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COVID-19 facemasks & marine plastic pollution.

Our oceans will be flooded with an estimated 1.56 billion face masks in 2020 says a report released today by Hong-Kong-based marine conservation organization OceansAsia. This will result in an additional 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of marine plastic pollution, says the report, entitled “Masks on the Beach: The Impact of COVID-19 on Marine Plastic Pollution.” These masks will take as long as 450 years to break down, slowly turning into micro plastics while negatively impacting marine wildlife and ecosystems.

The report used a global production estimate of 52 billion masks being manufactured in 2020, a conservative loss rate of 3%, and the average weight of 3 to 4 grams for a single-use polypropylene surgical face mask to arrive at the estimate.

“The 1.56 billion face masks that will likely enter our oceans in 2020 are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, Director of Research for OceansAsia, and lead author of the report. “The 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of face masks are just a small fraction of the estimated 8 to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans each year.”

Continue reading “Estimated 1.56 billion face masks will have entered oceans in 2020” | >

Reading the time on an analogue clock is surprisingly difficult for computers, but artificial intelligence can now do so accurately using a method that had previously proved tricky to deploy.

Computer vision has long been able to read the time from digital clocks by simply looking at the numbers on the screen. But analogue clocks are much more challenging because of factors including variation in their design and the way shadows and reflections can obscure the hands.

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MX Linux 21 AHS is finally available with Linux Kernel 5.14 and updated open-source graphics stack. But, is it for everyone?

MX Linux 21 was officially unveiled last month while introducing a new Fluxbox edition. However, the Advanced Hardware Support (AHS) ISO was not a part of it.

Recently, MX Linux announced the availability of MX Linux 21 AHS and a new AHS repo for existing MX Linux 21 users.

In this article, let us explore more about it.

Continue reading “MX Linux has Released a New Edition for Newer Hardware” | >

Scientists in South Africa are warning of a new strain of COVID-19. The variant — which is yet to be named — appears to have a high number of mutations. That is of concern, because there’s a possibility it could be able to evade our immune response and be even more transmissible. South Africa has called for an emergency meeting of the World Health Organization to discuss this new variant.

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Scientists have discovered a new route to produce complex antibiotics exploiting gene editing to re-program pathways to future medicines urgently required to combat antimicrobial resistance, treat neglected diseases and tackle future pandemics.

Researchers from The University of Manchester have discovered a new way of manipulating key assembly line enzymes in bacteria which could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotic treatments.

New research published today in Nature Communications, describes how CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing can be used to create new nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) enzymes that deliver clinically important antibiotics. NRPS enzymes are prolific producers of natural antibiotics such as penicillin. However, up until now, manipulating these complex enzymes to produce new and more effective antibiotics has been a major challenge.

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NASA’s aircraft flight scheduling technology will start rolling out in 2023 to better coordinate aircraft movements at airports across the United States. It follows almost four years of research and testing by NASA and the FAA.

NASA’s surface metering technology is being integrated into the FAA’s airport surface management technology called the Terminal Flight Data Manager (TFDM) that will get implemented at 27 airports around the US.

The platform aims to improve efficiency, shift departure wait times from the taxiway to the gate, save fuel, reduce emissions, and give airlines and passengers more flexibility in the period before leaving the gate.

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