24 articles from SATURDAY 28.9.2019

How I curbed my helicopter parenting – and let my daughter jump through fire

A family festival, where children learn courageous feats, helped me break my over-protective habitsOne Saturday this summer I stood in a field and held my breath as I waited for my nine-year-old daughter Sofya to jump through a ring of fire. Despite her enthusiasm, the hours of practice she’d had with expert adults and the many fire marshals on duty, I could see she was in conflict: afraid of...

We’re still a long way from making a quantum leap in web code-breaking | John Naughton

Google has built a super-fast computer, but whether it can break the encryption we take for granted is mootSomething intriguing happened last week. A paper about quantum computing by a Google researcher making a startling claim appeared on a Nasa website – and then disappeared shortly afterwards. Conspiracy theorists immediately suspected that something sinister involving the National Security...

Creating the Super Avocado

In the early 1990s, a young Australian chef named Bill Granger had a bright idea: Why not spread avocado on toast?Nearly three decades after that successful experiment, the long and sometimes bizarre history of the avocado has reached a new and potentially controversial turning point -- albeit without the Instagram potential of avocado toast. As climate change threatens the fruit's place on...

Meet the Millionaires Helping to Pay for Climate Protests

Climate change protesters from Extinction Rebellion snarled traffic in Washington on Monday and again on Friday. You might find yourself asking, "Who helps pays for this activism?"The answer, in part, is the scions of some of America's most famous families, including the Kennedys and the Gettys.On Friday, climate protesters marched through parts of downtown Washington, D.C., blocking...

Are humans preventing flies from eavesdropping?

Soundscapes may influence the evolution of tightly co-evolved host-parasitoid relationships. Both traffic noise and natural ocean noise were found to inhibit parasitoid Ormia fly orientation to sound, which affects reproduction of the fly and survival of the cricket host.

Safe mercury levels in Kotzebue Sound fish

A new analysis of Kotzebue Sound fish has found that mercury levels in a variety of its subsistence species are safe for unrestricted consumption. The study tested 297 subsistence-caught fish. The average mercury levels for each of the eight species were at levels considered safe by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

Precious escargot: the mission to return tiny snails to Pacific islands

British zoologists part of global project to release 15,000 endangered partula species vital to French PolynesiaThey are some of the smallest animals on our planet, measuring from 1cm to 2cm in length. But the recent return of thousands of tiny tropical tree snails to French Polynesia represents one of the biggest reintroduction programmes ever attempted by conservationists.More than 15,000...

New treatment extends life of advanced melanoma patients

Half of people live five years or more with combination immunotherapy treatment, study findsHalf of people diagnosed with advanced melanoma, which once had dismal survival rates, are now living for five years or more when they receive a combination immunotherapy treatment, a study has shown.A decade ago, only one in 20 patients were still alive after five years. Most died within six to nine...

Will genome sequencing bring precision medicine for all?

The health secretary wants to introduce genetic screening to the NHS – but many firms are already selling cheap testing kitsThe buzz phrase among a small army of biotech companies looking to get a foothold in the ever-expanding health market is “personalised medicine” or, as it’s also known, “precision medicine”. At the core of this concept is the understanding that we are all...

NASA awards $10M to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin for hydrogen-oxygen storage tech

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture is on the top of the funding list for a newly announced round of "Tipping Point" funding from NASA for technologies that could be applied to exploration and settlement of the moon and Mars. Headquartered in Kent, Wash., Blue Origin will be awarded $10 million to conduct a ground-based demonstration of hydrogen and oxygen liquefaction...