WASHINGTON — The Senate unanimously approved a NASA authorization bill Dec. 18, a largely symbolic move intended to set up work on a new version of the legislation next year. The Senate passed by unanimous consent S. 2800, the NASA Authorization Act of 2019. The bill had been awaiting action by the full Senate since
Last week, I unpacked three hype-worthy trends shaping our food systems. Now I want to shine a light on three behind-the-scenes forces that aren’t generating headlines but should be. Let’s drive straight in. 1. Our two-tier food system The story: Online marketplaces that connect consumers with small-scale producers have boomed during the pandemic. Membership at
Disagreements remain over spectral data, but the debate now considers pathways for life to survive the extreme conditions on Venus Turbulent world Computer simulated global view of Venus’ northern hemisphere (Courtesy: NASA/JPL) Do researchers still think that phosphine – a supposed signature of life – is present in the clouds of Venus? Could such a harsh environment
The Kuril-Kamchatka Trench which is found in the Pacific Ocean is a microplastics trap. A new study led by Senckenberg Research Institute & Natural History Museum researchers Serena Martina Abel and Dr. Angelika Brandt looked at samples of sediment from the trench to look for microplastics. The results of their study were published recently in the journal Environmental Pollution. The study demonstrated that a single kilo of the sediment has
eclipse_images LONDON — The scale of a sophisticated cyberattack on the U.S. government that was unearthed this week is much bigger than many first anticipated. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a summary on Thursday that the threat “poses a grave risk to the federal government.” It added that “state, local, tribal,
China will share data and samples from the moon obtained by its Chang’e 5 probe on the basis of international conventions though “unfortunate” US restrictions on cooperation might prevent it getting any, the deputy head of its space agency said. The probe landed in the northern region of Inner Mongolia in the early hours of
The molluscs called giant feathery shipworms use their long siphons (pictured) to wrestle for the chance to mate. Credit: Dr Reuben Shipway/University of Portsmouth Animal behaviour 18 December 2020 First footage of ‘pseudocopulation’ shows the lengths certain molluscs go to to mate. Researchers have captured videos of acrobatic styles of sex in shipworms, molluscs that
The Space Force says Guardians is a “name with a long history in space operations.” WASHINGTON — The members of the U.S. Space Force finally have a name: Guardians. Vice President Mike Pence revealed the name Dec. 18 at a ceremony at the White House for the Space Force’s one-year anniversary. “Henceforth the men and
GE Renewable Energy General Electric’s renewable energy division has been chosen as the preferred turbine supplier for the third and final phase of an offshore wind farm that’s set to be the largest on the planet. According to an announcement from SSE Renewables on Friday, a 14 megawatt (MW) version of GE’s huge Haliade-X turbine
Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during the company’s annual shareholders meeting in Bellevue, Washington, on Nov. 29, 2017. David Ryder | Bloomberg | Getty Images Intel dropped as much as 6% on Friday afternoon following a Bloomberg report that Microsoft plans to design its own chips for its Surface PCs as
The content highlighted in this article has been created and hosted by Physics World’s corporate partners. It is free to read but you will be asked to share your contact details with the relevant partner first before being granted access immediately afterwards. Welcome to the latest in a new series of sponsored articles showcasing some
In Queensland, residents were plagued with heavy rains and floods, inundating Gold Coast residences and businesses. Gold Coast, Queensland residents devoted the morning to cleaning their surroundings after the torrential rains had passed and caused flooding in low-lying locations yesterday. A week of torrential rains (Photo : Pixabay)In Queensland, residents were plagued with heavy rains and floods, inundating Gold Coast residences
Rivers in the United States tend to be either yellow or, like the Tennessee River (pictured), green. Credit: J. R. Gardner et al./Geophys. Res. Lett. Hydrology 18 December 2020 In the past 35 years, some US waterways have become greener and others yellower, providing clues to ecosystem health. One-third of large rivers in the United
WASHINGTON — OneWeb resumed deployment of its broadband satellite constellation with a Dec. 18 launch of 36 satellites, the first since the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. A Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia at 7:26 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s Fregat upper stage released the 36 satellites in nine sets
Week in Review Stories discussed this week (3:45). Features The road ahead for sustainable transportation (21:40) Katie Fehrenbacher, senior writer and transportation analyst for GreenBiz, reflects 10 key trends from 2020 that will — or should — shape priorities in the 12 months ahead. Among them: bridge fuels to zero-emissions fleets; the public transit crisis;
A box with the Sony PlayStation 4 Cyberpunk 2077 Collector’s Edition on the counter. Alexander Sayganov | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images LONDON — Sony has removed the video game Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation Store, in a move that has shocked industry analysts and added to the woes of its developer. The
Benjamin Thompson, Noah Baker and Traci Watson discuss some of 2020’s most significant coronavirus research papers. Your browser does not support the audio element. Download MP3 In the final Coronapod of 2020, we dive into the scientific literature to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers have discovered so much about SARS-CoV-2 – information that has
WASHINGTON — NASA has added New Glenn, the large launch vehicle under development by Blue Origin, to the list of vehicles eligible to compete for future agency missions. NASA announced Dec. 16 it awarded a launch services contract to Blue Origin, adding New Glenn to its NASA Launch Services (NLS) 2 contract vehicle as part
President-elect Joe Biden’s expected pick for Energy secretary has ties to several influential political donors, including companies from an industry she may have to regulate if she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Jennifer Granholm, the Democratic former governor of Michigan, is likely to be formally announced as Biden’s choice to lead the Department of
The Physics World 2020 Breakthrough of the Year has been awarded to an international team for creating a silicon-based material with a direct band gap that emits light at wavelengths used for optical telecommunications. This video provides a brief overview of the research and the applications it might enable in the coming years.
