The science behind the biggest scientific stories of the year: Svitlana Krakovska, a climate scientist and the abolition facts-finder
The people behind this year’s biggest science stories. Seven earthsized planets and a satellite that will track all of the world’s water are examined by the James Webb Space Telescope.
A climate revolutionary, a monkeypox watchman and an abortion fact-finder are some of the fascinating people behind the year’s big research stories. One of them is a climate scientist, Svitlana Krakovska, who became a campaigner for climate action. “This human-induced climate change and war against Ukraine have direct connections and the same roots: they are fossil fuels and humanity’s dependence on them,” she told the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) while missiles landed kilometres from her home. IPCC vice-chair Ko Barrett praises Krakovska’s decision to speak up: “We’re scientists, but we’re humans,” she says. “There’s nobody who stands where she stands who can tell the same story.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04484-9
Atmosphere of seven Earth-sized planets at high altitudes: a step toward a game-changer in global water supply
The atmospheres of seven Earth-sized planets circling a star are exciting targets in space because of the James Wits Telescope’s incredible observing power. The planets lie in its ‘goldilocks’ zone, where temperatures are right for liquid water — and possibly life — to exist. The first results from two of the planets show that neither has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. That could mean that they have denser atmospheres that are made of molecules such as carbon dioxide or methane, or no atmosphere at all.
The Earth will be measured in detail by a joint US and French satellite. The Surface Water and Ocean Topographic satellite will be a game-changer in research into climate change and global water supply. Every 10 or 11 days, the radar on the US dollar one billion satellite will show water heights, elevation changes and extents in six million lakes and reservoirs. It will also estimate river flow rates with unprecedented accuracy and give scientists their first 3D view of ocean eddies.
The increased gene-sequencing capacity built to track COVID-19 is being used to study other infectious diseases in laboratories across Asia and Africa. The samples would be sent abroad and take weeks to months to be tested. Next-Generation equipment, which is used to track and respond to local public-health emergencies, was helped by Covid-19 funding. The new machines will not work if funding for the sequencing dries up.
According to the official toll, COVID-19 killed around 14 million people. The huge discrepancy shows that too many deaths around the world still go unrecorded, argues a Nature editorial. The figure is derived from an analysis of deaths that exceed expectations. Other analyses give different estimates, and we’ll probably never know the true number of people who died of the disease.
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04484-9
Critics of India’s Tree-Planning, Rewilding, and a New Particle Anomaly at the CERN LHC
In midlife, writer and filmmaker Pradip Krishen fell in love with trees. Now he is a leading advocate for rewilding in India, as one of the leaders of a group called the Ecological Restoration Alliance of India. Some tree-planting projects are nothing more than a media stunt and have little long-term success, rather than their restoration aims being focused on specifics of local wetlands and the livelihoods of their people. That approach is at odds with policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who encourages rapid development that can sometimes ignore warnings from scientists.
Some of their practices are used to perpetuate the myth of race as a biological category. The horror of seeing their peer-reviewed work misused in the manifesto of the murderer who massacred ten people in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, is what led to the realization of the modern day moral dilemma. African ancestry or european ancestry are among the continental categories used under the scientific conventions. Critics argue that these are as bad as race groupings because they aren’t capturing important variations in the human species. Identifying genetic solutions to public-health and social problems could distract from their true drivers: economic,historical and contemporary racism.
It turned out that the data that raised hopes of a new particle wasn’t real. Plastic hurt sea urchins and what happens now it is in turmoil?
An intriguing anomaly in data gathered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that raised hopes of a new elementary particle has turned out to be a fluke. Scientists at the European particle-physics laboratory at CERN discovered that some particles decay more often intopositron pairs than into muon pairs. The standard model of physics predicts that both pairs will occur with roughly the same frequencies. The latest measurements and an investigation of confounding factors revealed that the discrepancy was partly the result of misidentifying other particles as electrons.
Micro-Messaging: Why Scientists Should Stay or Go on Twitter, or When to Stop? Dr. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Energy Commission
A fatal abnormality in sea urchins is due to the use of tiny plastic pellet called “nurdles” that are the raw material for much of the modern world. Scientists say that high concentrations of zinc in the water may be the cause. “Even if plastic is not killing animals by ingestion or entanglement, it can also kill animals by the chemicals in it or on it,” says developmental biologist Eva Jimenez-Guri.
US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm has overturned the 1954 decision revoking the security clearance of one of the most influential physicists of the twentieth century, Robert Oppenheimer, who led the development of the first atomic bomb. The decision by the Atomic Energy Commission ended Oppenheimer’s government career. “Historical evidence suggests that the decision to review Dr. Oppenheimer’s clearance had less to do with a bona fide concern for the security of restricted data and more to do with a desire on the part of the political leadership of the AEC to discredit Dr. Oppenheimer in public debates over nuclear weapons policy,” said Granholm in a statement.
Should scientists stay or go on the micro-messaging site? Many are concerned that the site could be abused by the new owner, who is erratic and combative. Roughly half a million researchers use the platform to communicate their findings, debate issues and connect with people. Some researchers have left for open-source alternative Mastodon. Others feel duty-bound to keep providing their expertise to Twitter users.
Thomas Zurbuchen has loved his job at NASA’s science mission directorate. He has decided to step down after six years. He says that knowing when to leave is anunderappreciated skill. There are weaknesses for every leader. Over time, their weaknesses weigh more heavily on an organization and it becomes time for someone with fresh ideas to step in.”
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04563-x
How vaccines are misrepresented in international politics: A case study on virtual meetings and the birth of children in Kyrgyzstan, a country with a changing population
The global vaccine rates are at their lowest in a decade. Many children were missing out on vaccine due to the disrupted health services as a result of the Pandemic. The vaccine rates have been stagnant since 2020. This is partly due to safety concerns, mistrust in public-health institutions and politicized perceptions of vaccines — issues that the pandemic exacerbated. A preliminary assessment suggests that many people don’t know the importance of vaccinations for diseases they aren’t worried about.
From China–US tensions to continued COVID-19 vaccine nationalism and Russia’s war halting many research collaborations, 2022 saw a trend of science being used as leverage in international politics. A Nature Editorial argues that political objectives must not be allowed to stop researchers from different countries working together to solve global problems.
Some researchers and clinicians say that children need to experience independence and let go to develop good mental health. 9 min read.
In April, we heard about a team investigating whether the switch from face-to-face to virtual meetings cost creativity. It was shown that people meetings produced less creative ideas than those working face-to-face, so maybe it’s time to turn the camera off.
The deaths of up to 50% of Europe’s population has been estimated due to the Black Death. However, despite extensive research, the origin of this wave of disease has remained unclear. In June, we heard from a team who used a combination of techniques to identify a potential starting point in modern-day Kyrgyzstan.
Discovery of vaccine hubs: Coronapod reminiscences about the discovery of Borneo of an amputated skeleton
We reminiscing about the discovery and what questions are left to be answered about it.
In this episode of Coronapod we investigated a radical new collaboration between 15 countries — co-led by the WHO, and modelled on open-science — that aims to create independent vaccine hubs that could supply the global south. The project received support from the Pulitzer Center.
In September we heard about the discovery in Borneo of a skeleton with an amputated foot, dated to 31,000 years ago. The person whose foot was removed survived the procedure, which the researchers behind the find say shows the ‘surgeon’ must have had detailed knowledge of anatomy, and likely had access to antiseptic compounds.
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