194 articles from MONDAY 23.3.2020

Australia's food supply relies on migrant workers, many of whom are facing coronavirus limbo | Victoria Stead

As borders close and social distancing increases, what are our responsibilities to the people who keep working?Amid coronavirus-induced stockpiling and empty supermarket shelves, politicians have been quick to assure us of the reliability of Australia’s food supply systems.Writing for the Guardian last week, agriculture minister David Littleproud slammed “ridiculous” panic-buying, saying:...

The Guardian view on lockdown for Britain: true leadership is required | Editorial

However well-intentioned, a laissez-faire strategy for fighting coronavirus has not worked. Now is the right time for the government to give the public clarity and firm parametersCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAfter the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act was introduced in 1939, imposing a series of stringent and intrusive restrictions on individual freedoms, the wartime...

Ancestor of all animals identified in Australian fossils

Geologists have discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most animals today, including humans. The wormlike creature, Ikaria wariootia, is the earliest bilaterian, or organism with a front and back, two symmetrical sides, and openings at either end connected by a gut. It was found in Ediacaran Period deposits in Australia and was 2-7 millimeters long, with the largest the...

Fossil hunters find evidence of 555m-year-old human relative

Ikaria wariootia is half the size of a grain of rice and an early example of a bilateral organism It might not show much of a family resemblance but fossil hunters say a newly discovered creature, that looks like a teardrop-shaped jellybean and is about half the size of a grain of rice, is an early relative of humans and a vast array of other animals.The team discovered the fossils in rocks in...

Pablo Escobar's hippos may help counteract a legacy of extinctions

When cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, the four hippos he brought to his private zoo in Colombia were left behind in a pond on his ranch. Since then, their numbers have grown to an estimated 80-100, and the giant herbivores have made their way into the country's rivers. Scientists and the public alike have viewed Escobar's hippos as invasive pests that by no rights should run...

Researchers investigate how squid communicate in the dark

In the frigid waters 1,500 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of human-sized Humboldt squid feed on a patch of finger-length lantern fish. Zipping past each other, the predators move with exceptional precision, never colliding or competing for prey.

New 3-D view of methane tracks sources

NASA's new 3-dimensional portrait of methane concentrations shows the world's second largest contributor to greenhouse warming, the diversity of sources on the ground, and the behavior of the gas as it moves through the atmosphere. Combining multiple data sets from emissions inventories, including fossil fuel, agricultural, biomass burning and biofuels, and simulations of wetland sources into a...

New genetic editing powers discovered in squid

Revealing yet another super-power in the skillful squid, scientists have discovered that squid massively edit their own genetic instructions not only within the nucleus of their neurons, but also within the axon—the long, slender neural projections that transmit electrical impulses to other neurons. This is the first time that edits to genetic information have been observed outside of the...

Coronavirus: Britons abroad urged to return to UK immediately

Foreign Office asks up to 1m British citizens to cut short trips and come home straight away Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageUp to 1 million Britons on holiday or on business trips abroad have been asked to return to the UK immediately by the Foreign Office as they may not be able to get commercial flights within days.In updated advice, the FCO said British citizens...

Is Niagara Falls a barrier against fish movement?

New research shows that fishes on either side of Niagara Falls—one of the most powerful waterfalls in the world—are unlikely to breed with one another. Knowing how well the falls serves as a barrier to fish movement is essential to conservation efforts to stop the spread of invasive aquatic species causing ecological destruction in the Great Lakes. The study is published today in the journal...

Stroke: When the system fails for the second time

After a stroke, there is an increased risk of suffering a second one. If areas in the left hemisphere were affected during the first attack, language is often impaired. In order to maintain this capability, the brain usually briefly drives up the counterparts on the right side. But what happens after a second attack? Medical researchers have now found an answer by using virtual lesions.

NHS doctor moves into motorhome to protect three-year-old son

Nick Dennison says he made decision in effort to reduce risk to his son who has cancerCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAn NHS intensive care doctor working on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis has moved into a motorhome to protect his three-year-old son who has cancer.Nick Dennison is an anaesthetist at Frimley Park hospital in Surrey, but is now working as an...

