Each year, editors and writers choose a top research achievement as Science’s Breakthrough of the Year. This year, that honor goes to the multiple COVID-19 vaccines that have succeeded in large human trials—and are now being deployed around the world. But there are a lot of other advances to talk about, from figuring out the origin of Fast Radio Bursts to the discovery of the earliest known figurative art. Check out a few of the runners-up candidates—and this year’s Breakthrough of the Year—in this video rundown. Read the stories here: https://scim.ag/37v20ds
Category Archives: Reviews
Technology: ‘2021 CAnoo VAN’ – The Most Versatile Electric Delivery Vehicle
California EV startup Canoo has announced a new multipurpose electric vehicle aimed at last-mile deliveries and other small businesses, which starts at $33,000 but scales up in size and cost. It’s Canoo’s second vehicle, following the subscription-only van it debuted last year. Canoo still plans to make that EV — in fact, the new multipurpose vehicle is built on the same technological platform that Canoo developed for the van, and they share similar design features.
The new vehicle will initially be sold in two variants, though Canoo says more will eventually be offered. The smaller one (which is the one that starts at $33,000) is 14.4 feet long, 6.4 feet wide, and 6.2 feet tall, and has 230 cubic feet of cargo space. Canoo will offer three different battery pack options, too: 40kWh (with an estimated 130 miles of range), 60kWh (190 miles), and 80kWh (230 miles). The company will also make a larger version that is 17.1 feet long, 7.2 feet wide, and 8.4 feet tall, with 500 cubic feet of cargo space. The same battery pack options will be available, though the range estimates drop to 90 miles, 140 miles, and 190 miles, respectively, thanks to the extra weight.
Health &The City: Author Carolyn Steel And Urban Epidemiologist Tolullah Oni On 2020 (Podcast)
Andrew Tuck is joined by Carolyn Steel, author of ‘Sitopia’, and urban epidemiologist Tolullah Oni, who unpack the lessons for our cities from 2020. Plus: Jan Gehl brings us some inspiration and hope for what’s ahead.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (DEC 18, 2020)
Science Podcast: The Top Stories, Breakthroughs And Books Of 2020
Our last episode of the year is a celebration of science in 2020. First, host Sarah Crespi talks with Online News Editor David Grimm about some of the top online news stories of the year—from how undertaker bees detect the dead to the first board game of death. (It’s not as grim as it sounds.)
Sarah then talks with Online News Editor Catherine Matacic about the Breakthrough of the Year, scientific breakdowns, and some of the runners-up—amazing accomplishments in science achieved in the face of a global pandemic. Finally, Book Review Editor Valerie Thompson joins Sarah to discuss highlights from the books section—on topics as varied as eating wild foods to how the materials we make end up shaping us.
Road Tests: The New ‘Harley-Davidson Serial 1 Electric Bikes’ (Video)
Harley-Davidson’s new Serial 1 electric bikes are coming, and we got one of the first test rides. The bikes are gorgeous, with a clean, non cluttered design and an impressive spec sheet. And they are an absolute joy to ride. But are they worth $5,000? Learn more about the Harley-Davidson Serial 1: http://bit.ly/3gXZL5B
Art: ‘Beyond The Surface’ – Monet’s “Changing Light”
This video takes an in-depth look at Monet’s approach to painting in series, an approach that consumed his later years. From stacks of wheat in the French countryside to sites of foggy London to water lilies at his home garden in Giverny, Monet painted beloved subjects again and again, depicting changing light and atmospheric conditions in works that captivate us still today. New scientific discoveries, however, reveal that Monet’s genius goes well beyond what we see on the surface.
Exhibitions: ‘Kandinsky’ At The Guggenheim Bilbao In Spain (Nov ’20 To May ’21)
As a pioneer of abstraction and a renowned aesthetic theorist, Vasily Kandinsky (b. 1866, Moscow; d. 1944, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) is among the foremost artistic innovators of the early twentieth century.
In his endeavor to free painting from its ties to the natural world, Kandinsky discovered a new subject matter based solely on the artist’s “inner necessity” that would remain his lifelong concern.
In Munich in the 1900s and early 1910s, Kandinsky began exploring the expressive possibilities of color and composition, but he was abruptly forced to leave Germany with the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. The artist eventually returned to his native Moscow, and there his pictorial vocabulary started to reflect the utopian experiments of the Russian avant-garde, who emphasized geometric shapes in an effort to establish a universal aesthetic language. Kandinsky subsequently joined the faculty of the Bauhaus, a German school of art and applied design that shared his belief in art’s ability to transform self and society. Compelled to abandon Germany again when the Bauhaus closed under Nazi pressure in 1933, he settled outside Paris, where Surrealism and the natural sciences influenced Kandinsky’s biomorphic imagery.
More so than any other artist, Kandinsky is intertwined with the history of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, established in New York in 1937. Industrialist and museum founder Solomon R. Guggenheim began collecting Kandinsky’s work in 1929 and met him at the Dessau Bauhaus the following year. This exhibition draws from the foundation’s extensive holdings to illustrate the full arc of Kandinsky’s seminal career.
Curator: Megan Fontanella
Organized by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics.
Science: Researchers Build Crash-Resistant Flying ‘Beetlebot’ (Video)
Beetles are virtually crash resistant. Their wings fold up when they collide with objects, and then quickly spring back into place. That helps the insects stay on course and fly straight, rather than spiral to the ground, while exerting little energy. Researchers have now built a winged robot that mimics this capability.
The “beetlebot” keeps flying, even after it crashes into poles, researchers report this month in Science. The energy-efficient robot could even navigate narrow environments, such as collapsed buildings, to aid rescue missions, the team says.
Reviews: TIME Magazine – Person Of The Year (2020)
The Biden-Harris ticket represents something historic. Person of the Year is not just about the year that was, but about where we’re headed.
Boomers Daily 