Andean communities are turning to quinoa during today’s pandemic and climate change crises, with traditional quinoa preserving the heritage of local biodiversity in this region. Indigenous Andean communities have planted quinoa for seven millennia, and the deserted highlands that serve as their home have been declared by the UN as a GIAHS, or Globally Important
Month: September 2020
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Firefighters and volunteers in the Pantanal, Brazil, have been scrambling to rescue jaguars from extreme fires.Credit: Andre Penner/AP/Shutterstock Infernos in South America’s Pantanal region — the world’s largest tropical wetland — have burnt twice the area
WASHINGTON — NASA says they are still not sure of the source of a small air leak on the International Space Station after the crew spent a second weekend confined to a single module there. The Expedition 63 crew of NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner remained inside the
Two women have come forward with formal sexual assault allegations against Nikola founder Trevor Milton, accusing the 38-year-old billionaire in complaints filed with Utah authorities of sexual abuse when both women were 15 years old. The accusations, stretching back more than 15 years ago, follow Milton’s resignation as executive chairman of Nikola on Sept. 21
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gestures during a session at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, on January 22, 2020. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images) Google said on Monday that it will enforce rules that require app developers distributing Android software on the Google Play
NASA on Monday revealed its latest plan to return astronauts to the Moon in 2024, and estimated the cost of meeting that deadline at $28 billion (roughly Rs. 2,05,787 crores), $16 billion (roughly Rs. 1,17,592 crores) of which would be spent on the lunar landing module. Congress, which faces elections on November 3, will have to sign
Graphene nanoribbon: Scanning tunnelling microscope image of a wide-band metallic graphene nanoribbon (GNR). Each cluster of protrusions corresponds to a singly occupied electron orbital. The formation of a pentagonal ring near each cluster leads to a twentyfold increase in the conductivity of metallic GNRs. The GNR backbone has a width of 1.6 nm. (Courtesy: UC
An additional portion of the English countryside amounting to 400,000 hectares will be under protection by the year 2030, according to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as support for nature’s recovery. UK’s Pledge to the UN UK’s prime minister will announce this commitment at a virtual event to be sponsored by the United Nations. There
I became fascinated by bats in 2011, after I started working with them in Central Amazonia. But this photo was taken near Ranomafana National Park in eastern Madagascar, during an expedition organized by the University of Helsinki. My colleague, Adrià López-Baucells, and I led the bat research. I am in the white T-shirt. We had
WASHINGTON — NASA has selected SpaceX to launch a space science mission and several secondary payloads, the latest in a series of wins by SpaceX for NASA science missions. NASA announced Sept. 28 it awarded a contract to SpaceX for the launch of its Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) spacecraft in 2024 from Cape
Reaching the 2015 Paris Agreement goals requires bold action from all sectors and levels of our society. But any chief sustainability officer will fall short of their responsibility if they simply cite net-zero as a strategic goal. High ambition on its own may sound good. But without describing the emissions their organization is responsible for
Courtesy UCSF For seven years, Dr. Ethan Weiss, a cardiologist at The University of California, San Francisco, has experimented with intermittent fasting. The health fad, which restricts eating to specific periods of time, hit the mainstream after a series of promising studies in mice suggested that it might be an effective weight loss strategy in humans.
