290 articles from MONDAY 9.11.2020

Blue Origin and Aerojet get in on NASA partnerships for new space technologies

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture and Aerojet Rocketdyne’s operation in Redmond, Wash., are among 17 companies that have struck deals with NASA to develop new technologies for space missions. The 20 collaborative projects are part of a program managed by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. The selected projects will be governed by unfunded Space Act Agreements. No...

Highly effective vaccine, new warning signs, disrupted heart rhythm

An experimental COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SA appears to be more than 90% effective, based on data analyzed midway through a gold-standard clinical trial, the companies announced on Monday. Pfizer said researchers had analyzed 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants and found the vast majority of the infections were in volunteers in the placebo group. BioNTech's...

Researchers decode thermal conductivity with light

Groundbreaking science is often the result of true collaboration, with researchers in a variety of fields, viewpoints and experiences coming together in a unique way. One such effort by Clemson University researchers has led to a discovery that could change the way the science of thermoelectrics moves forward.

Study finds surprising diversity in early child care

A new study of kindergarteners in one Midwestern state identified seven different pathways the children took in their early education and care before arriving at school. The researchers were surprised by the diverse experiences that kids brought with them to kindergarten: While some received care only in their home or mainly in a child care center, others switched back and forth between different...

Female banded mongooses lead battle for chance to find mates

When families of banded mongooses prepare to fight, they form battle lines. “Then they bunch up into writhing balls, chaotic and fast-moving, and you hear high-pitched screeches,” said Michael Cant, a biologist at the University of Exeter who has been studying the species in Uganda for 25 years. “We call it mongoose...

In a warming world, Cape Town's 'Day Zero' drought won't be an anomaly

Today, the lakes around Cape Town are brimming with water, but it was only a few years ago that South Africa's second-most populous city made global headlines as a multi-year drought depleted its reservoirs, impacting millions of people. That kind of extreme event may become the norm, researchers now warn.

New study defines life cycle of a destructive plant pathogen 142 years after its discovery

Found in more than 60 countries, cruciferous clubroot disease is one of the most destructive plant diseases, causing so-called tumors on the roots of Brassicaceae crops and resulting in huge yield losses annually. The causal agent of this disease, Plasmodiophora brassicae, was first discovered by Russian biologist M. S. Woronin in 1878. Despite this early discovery, the life history of the...

‘A great day for humanity’ – and not bad for the stock market either | Nils Pratley

We mustn’t get carried away but the strong reaction to the Pfizer-BioNTec trial results makes sense“A great day for science and humanity,” said the Pfizer chief executive, Albert Bourla. It was a decent one for stock markets too. The FTSE 100 index rose almost 5% as the US firm and its German partner, BioNTech, reported promising initial results from their Covid vaccine trial.There is an...

Pfizer, BioNTech initial vaccine results impress, but scientists remain cautious

Scientists on Monday said initial trial results for Pfizer Inc and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine far outpaced their expectations for protection against a completely new disease, but that many questions remain unanswered. The drugmakers said their vaccine was more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, based on data from the first 94 people in the trial to become infected with the...

Biden calls for major investments into carbon removal tech

President-elect Joe Biden wasted little time setting a new tone on climate change. On Sunday, one day after major outlets called the presidential election for the former vice president, the Biden-Harris transition team released documents laying out the incoming administration’s early priorities, including a blueprint for “tackling the climate crisis.” Most of the details were drawn...

Japanese increasingly single, disinterested in dating: study

In Japan, the proportion of the population who are single has increased dramatically in the past three decades. In 2015, one in four women and one in three men in their 30s were single, and half of the singles say they are not interested in heterosexual relationships. Public health experts at the University of Tokyo found that those who are disinterested in relationships are more likely to have...

Taking action for the common good

In 1979, a federally commissioned study led by meteorology pioneer and MIT professor Jule Charney helped alert the world to the processes driving global warming—at the time, a looming but not yet imminent threat. Today, climate change is no longer a challenge for some distant future; it is a present and accelerating crisis requiring swift, far-reaching action. There is room and reason for every...

Covid testing, MIT style

MELANIE GONICK Seniors arriving on campus for the fall term headed to MIT’s custom-designed covid testing trailer, which lets caregivers swab noses using gloves protruding through height-adjustable panels. On August 31, MIT Medical administered over 2,700 tests—more than many states did that day—and topped that with a record 4,979 tests on September 14. Of the 22,176 tests given at MIT...

Menstrual cycle length and body temperature change with age and seasons

Researchers using Big Data have shown that the average length of the menstrual cycle in Japanese women peaks at 23 years with a trough at 45. Body temperature was consistent for the follicular phase of the cycle, but the average during the luteal phase peaks and stabilizes in the thirties, declining after 42. These findings replace outdated statistics and are relevant for research into female...

Antiferromagnets are suitable for dissipationless nanoelectronics, contrary to current theories

Sometimes combinations of different things produce effects that no one expects, such as when completely new properties appear that the two combined parts do not have on their own. Dr. Libor Šmejkal from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) found such an unexpected property: He combined antiferromagnetic substances with non-magnetic atoms and found that, contrary to the current doctrine, a...

Half-billion-year-old microfossils may yield new knowledge of animal origins

When and how did the first animals appear? Science has long sought an answer to this question. Uppsala University researchers and colleagues in Denmark have now jointly found, in Greenland, embryo-like microfossils up to 570 million years old, revealing that organisms of this type were dispersed throughout the world. The study is published in Communications Biology.

Yin and Yang: Two signaling molecules control growth and behavior in bacteria

Bacteria are considered to be true experts in survival. Their rapid adaptive response to changing environmental conditions is based, among other things, on two competing signaling molecules. As the 'Yin and Yang' of metabolic control they decide on the lifestyle of bacteria, as reported by researchers from the University of Basel. The new findings also play a role in the context of bacterial...

Trees set sixth-graders up for success

The transition to middle school is undeniably tough for many sixth-graders, even in the best of times. Mounting academic demands, along with changes in peer dynamics and the onset of puberty, result in a predictable and sometimes irreversible slump in academic performance.