A new study has found that kangaroos can learn to ask help from humans the way domestic animals like dogs and horses do. In wildlife sanctuaries and zoos, kangaroos have been observed to use various gestures and another body language when they want to ask people for help. This is a similar behavior employed by domestic animals like horses and dogs. It suggests
India successfully launched its latest communication satellite CMS-01 on board its Polar rocket from the spaceport here on Thursday, the second and last launch this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ISRO’s trusted polar satellite launch vehicle, PSLV-C50, injected the satellite into the predefined orbit around 20 minutes after the lift-off from the second launch pad
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., arrives at the Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images In a series of tweets this week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mocked people who list the pronouns they would
I study the structure and evolution of Earth. To imagine what Earth looked like millions of years ago, I probe the preserved recordings deep beneath our feet. For example, I look at 3D seismic reflections, essentially computed tomography scans of Earth, for clues to ancient volcanoes or mountain valleys, and I analyse rocks from 7
Tory Bruno said he is confident that Vulcan and first customer — Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander — will be on the launch pad “by the end of next year.” WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket will be ready to launch its first mission in late 2021, CEO Tory Bruno said Dec. 17.
Editor’s note: The opinions and conclusions that appear in this piece do not necessarily represent the position of Intel. 2020 has become a reckoning for American culture through the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, the ominous storms in the east and the apocalyptic wildfires of the west. We are inherently linked through our biology,
Atomic-scale image of two interacting donors in silicon. Credit : CQC2T Two-qubit gates – the central building blocks of quantum computers – operate by exploiting tunnelling interactions between qubits. A team of researchers in Australia has now found a way to optimize these interactions in silicon by determining where the qubits should be positioned within
A huge winter storm passed through the region of the Mid Atlantic as it proceeded to the Northeast, which brought freezing rain, heavy snowfall, and hazardous roads. The storm is among the biggest in East Coast cities since the crippling blizzard in 2016 It resulted in pileups of dozens of vehicles in Clinton, Pa., with two dead. New York had a multi-car
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google Anindito Mukherjee | Bloomberg | Getty Images Google now faces its third government antitrust lawsuit in less than two months, this time from a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser led the group of 38 states and territories in the lawsuit, which claims Google illegally
Some members of Noam Shomron’s lab on a day trip in December 2019.Credit: Shomron lab Once a year, around the time that Christians celebrate Easter, Muslims celebrate Ramadan and Jews celebrate Passover, I invite my 24-person team to a festive dinner at my place. To accommodate the needs of all my students, the food I
WASHINGTON — The next leader of the European Space Agency says his top priorities are to improve the agency’s relationship with the European Union and support commercial space activities in Europe. ESA announced Dec. 17 that the ESA Council selected Josef Aschbacher to be the next director general, effective at the end of June 2021
Cargo ships sail in the Gulf off the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas, which is the main base of the Islamic republic’s navy and has a strategic position on the Strait of Hormuz, on April 29, 2019. ATTA KENARE | AFP | Getty Images ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Outgoing U.S. Energy Secretary
DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis at a 2017 event in China. Source: Alphabet LONDON — Losses at DeepMind, the artificial intelligence firm owned by Google parent Alphabet, are continuing to grow. The London-headquartered AI lab — founded in 2010 by Demis Hassabis, Mustafa Suleyman and Shane Legg — made a loss of £477 million ($649 million)
Credit: Andrew Khosravani In contrast to the gut, which offers a near-ideal habitat for the growth of fermentative bacteria, the skin is an inhospitable expanse. Much of the epidermal layer that protects humans from the elements is dry, salty, acidic and nutrient-poor. The exceptions are the oases around lipid-rich hair follicles. Despite this adversity, a
