News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
China broadcast a live classroom from its new space station on Dec. 9, in an effort to both inspire students and present a friendly image of the country’s space ambitions. The three Shenzhou 13 astronauts aboard the orbiting Tianhe module connected with 1,420 students on Earth in five classrooms across China in Beijing, Guangxi Zhuang … Read more
By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu and Layal Liverpool A pregnant woman with a plaster on her arm aire images/Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 11am on 17 December UK vaccine committee urges pregnant women to book jabs Pregnant women should … Read more
A composite image of Pluto created using data from NASA’s New Horizons mission. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) Pluto is geologically alive. Bizarre geometric shapes first spotted on the dwarf planet’s surface in 2015 are indications that a process called sublimation is ongoing, a new study suggests. A fresh model … Read more
The Omicron variant is spreading rapidly worldwide. New travel restrictions and mounting anxiety have followed this heavily mutated version of the coronavirus, which has been reported now in more than 60 countries. In South Africa, where Omicron’s 50 or so mutations were first identified, the variant has shown that it can reinfect people who already … Read more
By Chen Ly Crocidura caudipilosa, one of the newly discovered species of shrew Kevin Rowe Fourteen new species of shrew have been discovered during a decade-long survey of small mammals on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Shrews are a diverse group of small mammals that can be found almost anywhere in the world. Despite their … Read more
By Gege Li Emilio Morenatti/AP/Shutterstock Photographer Emilio Morenatti Agency AP/Shutterstock THIS apparently wintery scene seems fitting for many at this time of year, if somewhat extreme. Yet this isn’t snow. It is a deep layer of ash deposited by the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands. The image … Read more
Hundreds of thousands of brain cells in a dish are being taught to play Pong by responding to pulses of electricity – and can improve their performance more quickly than an AI can Mind 17 December 2021 By Michael Le Page Living brain cells in a dish can learn to play Pong when they are … Read more
The Universe is too heavy. According to our measurements of the normal matter in the Universe, there’s not nearly enough of it to account for the strength of the gravitational effects we can see. Whatever is making up the rest of the mass is nothing we can detect directly, and the quest to figure … Read more
Archaeologists have linked rising and lowering sea levels in the Atlantic Ocean to the ebbs and flows of ancient civilizations in southern Brazil. The findings, which incorporate several lines of past archaeological evidence, suggest even large, resilient, and cooperative coastal communities can easily go out with the tide. When analyzing and dating a series … Read more
It hasn’t even been on Mars a full year, and NASA’s Perseverance rover is making excellent surprise discoveries. Amid a number of findings announced this week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, scientists have revealed that the Jezero Crater formed from molten volcanic magma – and that organic molecules have been discovered in rocks … Read more