Science News related to Interest in Moon Resources, New Framework for Clean Water, Predicting Pandemic Infection Rates, Response to Early Tuberculosis Infection, Space Travel’s Impact on Health, Evidence of Fusion Dominant in Many Stars, Quantum Nanodiamonds for Diseases, Ice Sheets on the Move, Uneven Impact of Climate Change
Note: I do not write/own any of the science news bits (and cover picture) given here. The links on each of the news bits will redirect to the news source. The content given under each headline is a basic gist and not the full story.
1. Growing Interest in Moon Resources Could Cause Tension
Source: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
23 Nov 2020
Researchers have identified a problem with the growing interest in extractable resources on the moon: there aren’t enough of them to go around. With no international policies or agreements to decide “who gets what from where,” scientists believe tensions, overcrowding, and quick exhaustion of resources to be one possible future for moon mining projects.
2. Scientists Design New Framework for Clean Water
Source: DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
24 Nov 2020
Scientists have designed a new crystalline material – called ZIOS (zinc imidazole salicylaldoxime) – that targets and traps copper ions from wastewater with unprecedented precision and speed. ZIOS offers the water industry and the research community the first blueprint for a water-remediation technology that scavenges specific heavy metal ions with a measure of control at the atomic level.
3. Time to Rethink Predicting Pandemic Infection Rates?
Source: American Institute of Physics
24 Nov 2020
In a new article, a physicist explains how he combined math in the form of Tchebychev’s inequality with a statistical ensemble to understand how macroscopic exponential growth with different daily rates arise from person-to-person disease infection.
4. Lung-On-Chip Provides New Insight on Body’s Response to Early Tuberculosis Infection
Source: eLife
24 Nov 2020
Scientists have developed a lung-on-chip model to study how the body responds to early tuberculosis (TB) infection, according to findings. These findings add to the understanding of what happens during early TB infection and may explain in part why those who smoke or have compromised surfactant functionality have a higher risk of contracting primary or recurrent infection.
5. Space Travel Can Adversely Impact Energy Production in a Cell
Source: Georgetown University Medical Center
25 Nov 2020
Studies of both mice and humans who have traveled into space reveal that critical parts of a cell’s energy production machinery, the mitochondria, can be made dysfunctional due to changes in gravity, radiation exposure, and other factors, according to researchers. The research has implications for future space travel as well as how metabolic changes due to space travel could inform medical science on Earth.
6. Neutrinos Yield First Experimental Evidence of Catalyzed Fusion Dominant in Many Stars
Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst
25 Nov 2020
An international team of scientists reports detection of neutrinos from the sun, directly revealing for the first time that the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen (CNO) fusion-cycle is at work in our sun. The CNO cycle is the dominant energy source powering stars heavier than the sun, but it had so far never been directly detected in any star, they explain.
7. Quantum Nanodiamonds May Help Detect Disease Earlier
Source: University College London
25 Nov 2020
The quantum sensing abilities of nanodiamonds can be used to improve the sensitivity of paper-based diagnostic tests, potentially allowing for earlier detection of diseases such as HIV, according to a study. The new research found that low-cost nanodiamonds could be used to signal the presence of an HIV disease marker with a sensitivity many thousands of times greater than the gold nanoparticles widely used in these tests.
8. Ice Sheets on The Move: How North and South Poles Connect
Source: McGill University
25 Nov 2020
Over the past 40,000 years, ice sheets thousands of kilometres apart have influenced one another through sea level changes, according to research. New modelling of ice sheet changes during the most recent glacial cycle offers a clearer idea of the mechanisms that drive change than had previously existed and explains newly available geological records.
9. Satellite Images Confirm Uneven Impact of Climate Change
Source: Faculty of Science – University of Copenhagen
26 Nov 2020
Researchers have been following vegetation trends across the planet’s driest areas using satellite imagery from recent decades. They have identified a troubling trend: Too little vegetation is sprouting up from rainwater in developing nations, whereas things are headed in the opposite direction in wealthier ones. As a result, the future could see food shortages and growing numbers of climate refugees.
