282 articles from THURSDAY 5.3.2020

Spacewatch: deep space climate monitor back in business

New software brings Earth climate satellite back to lifeThe Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) is operational again after being dark for about nine months. The satellite developed issues with its attitude control system last summer. This prompted operators at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to place it in a safe mode that protected the spacecraft from damage but...

Food scientists slice time off salmonella identification process

Researchers from Cornell University, the Mars Global Food Safety Center in Beijing, and the University of Georgia have developed a method for completing whole-genome sequencing to determine salmonella serotypes in just two hours and the whole identification process within eight hours.

Scientists say it is time to save the red sea's coral reef

An international group of researchers led by Karine Kleinhaus, MD, of the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS), calls upon UNESCO to declare the Red Sea's 4000km of coral reef as a Marine World Heritage Site and recommends additional measures critical for the reef's survival. Published in Frontiers in Marine Science, the article cites that while Rapid Ocean...

Corn productivity in real time: Satellites, field cameras, and farmers team up

University of Illinois scientists, with help from members of the Illinois Corn Growers Association, have developed a new, scalable method for estimating crop productivity in real time. The research, published in Remote Sensing of Environment, combines field measurements, a unique in-field camera network, and high-resolution, high-frequency satellite data, providing highly accurate productivity...

Scientists create model to predict multipathogen epidemics

Diseases often pile on, coinfecting people, animals and other organisms that are already fighting an infection. In one of the first studies of its kind, bioscientists from Rice University and the University of Michigan have shown that interactions between pathogens in individual hosts can predict the severity of multipathogen epidemics.

Cool beans: A vertical crop fit for Africa's changing climate and nutritional gaps

Growing more climbing beans, as opposed to lower-yield bush beans, could help increase food security in sub-Saharan Africa as demand for food increases, climate change becomes more pronounced, and arable land becomes scarcer, according to a new study. Researchers mapped suitable cultivation areas and modeled future scenarios for 14 countries. The results indicate where specialists can target to...

Chlamydia build their own entrance into human cells

Chlamydia, a type of pathogenic bacteria, need to penetrate human cells in order to multiply. Researchers from Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf (HHU) have now identified the bacterial protein SemC, which is secreted into the cell and restructures the cell membrane at the entry site. SemC forces the cell's own protein SNX9 to assist it in this process.

First UK death from coronavirus confirmed as cases surge to 116

In a change of policy, some confirmed cases are now treated at home rather than in hospital Coronavirus – live updatesA woman in her 70s was confirmed as the first coronavirus death in the UK on Thursday as Downing Street warned that it was now highly likely that the virus would spread in “a significant way”.It was thought she contracted the virus in the UK and had not been in contact with...

Everything you need to know about coronavirus

As COVID-19 spreads around the United States and the world, fear is also spreading and both may not let up for many more months. With the total confirmed cases closing in on the six-digit threshold, with potentially many thousands of other cases still unconfirmed, here are answers to some basic questions people may have about the virus, the disease and what relationship it has to weather.Here is...

Gusty winds following clipper storm to create flood risk, pounding surf along Great Lakes

A period of strong winds will immediately follow a clipper storm and is forecast to create pounding waves and flooding along the shores of lakes Michigan, Erie, Huron and Ontario to end this week.Gusty north to northwest winds will be associated with the backside of a vigorous storm from western Canada, known as an Alberta Clipper. Wind blown waves from Lake Michigan break around the Shedd...

Axiom Space makes deal with SpaceX to send customers to space station next year

Axiom Space says it's signed a contract with SpaceX to fly three paying passengers and an Axiom-trained commander to the International Space Station aboard a Crew Dragon spaceship as soon as the second half of next year. If Axiom Space, SpaceX and NASA can stick to the schedule, that would qualify the 10-day trip as the first honest-to-goodness privately funded mission to the space station....

Light to electricity: New multi-material solar cells set new efficiency standard

Researchers from the University of Toronto Engineering and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have overcome a key obstacle in combining the emerging solar-harvesting technology of perovskites with the commercial gold standard—silicon solar cells. The result is a highly efficient and stable tandem solar cell, one of the best-performing reported to date.