Many multicellular animals respond to disease-causing agents, termed pathogens, using an evolutionarily conserved defence pathway called the cGAS–STING pathway1,2. Reports in the past few years of cGAS- and STING-like proteins in bacteria raised the possibility that this pathway is more evolutionarily ancient than was previously thought3–5. Writing in Nature, Morehouse et al.6 demonstrate that a
Congress for years has been critical of the U.S. Air Force’s weather satellite programs. WASHINGTON — The Space Force has completed a report mandated by Congress on its plans to acquire weather satellites to fill a growing military demand for meteorological data, a senior official told SpaceNews. The report is done and is being submitted
The logo of Siemens Energy pictured at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Monday, 28 September 2020, in Frankfurt, Germany. Frank Rumpenhorst | picture alliance | Getty Images The CEO of Siemens Energy outlined a vision for the newly-listed firm’s future on Monday, describing it as a “mirror of today’s energy world” and stressing the importance
The scientists inject water from above into the analysis chamber, where it forms a short microjet that meets a laser beam. Credit: ETH Zurich / Inga Jordan Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have tracked the ultrafast movements of electrons in liquid water for the first time – an important step towards understanding the fine
A severe weather storm in battered New Zealand brings heavy snow and rain and gale-force winds, closing roads, canceling several flights, and snowing on beaches and dipping the temperatures over the weekend. Sat loop from 10am to noon, with midday fronts dropped on at the end of the loop. Spot the Antarctic ice edge in
Men work at a distribution station in the 855,000-square-foot Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, New York. Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images Amazon has finally set a date for this year’s Prime Day after months of coronavirus-related delays. Prime Day will once again run two days this year, with discounts kicking off at
Space Force wants to be the military’s first “digital service by design.” Deeply rooted Pentagon practices stand in the way Space Force leaders frequently remind audiences that the newest branch of the U.S. military will be a “digital service” on the leading edge of technology. “Our goal is to be the first digital service by
This photo illustration taken on September 14, 2020 shows the logo of the social network application TikTok and a US flag shown on the screens of two laptops in Beijing. Nicolas Asfouri | AFP | Getty Images A judge has temporarily blocked an order from the Trump administration that would have banned TikTok from being
A drone, 7 GoPro cameras, 2 Wi-Fi GoPro trigger remotes, a Canon DSLR, multiple camera lenses, 7 heavy duty tripods, 8 memory cards, 8 walkie-talkies, 7 high capacity power banks, a anemometer, countless charging and data transfer cables, an optically stabilizing binocular, a 4TB external hard drive, all packed in two black military grade pelican
Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital hope to reduce the risk to healthcare workers posed by COVID-19 by using robots to remotely measure patients’ vital signs. (Courtesy: the researchers, edited by MIT News) A team of US-based researchers has created an innovative robotic platform that can remotely measure hospital patients’ vital signs –
There were no readily accessible oxygen billions of years in Earth’s past, and scientists now think that arsenic, a known poison, may have helped early life on our planet breathe. In the Atacama Desert in Chile, in Laguna La Brava, researchers study photosynthetic microorganisms that live in a hyper-saline lake that is permanently and utterly devoid of oxygen. They published their research
HELSINKI — China added to its Earth observation capabilities with the clandestine launch of two satellites from Taiyuan late Saturday. The unexpected launch of a Long March 4B rocket carrying satellites HJ-2A (Huanjing-2A) and HJ-2B took place at 11:23 p.m. Eastern Saturday. While Chinese launches are rarely publicly announced ahead of time, the publishing of
Xi Jinping, China’s president, speaks during the United Nations General Assembly on September 22, 2020. Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images China is targeting peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by the year 2060, according to President Xi Jinping. In an address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday,
People sit in Alamo Square overlooking the city skyline in San Francisco on March 26, 2020. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Greg Tribulato is having trouble getting buyers interested in two extensively renovated condominiums he’s trying to sell in San Francisco’s Mission district. They’ve been on the market for three months. The
When Capella Space’s first operational synthetic aperture radar satellite launched from New Zealand last month on a Rocket Lab Electron, a team of agriculture specialists at The Climate Corporation watched with excitement. “We were really happy,” said Steven Ward, the director of geospatial sciences at The Climate Corporation, a San Francisco-based subsidiary of life sciences
This week’s podcast focuses on Peer Review Week, an annual event honouring the vital role that peer review plays in maintaining the quality of published scientific papers. But while peer review is important, it’s certainly not perfect. The quality of reviews is not always up to scratch – as the darkly comic website Shit My Reviewers
The EPA made a recent statement denying the adverse effects of pesticide chlorpyrifos on children’s brain development. This new pronouncement directly contradicts federal researchers’ scientific conclusions five years ago, who stated that the chemical stunts brain development. Chlorpyrifos is present in grapes, almonds, soybeans, and other crops. The new statement is excellent news and is a significant win for the
Electric vehicle start-up Xpeng unveiled its first generation prototype for a flying vehicle at the Beijing Auto Show on Sept. 26, 2020. Evelyn Cheng BEIJING — Alibaba-backed Xpeng is putting money into flying car technology as part of the company’s long-term strategy. The electric automaker revealed Saturday at the Beijing Auto Show the first in
