The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and already its cost is staggering. The disease could have contributed to around 17 million deaths. And, by 2024, the hit to the global economy could reach US$12.5 trillion. Everyone has experienced an extraordinary few years that few people would want to repeat. If the world is to avoid a similar or worse event in the future, countries must ensure that they are better prepared to deal with pandemics....
Mathematicians say that they have solved a major, decades-old problem in geometry: how to reconstruct the inner structure of a mystery object ‘X’ from knowing only how fast waves travel between any two points on its boundary. The work has implications in real-world situations, such as for geophysicists who use seismic waves to analyse the structure of Earth’s interior. “Without destroying ‘X’, can we figure out what’s inside?” asked mathematician András Vasy of Stanford University in California, when he presented the work in a talk at University College London (UCL) last week....
Dear EarthTalk: I keep meeting people who say that human-induced global warming is only theory, that just as many scientists doubt it as believe it. Can you settle the score? – J. Proctor, London, UK So-called “global warming skeptics” are indeed getting more vocal than ever, and banding together to show their solidarity against the scientific consensus that has concluded that global warming is caused by emissions from human activities. Upwards of 800 skeptics (most of whom are not scientists) took part in the second annual International Conference on Climate Change—sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank—in March 2009....
Are you intrigued by your sleep cycles and circadian rhythms? Want to learn more about the genes that turn on and off within our cells during a 24-hour period, the evolution of body clocks, organisms that have shut down their circadian clocks and interactions between circadian rhythms and reproductive cycles? Join us below at noon Eastern on Friday (June 1) for a live 30-minute online chat at Scientific American with chronobiologist Bora Zivkovic, SA’s blogs editor....
Pres. Donald Trump’s administration has announced plans to dismantle an array of federal efforts to fight global warming, including a program to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, a rule limiting methane gas leaks and a mandate that aggressively boosts auto emissions standards. But Trump officials face a major roadblock in their efforts, legal scholars say. It is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 formal “endangerment finding,” which states carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases emitted from smokestacks and other man-made sources “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations....
Key concepts Physics Gravity Drag Air resistance Introduction Have you ever wondered what a parachute and an open rain jacket have in common? They both trap air and slow you down when you move fast! In this activity you will design a parachute for a miniature action figure. Tissue paper or a plastic bag and a few strings are all it takes to make your figure into an expert skydiver. Background Things fall because gravity pulls them down—and the faster they fall the harder they land....
Some four years ago, when Ann-Marie Madigan first encountered the idea that there might be an undetected massive planet lurking beyond Pluto’s orbit, she felt excited but skeptical. The evidence for such a world was then—and now remains—circumstantial: strange patterns in the orbits of small objects at the outskirts of the known solar system. Proponents of “Planet Nine” (Pluto no longer counts in the solar system’s planetary tally) say such patterns could be produced by that world’s hefty gravitational influence....
Modern techniques have revealed that one of the compounds underlying these mystic experiences is the psychoactive drug harmine. What these first users of ayahuasca couldn’t have known was that, one day, this ingredient in their enlightening brew would be positioned as a key to treating diabetes. Such a cure is a long way off, but researchers took another step toward it when they combined naturally occurring harmine with a compound synthesized from scratch in a lab....
WASHINGTON—House and Senate leaders announced late Friday night that they had finally hammered out a deal on landmark legislation designed to speed federal approval of new drugs and devices and boost funding of medical research. But what Republican lawmakers call the “final” version of the 21st Century Cures Act is actually still in negotiation with Senate Democrats, a senior Democratic aide told STAT on Sunday. Despite the potential for challenges in the Senate, the House will push ahead and vote Wednesday on the $6....
Two tiny, hopping robots now have a companion on the surface of the big asteroid Ryugu. A shoebox-sized lander called the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) deployed from its mothership, Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft, as planned at 9:57 p.m. EDT Tuesday (Oct. 2; 0157 GMT on Oct. 3) and came to rest on Ryugu shortly thereafter. The lander’s first photo of asteroid Ryugu shows a rocky world, and even MASCOT’s own shadow....
