News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Powdery mildew certainly sounds unappealing, but for wheat farmers the fungus can mean a serious hit to the pocketbook. It infects crops, yellowing leaves and stunting growth. In countries where the blight is common, like China, the microbe can destroy up to 40% of a field, making it one of the most damaging and costly … Read more
From very early in the pandemic, it was clear that SARS-CoV-2 can damage the heart and blood vessels while people are acutely ill. Patients developed clots, heart inflammation, arrythmias, and heart failure. Now, the first large study to assess cardiovascular outcomes 1 year after SARS-CoV-2 infection has demonstrated that the virus’ impact is often lasting. … Read more
Organic chemistry, one of science’s most grueling disciplines, is poised to get a whole lot easier. Six years ago, a team of chemists created a robotic system that could construct a wide variety of organic molecules including potential pharmaceuticals, dyes, and perfumes. But the setup had limited abilities: It could build flat molecules—chains or 2D … Read more
NASA raised concerns about SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites, including an increase of the risk of collision in orbit, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The five-page letter was submitted to the FCC Tuesday (Feb. 8) and was first reported in SpaceNews. The letter, which includes a separate one-page letter from the National Science Foundation, … Read more
ASTRONOMY Astronomers organize to combat satellite interference The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced a new center last week to address the burgeoning constellations of satellites that may interfere with ground-based observations. A U.N. committee also said it would consider the issue—a first step toward international regulations. The constellations, such as SpaceX’s Starlink, aim to provide … Read more
In 1997, Laura Gould put her 15-month-old daughter, Maria, down for a nap and returned to find her unresponsive. She had died suddenly, with no clues to explain the tragedy besides a fever the night before. When her daughter’s body was sent to the medical examiner’s office, “I thought they’d call me in an hour … Read more
A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 375, Issue 6581. In a sunny room at the Boys & Girls Club in Calistoga, a tiny city in California’s Napa Valley, Veronica Ahumada is setting up her robot when a bespectacled little boy wanders in to ask what she’s doing. Ahumada points to the device—basically … Read more
Pieces of rock from the asteroid Ryugu splashed down on Earth in 2020. Now, scientists studying the samples are revealing the asteroid’s true nature. Ryugu is a near-Earth asteroid that Japan visited with its Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The craft launched in 2014, arrived at the space rock in 2018 and in December 2020 dropped off a … Read more
With its tail flipping rhythmically from side to side, this strange synthetic fish scoots around in its salt and glucose solution, using the same power as our beating hearts. This nifty miniaturized circulatory system, developed by scientists at Harvard and Emory universities, can keep swimming to the beat for more than 100 days. The … Read more
The sun’s nearest neighbor may actually host three planets, a new study reports. Astronomers have found evidence of a third planet circling Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star that lies a mere 4.2 light-years from our solar system. The candidate world, known as Proxima d, is estimated to be just 25% as massive as Earth, … Read more