News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Something extraordinarily bright in space is pulsing far slower than most similar cosmic objects, and it may be a strange type of neutron star that we have never seen before Space 26 January 2022 By Leah Crane A view of the Milky Way from the Murchison Widefield Array. The star icon shows the position of … Read more
By Graham Lawton Leon Werdinger/Alamy Stock Photo IN THE lead-up to Christmas, my household began to feel like a badly managed waste-processing facility. We planned to spend time with vulnerable relatives, so were keeping a close eye on our covid-19 status. Each lateral flow test generated seven items of non-recyclable waste, which piled up in … Read more
Philosopher David Chalmers explains how virtual worlds shed light on questions such as what is reality and are we living in a simulation, and explores what corporate metaverses mean for humanity Mind 26 January 2022 By Richard Webb Jennie Edwards THE Australian-born philosopher David Chalmers has long made waves in the world of consciousness. In … Read more
Josie Ford No-vax’s good vibrations “If you wish to understand the Universe, think of energy, frequency and vibration.” This quote, attributed to the visionary electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla, possibly in his distinctly odd late phase, has long been beloved of those with a vibrantly different understanding of the universe. Feedback hesitates to use … Read more
Scientists in Brazil started 2022 with a piece of good news. This year’s federal research budget is more than double last year’s—a major turnaround after 7 years of steep cuts. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation will have about 6.9 billion reais ($1.27 billion) for discretionary investments this year, a 110% increase from 2021, … Read more
Three months after launch, a new NASA asteroid spacecraft is still getting settled into its life beyond Earth. NASA’s Lucy mission launched Oct. 16 with a mission to explore the Trojan asteroids, which orbit the sun ahead of and behind Jupiter. No spacecraft has ever visited the Trojan asteroids, which scientists believe are “fossils” from … Read more
By Layal Liverpool A rising global population has led to a resurgence of eugenics-based ideas Ben Edwards/Getty Images Control: The dark history and troubling present of eugenics Adam Rutherford Weidenfeld & Nicolson WHAT does the word “eugenics” bring to mind? For many, it is Nazi Germany and the atrocities that were committed in its name, … Read more
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who is expected to announce his retirement tomorrow, has made a notable impact on the use of science in the courtroom during his 27 years on the nation’s highest court. In particular, in opinions and other writings, Breyer helped clarify how federal judges should handle expert testimony on scientific … Read more
Physicists at the world’s largest atom smasher have detected a mysterious, primordial particle from the dawn of time. About 100 of the short-lived “X” particles — so named because of their unknown structures — were spotted for the first time amid trillions of other particles inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest particle … Read more
An autonomous surgical robot joined sections of intestine together inside the abdominal cavities of live pigs, with limited intervention from human surgeons Technology 26 January 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Researcher Hamed Saeidi watches the autonomous robot perform surgery Jiawei Ge A robot has successfully carried out keyhole surgery on the bowels of pigs mostly autonomously … Read more