safety agents whenever they leave home. It is not difficult to imagine the many ways such a system could go wrong — such as unnecessary police stops and increased police violence.

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Phys.org
What is catnip and is it safe for my cat?

 
There are many valid theories to explain the global appeal of cats, including our obsession with watching videos of them online. In terms of cats' pure entertainment value, however, our fascination is probably attributable to their seemingly endless repertoire of bizarre behaviors.

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ScienceDaily
Water treatment: Removing hormones with sunlight

 
Micropollutants such as steroid hormones contaminate drinking water worldwide. Until now, easily scalable water treatment technologies that remove them efficiently and sustainably have been lacking. Scientists have developed a new chemical process for removing hormones. It takes advantage of the mechanisms of photocatalysis and transforms the pollutants into potentially safe oxidation products.

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Phys.org
UN World Ocean Assessment: The ocean is in trouble, but we still have time to act

 
The Second World Ocean (WOAII) Assessment, launched in April, serves as an important tool to aid in policy making for world leaders. As part of the United Nation's Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the States of the Marine Environment, the effort behind creating the assessment relies on the expertise of hundreds of co-authors and leading experts worldwide.

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Phys.org
New ExoMars parachute ready for high altitude drop

 
A series of ground-based high-speed extraction tests confirm the readiness of a new and upgraded parachute and bag system for a high-altitude drop test in early June, part of critical preparations to keep the ExoMars 2022 mission on track for its next launch window.

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
What makes some oysters more resilient than others?

 
Oysters live and grow in saltwater. However, the saltiness of their habitat can change dramatically, especially where the mighty Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana oysters from the northern Gulf of Mexico may experience some of the lowest salinity in the world due to the influx of fresh water from the Mississippi River. In addition, increased rainfall and large-scale river

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EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Global acceleration in rates of vegetation change

 
Wherever ecologists look, from tropical forests to tundra, ecosystems are being transformed by human land use and climate change. A hallmark of human impacts is that the rates of change in ecosystems are accelerating worldwide. Surprisingly, a new study, published today in Science, found that these rates of ecological change began to speed up many thousands of years ago.

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Phys.org
China delays mission while NASA congratulates on Mars images

 
China postponed a supply mission to its new space station on Thursday for unspecified technical reasons, while photos sent back from Mars by its newly arrived rover earned plaudits from NASA despite only sporadic contacts between the Chinese and American space programs.

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Phys.org
Accounting for finance is key for ¿mitigation pathways

 
A new study published in the journal Science highlights the opportunity to complement current climate mitigation scenarios with scenarios that capture the interdependence among investors' perception of future climate risk, the credibility of climate policies, and the allocation of investments across low- and high-carbon assets in the economy.

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Phys.org
Molecular switch enables photomechanical jumping of polymers

 
Jumping movement is commonly observed in nature, including for mammals, insects and the other land creatures; this fluid motion aims for rapid mobility, a faster arrival time at a destination over large obstacles and rough terrain. The qualitative properties of the jump such as direction and height are regulated by mere fractions of potential and kinetic energy. In addition, an organism can opt to

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Science Magazine
Electron ptychography achieves atomic-resolution limits set by lattice vibrations

 
Transmission electron microscopes use electrons with wavelengths of a few picometers, potentially capable of imaging individual atoms in solids at a resolution ultimately set by the intrinsic size of an atom. However, owing to lens aberrations and multiple scattering of electrons in the sample, the image resolution is reduced by a factor of 3 to 10. By inversely solving the multiple scattering pr

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Phys.org
What causes tropospheric ozone pollution over northern Tibetan Plateau?

 
Atmospheric ozone, which can regulate the amount of incoming ultraviolet radiation on the Earth's surface, is important for the atmospheric environment and ecosystems. Tropospheric ozone, primarily originating from photochemical reactions, is the third most prominent greenhouse gas causing climate warming.

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Phys.org
Net zero will mean breaking bad habits, but can we get there in time?

