Washington Post (June 28)
“Like one of the endangered species whose impending extinction it has chronicled, National Geographic magazine has been on a relentlessly downward path, struggling for vibrancy in an increasingly unforgiving ecosystem. On Wednesday, the Washington-based magazine that has surveyed science and the natural world for 135 years reached another difficult passage when it laid off all of its last remaining staff writers.”
Tags: 135 years, Endangered species, Extinction, Impending, National Geographic, Natural world, Relentlessly, Science, Staff writers, Struggling
Washington Post (September 1)
DeepMind has expanded its “database of folded proteins to more than 200 million — nearly all catalogued proteins known to science, including those in humans, plants, bacteria, animals and other organisms” and made “them publicly available and free.” The AlphaFold database “does not reveal all of biology’s mysteries, nor is it the only advance needed for drug development or disease fighting. But the views are truly astonishing.”
Tags: Advance, AlphaFold, Animals, Bacteria, Biology, Catalogued, Database, DeepMind, Disease fighting, Drug development, Folded proteins, Free, Humans, Plants, Science
South China Morning Post (May 18)
“A surge in the number of Chinese professionals looking for emigration opportunities in response to China’s strict zero-Covid measures could affect the country’s ambitions to become a science and technology superpower.” The “noticeable spike” in interest in leaving China began after “outbreaks of the Omicron variant emerged in Shanghai” around the end of May.
Tags: Ambitions, China, Emigration, Omicron, Opportunities, Outbreaks, Professionals, Science, Spike, Strict, Superpower, Surge, Technology, Variant, Zero COVID
Washington Post (February 22)
“We now have serious, competent leadership that believes in science, not conspiracy theories. And whatever the reasons, the tragic covid-19 toll — still too high — has fallen dramatically from its horrific peak. We have lost an unimaginable 500,000 lives. But we can keep from losing 500,000 more.”
Tags: Competent, Conspiracy theories, COVID-19, Horrific, Leadership, Science, Serious, Tragic
Financial Times (November 10)
“After the long night of Covid-19, a faint glow is visible on the horizon.” Pfizer’s 90% efficacy is more than we could dream for in a vacine, but the “euphoria should be tempered; any return to normality will take time…. Science has made a breakthrough. But don’t throw away your face covering just yet.”
Tags: 90%, Breakthrough, COVID-19, Efficacy, Euphoria, Normality, Pfizer, Science, Tempered, Time, Vaccine
Seattle Times (September 29)
“The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 1 million on Tuesday, nine months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, tested world leaders’ resolve, pitted science against politics and forced multitudes to change the way they live, learn and work.”
Tags: 1 million, Coronavirus, Crisis, Death toll, Devastated, Economy, Leaders, Politics, Science, Work, Worldwide
Wired (August 26)
In a remote location, China built the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest. To reduce radio-frequency interference (RFI), China “forcibly relocated thousands of villagers who lived nearby, so their modern trappings wouldn’t interfere with the new prized instrument.” Once FAST was completed, the government then built up a tourist mecca “just a few miles from the displaced villagers’ demolished houses” and now “plans to increase the permanent population by hundreds of thousands…. potentially undercutting its own science in an attempt to promote it.”
Tags: China, FAST, Government, Relocated, Remote, RFI, Science, Tourists, Undercutting
Bloomberg (December 24)
“Some climate activists worry that Donald Trump’s presidential election will be the death knell for the global environment. That’s almost certainly untrue. Whatever Trump’s attitude toward climate science and energy policy, two big outside factors will be much more important — technological progress and policy in developing nations.
Tags: Activists, Climate, Developing nations, Election, Energy, Environment, Policy, Science, Technological progress, Trump
Financial Times (April 3)
“The tide in the debate over the UK’s continued membership of the EU is turning against those campaigning to remain. This is not surprising, but the weakness of their arguments is puzzling.” Relying on scare tactics and narrow appeals to economic arguments misses the mark. “The main economic factors in favour of EU are not trade, but research, science and innovation policy.”
Tags: Debate, EU, Innovation, Membership, Remain, Research, Scare tactics. Economic factors, Science, Trade, UK
New York Times (July 16)
“There was something wonderfully childlike in the delight of scientists and the public at the rendezvous of the New Horizons spacecraft with that most distant and mysterious of the planets, Pluto…. But there was nothing childish in the extraordinary science and engineering required to send half a ton of highly sophisticated instruments hurtling through space at speeds of up to 47,000 miles an hour for three billion miles.”
Tags: Childlike, Engineering, New Horizons, Pluto, Science, Sophisticated, Space