News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
When you view the world a certain way, it’s easy to forget not everyone has the same vision. We do mean that quite literally. Aside from philosophical considerations of the subjective experience of color, different organisms have evolved to view the world differently, with eye structures and configurations optimized for various kinds of existence. … Read more
Nature is an unstoppable force, and a beautiful one at that. Everywhere you look, the natural world is laced with stunning patterns that can be described with mathematics. From bees to blood vessels, ferns to fangs, math can explain how such beauty emerges. Math is often described this way, as a language or a … Read more
This weekend saw the deaths of two of the world’s strongest advocates of protecting the world’s flora and fauna. Edward O. Wilson, 92, an ant researcher at Harvard University who also introduced controversial theories about how societies evolve and function, became a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and, later in life, a powerful conservation advocate, died on … Read more
Carbon emissions from wildfires broke records around the world this summer, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service. Parts of Siberia produced their highest fire-related emissions since the agency first began keeping tabs in 2003. Ditto for the western United States. Altogether, wildfires worldwide spewed about 1.76 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere. … Read more
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 Pharmaceuticals. The article was published independently and without sponsorship. As people in the U.S. and other wealthy countries begin lining up for COVID vaccine booster shots, most of those … Read more
Impatient children can pass time waiting for their Christmas presents by tracking Santa as he proceeds with his annual deliveries across the globe in a simulation by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). It has already become a tradition for NORAD, in cooperation with private companies Analytical Graphics (AGI) and Cesium, to follow Santa … Read more
Record-shattering fires, freezes and rainfall around the world made it all too clear that extreme weather is fast becoming the new normal Environment 15 December 2021 By Adam Vaughan A firefighter in California in August REUTERS/Fred Greaves DEADLY fires, floods and freezes struck around the world this year, as a report by the world’s top … Read more
With that famous song, sleigh rides and snowmen who magically come alive, so much of the cultural imagery associated with Christmas features a glistening carpet of snow. But as rising global temperatures start to dull winter’s bitter edge, will the proverbial White Christmas become just a bit of Yuletide lore? Although logic would seem to … Read more
When the immense sound of the Ariane 5 rocket rumbles across Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, it will signal the end of a journey decades in the making. Perched atop the rocket will be the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most sophisticated and complex observatory ever constructed. An enormous mirror 6.5 meters across, … Read more
According to the first global analysis of plant diversity, the world’s flora is growing increasingly uniform, even on isolated islands like Australia. For decades now, scientists have been warning the world we are headed for a new geological epoch, called the ‘Homogecene’, when unique life forms become overshadowed by more adaptable species that can live … Read more