 
Three-fifths of the measures required to get to "net zero" emissions will require at least some degree of behavioral and social change, according to the UK government's climate advisers, the Committee on Climate Change. But this only factors in changes in consumer behavior, such as switching from petrol to electric cars, or gas boilers to heat pumps. This is a very narrow definition of behavioral

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
How plants leave behind their parents' genomic baggage

 
Passing down a healthy genome is a critical part of creating viable offspring. But what happens when you have harmful modifications in your genome that you don't want to pass down? Baby plants have evolved a method to wipe the slate clean and reinstall only the modifications that they need to grow and develop. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor & HHMI Investigator Rob Martienssen and h

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ScienceDaily
'No level of smoke exposure is safe'

 
This is the first evidence that secondhand smoke during pregnancy correlates with changes in disease-related gene regulation in babies. These findings support the idea that many adult diseases have their origins in environmental exposures, such as stress, poor nutrition, pollution or tobacco smoke, during early development.

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EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Research shows how people changed their behavior in response to COVID-19 guidance

 
When the United States issued national stay-at-home guidelines in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobility across the country dropped significantly. Research from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) demonstrates that people may be inclined to change their behavior in response to national guidelines, more than state and local policies.

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Phys.org
How human cells and pathogenic shigella engage in battle

 
One member of a large protein family that is known to stop the spread of bacterial infections by prompting infected human cells to self-destruct appears to kill the infectious bacteria instead, a new study led by UT Southwestern scientists shows. However, some bacteria have their own mechanism to thwart this attack, nullifying the deadly protein by tagging it for destruction.

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The Atlantic
The Books Briefing: The Wellness Dystopia

 
In the author Chang-rae Lee’s novel My Year Abroad , a man travels to China to peddle a dubiously effective but very addictive health drink to wellness-obsessed consumers. The story is fiction, but the desire to buy your way to health is real. Think of the popularity of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop brand, which has grown into an empire complete with a TV show and a series of books, all promoting the id

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Phys.org
Pollen patties may save bees poisoned by pesticides

 
Pollen-inspired microparticles that could be used to detoxify bees exposed to organophosphate pesticides are reported in Nature Food. This bee detoxification strategy may have implications for reducing the risk of organophosphate insecticide exposure to managed bee populations.

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ScienceDaily
Compound commonly found in candles lights the way to grid-scale energy storage

 
A compound used widely in candles offers promise for a much more modern energy challenge — storing massive amounts of energy to be fed into the electric grid as the need arises. Researchers show that low-cost organic compounds hold promise for storing energy that would kick in when the grid goes offline due to severe weather, and for storing renewable energy.

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Phys.org
Greening the planet: We can't just plant trees, we have to restore forests

 
The Queen's Green Canopy, a campaign to celebrate Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee next year, involves asking people in the UK to plant trees: a "treebilee" as her son, Prince Charles puts it. This is one of a number of public and private campaigns underway, including initiatives by big corporations from Nestle to Audi which are also planting millions of trees in an attempt to mitigate a portion of

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Phys.org
A tale of frozen landscapes is also an urgent call to action

 
"We are sleepwalking into a catastrophe for humanity. We need to take notice right now. It is already happening. This is not a wait-and-see situation anymore," says Professor Jemma Wadham. She has recently published "Ice Rivers" a fascinating story about the state of the glaciers in a warming climate, and a personal memoir.

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Phys.org
Researchers detect coronavirus in two feral American mink

 
Researchers from the Faculties of Veterinary Sciences and Health Sciences of the CEU Cardenal Herrera (CEU UCH) university of Valencia have published the detection of two positive cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in wild American mink, in two rivers of Castellón province. These two cases are the first ones in Europe where the virus has been detected in feral animals that have not been in direct con

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Phys.org
Scientists reconstruct past history of largest ice shelf on Antarctic Peninsula

 
For the first time, geological records have been used to reconstruct the history of Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The ice shelf is the largest remaining remnant of a much more extensive area of ice on the Antarctic Peninsula that began to break up during the 1990s (Larsen A), and saw a huge collapse in 2002 (Larsen B). This new reconstruction enables scientists to better understand if and when

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EurekAlert! – Breaking News
Tezepelumab significantly reduced asthma exacerbations: Phase 3 NAVIGATOR trial

 
Results from the NAVIGATOR study of tezepelumab showed that the new biologic therapy significantly reduced exacerbations requiring hospital stays and emergency department (ED) visits for adults and adolescents with severe, uncontrolled asthma, according to research presented at the ATS 2021 International Conference. NAVIGATOR (NCT03347279) is a recently completed randomized, placebo-controlled dou

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ScienceDaily
Linguistic and biological diversity linked

 
Cultural diversity — indicated by linguistic diversity — and biodiversity are linked, and their connection may be another way to preserve both natural environments and Indigenous populations in Africa and perhaps worldwide, according to an international team of researchers.