Novel MOF is potential next-gen semiconductor

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging multi-functional materials that are gradually finding their way out of the research labs and into a myriad of real-world applications. For example, MOFs can store dangerous gasses, catalyze chemical reactions, deliver drugs in controlled fashion, and may even be used in rechargeable batteries and solar cells.

Ultrafast and broadband perovskite photodetectors for large-dynamic-range imaging

A solution-processed broadband photodetector based on organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite and organic bulk heterojunction has been demonstrated, achieving broadband response spectra up to 1000 nm with a high EQE in the NIR region, an ultrafast response speed of 5.6 ns and a wide linear dynamic range of 191 dB. Encouragingly, due to the high-dynamic-range imaging capacity, high-quality visible-NIR...

Time symmetry and the laws of physics

If three or more objects move around each other, history cannot be reversed. That is the conclusion of an international team of researchers based on computer simulations of three black holes orbiting each other. The researchers, led by the Dutch astronomer Tjarda Boekholt, publish their findings in the April issue of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Manufacturers work on blueprint to create 30,000 NHS ventilators

Strict criteria for coronavirus equipment includes reliability, ease of use and backup battery Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe government has asked manufacturers including Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Nissan and JCB to help produce up to 30,000 ventilators in as little as two weeks, amid concern that the 8,175 the NHS has available will not be enough to treat a surge in...

Did you solve it? Meet the puzzle king

The solution to today’s paradoxical probability poserEarlier today I set you the following puzzle, set by Peter Winkler.Team A and Team B are perennial football rivals. Every year they meet for a series of games. The first team to win four games gets to take home the Golden Teapot and keep it for a year. Continue...

Evidence for broken time-reversal symmetry in a topological superconductor

Chiral superconductors are unconventional superconducting materials with distinctive topological properties, in which time-reversal symmetry is broken. Two of the first materials to be identified as chiral superconductors are UPt3 and Sr2RuO4. So far, experimental evidence for broken time-reversal symmetry in both these materials was based primarily on surface measurements collected at a magnetic...

New genetic editing powers discovered in squid

Revealing yet another super-power in the skillful squid, scientists have discovered that squid massively edit their own genetic instructions not only within the nucleus of their neurons, but also within the axon -- the long, slender neural projections that transmit electrical impulses to other neurons. This is the first time that edits to genetic information have been observed outside of the...

Jets of bacteria carry microscopic cargoes

It is a longstanding challenge to be able to control biological systems to perform specific tasks. Researchers have now reported doing just that. They used a liquid crystal to dictate the direction of the bacterial movement, and added a microscopic cargo for the bacteria to carry, more than 5 times the size of the bacteria.

Coal exit benefits outweigh its costs

Coal combustion is not only the single most important source of CO2 -- accounting for more than a third of global emissions, but also a major contributor to detrimental effects on public health and biodiversity. Yet, globally phasing out coal remains one of the hardest political nuts to crack.

The fight to save Europe's olive trees from disease

A plant disease spread by sap-sucking insects has been devastating olive and fruit orchards across southern Europe, but scientists are inching closer to halting its spread with the help of insect repelling clays, vegetative barriers and genetic analysis.

Supermassive black holes shortly after the Big Bang: How to seed them

They are billions of times larger than our Sun: how is it possible that, as recently observed, supermassive black holes were already present when the Universe, now 14 billion years old, was "just" 800 million years old? For astrophysicists, the formation of these cosmic monsters in such a short time is a real scientific headache, which raises important questions on the current knowledge of the...

Swedish PM warned over 'Russian roulette-style' Covid-19 strategy

Health experts say attempt to build herd immunity is a ‘mad experiment with 10m people’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCriticism is mounting in Sweden of the government’s approach to Covid-19, with experts warning that its strategy of building broad immunity while protecting at-risk groups – similar to that initially adopted by the UK – amounted to...