News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The Los Angeles City Council last week voted unanimously to ban new oil wells and phase out existing ones, a move leaders in the nation’s second-most populous city called essential for health reasons. The council declared oil wells “non-conforming” with the city’s land use requirements. A city commission now will study how to phase out … Read more
Digital cameras, and the excellent lenses that are available for them, mean it’s never been easier to photograph the Moon. Our nearest neighbor in space is a great object to start with if you’re a beginner looking to get into astrophotography, being bright, clear, and easy to spot (unless the weather gets in the way). … Read more
Two record-breaking lightning flashes occurred in 2020: one with a length of 768 kilometres is the longest ever recorded, while another with a duration of 17 seconds is the longest-lasting flash ever detected Environment 1 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins Lightning on the Great Plains of North America Laura Hedien/Getty Images The world’s longest lightning … Read more
From chihuahuas to great Danes, dogs differ more in size than any other mammal species on the planet. A mutation behind such variation has been traced to an unexpected source: ancient wolves. The mutation lies near a gene called IGF1, which researchers flagged 15 years ago as having a major role in the size variation of … Read more
Galaxies are vast collections of stars that populate our universe. But how many galaxies are there? Counting them seems like an impossible task. Sheer numbers is one problem — once the count gets into the billions, it takes a while to do the addition. Another problem is the limitation of our instruments. To get the … Read more
By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu, Layal Liverpool and Alex Wilkins NHS staff join protesters in London, England Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 11am on 1 February Vaccinations will not be a condition of employment for … Read more
In 2016 a panel of physicists, a cosmologist and a philosopher gathered at the American Museum of Natural History to discuss an idea seemingly befitting science fiction: Are we living in a computer simulation? How exactly the flesh and blood of our brain is able to formulate an aware, self-examining mind capable of critical thought … Read more
Google has shared a charming doodle marking the Lunar New Year, which arrived with the new moon on Tuesday (Feb. 1). This new year is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar system, so the doodle appropriately stars an animated tiger. Surrounding the tiger are a handful of symbols associated with the festivities, … Read more
Public library of DNA sequences will allow botanists to track the complex evolutionary history of flowering plants in unprecedented detail Life 1 February 2022 By Chen Ly Zinnia flowers in a meadow Shutterstock / Pheobus More than 9000 species of plants have had sections of their genomes sequenced as part of the Plant and Fungal … Read more
1972 Tectonic Dump “A speculative but intriguing scheme for disposing of man-made solid wastes has been put forward by two investigators at the University of Washington. The plan would take advantage of regions called subduction sinks, where sedimentary material is being drawn downward into the earth’s mantle as a consequence of seafloor spreading. A hypothetical … Read more