33 articles from SUNDAY 23.8.2020

Starwatch: silver moonlight in contrast with blood red Antares

The moon at first quarter will pass Antares, the heart of the scorpion, a red giant with an explosive futureThis week, the moon will coast past the blood-red northern summer star of Antares in the constellation of Scorpius, the scorpion. The chart shows the view looking south-south-west from London on 25 August at 21:00 BST. The moon and Antares will be low in the sky, but the white brilliance of...

Reporting from Latin America: 'Coronavirus has proved an intensely political story'

The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent reflects on the humanitarian disaster that has gripped the region in recent monthsWhen I set off from Mexico City for Rio with my family in early March, for what was supposed to be a short holiday, Latin America had not recorded a single death from the coronavirus.Security staff at Mexico’s Benito Juárez airport wore face masks. A blue and red banner...

Projected Storms May Make Blazes Tougher to Control

California firefighters had good weather on their side Saturday as they battled wildfires that have torched nearly 1 million acres and forced the evacuation of more than 119,000 people from their homes. But their fortune may run out Sunday, when storms with strong winds, lightning and little rain may return to the region.Among the two dozen major fires pulling firefighters in all directions are...

The future is fungal: why the 'megascience' of mycology is on the rise

The study of fungi has long been overshadowed by more glamorous scientific quests. But biologist Merlin Sheldrake is on a mission to change thatAs a boy, Merlin Sheldrake really loved the autumn. In the garden of his parents’ house – he grew up a few moments from Hampstead Heath, which is where he and I are walking right now, on an overcast summer morning – the leaves would fall from a big...

Why it’s sensible to be silly

Serious times call for serious measures – such as drawing smiley faces on fruit – and what’s more, the science proves itBy the fifth week of lockdown, I had mastered the art of silliness. My flatmates and I had drawn smiley faces on fruit, stuck googly eyes on vegetables and dressed up as our favourite pop stars. On social media I noticed similar responses to the “unprecedented” times we...

Follow NASA's Perseverance rover in real time on its way to Mars

The last time we saw NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission was on July 30, 2020, as it disappeared into the black of deep space on a trajectory for Mars. But with NASA's Eyes on the Solar System, you can follow in real time as humanity's most sophisticated rover—and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter traveling with it—treks millions of miles over the next six months to Jezero Crater.

2 tropical storms heading for double blow to US Gulf Coast

Two tropical storms advanced across the Caribbean on Saturday as potentially historic threats to the U.S. Gulf Coast, one dumping rain on Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola while the other swept into the gulf through the gap between Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba.

US faces back-to-school laptop shortage

Schools across the United States are facing shortages and long delays, of up to several months, in getting this year's most crucial back-to-school supplies: the laptops and other equipment needed for online learning, an Associated Press investigation has found.

'It was an act of principle': The Covid doctor who quit over Cummings

Dr Dominic Pimenta resigned from his cardiology post after Boris Johnson’s chief advisor made his controversial car journey. Was it the right decision?On 24 May, a couple of days after it was revealed that Dominic Cummings had travelled to Durham during the lockdown, a British cardiologist, Dr Dominic Pimenta, published a tweet in which he threatened to resign if Cummings did not. For Pimenta,...

The cruel exams algorithm has laid bare the unfairness at the heart of our schools | Kenan Malik

Don’t be misled. It is political judgments, not obscure equations, which are doing so much to damage our children’s futuresWhat children know and too many politicians seem not to: a few years ago, the psychologists Alex Shaw and Kristina Olson ran an experiment in which they told young children about two boys, Dan and Mark, who had cleaned up their room and were to be rewarded with rubbers...