News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
NASA will release new images from the James Webb Space Telescope and discuss the observatory’s painstaking mirror alignment progress today (March 16) and you can follow it live online. The space agency will hold a virtual press conference at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) that will air live on NASA TV, the NASA app and … Read more
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will carry humans beyond the grasp of Earth’s gravity, stretching to the moon, Mars and perhaps, one day, deep space. The first destination is the moon. The new heavy-duty launch vehicle will be the world’s most powerful rocket designed to carry unmatched payloads into deep space. Unlike any other space … Read more
Ukraine could be a space technology superpower but the country is held back by “Stalin-esque” attitudes that treat experts like peasants, says American aerospace engineering student Aaron Harford who chose Ukrainian capital Kyiv for his Ph.D. studies four years ago. A mid-life divorce prompted Harford, at that time a math professor at Henderson State University … Read more
Scientists have long been aware that respiratory infections—such as influenza or certain types of coronaviruses—can trigger heart disease. This happens because they cause inflammation, which plays a major role in cardiovascular problems. Even before the first case of COVID-19 had been confirmed in the U.S., interventional cardiologist Mohammad Madjid began looking into the potential effects … Read more
In a new study, researchers predict what an alien “Earth” could really look like, and how it could evolve (if one exists). In the search for evidence of life elsewhere in the universe, scientists have searched for planets similar to our own. Our closest stellar neighbor, the Alpha Centauri system, holds an exoplanet that scientists … Read more
There are several ways that exoplanet discoveries are made. The most obvious way to find an exoplanet is to see it directly using a telescope. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, because distant planets are so faint they are usually lost in the bright glare of their host stars. Nevertheless, this approach has been … Read more
Brace yourselves, allergy suffers – new research shows pollen season is going to get a lot longer and more intense with climate change. Our latest study finds that the US will face up to a 200 percent increase in total pollen this century if the world continues producing carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants … Read more
Our ability to elaborately communicate is one of humanity’s greatest superpowers. It allows us to retain and build knowledge across generations, cooperating at a global scale unlike anything else seen on Earth. But much about how this ability evolved is still a mystery, including its origins. Recently, a team of researchers set up some … Read more
Quantum entanglement is a bizarre, counterintuitive phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space. Despite their vast separation, a change induced in one will affect the other. Related: How quantum entanglement works (infographic) In 1964, physicist John Bell posited that … Read more
For more than half a century, the kinds of antisocial personality traits we think of as psychopathic – such as a lack of remorse, aggression, and disregard for the wellbeing of others – have been associated with mental illness. The line between broken and useful traits can be hazy in biology, leaving open the … Read more