This Morning with Gordon Deal reports: Portland mayor urges restraint, renunciation of violence, Hurricane Laura’s power outages could last a month, and Girl Scouts use money they earned selling cookies to make PPE.
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: what Putin fears, (9:10) Trump at the Republican National Convention and (16:10) France’s university to rival MIT.
DW Radio News 24/7 reports: Germans protest government Covid-19 measures in Berlin, Chilean protests, cases spike in India and France, and ‘Black Panther’ star Chadwick Boseman dies of cancer at 43.
President Trump accepts the Republican nomination from the White House South Lawn with hundreds in the audience huddled together without masks. Also, clean up continues as Hurricane Laura leaves a trail of devastation. And, Japan’s longest serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe steps down because of his deteriorating health.
NPR News Now reports: Hurricane Laura Weakens, RNC Speeches, Wisconsin shootings, and other top news.
August 26, 2020: Protecting delicate quantum bits from radiation, convalescent plasma for serious Covid-19 patients and a competition to replicate findings from ancient computer code.
In this episode:
01:04 Quantum computers vs ionizing radiation
The quantum bits, or ‘qubits’, central to the operation of quantum computers are notoriously sensitive. Now, researchers have assessed the damaging effects that ionizing radiation can have on these qubits and what can be done about it. Research Article: Vepsäläinen et al.
08:15 Coronapod
We discuss the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision to authorize convalescent plasma for emergency use in COVID-19 patients. As accusations of political interference fly, what might this mean for the future of the US coronavirus response?
20:39 Research Highlights
Finding new populations of a long-lost elephant shrew, and the hunting method of ancient ichthyosaurs. Research Highlight: An elephant-nosed creature ‘lost to science’ was living just next door; Research Highlight: An extinct reptile’s last meal shows it was a grip-and-tear killer
22:34 The reproducibility of computer code
Many scientists have published papers based on code. Recently though, a gauntlet was thrown down for researchers to try to replicate their code, 10 years or more after they wrote it. Tech Feature: Challenge to scientists: does your ten-year-old code still run?
28:06 Briefing Chat
We take a look at some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time we discuss a cancer diagnosis in a dinosaur, and how to brew yourself a career outside of academia. Science: Doctors diagnose advanced cancer—in a dinosaur; Nature Careers Feature: The brews and bakes that forged career paths outside academia
This Morning With Gordon Deal reports: Melania Trump, Mike Pompeo buck tradition with convention speeches, gunfire breaks out at Wisconsin protest, and TSA worker reunites bride with wedding gown left at checkpoint.
Monocle’s editor in chief, Tyler Brûlé, is joined by John Goodwin, the CEO of the Lego Foundation, from its home city of Billund in Denmark. We learn why the global crisis in education might be an opportunity to reimagine learning and to rediscover the value of play.
NPR News Now reports: Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, National Guard called out in Wisconsin following shooting, and other news.
Axios’ Jonathan Swan says to expect less of a traditional Republican National Convention and more of a reality TV show, featuring President Trump every night.
Guests: Axios’ Jonathan Swan, Sam Baker and freelance environmental reporter Miranda Green.
Boomers Daily 