331 articles from THURSDAY 7.5.2020

Facebook and YouTube are rushing to delete “Plandemic,” a conspiracy-laden video

The news: A 25-minute clip of an upcoming documentary featuring a well-known anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist was viewed millions of times this week on social media, before Facebook and YouTube pledged to remove copies of it from their platforms. On Thursday, Facebook told reporters that the documentary violated its policies by promoting the potentially harmful claim that wearing a mask can make...

Insect Experts Say People Should Calm Down About the Threat of ‘Murder Hornets’

Insect experts say people should calm down about the big bug with the nickname “murder hornet” — unless you are a beekeeper or a honeybee. The Asian giant hornets found in Washington state that grabbed headlines this week aren’t big killers of humans, although it does happen on rare occasions. But the world’s largest hornets do decapitate entire hives of honeybees,...

Prediction tool shows how forest thinning may increase Sierra Nevada snowpack

Thinning the Sierra Nevada forest by removing trees by hand or using heavy machinery is one of the few tools available to manage forests. However, finding the best way to thin forests by removing select trees to maximize the forest's benefits for water quantity, water quality, wildfire risk and wildlife habitat remains a challenge for resource managers.

Physicists shed light on the nanoscale dynamics of spin thermalization

In physics, thermalization, or the trend of sub-systems within a whole to gain a common temperature, is typically the norm. There are situations, however, where thermalization is slowed down or virtually suppressed; examples are when considering the dynamics of electron and nuclear spins in solids. Understanding why this happens and how it can be controlled is presently at the center of a broad...

Research helps expand genome sequencing of marine mammals

Researchers will soon have access to the full genomic sequences for 23 marine mammal species preserved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), thanks to an ongoing collaboration between NIST and a scientific consortium called the DNA Zoo.

Prediction tool shows how forest thinning may increase Sierra Nevada snowpack

The forest of the Sierra Nevada mountains is an important resource for the surrounding communities in Nevada and California. Thinning the forest by removing trees by hand or using heavy machinery is one of the few tools available to manage forests. However, finding the best way to thin forests by removing select trees to maximize the forest's benefits for water quantity, water quality, wildfire...

What's Up - May 2020

What astronomy highlights can you see in the sky in May 2020? Venus, Sirius and the Milky Way. With so many of us staying home these days, here's a look into the sky at dusk and dawn with an eye toward the vast stretches of wide open space right above our heads. News Article Type: Homepage ArticlesPublished: Thursday, May 7, 2020 -...

No complaint or refund demand over 400,000 unusable NHS gowns

Turkish firm contradicts Downing Street assurances about PPE fiascoCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTurkish officials and the company at the centre of the decision by the NHS to impound 400,000 unusable protective gowns have claimed they are yet to receive a complaint or demand for a refund from the health service.Their statements seemingly contradicted assurances made...

Telescopes and Spacecraft Join Forces to Probe Deep into Jupiter's Atmosphere

Portal origin URL: Telescopes and Spacecraft Join Forces to Probe Deep into Jupiter's AtmospherePortal origin nid: 460545Published: Thursday, May 7, 2020 - 15:00Featured (stick to top of list): noPortal text teaser: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based Gemini Observatory in Hawaii have teamed up with the Juno spacecraft to probe the mightiest storms in...

Covid-19 found in semen of infected men, say Chinese doctors

Study based on small number of patients opens up chance of sexual transmissionCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChinese researchers who tested the sperm of men infected with Covid-19 found a minority had the new coronavirus in their semen, opening up a small chance the disease could be sexually transmitted, scientists have said.A study by doctors at China’s Shangqiu...

Laser loop couples quantum systems over a distance

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in creating strong coupling between quantum systems over a greater distance. They accomplished this with a novel method in which a laser loop connects the systems, enabling nearly lossless exchange of information and strong interaction between them. The physicists reported that the new method opens up new possibilities in quantum networks and quantum...

India is forcing people to use its covid app, unlike any other democracy

The world has never seen anything quite like Aarogya Setu. Two months ago, India’s app for coronavirus contact tracing didn’t exist; now it has nearly 100 million users. Prime Minister Narendra Modi boosted it on release by urging every one of the country’s 1.3 billion people to download it, and the result was that within two weeks of launch it became the fastest app ever to reach 50 million...

A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them.

As the covid-19 pandemic rages, technologists everywhere have been rushing to build apps, services, and systems for contact tracing: identifying and notifying all those who come in contact with a carrier. Some are lightweight and temporary, while others are pervasive and invasive: China’s system, for example, sucks up data including citizens’ identity, location, and even online payment...

Can we estimate the time until the next recession?

As the world economy is falling into one of the biggest contractions of the last decades, a new study of economic recession patterns finds that the likelihood of a downturn was high even before the onset of the Coronavirus crisis.

Quantum resonances near absolute zero

Recently, Prof. Yang Xueming from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. Yang Tiangang from the Southern University of Science and Technology discussed significant advances in the study of quantum resonances in atomic and molecular collisions at near absolute zero temperature. Their article was published in Science on May 7.

Laser loop couples quantum systems over a distance

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in creating strong coupling between quantum systems over a great distance. They accomplished this with a novel method in which a laser loop connects the systems, enabling nearly lossless exchange of information and strong interaction between them. In the journal Science, physicists from the University of Basel and University of Hanover reported that...

Using digital twins to design more sustainable cities

For Dr. Fabian Dembski, who works at the intersection of architecture, city planning, and computational science, cities are more than just the places we live. They function like living organisms, growing and changing over time. From this perspective, decisions made in city planning can either improve or degrade the health of urban spaces.

Surfaces that grip like gecko feet could be easily mass-produced

Why did the gecko climb the skyscraper? Because it could; its toes stick to about anything. For a few years, engineers have known the secrets of gecko stickiness and emulated it in strips of rubbery materials useful for picking up and releasing objects, but simple mass production for everyday use has been out of reach until now.

EU not ready for the release of gene drive organisms into the environment

Within the last decades, new genetic engineering tools for manipulating genetic material in plants, animals and microorganisms are getting large attention from the international community, bringing new challenges and possibilities. While genetically modified organisms (GMO) have been known and used for quite a while now, gene drive organisms (GDO) are yet at the consideration and evaluation stage.

Benthos in the Antarctic Weddell Sea in decline

Over the past quarter-century, changes in Antarctic sea-ice cover have had profound impacts on life on the ocean floor. As biologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute report in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications, between 1988 and 2014, total benthic biomass on the continental shelf of the northeast Weddell Sea declined by two thirds. In addition, the composition of the benthos...

A highly conserved cryptic epitope in the receptor binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has now become a pandemic, but there is currently very little understanding of the antigenicity of the virus. We therefore determined the crystal structure of CR3022, a neutralizing antibody previously isolated from a convalescent SARS patient, in complex with the...

Aerodynamic imaging by mosquitoes inspires a surface detector for autonomous flying vehicles

Some flying animals use active sensing to perceive and avoid obstacles. Nocturnal mosquitoes exhibit a behavioral response to divert away from surfaces when vision is unavailable, indicating a short-range, mechanosensory collision-avoidance mechanism. We suggest that this behavior is mediated by perceiving modulations of their self-induced airflow patterns as they enter a ground or wall effect. We...

An investigation of transmission control measures during the first 50 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in China

Responding to an outbreak of a novel coronavirus [agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)] in December 2019, China banned travel to and from Wuhan city on 23 January 2020 and implemented a national emergency response. We investigated the spread and control of COVID-19 using a data set that included case reports, human movement, and public health interventions. The Wuhan shutdown was...