News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
panda Shutterstock/Romolo Tavani SOMETIMES it pays to take the long view. Look at the past half-century of cosmology, as UK Astronomer Royal Martin Rees does in our interview, and it is plain how far we have come. The story of the universe’s origin in a big bang – an idea not especially favoured when Rees started … Read more
In The Cartographers, Peng Shepherd’s latest work of magical realist speculative fiction, the characters have a habit of asking “what makes a map?”. The answer, it becomes clear, is its purpose, finds Sally Adee Humans 9 March 2022 By Sally Adee MAPS can seem such dry, factual objects: blueprints of reality that are useful to … Read more
By Layal Liverpool Xavi Ramiro. CRG/CNAG CONTRIBUTING to cancer research is now as simple as playing a game on your smartphone. Each cell in your body contains about 2 metres of DNA, folded up and tightly packed. The precise structure matters, because in cancer, unwanted changes in the arrangement of DNA can interfere with the … Read more
New satellite data has revealed the Arctic is melting at a “frightening rate” due to the excess heat caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. End-of-season Arctic multiyear sea ice – the ice that persists over several years – was roughly 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) thinner in 2021 than it was in 2019, the figures show, … Read more
By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu, Layal Liverpool, Carissa Wong, Alex Wilkins and Alexandra Thompson Commuters exit a London Overground train, Liverpool Street, London AFP via Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 1pm 14 March Nearly 400,000 people in the UK … Read more
We had calculated that frozen peatlands would remain stable until the 2070s, but a new analysis suggests they may begin thawing as early as the 2040s Environment 14 March 2022 By Adam Vaughan Scandinavian mountain range, above the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images Vast expanses of peatland in frozen soil … Read more
By Michael Le Page A wheat field in Ukraine Maksym Belchenko/Getty Images The war in Ukraine has already caused food prices to shoot up as global markets anticipate a loss of wheat and maize exports from one of the world’s largest producers of these crops. But Europe and the US could more than compensate for … Read more
The moon has deep craters that sit at such an angle that even reflected sunlight doesn’t touch some areas, making them prime locations for water ice to collect Space 14 March 2022 By Jonathan O’Callaghan Shackleton crater sits at the moon’s south pole Jorge Mañes Rubio. Spatial design & visualisation in collaboration with DITISHOE Some … Read more
The war in Ukraine is the subject of much online disinformation and propaganda but fact-checking organisations are tracking down how social media posts spread and debunking them Technology 14 March 2022 By Chris Stokel-Walker Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after a chemical warehouse was hit by Russian shelling near Kalynivka village in Ukraine on … Read more
Babies whose mothers were vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus had less need for drugs against bacterial infections Health 14 March 2022 By Clare Wilson A mother and baby Prostock-studio / Alamy A vaccine against a virus that causes chest infections in young babies has an unexpected effect – it cuts the number of antibiotics given … Read more