Gwynne Shotwell: “We are pleased that they see the benefits of the technology.” WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the first time next year will launch a military GPS satellite with a previously flown main booster, the U.S. Space Force announced Sept. 25. The company reached an agreement earlier this month with the
Whether it’s a dry Chablis or punchy, full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon, a glass or two of quality wine can be one of life’s small pleasures. A phenomenon known as “cork taint” can, however, create a host of problems including rancid smells and an off-putting taste. It’s a problem that Fredérique Vaquer, a winemaker in the south
Can a small American aerospace company get to Venus before NASA returns to our superheated planetary neighbour? That’s what Peter Beck, the CEO of Rocket Lab, is hoping as he sets his sights on launching a low-cost probe in 2023. Over the past decade his company has become very good at putting satellites in to
Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 13 October 2020 exploring the fundamentals of TERS through the history of near-field spectroscopic optics Want to take part in this webinar? Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (TERS) provides the vibrational information of a sample with nanometric resolution. Obtaining physico-chemical information with such
The popularity and success of Tesla has proven there is demand for electric cars. Automakers are investing billions into an electric-powered future. Last year, 143 new EV’s launched around the globe. Analysts predict record growth of EV sales in 2021, especially in Europe and China. But, in the U.S., electric vehicles sales represented less than 2%
Seventy monkeys escaped their enclosure in Takagoyama Shizen Zoo in Futtsu City last June. The authorities arrested a 16-year-old high school boy for vandalism and apparently allowing the monkeys to escape. The zoo caretaker found a large gap in the monkey’s age, and the wire mesh had been cut with a sharp tool. A zoo caretaker found
VALLETTA, Malta — Launch startup HyImpulse successfully tested its 16,800-pounds-force hybrid rocket motor this month at German space agency DLR’s Lampoldshausen facility. Headquartered in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Germany, HyImpulse is developing its three-stage SL1 launch vehicle designed to carry payloads of up to 500 kilogram to Sun-synchronous orbit. The light-lift launch vehicle will be powered
It’s Climate Week: the time of year that climate leaders and professionals usually descend upon New York City in a cloud of transportation emissions to talk climate ambitions and targets. Like everything else this year, Climate Week wasn’t the usual. Sessions and panels were virtual. There were no breakfast buffets. People presumably drank alone instead
Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter participates in a privacy roundtable at CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 7, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images) David Becker | Getty Images News | Getty Images Like workers across America, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter has been thinking this summer about how
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Antarctica’s vast ice cap, which covers about as much of the earth as North America and is close to 5 kilometres.imageBROKER/Alamy Rising temperatures will radically affect how much Antarctic ice melts — and the impact is
The United States is on the verge of a new space age. Despite civil unrest and the continuing pandemic, the future for space exploration and development looks bright. Provided we successfully navigate the legal and economic challenges, the benefits for humanity can be enormous. Both the public and private sectors recently made bold moves. NASA
Thermosensitive liposomes release encapsulated drugs when heated with focused ultrasound. (Courtesy: Kullervo Hynynen) Improving the delivery of chemotherapy drugs to solid tumours while minimizing harmful side effects is key to optimizing cancer treatments. One promising approach lies in the use of thermosensitive liposomes (TSLs) that release encapsulated drugs upon heating, such as doxorubicin-loaded TSL (TSL-Dox),
A hydrogen fuel-cell plane that’s capable of carrying passengers completed its maiden flight this week, in another step forward for low and zero-emission flight. ZeroAvia’s six-seater Piper M-class aircraft — which has been retrofitted with the device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity — undertook a taxi, take-off, full pattern circuit and landing on
Camp Ashland is set to be rebuilt after successive waves of destructive floods damaged it, with a project worth $35 Million being granted recently for this purpose. It will be the Camp’s centerpiece project under the $62 Million flood reconstruction project for the Camp. Resiliency Through Disasters The Camp experienced several waves of disasters, including two devastating floods
Apple Watch Series 6, the new Memoji face looks like me. Todd Haselton | CNBC I’ve been testing the new Apple Watch Series 6 for the past week. It’s very similar to the Apple Watch Series 5 launched last year. It even looks the same, unless you check out the new sensors on the bottom
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here Protesters call for an end to COVID-19-based restrictions in Sacramento, California.Credit: Stanton Sharpe/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Several ongoing coronavirus-vaccine trials — from Moderna, Pfizer and the University of Oxford–AstraZeneca — could announce game-changing results next month. Here are
WASHINGTON — Italy is the latest country to sign an agreement to cooperate with NASA on the Artemis human lunar exploration program, although the details of Italy’s participation have yet to be worked out. In a Sept. 25 ceremony held by videoconference, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Riccardo Fraccaro, undersecretary to Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe
Editor’s note: Last week’s Foodstuff discussion on the impact of regenerative grazing on emissions from meat production prompted a flurry of comments from the GreenBiz community. This essay advances the dialogue. Let’s get back to the beef brouhaha I wrote about last week. I’d argued that regenerative grazing could cut emissions from beef production, helping
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