Ants exhibit myriad complex social behaviors despite possessing only teeny brains. Now new research suggests that teaching should be added to the list of ant accomplishments. Nigel Franks and Tom Richardson of the University of Bristol in England studied so-called tandem running in Temnothorax albipennis ants, during which two ants run a course between nest and food with various stops and starts en route. The researchers found that the lead ant who knows the way to the food slows down as the follower familiarizes itself with the route and will not proceed until the follower taps it on the back....
The hospital where veteran Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy has been recuperating following a seizure revealed today that the Massachusetts lawmaker has a malignant brain tumor. Kennedy, 76, was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston from his home in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod Saturday after suffering a seizure. In a joint statement, MGH neurologist Lee Schwamm and primary care physician Larry Ronan said that a biopsy uncovered a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe—at the upper rear of the senator’s brain....
Scientific American presents Math Dude by Quick and Dirty Tips. Scientific American and Quick and Dirty Tips are both Macmillan companies. It’s not often someone suggests that knowing some math could make you the life of the party, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Yes, a properly timed delivery of a few fun facts about the famed Fibonacci sequence just might leave your friends clamoring for more—because it really is that cool....
Why do people cherish family heirlooms and celebrity memorabilia? We treat them as somehow special, inherently different from items that look identical but do not share the same history. Psychologists call this phenomenon “magical contagion,” and research suggests this effect helps to fulfill our need for social connection. In other words, we expect these hand-me-downs to keep us company in lieu of the person who owned them. Social belonging is a fundamental human need, and George Newman and Rosanna Smith of the Yale School of Management wondered whether the longing for connection might alter how we treat “authentic objects,” that is, those with a unique provenance....
First there were sneezing hamsters, now sneezing cats. A team in Thailand reports the first solid evidence of a pet cat infecting a person with SARS-CoV-2 — adding felines to the list of animals that can transmit the virus to people. Researchers say the results are convincing. They are surprised that it has taken this long to establish that transmission can occur, given the scale of the pandemic, the virus’s ability to jump between animal species, and the close contact between cats and people....
By Duncan Graham-Rowe of Nature magazineThe first drug to show signs of not just halting multiple sclerosis (MS), but actually reversing the nerve damage caused by the condition, has taken a significant step towards clinical approval.The results of a phase III trial, presented on 22 October at the 5th Joint Triennial Congress of the European and Americas Committees for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, in Amsterdam, found that 78% of patients treated with the monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab remained free from relapse after two years – and half the relapse rate of one of the standard therapies, interferon beta-1a (marketed as Rebif, among other names)....
Adding up all of the mass in every asteroid in our entire solar system totals only less than the mass of our Moon. Despite their small physical size, however, these space rocks offer important clues as to how our solar system formed. The terms asteroid, meteor, meteorite, and even comet are often used interchangeably…but what is the difference? What is an asteroid? Asteroids are rocky objects smaller than planets that are left over from the formation of our solar system....
California climate regulators yesterday approved rules to slash methane, refrigerants and soot particles that are among the most potent contributors to global warming. The so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), which spend less time in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide but trap far more heat during their lifetimes, accounted for 42 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2013. But they were left out of the state’s first set of climate regulations....
On the brink of federal regulatory review, chemicals in deodorants, lotions and conditioners are showing up in Chicago’s air at levels that scientists call alarming. The airborne compounds – cyclic siloxanes – are traveling to places as far as the Arctic, and can be toxic to aquatic life. “These chemicals are just everywhere,” said Keri Hornbuckle, an engineering professor at the University of Iowa and senior author of a new study....
As I write this essay, I feel myself being drawn inexorably toward one of the world’s great destinations: New York City. Okay, I’m actually riding a commuter train. But this daily journey always feels compelling to me. I’m headed toward a place of great energy, where I work and find collaborative opportunities, meet up with friends, enjoy cultural activities and often find myself spontaneously marveling at the surrounding man-made wonders. Many other people clearly are equally captivated by the opportunities they find in cities....
