A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, how not to tackle American racism, (10:28) a better way to contain Iran’s nuclear programme, (14:38) and the battle for low-earth orbit.
Category Archives: News
Health Infographics: How “Strong HVAC Airflows Spread Covid-19 Indoors”
From McKinsey & Company (July 9, 2020):
The World Health Organization recently acknowledged that some evidence about in-room transmission is worrisome. In addition, after analyzing a transmission event at a restaurant in China, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that an asymptomatic patient transmitted the virus to families at two nearby tables.
Based on the restaurant layout, seating arrangements, and smear samples from air-conditioning inlets and outlets, the CDC found that the coronavirus was likely transmitted when strong airflows from a nearby air conditioner spread large droplets from the infected person. These droplets traveled more than one meter—further than usual, but less than the distance aerosols can typically travel.
World News Podcast: The Latest In Europe And Asia
Live from Zürich: Tyler Brûlé and his guests discuss the weekend’s news, the Swiss design world and the best recipes for a Sunday dinner.
Morning News Podcast: Roger Stone, Singapore and European Update
The Economist reviews Roger Stone’s lucky day, Singapore’s election and other global stories.
Political News: “Brooks & Capehart” On Covid-19 Response (PBS Video)
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the latest political news, including how the surging coronavirus is affecting President Trump’s public support, the significance of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s economic policy recommendations.
Infographics: “Top Ten Telehealth Visits By Diagnosis And Specialty”
Top Topics Podcast: Chief Justice Roberts And Court Rulings, Airlines
Over the last few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down multiple setbacks to President Trump and conservatives on cases ranging from abortion to LGBTQ discrimination. Chief Justice John Roberts’ record shows he’s not siding with the left. Instead, he’s slowly but surely moving the court in a more conservative direction.
- Plus, the airline industry suffers a gut punch. United Airlines warned thousands of employees to prepare for layoffs in October as air travel demand remains tepid.
- And, the Black Lives Matter movement has gone global among sports teams.
Guests: Axios’ Sam Baker, Joann Muller and Kendall Baker
Top New Science Podcasts: Megatrials For Covid-19 Treatment & Blood Benefits Of Exercise
Contributing correspondent Kai Kupferschmidt talks with host Sarah Crespi about the success of a fast moving megatrial for coronavirus treatments. The United Kingdom’s Recovery (Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy) trial has enrolled more than 12,000 hospitalized coronavirus patients since early March and has released important recommendations that were quickly taken up by doctors and scientists around the world.
Kupferschmidt discusses why such a large study is necessary and why other large drug trials like the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial are lagging behind. Also this week, producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Saul Villeda, a professor in the Department of Anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, about transferring the beneficial effects of exercise on the brain from an active mouse to a sedentary mouse by transferring their blood.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (JULY 10, 2020)
New Science Podcasts: Satellite Navigation, World Wide Web & Neolithic Genomics (BBC)
BBC Radio 4 ‘Inside Science’ talks about satellite navigation in the UK; the science of the World Wide Web and Neolithic genomics.
Is the UK losing its way when it comes to satellite navigation? There’s GPS from the US, but other countries and regions, including Russia, China, India and Japan, either have, or are building, satellite navigation systems of their own. The EU has Galileo, but with Brexit, Britain is no longer involved. The Government has announced that it’s just acquired a satellite technology company called OneWeb. It’s primary role is enhanced broadband, but there’s talk of adding in a navigation function to the constellation of satellites. But how feasible will that be?
In an era of cyber-crime, misinformation, disinformation, state-sponsored attacks on rival countries’ infrastructure, government-imposed internet shutdowns in places like Eritrea and Kashmir, the World Wide Web is an increasingly dark and troubled place. Making sense of how the internet has changed from the democratic, sharing, open platform it was designed to be, and predicting what’s next, are the web scientists. Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and a co-founder of the whole field of web science, is hosting an online, annual conference this week. The theme this year is ‘Making the web human-centric’.
Communal burial sites tend to suggest an egalitarian society, where everyone is considered equal. And this is what we expected the Neolithic societies that spread across Europe with the birth of agriculture around 6000 years ago would be. But DNA evidence from a single human, NG10, buried in 3200 B.C.E in the vast tomb of Newgrange, 25 miles north of Dublin, in Ireland, shows very strong inbreeding. Couple this with the fact the body was buried and not cremated and placed in a highly adorned chamber. Does this indicate an elite ruling class where marrying one’s close kin was the order of the day? Dr. Lara Cassidy, palaeogeneticist at Trinity College Dublin, decoded NG10’s DNA and she tells Adam Rutherford the story.
Presenter – Gareth Mitchell
Producers – Fiona Roberts and Beth Eastwood
Intellicurious 