23 articles from SATURDAY 25.7.2020

Cooking eased my exile and became my homage to the lives of immigrants

Preparing food helped me reconcile my old and new world. Now my restaurant produces a beautiful mongrel cuisine‘Now you better behave and don’t cry!” was the warning from my mother, shot with a stern look to show she was deadly serious. We disembarked from the aircraft at Heathrow. It was a dark and dank day. Cold rain spat at us as we walked across the tarmac into the immigration hall. In...

How the lowly mushroom is becoming a nutritional star

Mushrooms are often considered only for their culinary use because they are packed with flavor-enhancers and have gourmet appeal. That is probably why they are the second most popular pizza topping, next to pepperoni.In the past, food scientists like me often praised mushrooms as healthy because of what they don’t contribute to the diet; they contain no cholesterol and gluten and are low in fat,...

The UK's app failure sums up our fatally flawed coronavirus response | John Naughton

Thanks to dithering and ineptitude, we may never have contact tracing on our smartphonesCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageI’ve just been looking at the coronavirus death toll in various countries as tallied on the Johns Hopkins University Covid-19 tracker. At the time I checked, the UK had 45,407 deaths, Poland had 1,642, Ireland had 1,753, New Zealand had 1,555 and...

I Lived in a Dome in Hawaii to Simulate Life on Mars

It was the crew’s first night, we had just arrived, we were settling in. Kim Binsted, principle investigator on the HI-SEAS project, was preparing to leave for four months, nervous, I think, about launching this Mars mission, a project whose actualization was so uncertain throughout the buildup—NASA nearly pulled funding, there were delays in the construction of the habitat—that at times it...

A change to the zodiac? This should never have been written into the stars

There has been a lot of talk about the Ophiuchus constellation joining the zodiac, but I won’t be changing my Cancerian waysI am zodiac person. I have five books on the zodiac (and am open to many more). When I meet someone, before they have even opened their mouth I’ll be trying to figure out what their star sign is. I’m not so into this stuff that I’ll dislike or avoid certain signs, but...

Ground system for NASA's Roman Space Telescope completes major review

When it launches in the mid-2020s, NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will create enormous panoramic pictures of space in unprecedented detail. The mission's wide field of view will enable scientists to conduct sweeping cosmic surveys, yielding a wealth of new information about the universe.

‘A meteor will go by, and everyone gasps’: meet the world’s most dedicated stargazers

Every year, amateur telescope makers gather under starry skies in the US and South Africa – to trade tips and tales from across the universeYou have to be rigorous. You need perseverance. You must be meticulously clean. But even if you possess all these skills, none of them matters if you are in a hurry. Because there is one thing enthusiasts make clear from the start: building a telescope from...

Public Health England calls for action on obesity in Covid-19 fight

New evidence links obesity to increased risks of coronavirus-related hospitalisation, intensive care and deathCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe case for action on obesity has “never been stronger”, according to Public Health England , who today publish a review of evidence which shows that being overweight remains one of the biggest risk factors in the battle...

Vacancy dynamics on CO-covered Pt(111) electrodes

USTC reported in situ video-STM observations of additional point defects in the presence of this dynamic CO adlayer. The STM observations presented in this work provide direct insights into their dynamic behavior and formation mechanisms.

Wetter than wet: Global warming means more rain for Asian monsoon regions

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University studied how the weather will change with global warming in Asian monsoon regions using a high-resolution climate simulation. The region is home to a large population, and the monsoons are a major driver of global water cycles. They explicitly simulated cloud formation and dissipation, and found significantly increased precipitation over the monsoon...

Coronavirus live news: Close watch on Victoria, Australia, and record infections globally

WHO reports 284,196 new cases; France discourages travel to Catalonia region; South Africa shuts schools for a month‘Wicked enemy’: how Australia’s success unravelledUS cases pass 4m cases, states dial back reopeningTrump cancels Republican convention events in Florida 3.15am BST Today marks six months since Australia recorded its first Covid-19 case.Here is how the Guardian first reported...

A Growing Market at Gravity's Edge

Video Length: 4:27The commercialization of low-Earth orbit is enabling a new market in space, while aiding NASA in its mission of exploration and discovery. Read this story Video Links: A Growing Market at Gravity’s Edge -...

Fossil tracks: Wrong number of fingers leads down wrong track

Have you ever wondered why our hands have five fingers while amphibians usually only have four? Until now it was assumed that this was already the case with the early ancestors of today's frogs and salamanders, the Temnospondyli. However, a new find of the crocodile-like Temnospondyl Metoposaurus krasiejowensis (about 225 million years old) in Poland shows five metacarpal bones and thus five...