The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Tuesday announced the Nobel prize in physics goes to three scientists for their work in helping to understand complex physical systems, work that has proved valuable in quantifying and predicting climate. At a Stockholm news conference, the academy’s Secretary General Goran K. Hansson and a panel of Nobel jurors … continue reading -> “Three Share Nobel Prize for Physics for Work on Climate Change”
Researchers in Australia have shown a bacteria can sterilize and eradicate a disease-carrying mosquito that is responsible for spreading dengue, yellow fever and Zika. Three million male Aedes aegypti, or yellow fever mosquitoes, were released in the trial at three sites in Northern Queensland state. They were reared at James Cook University in Cairns and … continue reading -> “Australian Researchers Tout Dengue Fever Mosquito Breakthrough “
A new study reveals the two-dose COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is 90% effective at keeping someone from being hospitalized from the virus up to six months after receiving the second dose. Researchers from Pfizer and U.S.-based health care consortium Kaiser Permanente observed the records of about 3.4 million people who were members … continue reading -> “Study: Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine 90% Effective Against Hospitalization for Up to Six Months”
Workers continue to clean up a massive oil spill off the coast of California as divers try to learn why an underwater pipeline started leaking late last week. Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles. …
The U.N. Children’s Fund says children are likely to suffer most from the monthslong COVID-related restrictions, school closures, and separation from family and friends. The latest estimates show more than one in seven adolescents aged 10 to 19 suffer from mental health disorders globally, while nearly 46,000 adolescents commit suicide every year. UNICEF spokesman James … continue reading -> “UNICEF: Pandemic Worsens Mental Health Disorders in Children”
Officials investigating one of California’s biggest oil spills were trying to determine whether the undersea pipeline that spewed 572,807 liters (126,000 gallons) of heavy crude into the Pacific Ocean had been damaged by a ship’s anchor. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the two busiest container ports in the United States, according … continue reading -> “Officials Seek Cause of Oil Spill off US’s California Coast”
Actor William Shatner, best known for his portrayal of space explorer Captain James T. Kirk in the “Star Trek” television series, announced he will travel to space later this month. Shatner, 90, will blast off October 12 aboard a Blue Origin rocket. Blue Origin is the space travel company of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. If … continue reading -> “‘Captain Kirk’ Heading to Space”
An outage has left millions of people around the world unable to use Facebook along with its Instagram and WhatsApp platforms to connect with friends, family and others. “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we … continue reading -> “Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Suffering Outages”
Pope Francis and other religious leaders made a joint appeal on Monday for next month’s U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) to offer concrete solutions to save the planet from “an unprecedented ecological crisis”. The “Faith and Science: Towards COP26” meeting brought together Christian leaders including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, … continue reading -> “Pope, Other Religious Leaders Issue Pre-COP26 Appeal on Climate Change”
US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch, the jury said. “The groundbreaking discoveries… by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive … continue reading -> “US Duo Win Nobel Medicine Prize for Heat and Touch Work”
The whistleblower who shared a trove of Facebook documents alleging the social media giant knew its products were fueling hate and harming children’s mental health revealed her identity Sunday in a televised interview, and accused the company of choosing “profit over safety.” Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa, has worked for companies including Google and … continue reading -> “Facebook Whistleblower Says Firm Chooses ‘Profit Over Safety’”
A British company says it has developed an easy-to-administer, saliva-based test that can detect whether a person is infectious enough to pass along the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company, Vatic, said in a statement that its test is “extremely accurate” and has not returned a single false positive result in its test group. “This … continue reading -> “British Company Develops Saliva-Based COVID Test”
“The pandemic has destabilized societies, economies, and governments. It has shown that there is no global security without global health security,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a recent address to ambassadors and representatives to the European Union’s political and security committee. “The fastest and best way to end this pandemic is … continue reading -> “WHO Chief: ‘No Country Can Vaccinate Its Way Out of This Pandemic in Isolation’”
