Sci-News Roundup September 18 - September 24 2021
General Interest  Cosmos   Innovation   Health  Nature  Environment  Climate

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Sept 14 Galileo and the Science Deniers (video available)
Sept 20 The Real Key to Feeding the World (video available)





The Atlantic, September 20, 2021
The pandemic keeps changing, but these principles can guide your thinking through the seasons to come.

New York Times, September 21, 2021
Other countries are awash in Covid tests. The U.S. is not.

BBC Future, September 16, 2021
From squandering global vaccine supplies to the possibility of undermining immunity from the first two doses, booster programs are a surprisingly complicated business.


GENERAL INTEREST

The Conversation, September 20, 2021
The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The shocked city dwellers who stared at it were blinded instantly. Air temperatures rapidly rose above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius).

Cosmos, September 17, 2021
Quantum entanglement – a term unfamiliar to most and misunderstood by many. Are there ways to make its meaning clear?

Science News, September 22, 2021
Voyagers migrated to islands sprinkled across a large area of the Pacific within about 500 years.

Nature, September 21, 2021
The United Nations forecasts that nearly 11 billion people will be living on Earth at the end of the century, but other demographic research groups project that population will peak earlier and at a much lower level.

Scientific American, October 2021 issue
Mathematicians have expanded category theory into infinite dimensions, revealing new connections among mathematical concepts

The Guardian, September 16, 2021
(A must-read for consumers!) Amid the complex web of international trade, proving the authenticity of a product can be near-impossible. But one company is taking the search to the atomic level.

COSMOS

Nature, September 17, 2021
Hints of a previously unknown, primordial form of the substance could explain why the cosmos now seems to be expanding faster than theory predicts.

Physics World, September 16, 2021
Physicists have long known that the Sun’s magnetic fields make its corona much hotter than the surface of the star itself. But how – and why – those fields transport and deposit their energy is still a mystery.

Science Daily, September 15, 2021
A series of new images reveals that planets form in organic soups -- and no two soups are alike

Sci-News, September 20, 2021
The habitability of Mars is limited by its small size, according to new research by Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientists.

Phys.Org, September 20, 2021
The idea that "space is getting crowded" has been around for a few years now, but just how crowded is it? And how crowded is it going to get?


INNOVATION

Cosmos, September 16, 2021
With Australia’s first cryogenics facility set to open this year, will human cryo-preservation ever be a reality?

The Guardian, September 20, 2021
The architects of the proposed 150,000-acre project are scouting the American south-west. They’re already predicting the first residents can move in by 2030

TechXplore, September 20, 2021
A simple cooling system driven by the capture of passive solar energy could provide low-cost food refrigeration and living space cooling for impoverished communities with no access to the electricity grid.

Washington Post, September 20, 2021
Starting Monday, you can download the latest software on your Apple devices.

Universe Today, September 20, 2021
You can’t see much night sky in a modern city. And the majority of humans live in cities now. How can we regain our heritage? Can quiet contemplation make a comeback?


HEALTH

Science Alert, September 21, 2021
When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Medical News Today, September 19, 2021
There is a fear that carbohydrates are detrimental to health. As a result, low carb diets have become popular, especially for weight loss.

The Conversation, September 17, 2021
The latest episodes of so-called Havana syndrome, a series of unexplained ailments afflicting U.S. and Canadian diplomats and spies, span the globe.

Deutsche Welle, September 17, 2021
The market for vitamin C is booming, especially in winter, as it's considered key to a robust immune system. But the belief in a vitamin c deficiency actually stems from an ad campaign – and still brings companies large profits.

Prevention, January 15, 2021
It’s okay if you haven’t touched your toes in years. Here’s why (and how!) to get started.

Sci-Tech Daily, September 22, 2021
Everyone knows humans need water and we can’t survive without it. We’ve all heard we should be aiming for eight glasses, or two liters of water per day.


NATURE 

Quanta, September 16, 2021
The molecular signaling systems of complex cells are nothing like simple electronic circuits. The logic governing their operation is riotously complex — but it has advantages.

Atlas Obscura, September 03, 2021
Until relatively recently, it was a common sight.

National Geographic, May 28, 2021
The slow quake—the longest ever recorded—ended in disaster in 1861. Experts are racing to find today’s equivalents.

New York Times, September 10, 2021
The bird is a kea from New Zealand, and his fabrication of an instrument to help him preen his feathers appears to be unique, researchers say.

Wired, September 17, 2021
A new study of the American West shows that climate change is driving more days that are hot, dry, and windy—the perfect conditions for deadly wildfires.


ENVIRONMENT

Civil Eats, September 07, 2021
At a time when large dairy brands are experimenting with scaling up regenerative practices, Alexandre Family Farm is working to set the standard for the future of the industry.

The Guardian, September 20, 2021
Tech companies poured $65m into lobbying in 2020 – but only 6% of their lobbying activity is targeted at climate policy.

Treehugger, September 20, 2021
Every American state should follow Maine's footsteps.

New York Times, September 18, 2021
Ms. Malmberg, 64, is a goat herder and a pioneer in using the animals to restore fire-ravaged lands to greener pastures and make them less prone to the spread of blazes.

Environmental Health News, September 16, 2021
The manufacturing plant responsible for PFAS-coated fast food packaging pumps out loads of a banned ozone-depleting compound along with "forever chemicals."


CLIMATE

Common Dreams, September 16, 2021
"We are not going in the right direction," warns the head of the World Meteorological Organization.

New York Times, September 16, 2021
Executives from Exxon, Shell, BP and others are being called to testify in Congress next month after a secret recording this year exposed an Exxon official boasting of such efforts.

NPR, September 14, 2021
A study of 10,000 people in 10 countries, all of whom were between the ages of 16 and 25, to gauge how they feel about climate change. The prevailing response could be summed up in two words: incredibly worried. And the respondents say governments aren't doing enough to combat climate change.

Washington Post, September 20, 2021
2021 is the third most active season on record to date in terms of the number of named storms

Reuters, September 17, 2021
Wealthy countries likely missed a goal to contribute $100 billion last year to helping developing nations deal with climate change.