30 articles from SATURDAY 1.8.2020

SpaceX’s Dragon aims to dodge hurricane for homecoming of two NASA astronauts

NASA and SpaceX are going ahead with plans to bring NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken home from the International Space Station for a splashdown this weekend, even though Hurricane Isaias is heading for Florida's Atlantic coast. Fortunately, SpaceX's Dragon capsule is heading for waters off Florida's other coast. NASA said weather conditions are all systems go for the...

Machine learning finds a surprising early galaxy

New results achieved by combining big data captured by the Subaru Telescope and the power of machine learning have discovered a galaxy with an extremely low oxygen abundance of 1.6% solar abundance, breaking the previous record of the lowest oxygen abundance. The measured oxygen abundance suggests that most of the stars in this galaxy formed very recently.

US astronauts prepare for SpaceX-NASA return home from ISS

The first US astronauts to reach the International Space Station on an American spacecraft in nearly a decade prepared Saturday for their return home, which is tentatively on schedule for the weekend despite the arrival of Hurricane Isaias off Florida. "Now is the entry, descent and splashdown phase after we undock, hopefully a little bit later today," Doug Hurley, one of the two astronauts, said...

Improve your relationships – with advice from counter-terrorism experts

Emily and Laurence Alison specialise in communication and co-operation with criminal suspects. But their methods work in the home and at work, too“The more you push someone, the more they close up,” say Emily and Laurence Alison, a husband-and-wife psychology team. “The hungrier you are for information, the harder it will be to get that out of someone. But give the person a choice about what...

GPT-3: an AI game-changer or an environmental disaster? | John Naughton

The tech giants’ latest machine-learning system comes with both ethical and environmental costsUnless you’ve been holidaying on Mars, or perhaps in Spain (alongside the transport secretary), you may have noticed some fuss on social media about something called GPT-3. The GPT bit stands for the “generative pre-training” of a language model that acquires knowledge of the world by...

Carl Bergstrom: 'People are using data to bullshit'

The evolutionary biologist on data manipulation, fake news, and the importance of using science as a lie detectorCarl Bergstrom is a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. More than a decade ago he conducted research on the role of government in pandemic planning, and has been a trenchant critic of the current response. He is the co-author with his colleague...

Take a tusk, drill holes, weave a rope – and change the course of history

Scientists have discovered the tool our stone-age ancestors used to manufacture twine – a milestone in technological developmentForty thousand years ago, a stone-age toolmaker carved a curious instrument from mammoth tusk. Twenty centimetres long, the ivory strip has four holes drilled in it, each lined with precisely cut spiral incisions.The purpose of this strange device was unclear when it...

Severe lack of funding for heart disease research revealed

Urgent annual cash injection of £650m needed for cardiovascular conditions to match threat to nation’s health of cancerA severe deficit has emerged in the funding of major health conditions such as cardiovascular disease and mental health, according to a new study calling for an urgent cash injection.While an estimated £29 per person is invested in cancer research each year, only half as much...

Pubs in England may have to close to control coronavirus, says Sage adviser

Government modelling expert Graham Medley says reopening schools is a priorityCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe government may have to consider closing pubs in England to control the transmission of the coronavirus and to enable schools to reopen after the summer holidays, one of the government’s top scientific advisers has said.Prof Graham Medley, who chairs the...

You’re already wearing a mask – now consider a face shield and goggles | Adrienne Matei

For better protection, you may need to ... look a little weird and shield your peepersAt first, wearing a face mask felt a bit strange. Now, over five months into North America’s battle with Covid-19, I feel naked in public without one. Will goggles – previously the purview of steampunks and snowboarders – become the next article of protective equipment to go from weird to widespread?...

What kind of face mask best protects against coronavirus?

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageYes. Different types of mask offer different levels of protection. Surgical grade N95 respirators offer the highest level of protection against Covid-19 infection, followed by surgical grade masks. However, these masks are costly, in limited supply,...

Victoria reports 397 new coronavirus cases as Australian death toll climbs above 200

Daniel Andrews says total includes 49 ‘mystery cases’ as NSW reports 17 new infections and a death linked to Crossroads Hotel clusterCoronavirus live news: England rocked by easing u-turn as Australia cases mountKatharine Murphy: ‘Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews are locked in an Argentinian tango on coronavirus’Comment: ‘Fear hangs over Melbourne and nothing is like the first...

New printing process advances 3-D capabilities

More durable prosthetics and medical devices for patients and stronger parts for airplanes and automobiles are just some of the products that could be created through a new 3-D printing technology invented by a UMass Lowell researcher.

Scientists discover new class of semiconducting entropy-stabilized materials

Semiconductors are important materials in numerous functional applications such as digital and analog electronics, solar cells, LEDs, and lasers. Semiconducting alloys are particularly useful for these applications since their properties can be engineered by tuning the mixing ratio or the alloy ingredients. However, the synthesis of multicomponent semiconductor alloys has been a big challenge due...

Coronavirus live news: WHO reports record global daily cases as Victoria announces 397 new cases and three deaths

Almost 300,000 new infections on Friday, led by US, Brazil and India; Boris Johnson warns of second UK lockdown. Follow all the developments liveFauci optimistic about having a vaccine this yearAustralia death toll tops 200The week Covid-19 roared back in Europe 5.47am BST China recorded 45 new cases on Friday, mostly from outbreaks in the provinces of Zinjiang and Liaoning, the National Health...

New studies show how to save parasites and why it's important

An international group of scientists published a paper, Aug. 1, 2020, in a special edition of the journal Biological Conservation that lays out an ambitious global conservation plan for parasites. A separate paper also found that the responses of parasites to environmental change are likely to be complex, and that a changing world probably will see both outbreaks of some parasites and a total loss...

RSV vaccination of pregnant women could prevent pneumonia in babies

Professor Shabir A. Madhi of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is the lead author of a study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, 30 July 2020.The multinational, multicentre study reports on the first RSV vaccine to provide evidence that inmunisation of pregnant woman could protect young infants under six months old against severe RSV lower...

Two Nasa astronauts prepare to make first splashdown for 45 years

The crew from the SpaceX commercial flight will land off Florida on Sunday unless Hurricane Isaias blows them off courseTwo Nasa astronauts are preparing to make the first splashdown return to Earth in 45 years despite the threat posed by Hurricane Isaias off the coast of Florida.Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are set to come back to Earth from the International Space Station on Sunday after...