Uncategorized
- Environment
50 years ago, American waterways were getting more protections
A 1970 bill that became the Clean Water Act helped to double the number of U.S. waterbodies clean enough for swimming and fishing. In January, the U.S. administration changed how waters were defined, effectively removing those protections for half the country’s wetlands.
- Health & Medicine
Why African-Americans may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19
African-Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19 than white Americans, data show. Experts blame long-standing health disparities.
- Health & Medicine
Meet Sophia Upshaw, a volunteer in a coronavirus vaccine trial
In Seattle and Atlanta, scientists have started testing the safety of a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19.
- Science & Society
How materials science has changed humankind — for better and worse
As people began wielding new materials, the technologies fundamentally changed humankind, the new book ‘The Alchemy of Us’ argues.
- Physics
A year after the first black hole image, the EHT has been stymied by the coronavirus
With this year’s observing run canceled due to the coronavirus, the Event Horizon Telescope team is analyzing data from 2017 and 2018.
- Health & Medicine
Can fabric masks stem the coronavirus’ spread?
It’s unclear whether homemade masks made from fabric will prevent an infected person from spreading the virus to others, experts say.
- Paleontology
Two primate lineages crossed the Atlantic millions of years ago
Peruvian primate fossils point to a second ocean crossing by a now-extinct group roughly 35 million to 32 million years ago.
- Physics
Collisions reveal new evidence of ‘anyon’ quasiparticles’ existence
Scientists report evidence that a class of particle called an anyon appears in two-dimensional materials.
- Health & Medicine
Warm weather probably won’t slow COVID-19 transmission much
While some evidence has suggested higher temperatures can affect coronavirus transmission, summer’s arrival probably won’t curb the pandemic much.
- Archaeology
This is the oldest known string. It was made by a Neandertal
A cord fragment found clinging to a Neandertal’s stone tool is evidence that our close evolutionary relatives were string makers, too, scientists say.
- Animals
Hitchhiking oxpeckers warn endangered rhinos when people are nearby
Red-billed oxpeckers do more than just eat parasites from rhinos’ backs. The birds can alert the hunted mammals to potential danger, a study finds.
- Space
New search methods are ramping up the hunt for alien intelligence
Six decades of radio silence hasn’t stopped scientists searching for intelligent life beyond Earth. In fact, new technologies are boosting efforts.