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Phys.org
Railway infrastructure susceptible to greater damages from climate change

 
Just half a degree Celsius less warming would save economic losses of Chinese railway infrastructure by approximately $0.63 billion per year, according to a new paper published by a collaborative research team based at Beijing Normal University and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

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Phys.org
Researchers develop non-contact probe to analyze single cells within tumors

 
NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) researchers have developed a special noncontact multi-physics probe (NMP) that enables them to collect cytoplasmic samples from single tumor cells without disrupting their spatial configurations in the original tissue. The tiny tool can also be used to introduce foreign materials to selected cells within the tissue to alter their genetic makeup. As a result, the NMP will faci

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Singularity Hub
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through May 22)

 
COMPUTING Google Aims for Commercial-Grade Quantum Computer by 2029 Sara Castellanos | The Wall Street Journal “Alphabet Inc.’s Google plans to spend several billion dollars to build a quantum computer by 2029 that can perform large-scale business and scientific calculations without errors, said [Google’s] Hartmut Neven. … ‘We are at this inflection point,’ said Dr. Neven, who has been researchin

5h

Phys.org
Provenance: How an object's origin can facilitate authentic, inclusive storytelling

 
Passports are a tangible way of showing where one has traveled, as the stamps provide a chronological order that traces an individual's journey across international borders. When an object's origins are not readily apparent, a variety of sources can be relied upon to learn more, which might include labels, sales receipts, foreign translations, oral histories, GPS coordinates and itemized personal

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The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: The GOP Doubles Down on Denialism

 
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. The country is still dealing with the consequences of Donald Trump’s attempt to undermine the 2020 election results. In Arizona, Republican officials have forced a dubious audit of the state’s bal

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Phys.org
Video shows students still get paddled in US schools

 
The image of a teacher paddling or spanking a student at school may seem to belong in a history book—as archaic a practice as the dunce cap. However, for thousands of students across America each year, the use of corporal punishment for violating school rules is still a routine part of their education.

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Phys.org
80% of U.S. adults have had serious hardship, financial insecurity during pandemic

 
To measure the serious hardships people have experienced over the course of the pandemic and the distribution of those experiences across the population of U.S. adults, the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research developed the Pandemic Misery Index, drawing on data from the Understanding Coronavirus in America Study, the only nationally representative survey continuously fielded since

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Phys.org
Wheat hybrid necrosis gene Ne2 provides leaf rust resistance and valuable for breeding new cultivars

 
Leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina Eriks. (Pt) is a destructive foliar disease that threatens world wheat production. Breeding and deployment of resistant cultivars are the most profitable and environmental friendly method to prevent disease losses. It was found that when the wheat leaf rust resistance gene Lr13 was introduced into some wheat varieties by hybridization, the hybrid necrosis was

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Phys.org
Novel Raman method captures target molecules in small gaps actively

 
Recently, Professor Yang Liangbao, from the Institute of Health and Medical Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), developed a general surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method for actively capturing target molecules in small gaps based on nano-capillary pumping model. Relevant results were detailed in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
First-of-its-kind flower smells like dead insects to imprison 'coffin flies'

 
The plant Aristolochia microstoma uses a unique trick: its flowers emit a fetid-musty scent that seems to mimic the smell of decomposing insects. Flies from the genus Megaselia (family Phoridae) likely get attracted to this smell while searching for insect corpses to mate over and lay their eggs in. When they enter a flower, they are imprisoned and first pollinate the female organs, before being c

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ScienceDaily
Moon mission delays could increase risks from solar storms

 
Although patterns in the timing of moderate space weather events are known, the most extreme and dangerous events were thought to be random in their timing. This study found for the first time that extreme space weather occurs most frequently at predictable times during solar cycles, meaning space missions could be timed to avoid them.

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Phys.org
New study presents evaporation-driven transport control of small molecules along nanoslits

 
Microfluidic chips hold great promise for unparalleled applications in pathogen detection and cancer diagnosis. Such devices often require nanoscale thin films for the filtering of liquid samples, as well as power devices or chemical stimuli that control its flow direction. However, many challenges still remain with most precedent mechanisms, including complicated fabrication processes, limitation

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Phys.org
New AI-based tool can find rare cell populations in large single-cell datasets

 
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool that can accurately identify rare groups of biologically important cells from single-cell datasets, which often contain gene or protein expression data from thousands of cells. The research was published today in Nature Computational Science.

