25 articles from SATURDAY 6.2.2021

Fungi in the gut prime immunity against infection

Common fungi, often present in the gut, teach the immune system how to respond to their more dangerous relatives, according to new research from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine. Breakdowns in this process can leave people susceptible to deadly fungal infections.

Arctic stew: Understanding how high-latitude lakes respond to and affect climate change

To arrive at Nunavut, turn left at the Dakotas and head north. You can't miss it—the vast tundra territory covers almost a million square miles of northern Canada. Relatively few people call this lake-scattered landscape home, but the region plays a crucial role in understanding global climate change. New research from Soren Brothers, assistant professor in the Department of Watershed Sciences...

Nearly 11.5m get first Covid jabs and over 500,000 second doses in the UK

Latest figures show 17.2% of the UK population have now received their first vaccinationAlmost 11.5 million people have now had their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine in the UK, with more than 500,000 now fully vaccinated after receiving a second dose, the latest government data shows.The figures mark an increase of 494,163 first doses since the data was released on Friday, and means that 17.2%...

Discoveries at the edge of the periodic table: First ever measurements of einsteinium

Since element 99 -- einsteinium -- was discovered in 1952 from the debris of the first hydrogen bomb, scientists have performed very few experiments with it because it is so hard to create and is exceptionally radioactive. A team of chemists has overcome these obstacles to report the first study characterizing some of its properties, opening the door to a better understanding of the remaining...

Whole of the moon: Tim Easley's lunar photography - in pictures

London-based photographer and designer Tim Easley has spent the past few years taking emotive monochrome photographs of the moon. “I’ve always loved it,” he says, “and, being from the city, it’s often the only celestial object that you can see.” The 60 or so images have now been collected in a book, The Moon, available from his website. “The moon invokes so much wonder and awe, so I...

US billionaires vie to make space the next business frontier

Technological advances mean taking humans to play among the stars is just one of the aims of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and a host of eager investorsLater this year Jeff Bezos, the first person to have led a business from nothing to a trillion-dollar valuation, will step down from his job as head of Amazon. But as you’d expect from a tech multibillionaire, his eyes are on a potentially bigger prize:...

How to have a better relationship with your tech

Our dependency on tech has soared during the pandemic. The app analytics company App Annie found that people spent around 4 hours and 18 minutes per day on mobile devices in April 2020. That’s a 20% increase from the year before, equating to an extra 45 minutes per day of screen time. Research shows that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with spending more time on screens—especially...

People urged to count stars to see if lockdown has cut light pollution

Results of England mapping will be used to lobby against ‘bleaching’ of night skyPeople are being urged to take part in a nationwide star count to see if lockdown has had an impact on light pollution.By counting stars within the constellation of Orion, “citizen scientists” will help map the best and worst places in England to enjoy a star-filled night sky, organisers said. Continue...

Star buys: celebrities send meteorite prices into orbit

Elon Musk, Steven Spielberg and Nicolas Cage among those who collect rocks that can cost millionsThey really are from out of this world, and the prices are astronomical. For those who have everything they need on Earth, what they now want is a little bit of space. Meteorites are attracting the attention of celebrity collectors who have pushed the price of the rocks – which have hurtled through...

Shuffling bubbles reveal how liquid foams evolve

Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University studied the dynamics of foams. When a drop of water was added to a foam raft, the bubbles rearranged themselves to reach a new stable state. The team found that bubble movement was qualitatively different depending on the range of bubble sizes present. Along with analogies with soft-jammed materials, these findings may inspire the...

Tianwen1 probe sends back its first picture of Mars

Chinese spacecraft aiming to enter orbit in days before putting down lander and rover months laterChina’s Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first picture of Mars, the Chinese space agency has said, as the mission prepares to touch down later this year.The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as a US mission, is expected to enter Mars orbit around 10 February. Continue...

We're more like primitive fishes than once believed, new research shows

Lungs and limbs have been thought of as key innovations that came with the vertebrate transition from water to land. But in fact, the genetic basis of air-breathing and limb movement was already established in our fish ancestor 50 million years earlier, according to a recent genome mapping of primitive fish. The new study changes our understanding of a key milestone in our own evolutionary...

Physical discipline and cognitive deprivation associated with specific types of developmental delay

A study reports that in a diverse, cross-national sample of youth, physical discipline and cognitive deprivation had distinct associations with specific domains of developmental delay. The findings are based on the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, which is an ongoing, international household survey initiative coordinated and assisted by the United Nations agency, UNICEF.