A joint European-Japanese spacecraft got its first glimpse of Mercury as it swung by the solar system’s innermost planet while on a mission to deliver two probes into orbit in 2025. The BepiColombo mission made the first of six flybys of Mercury at 11:34 p.m. GMT Friday, using the planet’s gravity to slow the spacecraft down. … continue reading -> “European-Japanese Space Mission Gets First Glimpse of Mercury “
In a normal year, the smokehouses and drying racks that Alaska Natives use to prepare salmon to tide them through the winter would be heavy with fish meat, the fruits of a summer spent fishing on the Yukon River like generations before them. This year, there are no fish. For the first time in memory, … continue reading -> “Alaska’s Vanishing Salmon Push Yukon River Tribes to the Brink”
Delegates heading to the COP26 U.N. climate summit in Glasgow agreed they must deliver on the $100 billion per year pledge to help most vulnerable nations tackle climate change, COP26 president Alok Sharma said on Saturday. Speaking after days of meetings at the pre-COP26 climate event in Italy, Sharma said there was a consensus … continue reading -> “COP26 Chief: Delegates Agree on Need to Deliver on $100B Climate Pledge”
The abortion rights battle takes to the streets across America Saturday, with hundreds of demonstrations planned as part of a new “Women’s March” aimed at countering an unprecedented conservative offensive to restrict the termination of pregnancies. The fight has become even more intense since Texas adopted a law on September 1 banning almost all … continue reading -> “Battle for Abortion Rights Hits America’s Streets Saturday”
Twitter has appealed a French court decision that ordered it to give activists full access to all of its relevant documents on efforts to fight hate speech, lawyers and a judicial source said on Saturday. In July, a French court ordered Twitter to grant six French anti-discrimination groups full access to all documents relating … continue reading -> “Twitter Appeals French Court Ruling on Anti-Hate Speech”
Droughts that cause leaves to turn brown and wither before they can reach peak color. Heat waves prompting leaves to fall before autumn even arrives. Extreme weather events like hurricanes that strip trees of their leaves altogether. For a cheery autumnal activity, leaf peeping is facing some serious threats from the era of climate change. … continue reading -> “Why Climate Change Is Making it Harder to Chase Fall Foliage”
Since China’s government declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal last week and banned citizens from working for crypto-related companies, the price of bitcoin went up despite being shut out of one of its biggest markets. Experts say large-scale Chinese miners of cryptocurrency — the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum — will take their high-powered, electricity-guzzling servers … continue reading -> “How China’s Ban on Cryptocurrency Will Ripple Overseas”
At the virtual COVID-19 summit on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly last week, U.S. President Joe Biden announced an additional donation of 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, bringing total U.S. pledged donations to 1.1 billion shots. “I made — and I’m keeping — the promise that … continue reading -> “Fact-Checking Biden’s Claim US Is World’s ‘Arsenal of Vaccines’”
The U.S. is the global leader in vaccine donations, pledging to send 1.1 billion doses to help the world fight the COVID-19 pandemic. But it has shipped only 15% of the doses it has promised. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report. Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov …
During the three-day World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen, China, this week, the country’s biggest tech tycoons rushed to show their support for Beijing’s “common prosperity” initiative. Their enthusiasm for the initiative comes amid a yearlong crackdown on the country’s tech industry, where several high-profile companies have faced investigations and fines. Formerly high-flying celebrity CEOs … continue reading -> “China’s Tech Titans Funding Beijing’s Effort to Close Income Gap”
Members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team said Friday that recent trials showing the effectiveness of the U.S. drug company Merck’s experimental new COVID-19 pill were certainly good news, but they stressed that vaccines would remain the best way to end the pandemic. During the response team’s virtual briefing, top U.S. infectious-disease expert Dr. … continue reading -> “Fauci Calls Merck COVID Pill Data ‘Impressive’”
A joint mission of the European and Japanese space agencies, the spacecraft BepiColombo is set to make a close, initial flyby of Mercury on Friday as part of a seven-year mission to put two probes in orbit around the solar system’s closest planet to the sun. In a statement on its website, the European Space … continue reading -> “European-Japanese Probe BepiColombo to Fly by Mercury on Friday”