Nearly one year after the World Health Organization discovered the coronavirus, many people are still staying home from offices, schools, movie theaters, stadiums, churches and restaurants. A lot of the socialization that would be happening in those places in 2020 is happening over video calls. And you can’t talk about that aspect of life without
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In an article in Cell, National Institutes of Health-funded researchers described how they used advanced genetic engineering techniques to transform a bacterial protein into a new research tool that may help monitor serotonin transmission with greater fidelity than current methods. Preclinical experiments, primarily in mice, showed that the sensor could detect subtle, real-time changes in
People shop for holiday items at the Country Store on Main Street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on December 13, 2020. Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images With just a few days before Christmas, shoppers are running out of options to receive their holiday gifts in time to place them under the tree. But all hope
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The world’s most massive iceberg named A-68a was dangerously headed into an island populated by a penguin colony. It broke into two pieces, scientists who have been monitoring its journey reported on Friday. The enormous chunk of ice first broke off from the Antarctic ice shelf in 2017 and has been drifting since. The size
The tech industry was ahead of the Covid curve from the beginning. Faster than the public and even governments, tech companies were among the first to understand the coronavirus threat back in early 2020 and respond with short-term measures. As the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down into 2021, tech companies are also quickest
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If the political, technical and budgetary stars align for NASA and its partners in coming years, the moon could be the go-to place as the century unfolds. Astronauts would again explore Earth’s celestial next-door neighbor, perhaps setting in motion future mining endeavors to extract ices likely lurking in sunlight-shy craters for processing into water, oxygen,
The shift to remote learning sparked a surge in business for Chegg in 2020, and CEO Dan Rosensweig doesn’t see that exponential growth easing up much in the new year. “When the pandemic is over, we don’t expect growth to significantly slow because this is not just the trend, this is what it’s going to
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In recent commercial space acquisitions, founders largely have remained with the businesses they established or moved on to form new space companies. Two exceptions are Roccor co-founder Doug Campbell and Scott Larson, who co-founded UrtheCast and Helios Wire. Both men left the space sector entirely after their startups were acquired. Campbell, in fact, was the
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupted on Sunday, prompting Hawaii county Civil Defense Agency to warn residents to stay indoors. The eruption occurred in Halema’uma’u crater, where a new lava flow and a pool of water interacted inside the crater leading to a short-lived but fairly vigorous eruption. A steam cloud shot up at about 30,000 feet
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday said it has released the first set of data from the country”s second mission to the Moon, the Chandrayaan-2, for the general public. Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The Orbiter which was injected into a
The Kingdom Tower, operated by Kingdom Holding, left, stands alongside the King Fahd highway, illuminated by the light trails of passing traffic, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016. Waseem Obaidi | Bloomberg | Getty Images Google will open a “cloud region” where it can provide its cloud services in Saudi Arabia via a
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The decision the Joint Chiefs reach in the next year will be as seminal for the future development of military space as any except the actual creation of Space Force. We are approaching a watershed moment in the future of the U.S. Space Force. Will all space systems be consolidated into the new service, or
Taken from the December 2020 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Metaphorical Christmas Emma Chapman’s new book uses familiar elements of the holiday season to help explain the earliest stars. (Courtesy: iStock/da-kuk) With Christmas looming just around the corner, it will
When you hear an animal speaking, the first thing that comes into your mind is a parrot, right? However, scientists confirmed that this bird is not the only one capable of learning human speech. (Photo : Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)A chimpanzee looks out from an enclosure after the official opening ceremony of Sydney Zoo
The TransAmercia building at the end of an empty Columbus Street in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images If you believe what you read, San Francisco is dying. Over the last few months, there has been a steady stream of investors, executives and companies
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There was no clearer set of contrasts between how SpaceX and NASA approach launch vehicle development than the dueling tests the two performed in early December of Starship and Space Launch System, respectively. It was hard to miss the Dec. 9 test flight of SpaceX’s Starship SN8 prototype, the first time the vehicle flew more
The contraption Matt Sheffer wants to show me sits at the far end of a field of alfalfa and grasses, a weave of green and pale gold, broken only by the parallel grooves we’re trudging along, a path carved by the tires of a pickup truck. It’s Nov. 4, and America is in the midst
Alibaba Group signage is seen during the company’s 11.11 Singles’ Day global shopping festival at their headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, November 11, 2020. Aly Song | Reuters BEIJING — Shares of Alibaba fell in both Hong Kong and extended-hours U.S. trading as reports surfaced that the Chinese government is conducting an anti-monopoly probe
Hear our reporters’ top podcast segments of 2020. Your browser does not support the audio element. Download MP3 In this episode: 00:32 Following the Viking footprint across Europe In September, we heard about the researchers mapping ancient genomes to better understand who the Vikings were, and where they went. Nature Podcast: 16 September 2020 Research
Up until now the Air Force had to transfer money from the the Air Force to the Space Force for each program line. WASHINGTON — The massive $2.3 trillion appropriations package Congress passed for fiscal year 2021 provides $696 billion for the Defense Department, including $15.2 billion for the U.S. Space Force. The bill passed
Let it snow: Brighten up your holiday season with some quizzing. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/ESB-Professional) 1. It’s dark at the North Pole in winter. Fortunately, Santa’s reindeer have exceptional eyesight. Which wavelengths of light can they see? A Ultraviolet B Infrared C Microwave D All of the above 2. In 2019, researchers at the University of Manchester calculated
A platypus whisperer from Tasmania surprises experts with his citizen science. The man has bonded with a platypus, an animal that is known to be very elusive. The man, Pete Walsh, comes from Hobart, the capital city of Australia’s island Tasmania state. Vonna Keller, his partner, named him “platypus whisperer” due to his special relationship with a platypus, whom they called Zoom.
replying to K. Soltesz et al. Naturehttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3025-y (2020) The accompanying Comment1 concerns our original paper, Flaxman et al.2, in which we introduced a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate the transmission intensity (in terms of the time-varying reproduction number, Rt) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from observed counts of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related deaths.