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Phys.org
Tailoring the Kondo effect, one molecule at a time

 
The design of molecular systems on surfaces is crucial for the fundamental understanding of electronic transport. The development of molecular electronics, spintronic devices and quantum computation will only happen along with the precise control over the spin texture and its interaction with the surroundings. The Kondo effect is a phenomenon that has attracted much attention because of its potent

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Phys.org
Climate change might drive even widespread mammal species to extinction

 
In the face of ongoing global change, understanding why some species are particularly vulnerable to extinction is of critical importance. To answer this question, extensive investigation has been focused on the link between the current geographic distribution of species and the range of climatic conditions under which they can survive and reproduce to sustain viable populations. However just being

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Biology News – Evolution, Cell theory, Gene theory, Microbiology, Biotechnology
Birds dealing with change: Mapping migration routes can lead to conservation areas

 
Tracking migratory birds that carry tiny satellite transmitters in featherlight 'backpacks," can teach us a lot about change in the environment. It may also point at possibilities to avoid loss of biodiversity. That is an important message in the Ph.D.-thesis that Ying Chi Chan, a Ph.D. candidate of the University of Groningen, based at the Royal NIOZ (Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), defe

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Phys.org
Incest isn't a taboo in the animal kingdom, new study shows

 
We humans tend to regard incest as deeply disturbing. It's a strong social taboo, and it's underpinned by sound biological reasoning. Mixing genes with a non-relative is beneficial because it increases genetic diversity, while genetic defects often occur in the offspring of related parents.

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Retraction Watch
Weekend reads: Legal threats, lawsuits, a professor loses emeritus status, and ‘the 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill’

 
Before we present this week’s Weekend Reads, a question: Do you enjoy our weekly roundup? If so, we could really use your help. Would you consider a tax-deductible donation to support Weekend Reads, and our daily work? Thanks in advance. The week at Retraction Watch featured: Paper linking frequency of Google search terms to violence against … Continue reading

6h

Phys.org
Adopting behavior change interventions can benefit conservation

 
Because most environmental pressures come from people's behavior, environmental scientists are starting to work with behavioral scientists to explore how insights from behavior change interventions (developed to help people quit smoking, or loose weight for example), may be applied to the problems facing nature.

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Phys.org
Artificial intelligence predicts river water quality with weather data

 
The difficulty and expense of collecting river water samples in remote areas has led to significant—and in some cases, decades-long—gaps in available water chemistry data, according to a Penn State-led team of researchers. The team is using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict water quality and fill the gaps in the data. Their efforts could lead to an improved understanding of how rivers react

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The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: Why Millennials Can’t Grow Up

 
Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox. Millennials risk becoming a lost generation . They’ve lived through not one, but two major recessions, leaving them strapped for cash and unable to accumulate wealth at the same pace as their pare

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Phys.org
Clues from soured milk reveal how gold veins form

 
For decades scientists have been puzzled by the formation of rare hyper-enriched gold deposits in places like Ballarat in Australia, Serra Palada in Brazil, and Red Lake in Ontario. While such deposits typically form over tens to hundreds of thousands of years, these "ultrahigh-grade" deposits can form in years, month, or even days. So how do they form so quickly?

21h

forskning.se
Glädjande tecken från Östersjöns enda valar

 
Med kraftiga åtgärder de närmaste åren finns hopp om att rädda tumlarna, Östersjöns enda valar, från utrotning. Det rapporterar forskare som registrerat en ökad aktivitet från tumlare via undervattensmikrofoner. – Populationen är fortfarande mycket liten och ökningen är långt ifrån vad man kan förvänta sig hos en frisk population utan hot, men det är ändå ett fantastiskt glädjande tecken, säger J

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Phys.org
Styrofoam igloos: A 1950s cure for the Inuit housing crisis

 
The COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks in several communities across Nunavut have brought the Inuit housing crisis into focus. Inadequate and unsafe housing is endemic in many Inuit communities and has been blamed for poor health outcomes and susceptibility to infectious disease for decades.

