Category Archives: Reviews

Science Podcast: Million-Year-Old Mammoth DNA, Art In Science & Jupiter

Researchers sequence the oldest DNA ever recovered, and the people bringing art and science together.

In this episode:

00:46 Million-year-old mammoth DNA

This week, researchers have smashed a long-standing record by sequencing a genome that’s over a million years old. They achieved this feat by extracting DNA from permafrost-preserved mammoth teeth, using it to build-up a more detailed family tree for these ancient animals.

Research Article: van der Valk et al.

News: Million-year-old mammoth genomes shatter record for oldest ancient DNA

News and Views: Million-year-old DNA provides a glimpse of mammoth evolution

10:00 Research Highlights

A spacecraft catches a rare glimpse of a rock smashing into Jupiter, and the perilous state of sawfish populations.

Research Highlight: Robotic eyes spy the flash of a meteor on Jupiter

Research Highlight: Humans push a hulking fish with a chainsaw nose towards oblivion

12:18 Putting art into science (and science into art)

Art and science are sometimes considered disparate, but when brought together the results can be greater than the sum of their parts. This week we hear from an artist and a scientist on the benefits they found when crossing the divide.

Career Feature: How to shape a productive scientist–artist collaboration

Career Feature: How the arts can help you to craft a successful research career

Where I work: ‘All my art is curiosity-driven’: the garden studio where art and physics collide

21:43 Briefing Chat

We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, a neanderthal gene makes brain-like organoids bumpy, and uncovering the original location of Stonehenge’s stone circle.

Covid-19 Infographic: The Top Vaccines Most Widely Used Around The World

Eight different Covid-19 vaccines are currently being used around the world and just over 172 million people have received their first dose, 2.2 for every 100 people. All of the vaccines being used require two shots but that is set to change with Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ+0.3%JNJ+0.3% one-shot vaccine expected to gain regulatory approval for use in the United States within weeks. As it stands, the first Covid-19 vaccine to be authorized for use in the U.S. is also the most widely used shot globally, according to information from website Our World in Data reported by The New York Times.

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Reviews: ’10 Best Electric Bikes Under $2,000′ (Video)

Looking for the best electric bikes for under $2000? Beginning only a fun fad and an interesting twist on the humble bicycle, electric bikes have seen a considerable rise in popularity over the past decade. Improved designs, high-capacity batteries, and fast charging capabilities have transformed the electric bike into a multi-billion-dollar industry. So, let’s check out our picks for the 10 best electric bikes in 2021, highly-rated and affordable, between $600 and $1699.

Racing Design: ‘Airspeeder’ Flying Electric Car (Video)

“It’s not a concept anymore, it’s not abstract anymore – it’s real.” Meet flying racing car Head Designer Felix Pierron, tasked with creating future flying machines.

Airspeeder is the world’s first racing series for electric flying cars. Our mission will accelerate eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) advanced aviation technology through intense sporting competition. This mobility revolution, underpinned by future tech will transform urban air mobility (UAM), global logistics and even medical applications with a clean-air electric vehicle (EV) solution.

Our racing multicopters are developed at our advanced aerospace engineering hub in Adelaide, South Australia by engineers drawn from elite motorsports, automotive, aviation and even FPV drone, electric plane, electric vehicles and passenger drone backgrounds. Airspeeder’s vision will deliver the most exciting and future focused motorsport on the planet. Following an inaugural unmanned season, elite pilots will take to the skies to race prop-to-prop while navigating electronically governed racetracks in the skies above some of the most visually arresting scenery in the world.

These manned multirotor electric vehicles will define a new era in advanced air mobility (AAM). Airspeeder’s first unmanned air race is scheduled for 2021 and will feature a full grid of multirotor unmanned Airspeeder Mk3 racing craft. The best pilots from drone racing will utilise latest RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft systems) in aerial battles across the globe. Our innovations will hasten the arrival of new advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies. Close but safe air racing is assured through latest LiDAR and radar technologies that create virtual forcefields around the sport’s cutting edge quadcopter format flying cars.

Rapid hair-pin turning manoeuvrability is delivered using a multicopter layout. This pioneering approach to aircraft design also enhances stability while electronic speed control (ESC) systems empower pilots to exploit the full potential of our advanced electric powertrains.

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Covid-19: Penn Medicine Explains mRNA Vaccines

Vaccines are about to change the world…again. mRNA Vaccines are currently being used to battle COVID-19, and have the potential to eradicate diseases like HIV, herpes, sickle cell anemia, and even cancer. Learn how the vaccines work and where the technology could be headed in this explainer video.

Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for COVID-19 use the mRNA technology developed at Penn by infectious disease expert Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, along with longtime research collaborator Katalin Karikó, PhD, an adjunct associate professor. Dr. Weissman has been studying mRNA vaccines for decades. This technology could change the way future vaccines are made to prevent countless other diseases.

Medicine: ‘Non-Surgical Treatment Of Kidney Stones’ (Cleveland Clinic)

Observation is a non-surgical approach in which we allow the stone to pass on its own. The smaller the stone, the better the chance that it will pass. The benefit of observation is that you avoid having surgery.

Review: ‘Pocketalk S Voice Translator’ – Better Than Learning New Language?

Can a device replace the need to learn a new language? WSJ asked Alex Rawlings, author of “How To Speak Any Language Fluently,” and an expert in over 15 languages, to test out the new Pocketalk S Voice Translator on the streets of Barcelona.