WASHINGTON — Amazon has tested what it describes as a low-cost flat-panel antenna for use with its Project Kuiper constellation, an innovation that could be essential to the long-term success of satellite broadband. Amazon announced Dec. 16 that it developed a Ka-band phased-array antenna that is much smaller and less expensive that traditional antennas that
Without the benefit of their favorite search engine, I’m certain many readers would be hard-pressed to name the largest, pure-play agricultural equipment company in the world. But digging into innovations being advanced by that organization — AGCO, based in Duluth, Georgia — reveals much about the potential future of technology for cultivating regenerative and precision
Fault lines: a section of the Haiyuan fault that was ruptured by the 1920 earthquake. (Courtesy: Liu-Zeng Jing) On 16 December 1920 at about 7 p.m. local time, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake ripped along 240 km of fault in north-central China, razing two cities to the ground and severely damaging five others. It was one of
A girl aged nine years old died after undergoing an asthma attack and has been considered as the first individual in the UK who died due to air pollution. Air pollution has been listed as the cause of death of Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, a UK resident living near Lewisham’s South Circular Road in southeastern London. She expired last
A Canadian astronaut will take part in a lunar mission for the first time in 2023, as part of the NASA-led Artemis project, the minister for innovation, science and industry announced Wednesday. “I am proud to announce another first: Canada will join the US on the first crewed mission to the Moon since the Apollo
It’s a typical December scenario: The family trip to the tree lot. The Fraser Fir tied to the roof of the car. Dad under the branches screwing the stand to the trunk. And the inevitable wobbling of the 7-foot holiday embellishment as it threatens to topple over and onto the floor, scattering needles everywhere. When
An Amazon.com Inc worker prepares an order in which the buyer asked for an item to be gift wrapped at a fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota, U.S., November 12, 2020. Amazon.com Inc | Reuters Amazon is pushing for front-line employees to get priority access to the Covid-19 vaccine. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of
A cancer cell (green; artificially coloured) and an immune cell called a T cell. Obesity puts a strain on the body’s antitumour immune brigade. Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/SPL Cancer 16 December 2020 Changes triggered by obesity help to give tumour cells the upper hand in the struggle for nutrients. Excess weight can increase the risk of
SAN FRANCISCO — AST & Science LLC announced plans Dec. 16 to become a publicly traded company through a special purpose acquisition company. In what is becoming a trend in the industry, AST & Science is merging its business with New Providence Acquisition Corp. as it prepares to trade on the Nasdaq exchange in the
Institutional Investor Hall of Famer Richard Bernstein sees a risky market dynamic. He’s questioning why so many investors prefer momentum names in technology when the economy is getting ready to boom. “The whole innovation disruption thing is becoming a sucker’s bet,” the Richard Bernstein Advisors CEO and CIO told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Wednesday. “Fundamentals
Vortex flow: still from a simulation video showing how air from a sneeze can envelope a face shield. (Courtesy: Fujio Akagi/Isao Haraga/Shin-ichi Inage/Kozaburo Akiyoshi) Vortex rings created when a person sneezes can transport virus particles to the noses of people wearing face shields – according to fluid dynamics simulations done by Fujio Akagi and colleagues
The burning of Madagascar forests intensified this year since the pandemic lockdown started to clear forests to grow food crops and fell trees for firewood. Hunting also intensified as the critically-endangered Madagascar lemur became food. An article from National Geographic describes how the world is losing the critically-endangered Madagascar lemur in the face of the pandemic lockdown.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019. Erin Scott | Reuters Facebook ran ads and published a new website Wednesday decrying Apple over a privacy change that it claims will “[threaten] the personalized ads that millions of small businesses rely on to
1. Rollison, D. E., Viarisio, D., Amorrortu, R. P., Gheit, T. & Tommasino, M. An emerging issue in oncogenic virology: the role of beta human papillomavirus types in the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. J. Virol. 93, e01003-18 (2019). CAS Article Google Scholar 2. Strickley, J. D. et al. Immunity to commensal papillomaviruses protects
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