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Phys.org
From making wine to managing mine waste, clay is important for many industries

 
The discovery and use of clays dates back to 30,000 years ago, making clays one of the oldest materials used in society. Clays are naturally occurring materials that were first used to make pottery and are now used abundantly in the manufacturing of goods, including ceramics, cosmetics and building materials. Clays also play an important role in the "terroir," the features a wine develops based on

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Phys.org
Technology isn't the answer to livening up lectures—good teaching is

 
With some universities returning to face-to-face teaching this year, ANU Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt noted that, while his university was one of them, lectures would be much less common and not a "crutch for poor pedagogy". Since then many have discussed the issue of lectures, including the deputy vice chancellor of University of Technology Sydney and the director of the National Center for Stud

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ScienceDaily
Alzheimer protein APP regulates learning and social behavior in the healthy brain

 
The APP protein is known for its role in Alzheimer's disease, but its contribution to healthy brain function remains largely unexplored. Using a mouse model, a research team gained new insights on the physiological functions of the APP protein family. The absence of APP during brain development was shown to result in malformations of brain regions implicated in learning and memory, severely impair

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ScienceDaily
How a virtual program may help kids get ready for kindergarten

 
With pandemic lockdowns still in place last summer, The Ohio State University couldn't host its in-person Summer Success Program to help preschoolers from low-income families prepare for kindergarten. Staff and teachers quickly pivoted to a fully virtual program, but they were worried: Could this really work with 4- and 5-year-olds who had no previous experience with preschool? A new study suggest

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ScienceDaily
Airborne radar reveals groundwater beneath glacier

 
Researchers have detected groundwater beneath a glacier in Greenland for the first time using airborne radar data. If applicable to other glaciers and ice sheets, the technique could allow for more accurate predictions of future sea-level rise.

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Phys.org
Global pollen samples reveal vegetation rate of change

 
Ancient pollen samples and a new statistical approach may shed light on the global rate of change of vegetation and eventually on how much climate change and humans have played a part in altering landscapes, according to an international team of researchers.

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Phys.org
Clearing the air: A reduction-based solution to nitrogen pollution with a novel catalyst

 
Our reliance on fossil fuels as a primary energy source has pushed air pollution to an all-time high, resulting in several environmental and health concerns. Among the major pollutants, nitrogen oxide (NOx) accumulation can cause severe respiratory diseases and imbalance in the Earth's nitrogen cycle. Reducing NOx accumulation is, therefore, an issue of utmost importance.

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Phys.org
The Arctic: key things to know

 
The Arctic, whose bordering countries met in Reykjavik on Thursday, is on the frontlines of global warming and is increasingly coveted for its natural resources and strategic location.

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Phys.org
Groundwater monitoring with seismic instruments

 
Water in the high-mountain regions has many faces. Frozen in the ground, it is like a cement foundation that keeps slopes stable. Glacial ice and snow supply the rivers and thus the foothills with water for drinking and agriculture during the melt season. Intense downpours with flash floods and landslides, on the other hand, pose a life-threatening risk to people in the valleys. The subsoil with i

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Phys.org
Back to the space cradle: ESA astronaut's ongoing experiments in the ISS

 
Like an infant adjusting to the new world, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is relearning how to move around the weightless environment of space. His cradle is a familiar place though—this is Thomas's second mission to the International Space Station, the orbiting lab where he where he broke records for science during his first six months in orbit.

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Future(s) Studies
Are modular buildings the future of housing?

 
What is a modular building? According to Wikipedia: A Modular Building is a prefabricated building that consists of repeated sections called modules. Modularity involves constructing sections away from the building site, then delivering them to the intended site. Installation of the prefabricated sections is completed on site. Prefabricated sections are sometimes placed using a crane. The modules

2h

Future(s) Studies
A paranoid question about DNA nanobots

 
Note: I have mental health problems and the following thoughts might sound ridiculous or overexaggerating, but this is actually stuff that keeps me up at night. Please don’t laugh. I am worried about the Gray Goo scenario aka self-replicating nanobots eating the biosphere. Currently, I am not too concerned tho, considering that multiple people predicted this level of technology arriving in 2040+

2h

ScienceDaily
Parrot poachers striking while the market's hot

 
'Pretty' parrots are more likely to be snatched up for Indonesia's illegal wildlife trade, a new study reveals. The findings not only expose the key drivers behind the country's illegal trade in these birds, but offer lessons for the potential emergence and spread of infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans.

3h

ScienceDaily
Making the invisible visible

 
Researchers use intense laser light in the XUV spectrum to generate second harmonics on a laboratory scale. As the team writes in Science Advances, they were able to achieve this effect for the first time with a laser source on a laboratory scale and thus investigate the surface of a titanium sample down to the atomic level.

