First wave đ.
Your questions answered â an update (11â03â2020): Professor Neil Ferguson on the current status of the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak, case numbers, intervention measures and challenges countries are currently facing.
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says humanity needs a âwhole new architectureâ to fly in space beyond low Earth orbit.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explains why we need a âwhole new architectureâ for space travel :
Despite the lack of official comment on the mission, Chinaâs first expedition to Mars appears to be on track.
Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energyâthe same energy produced by the sun and stars.
In principle, such magnets can greatly simplify the design and production of twisty fusion facilities called stellarators, according to scientists at the U.S. Department of Energyâs (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. PPPL founder Lyman Spitzer Jr. invented the stellarator in the early 1950s.
Most stellarators use a set of complex twisted coils that spiral like stripes on a candy cane to produce magnetic fields that shape and control the plasma that fuels fusion reactions. Refrigerator-like permanent magnets could produce the hard part of these essential fields, the researchers say, allowing simple, non-twisted coils to produce the remaining part in place of the complex coils.
Lasers o.o
They could supply energy to far-flung bases, power laser weapons and charge electric vehicles.
Science and technology Mar 14th 2020 edition.
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Life is rife with patterns. Itâs common for living things to create a repeating series of similar features as they grow: think of feathers that vary slightly in length on a birdâs wing or shorter and longer petals on a rose.
It turns out the brain is no different. By employing advanced microscopy and mathematical modeling, Stanford researchers have discovered a pattern that governs the growth of brain cells or neurons. Similar rules could guide the development of other cells within the body, and understanding them could be important for successfully bioengineering artificial tissues and organs.
Their study, published in Nature Physics, builds on the fact that the brain contains many different types of neurons and that it takes several types working in concert to perform any tasks. The researchers wanted to uncover the invisible growth patterns that enable the right kinds of neurons to arrange themselves into the right positions to build a brain.
The Cleveland Clinic has developed a coronavirus test that will be able to deliver results in just eight hours.
It will be significantly faster than tests available at other US public health laboratories, which take between two to seven days to confirm results.
Denmark is on coronavirus lockdown, becoming the second country in Europe to grind to a halt as the life-threatening disease rips across the continent.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen declared that all Danish schools, universities, and kindergartens will be shut for two weeks to slow the spread of the bug.
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Investors betting big against catastrophic diseases are watching the World Health Organization closely as insurance bonds tied to whether the organization labels COVID-19 a pandemic are set to mature in June.
In 2017, the World Bank designed a new way to raise money: Pandemic Emergency Financing bonds. Over $425 million worth of such bonds, which bet against a global outbreak of infectious diseases and will default if WHO declares the coronavirus a pandemic, were sold by the World Bank in its first-ever issuance of catastrophe bonds. In the event of no pandemic, investors would be paid a healthy annualized return. Meanwhile, the World Bank could use the bonds to insure itself against the risk of a global outbreak.
âAs an investor, we do not want to lose money,â said Chin Liu, a portfolio manager at Amundi Pioneer, a Boston-based firm that purchased the bonds as a way to diversify the companyâs $1 billion catastrophe fund. âBut then, we also understand if itâs unfortunately triggered, it benefits every single person, including ourselves, to keep the virus controlled.â
