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
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
On December 7, Eric Lander, White House science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) resigned in the wake of an internal investigation. That investigation into Lander’s management of OSTP found “credible evidence” that he had bullied and mistreated staff. Lander’s own statements and letter of resignation verified these findings. … Read more
Physicists have known how to levitate water for more than 260 years. They just figured out how to levitate ice, too. By pushing a well-known physics phenomenon called the Leidenfrost effect to the extreme, a group of researchers at Virginia Tech caused frozen disks of ice to hover over a hot aluminum surface. Outside of … Read more
A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced. Elon Musk‘s company launched a Falcon 9 rocket bearing the 49 satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3), but a geomagnetic storm that struck a day later sent the satellites plummeting back toward Earth, … Read more
An axiom of politics is that the higher you rise, the harder you can fall. This week, Eric Lander, the first White House science adviser to be elevated to the president’s Cabinet, learned that firsthand. Lander, a prominent geneticist who has a close relationship with President Joe Biden, resigned from his position less than 1 … Read more