News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
As people in the US prepare to turn their clocks ahead one hour in mid-March, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time. About a third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these … Read more
In 2011, Russia signed a deal that would pay the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) $300 million to help found the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), an English-language research university on the outskirts of Moscow. Dozens of researchers from around the world leaped at the chance for a foreign assignment, which they thought … Read more
This NASA graphic offers an introduction to the constellations visible in the Northern Hemisphere. (Image credit: NASA) The constellations in the night sky are connected to myth and legend, as well as the unscientific concepts of astrology. But they also have held importance and usefulness to science and exploration throughout history and still today. Stars … Read more
The searing “megadrought” that has gripped the southwest U.S. for more than two decades is the driest 22-year period in at least 1,200 years. The region hasn’t seen a more severe drought since the start of the scientific record around the year 800, according to new research published yesterday. An exceptionally dry year in 2021 helped break … Read more
The megadrought that has parched the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico over the last two decades is the worst to hit the region in at least 1,200 years, researchers said Monday. Human-caused global heating accounts for more than 40 percent of the dry spell’s intensity, they reported in the journal Nature Climate … Read more
In a strange encounter off the coast of western Australia, a pod of orcas seems to free a humpback whale from a rope entangling its tail. But were they really trying to rescue it? It isn’t clear whether the orcas (Orcinus orca) were trying to manipulate the rope or why they approached the humpback in the … Read more
Western Australia, which has remained largely covid-free, has cancelled its border reopening due to omicron fears, but there may be little to gain by holding out longer Health 21 January 2022 By Alice Klein Women wearing face masks in Perth, Australia Matt Jelonek/Getty Images Western Australia, which has mostly dodged the coronavirus by sealing itself … Read more
For something that’s meant to lend order to our lives, the modern Western calendar has a messy history. The mess, in part, comes about because of the difficulty of coordinating the orbits of celestial bodies with the cycles of day and night, and the passage of the seasons. The year measured by the earth’s … Read more
We used to think that European wine grapes were cultivated locally, independently of grape domestication in western Asia, but grape genetics suggests otherwise Humans 21 December 2021 By Carissa Wong Red grapes ready to be harvested in a vineyard alika/Shutterstock Grapes used to make common European wines may have originated from grapevines that were first … Read more
Severe coastal flooding inundated islands and atolls across the western equatorial Pacific last week, with widespread damage to buildings and food crops in the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. On one level, very high tides are normal at this time of year in the western Pacific, and … Read more