Tag Archives: Science

Views: NASA Unveils ‘Earth System Observatory’ (ESO)

NASA Goddard (December 2022) – NASA is developing the Earth System Observatory, the core of which is five satellite missions providing critical data on climate change, severe weather and other natural hazards, wildfires, and global food production.

These observations will address the most pressing questions about our changing planet. Taken together as a single Observatory, NASA will have a holistic, 3D view of Earth to better understand how our planet’s complex systems work together and improve our capability to predict how our climate may change.

NASA’s Open Source Science strategy is the key to bringing the data from these missions together into a single observatory to help understand the earth as a system and accelerate our ability to use this understanding. These observations will better inform decision-makers on how our planet is changing, with greater precision on previously unimaginable scales – from entire continents down to individual trees, from atmosphere to bedrock.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Dec 15, 2022

Volume 612 Issue 7940
Cover image: Daniel Kronauer

nature – December 15, 2022 issue:

Sharp laser beam reveals internal organs in stunning 3D

Scientists refine a technology that peers through bone to image sub-surface body parts.

Prehistoric carvings are oldest known story sequence

Two carved panels discovered in what is now Turkey illustrate a tale involving leopards and a bull.

Deadly skin cancer can shrink or vanish after T cells join the fray

Immune-cell-based therapy quashed tumour growth in some people with treatment-resistant melanoma.

A city’s sprawl triggers ominous changes underground

Rapid growth in a city in Central Africa is causing a landslide to speed up.

Cover: American Scientist Magazine – Jan/Feb 2023

Current Issue
(Cover illustration by Sean Murtha.)

American Scientist – January/February 2023

In “A New Picture of Dinosaur Nesting Ecology” (Perspective), paleontologist Daniel T. Ksepka offers an overview of these sweeping advances in his field, showcasing the spectrum of reproductive traits among the dinosaurs, often with surprising mixes of reptilian and avian traits. 

A Deep Dive into Innovation

Groundbreaking innovations may appear to be strokes of genius, but they are most often the product of context, consequence, and coincidence.

Is Garlic Mustard an Invader or an Opportunist?

Originally thought of as simply harmful to native plants, this invasive herb has been spreading for far more complex reasons.

Cover Preview: Scientific American – January 2023

Scientific American – January 2023 issue:

Image

New Human Metabolism Research Upends Conventional Wisdom about How We Burn Calories

Metabolism studies reveal surprising insights into how we burn calories—and how cooperative food production helped Homo sapiens flourish

How Star Collisions Forge the Universe’s Heaviest Elements

Scientists have new evidence about how cosmic cataclysms forge gold, platinum and other heavy members of the periodic table

This Spiritual Tradition Could Be the Most Poetic Bereavement Therapy Ever Documented

A mourning ritual of dialogues with the dead speaks to the fragility of theological diversity

Image

Reviews: TheScientist Magazine – December 2022

TS Digest December 2022, Issue 2 Cover

TheScientist Magazine (December 2022):

2022 Top 10 Innovations

This year’s crop of winning products features many with a clinical focus and others that represent significant advances in sequencing, single-cell analysis, and more.

Implantable Device Zaps Cancer Cells Using Electric Fields

A wireless brain implant inhibits tumor growth in rats, overcoming many design flaws of current devices used to treat glioblastoma.

READ ONLINE

Review: Scripps California Institute For Biomedical Research (CALIBR) At 10 YRS

Calibr at Scripps Research is celebrating a major milestone, a decade of discovery. Take a look at the past 10 years of scientific innovation, and see what the next 10 years have in store.

The California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr) is a first-of-its-kind, nonprofit translational research institute dedicated to accelerating the next generation of medicines, celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2022. Affiliated with Scripps Research—among the most innovative institutes worldwide—we spearhead drug discovery from a steady flow of pioneering science.

Our self-sustaining model encourages broad and bold exploration with far-reaching goals, yet rapid transition of our most successful, high-impact programs into the clinic. We pursue audacious and imaginative ideas—bridging scientific and technological advances to develop new medicines for unmet medical needs.

Learn more: https://www.scripps.edu/science-and-m…

Culture: The American Scholar – Winter 2023

Winter 2023

@TheAmScho Winter 2023 issue:

The Road to Paradise and Back

Fires in the West, hurricanes in the East—what it’s like on the ground as we confront our rapidly changing world

The Corals and the Capitalist

The key to avoiding an ecological catastrophe might be found in the wealth of nations and the spirit of innovation

Our Founding Contradiction

The entrenched dichotomy at the center of the national story

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Dec 8, 2022

Volume 612 Issue 7939

nature – December 8, 2022 issue:

Oil-palm farms that spare rainforests menace grasslands instead

Programmes to avoid deforestation could have unintentional impacts on a variety of ecosystems.

Fruit-fly inspired robots hold steady in a gust of wind

Flying devices weighing only 10 milligrams could be controlled by an unconventional set of instruments.

‘Prisoner’s dilemma’ pinpoints plants that cooperate

Game theory helps to identify genetic variants that give plants the ability to thrive in crowded conditions.

The search for new physics gets a new partner: the Sun

A fifth fundamental force predicted by some alternative theories of gravity has not been seen in the solar interior

Molten rock lurks not far below Yellowstone tourists’ feet

The magma chamber of an enormous volcano lies closer to Earth’s surface than previously estimated.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec 9, 2022

Science Magazine – December 9, 2022 issue:

Alzheimer’s drug stirs excitement—and concerns

Antibody slows cognitive decline, but deaths, brain bleeds, and swelling mar results

NASA radar altimetry mission to study hidden ocean swirls

Enhanced resolution of SWOT satellite will highlight how small eddies soak up heat and carbon

Image problems besiege Stanford president

Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s early papers are subject of school and journal investigations

In China, ‘zero COVID’ has become a Catch-2

Population chafes at control measures, but lifting them now would carry huge risks

New U.S. law aims to light up medical research on cannabis

Biden signs bill streamlining pot studies and production

Preview: New Scientist Magazine – Dec 10, 2022

New Scientist Default Image

New Scientist – December 10, 2022 issue:

Self-knowledge: How to know your true personality and why it matters

When it comes to knowing yourself, your own perception of your personality doesn’t necessarily align with that of people around you. But which is more accurate? And can discovering your true nature lead to a better life?

What the world’s largest liquid mirror telescope means for astronomy

The International Liquid Mirror Telescope, perched high in the Himalayas, has finally started making observations. If it succeeds, we could one day put a much larger liquid telescope on the moon

Flying squirrels carve nuts to store them securely in tree branches

Buried nuts would quickly rot in the tropical rainforests of Hainan Island, so flying squirrels have taught themselves carpentry instead