News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Planetary-scale engineering schemes designed to cool Earth’s surface and lessen the impact of global heating are potentially dangerous and should be blocked by governments, more than 60 policy experts and scientists said on Monday. Even if injecting billions of sulphur particles into the middle atmosphere – the most hotly debated plan for so-called solar radiation … Read more
The creator of Netflix’s popular satire-comedy movie “Don’t Look Up” recently spoke with a climate scientist about how the movie contributes to the conversation about global warming. The interview, exclusively released to Space.com, is a 24-minute audio conversation between filmmaker Adam McKay and Kate Marvel, an associate research scientist at both Columbia University and the … Read more
In November, Russia ignited an international uproar with a weapon test that launched an interceptor against a defunct military satellite. When it hit, that deliberate collision shattered the satellite into more than 1,500 trackable pieces of debris. This space debris is dangerous; it could hit and severely damage an orbiting space station, akin to the … Read more
The nine years spanning 2013-2021 all rank among the 10 hottest on record, according to an annual report a US agency released Thursday, the latest data underscoring the global climate crisis. For 2021, the average temperature across global surfaces was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average, making the year the … Read more
The second largest bitcoin mining nation in the world has cut off internet access, slashing the amount of computing power dedicated to the cryptocurrency Technology 7 January 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Riot police gather to block demonstrators during a protest in Almaty, Kazakhstan Vladimir Tretyakov/AP/Shutterstock Nationwide internet outages in Kazakhstan amid civil unrest have knocked … Read more
ASML Holding, which supplies a vital technology used in computer chips has reported a fire at a manufacturing plant, but the extent of the damage is not yet known Technology 4 January 2022 By Matthew Sparkes Photolithography systems are used to manufacture computer chips PaulRaats/ASML A fire at a factory owned by the sole provider … Read more
Climate experts have warned for decades of “tipping points” at which modern global warming might cause a cascade of accelerating, irreversible effects. Now geologists are beginning to identify similar junctures in the fossil record. For example, around 56 million years ago—when our small primate ancestors still hopped through the trees—volcanic eruptions may have sparked hothouse … Read more
The massive Thwaites glacier in West Antarctica contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 65cm if it were to completely collapse. And, worryingly, recent research suggests that its long-term stability is doubtful as the glacier hemorrhages more and more ice. Adding 65cm to global sea levels would be coastline-changing amounts. For context, … Read more
The growing demand for computer chips, used in everything from cars to fridges, has collided with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a global shortage that is likely to continue through 2022 Technology 31 December 2021
Editor’s Note (12/21/21): This article is being showcased in a special collection about equity in health care that was made possible by the support of Takeda. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc across the world, accounting for more than 2.7 million deaths so far; prolonged economic shutdowns; and … Read more