The Pentagon’s overseers in Congress have been consistently critical of how the military acquires space hardware. Frustration with space procurements was in fact one of the catalysts for the creation of the U.S. Space Force. Satisfying congressional demands for a revamped space acquisition process will now fall on President-elect Joe Biden’s Pentagon team. Earlier this
Date/Time: January 21, 2021 (1-2PM ET / 10-11AM PT) With a steady parade of corporate carbon net-zero pledges released in 2020 and even more coming in 2021, there is an enormous demand for forest carbon credits. This is empowering local and global actors to drive climate impact and opens the door for
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – DECEMBER 11: U.S. President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event to announce new cabinet nominations at the Queen Theatre on December 11, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. President-elect Joe Biden is continuing to round out his domestic team with the announcement of his choices for cabinet secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, and
From left to right: Rong Tan, Yajing Shen and Xiong Yang from City University of Hong Kong are developing magnetically driven millirobots. (Courtesy: Xiong Yang) It is thrilling to live at a time when robots the size of small insects, known as millirobots, can open up new avenues of research. Such millirobots can be finely
A new population of blue whales was discovered by an international team of researchers in the western Indian Ocean. In a paper published in the Endangered Species Research journal, the researchers report that the newly reported blue whale song were recorded from Arabian Sea coast of Oman, crossing the Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian
By Lindsay Olson Scientific Adviser: Dr. Don Lincoln Curator: Georgia Schwender As Fermilab’s first artist in residence, my workspace had some unusual supplies for an artist’s studio. Pinned to my idea board I had a list of subatomic particles, quotes from popular physics books, the names of inspiring physicists, and a picture of Nobel Laureate
arising from S. Flaxman et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2405-7 (2020) Flaxman et al.1 took on the challenge of estimating the effectiveness of five categories of non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI)—social distancing encouraged, self isolation, school closures, public events banned, and complete lockdown—on the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On the basis of mortality data
WASHINGTON — Voyager Space Holdings, a company that has acquired several space ventures, is taking a majority stake in commercial space station company Nanoracks, the two firms announced Dec. 23. Voyager announced it would take a majority stake in XO Markets, the parent company of Nanoracks. The companies did not disclose terms of the agreement.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (l) and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook. Getty Images (L) | Reuters (R) In October 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the business practices of Big Tech rivals in an impassioned speech at a privacy conference in Brussels. “Every day, billions of dollars change hands, and countless decisions are
The Hayabusa2 capsule that landed in the desert in South Australia.Credit: AP/Shutterstock Asteroid dust recovered from Hayabusa2 Japan’s mission to bring asteroid dust back to Earth has succeeded. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirmed on 14 December that a capsule from the spacecraft Hayabusa2, which landed in an Australian desert last week, contained black
VALETTA, Malta — Through a novel approach to testing, the European Space Agency’s Clean Space initiative is assisting in the development of satellite components that are designed for demise, an approach to satellite development that advocates for the safe disposal of spacecraft by destructive atmospheric reentry. The ESA Clean Space initiative was launched in 2012
When you think of Colgate-Palmolive, the first thing likely to come to mind is its eponymous toothpaste or dish soap. But the company also owns a lot of other brands that offer other consumer packaged goods such as deodorant (Speed Stick), body soap (Irish Spring) and other household cleaning products (Fabuloso). And what are those
In this episode, Andrew Glester is joined by Physics World journalists to discuss some of 2020’s best physics books, along with their favourite examples of physics featuring in television and film this year. For more information about all of the media discussed, you can revisit these reviews that have appeared in Physics World during 2020.
The rainforest is teeming with life, and are precious ecosystems that harbor 80% of the world’s entire terrestrial biodiversity of animals, plants, and other organisms. This article features some of the most amazing rainforest animals that are currently being protected due to threats to their existence. The mountain gorilla These primates are the largest extant primates and are our closest animal relatives together with
When the coronavirus pandemic limited face-to-face interactions earlier this year, companies, governments and other organizations adapted to the new normal by transitioning many activities online. The transition, a part of the digital transformation that has played out over the years, was a boon for companies like cloud messaging provider Twilio, whose CEO Jeff Lawson told
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple. John Chiala | CNBC The Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges Tuesday against Ripple, the fintech company best known for cryptocurrency XRP, and two of its executives, for allegedly violating investor protection laws. The SEC alleged that Ripple, co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Bradley Garlinghouse, raised more than $1.3 billion through an
A new Chinese carrier rocket made its first flight on Tuesday under a long-term plan to develop reusable launch vehicles aimed at reducing mission costs and speed up launch schedules for commercial clients. The medium-lift Long March 8 Y-1 blasted off at 12:37pm (10:07am IST) from the southern Chinese island of Hainan carrying five satellites,
Climate comeback 2021 looks set to be a pivotal year for the fight against climate change. US president-elect Joe Biden has made clear that he will move to restore the country’s leadership in that regard, including by rejoining the Paris climate agreement to fight global warming. (President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of
Space Development Agency spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said in a statement Dec. 22 that the agency is “expeditiously implementing its corrective action plan for the Tracking Tranche 0 solicitation.” WASHINGTON — Companies that competed earlier this year for Space Development Agency satellite contracts awarded to L3Harris and SpaceX were asked to resubmit their proposals following several
Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images The coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress toughens rules around use of a common heat-trapping chemical and funnels billions of dollars into renewable energy. The measures, attached to a year-end government funding bill, were hailed by some lawmakers as among the most significant Congress has approved to combat climate