Sci-News Roundup March 04 - March 10, 2023
General Interest  Cosmos   Innovation   Health  Nature  Environment  Climate

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NOTE: No events are scheduled for March; we will resume in April




GENERAL INTEREST


Physics Today, March 07, 2023
Beer foam is often viewed as the hallmark of quality. That iconic head forms as gaseous carbon dioxide bubbles rise to the surface. For more than 50 years, researchers have explored the formation of beer foam, largely as a function of the beer’s chemical composition and primarily using analytical and experimental methods.

Science News, March 03, 2023
Excavated human skeletons indicate that the Yamnaya rode horses around 5,000 years ago.

BBC Travel, February 23, 2023
More than 500 years before Oxford University was founded, India's Nalanda University was home to nine million books and attracted 10,000 students from around the world.

Quanta, March 01, 2023
Lek-Heng Lim uses tools from algebra, geometry and topology to answer questions in machine learning.

Washington Post, March 07, 2023
To be clear, all the evidence available for scrutiny points to the pandemic originating from transmission from live animals to humans — zoonotic spillover — at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China (NOT a lab leak).

Science Alert, March 05, 2023
Determining the passage of time in our world of ticking clocks and oscillating pendulums is a simple case of counting the seconds between 'then' and 'now.' Down at the quantum scale of buzzing electrons, however, 'then' can't always be anticipated.


COSMOS 

Cosmos, March 05, 2023
In the last 80 years, programs dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have worked tirelessly searching for cosmic “hellos” in the form of radio signals.

Live Science, March 04, 2023
The newly discovered comet C/2023 A3 is making a close approach around the sun for the first time in 80,000 years, and might be as bright as a star in fall 2024. 

Space, March 07, 2023
Scientists have proposed a way that the universe could stop expanding, ending in a 'Big Crunch' that resets space and time as we know it.

Symmetry, March 07, 2023
The quest to understand the small mass of neutrinos is also a quest to discover new particles.

Discover, March 06, 2023
Explore the galactic phenomenon of exploding supernovas and what happens when a star dies. What happens to the elements left behind?


INNOVATION

Science Daily, February 28, 2023
A 'bio-computer' powered by human brain cells could be developed within our lifetime, according to researchers who expect such technology to exponentially expand the capabilities of modern computing and create novel fields of study.

Physics World, February 28, 2023
Computers and digital technology are central to the modern music industry – but what could quantum computers bring to the party? Philip Ball tunes in to an avant-garde band of musicians and scientists who are exploring how quantum computing can be used to make and manipulate music.

Slate, October 22, 2022
The law will take effect in 2024, in time for the next U.S. presidential elections, and promises big shifts in how online speech is refereed not just in Europe, but also here at home. The law, among other requirements, places substantial content moderation expectations on large social media firms—many based in the U.S.—which include limiting false information, hate speech, and extremism.

The Guardian, March 02, 2023
Extra parts, from a thumb to an arm, could be designed to help boost our capabilities.

Nature, March 08, 2023
As generative AI models grow larger and more powerful, some scientists advocate for leaner, more energy-efficient systems.


HEALTH

Scientific American, March 2023 issue
Chemicals called phthalates—found in everything from detergent to plastic shower curtains—are tied to lower sperm counts and more miscarriages

Harvard School of Public Health
Learn about the role of antioxidants beyond the hype, and some of the research on health and disease prevention.

NIH/News In Health, March 2023
It’s only when something goes wrong that we tend to realize just how important our feet really are.

New York Times, March 05, 2023
We breathe in and out roughly 25,000 times a day. And yet, according to experts, including pulmonologists and psychiatrists, most of us are doing it wrong — breathing too rapidly and too shallowly. HEALTH Is exercise more effective than medication for depression and anxiety?

Medical News Today, March 03. 2023
A large new analysis of meta-studies finds that exercise is more beneficial for conditions such as anxiety and depression than standard psychotherapy or medications.

Washington Post, March 05, 2023
The trends could have major public health implications: a rising generation dying prematurely of heart attacks, strokes and other complications.


NATURE

The Conversation, March 01, 2023
Extinctions are happening at a dramatically faster rate than they have over the past tens of millions of years. An estimated quarter of all species on Earth are at risk of being lost, many within decades. What can scientists possibly do to stop that trend? For some, the answer is to “de-extinct.”

The Guardian, March 04, 2023
At 96, the nature presenter is set to return to TV screens for a landmark series on British and Irish natural history.

Science ABC, March 095, 2023
Scientists from Oxford University, Yellowstone National Park and Penn State University looked into an odd occurrence among grey wolves in North America.

Inside Climate News, March 04, 2023
A new documentary, “Fire of Love,” tells the story of Katia and Maurice Krafft, married scientists who flirted with death to study volcanoes—and paid the price.

Nautilus, March 01, 2023
A universe of microbes is melting with Arctic ice—with consequences for us all.


ENVIRONMENT

ECO, March 06, 2023
“This action is a victory for multilateralism and for global efforts to counter the destructive trends facing ocean health, now and for generations to come,” said the UN chief...just hours after the deal was struck at UN Headquarters in New York, where tough negotiations on the draft treaty have been underway for the past two weeks.

Inside Climate News, March 01, 2023
A new analysis projects that U.S. agriculture’s share of emissions could rise to about 30 percent of U.S. total emissions by 2050 —more than any other sector of the economy—if farms don’t reign in emissions from fertilizer and livestock. Emissions from agriculture have been on the rise for decades, even as emissions from other sectors fall.

Treehugger, February 28, 2023
Moss is the tiny superstar of the plant world that not only looks great but also plays an important number of roles.

Reuters, March 01, 2023
While marine animals such as fish and whales eat phytoplankton, it can also prove toxic in large amounts, starving the ocean of oxygen and leading to "dead zones" that wreak chaos on the food chain and fisheries.

The Guardian, March 04. 2023
Soil is being sent to a nearby incinerator that has a history of clean air violations, raising fears the chemicals will be redistributed.


CLIMATE

Scientific American, February 28, 2023
The recommendation...could help manage the risks associated with spraying sunlight-reflecting aerosols dozens of miles above the Earth's surface. Such stratospheric aerosol injection is largely untested and potentially harmful, but it's attracting attention as an emergency measure to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The Guardian, March 01, 2023
Funding at 27 universities can shift not just research agendas, but also policy in the direction the industry prefers, report says. Those solutions typically include biofuels, carbon capture, and hydrogen, according to the research by the thinktank Data for Progress and the nonprofit group Fossil-Free Research. Oil majors also invest in public policy and economics research that favors deregulation.

Common Dreams, March 02, 2023
"Rather than expand subsidies for false fixes," said one critic of a new bipartisan bill, Congress should pass legislation to "phase out all fossil fuel subsidies."

Yale Climate Connections, February 28, 2023
Officials and farmers report threats and intimidation in small Midwest communities that are considering solar and wind farms. Often, the opposition comes from a small number of people who attend meetings in communities that are considering a renewable energy project — even if they don’t live there. And it’s not just happening in Michigan.

Washington Post, March 07, 2023
Recent summers have brought record-setting melting of the massive ice sheet, which is the world’s largest contributor to rising sea levels, outpacing the Antarctic ice sheet and mountain glaciers.