Meet the protein arsenal wielded by the pandemic virus
Authors were dropped from broader Lancet review
SARS-CoV-2 wields versatile proteins to foil our immune system’s counterattack
A fuel cell gains more power from ion-conducting, porous covalent organic frameworks
Trio helped launch new quantum revolution
By sequencing ancient hominins’ DNA, Pääbo explored “what makes us uniquely human”
Observers study debris from DART’s crash into a space rock and wait to see how much the asteroid was deflected
Genetically diverse mice and cross-species comparison uncover links to longevity
Emerging subvariants are more immune evasive than ever
After doubts grew, blockbuster Nature paper is withdrawn over objections of study team
Tenure delays and pandemic impact statements could backfire, some fear
Leader of Russia’s largest chipmaker elected president after incumbent’s sudden withdrawal
Judges reject claims that defendants defrauded agencies by not disclosing China ties
Dutton Books, 20 September 2022
The goal of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe is to bridge the gap between popular-science treatments of modern physics and true expert knowledge. This is the real stuff — equations and all — presented in a way that presumes no prior knowledge other than high-school algebra. Readers will come up to speed about exactly what professional physicists are talking about, with an emphasis on established knowledge rather than speculation.
Volume One, Space, Time, and Motion, covers the domain of classical physics, from Newton to Einstein. We get introduced to Spherical Cow Philosophy, in which complications are stripped away to reveal the essence of a system, and the Laplacian Paradigm, in which the laws of physics take us from initial conditions into the future by marching through time. We learn the basic ideas of calculus, where we can calculate rates of change and how much of a quantity has accumulated. We think about the nature of space and time, separately and together. Finally we are introduced to the mysteries of non-Riemannian geometry and Einstein’s theory of curved spacetime, culminating into a dive into black holes.
Seasonal monsoon rainfall replenishes groundwater reserves in the Bengal basin of Bangladesh thanks to the region’s seemingly counterintuitive intensive dry-season irrigation practices, a new Science study finds.
Supercomputing and accelerator centers struggle with surging gas and electricity prices
Initiative to explore whether coronavirus lingers in patients
Decades of complaints have gone unheeded by NSF and contractors managing operations, employees say
As New York state declares an emergency, experts are far more worried about a resurgence in low-income countries
Read that and more in this week’s issue: https://fcld.ly/dt1xr77
Revamped German stellarator should run longer, hotter and compete with tokamaks
CHIPS act will fund microelectronics innovation and training through large partnerships
Scientists call for concerted effort to forecast points of no return for ice, weather patterns, and ecosystems
Move to phase out gas-powered cars will force progress toward faster charging batteries
Loved and hated, NIAID’s chief plots life after government
On this week’s show: The U.S. government is partnering with academics to speed up the search for more than 80,000 soldiers who went missing in action, and how humans create their own “oxidation zone” in the air around them.
First up on the podcast this week, Tess Joosse is a former news intern here at Science and is now a freelance science journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. Tess talks with host Sarah Crespi about attempts to use environmental DNA—free-floating DNA in soil or water—to help locate the remains of soldiers lost at sea. Also featured in this segment:
University of Wisconsin, Madison, molecular biologist Bridget Ladell Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution marine biologist Kirstin Meyer-Kaiser
Also this week, Nora Zannoni, a postdoctoral researcher in the atmospheric chemistry department at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, talks about people’s contributions to indoor chemistry. She chats with Sarah about why it’s important to go beyond studying the health effects of cleaning chemicals and gas stoves to explore how humans add their own bodies’ chemicals and reactions to the air we breathe. In a sponsored segment from Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Sean Sanders, director and senior editor for Custom Publishing, interviews Benedetto Marelli, associate professor at MIT, about winning the BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation and how he became an entrepreneur.
The plan, to start at the end of 2025, is a blow to journal paywalls, but its impact on publishing is unclear
Webb telescope discovery offers clue to planet formation and promises insights on planetary habitability
Wider use of checkpoint inhibitor therapy spurs efforts to predict and treat immune complications
Decisions on boosters targeting subvariants will be based on limited data
Nearly complete specimen shows earliest dinosaurs needed a temperate climate
Studies seek clues to origins of farming, early languages
Artificial droughts sharply cut carbon storage
Airborne campaign to study summer cyclones could reveal air-ice interactions
H5N1 has continued to kill wild birds and poultry this summer. The fall migration could bring it back in force
Argus Array will combine hundreds of off-the-shelf telescopes to capture fleeting events
Tiny Caribbean crustaceans and their bioluminescent mating displays are shining new light on evolution
Batteries allowing, CubeSats will target lunar ice and more
Other methods still put the United States somewhat ahead
Measures to capture carbon in soil may be less effective than hoped, scientists say
Bioengineering soybean plants to improve regulation of photoprotection—a natural process that enables plants to cope with excess absorbed light energy—improved soybean seed yield by up to 33% in field trials.
Read that study and more this week in Science: https://fcld.ly/r6g2kix
Boomers Daily 