3h

ScienceDaily
E-scooters as a new micro-mobility service

 
Researchers found that e-scooters provide an important alternative mode of transit in urban areas, with growing utility as a micro-mobility service in Singapore. The researchers' study revealed several implications for more effective harnessing and regulation of e-scooters as a mode of transit, including where to deploy e-scooters to satisfy demand unmet by other modes of transit, and how best to

3h

cognitive science
FOMO : Psychology behind Feeling of missing out

 
FOMO I'm sure Everyone feels a certain level of FOMO at different times in their lives. an anxious feeling you get when you feel other people might be having a good time without you. So what does FOMO actually mean from a psychological perspective? is it a form of cognitive distortion? I hope this video helps you acknowledge this feeling from a different perspective and adds value to this group c

4h

cognitive science
A public version of the Profile of Mood States (POMS)

 
Hello, I could not find the public version of this scale, especially the one with 37 items by Scacham. Shacham S. 1983. A shortened version of the Profile ofMood States.J Pers Assess47: 305–306. It was also validated for different populations. I am especially looking for this one: Short Form of the Profile of Mood States (POMS-SF): Psychometric information. By Curran, Shelly L.,Andrykowski, Micha

4h

The Atlantic
The Atlantic Daily: 7 Movies to Watch This Summer

 
This summer will see the release of a spate of new films, including long-delayed ones. Here are seven to mark on your moviegoing calendar. Then: We send you off with some weekend reads. After more than a year of pandemic-induced delays, Hollywood plans to drop both big-budget franchise flicks and indie stunners this summer. I haven’t seen everything listed below, but I’ve followed the buzz closel

4h

ScienceDaily
Solar geoengineering may be effective in alleviating impacts of global warming on crops

 
Solar geoengineering is not a fix-all for climate change but it could be one of several tools to manage climate risks. A growing body of research has explored the ability of solar geoengineering to reduce physical climate changes. But much less is known about how solar geoengineering could affect the ecosystem and, particularly, agriculture. Now, research finds that solar geoengineering may be sur

4h

Biochemistry Research News — ScienceDaily
Understanding light-activated proteins in order to improve them

 
Today, proteins that can be controlled with light are a widely used tool in research to specifically switch certain functions on and off in living organisms. Channelrhodopsins are often used for the technique known as optogenetics: When exposed to light, these proteins open a pore in the cell membrane through which ions can flow in. A research team has now used spectroscopy to discover a universal

6h

ScienceDaily
The driving force behind tropical mudslides

 
Geological knowledge is essential for predicting what areas in a tropical mountain range are more prone to have landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and the catastrophic consequences that these events might have in the surrounding populations.

7h

ScienceDaily
Economics and value of pollination

 
Scientists examine pollinators from both an economic and ecological perspective, providing much needed insight into the complexities of valuing pollination. This recent collaboration highlights the importance of characterizing the economic value of pollination services, including that of managed and wild pollinators, both for the sustainability of honey bee markets and the protection of overall ec

7h

Futurism
This Color Changing Wall Light Adds Style To Any Room And Outlasts Older Lamps

 
Physicists have mastered the power of light to the point where we can use it to float “magic carpets.” Yet the lighting in our homes is often confined to the same bland lamps we’ve always had. The Protean Color Changing Wall Light aims to change that. The heart of the Protean is light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. LEDs create light by running electricity through a semiconductor, unlike past light sou

7h

cognitive science
Should I continue working in this lab?

 
I'm graduating with master's soon. I would like to continue in academia but have started to have doubts if it's like this everywhere. My concerns about continuing working there are: I have been informed differently about salary than the rest of people in a similar situation and PI tells me it's something on one day and the other day it changes The environment feels a bit toxic since people has be

8h

Phys.org
2 separate China quakes cause damage; 3 dead, dozens hurt

 
A strong, shallow quake shook southwestern China near the border with Myanmar, killing at least three people and injuring more than two dozen, while a separate 7.3-magnitute quake early Saturday collapsed a bridge and caused other damage in central China.

10h

Future(s) Studies
Magic in an augmented reality world

 
A bit of (cybergoth?) writing has been going around which got me thinking. At what point in a world where the majority of people exist in an augmented reality, maybe with physical interface (biological implants, prothesis, clothes, etc), does magic become real? If individuals are sufficiently networked with each other and the spaces around them, can someone affect a shared change in reality? Make

10h

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