Science

The Independent
Orionid meteor shower to bring ‘prolonged explosions of light’
Nasa says fast meteors can also become fireballs as Earth passes through tail of Hayley’s comet
BBC
Nasa's Osiris-Rex probe aims for daring 'high five' with asteroid Bennu
Osiris-Rex will make the briefest of contacts with Asteroid Bennu to try to pick up rock samples.
The New York Times
A Viral Theory Cited by Health Officials Draws Fire From Scientists
As the coronavirus pandemic erupted this spring, two Stanford University professors -- Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Dr. Scott W. Atlas -- bonded over a shared concern that lockdowns were creating economic and societal devastation.Now Atlas is President Donald Trump's science adviser, a powerful force inside the White House. And Bhattacharya is one of three authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a scientific treatise that calls for allowing the coronavirus to spread naturally in order to achieve herd immunity -- the point at which enough people have been infected to stall transmission of the pathogen in the community.While Atlas and administration officials have denied advocating this approach, they have praised the ideas in the declaration. The message is aligned with Trump's vocal opposition on the campaign trail to lockdowns, even as the country grapples with renewed surges of the virus.The central proposition -- which, according to the declaration's website, is supported by thousands of signatories who identify as science or health professionals -- is that to contain the coronavirus, people "who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal" while those at high risk are protected from infection.Younger Americans should return to workplaces, schools, shops and restaurants, while older Americans would remain cloistered from the virus as it spreads, receiving such services as grocery deliveries and medical care.Eventually so many younger Americans will have been exposed, and presumably will have developed some immunity, that the virus will not be able to maintain its hold on the communities, the declaration contends.But it does not offer details on how the strategy would work in practice. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert, has dismissed the declaration as unscientific, dangerous and "total nonsense." Others have called it unethical, particularly for multigenerational families and communities of color.Alarmed and angry, 80 experts Wednesday published a manifesto of their own, the John Snow Memorandum (named after a legendary epidemiologist), saying that the declaration's approach would endanger Americans who have underlying conditions that put them at high risk from severe COVID-19 -- at least one-third of U.S. citizens, by most estimates -- and result in perhaps a half-million deaths."I think it's wrong, I think it's unsafe, I think it invites people to act in ways that have the potential to do an enormous amount of harm," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease expert at Harvard University and one of the signatories to the Snow memo. "You don't roll out disease -- you roll out vaccination."The declaration grew out of a gathering hosted in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, by the American Institute for Economic Research, a think tank dedicated to free-market principles that partners with the Charles Koch Institute, founded by the billionaire industrialist to provide support to libertarian-leaning causes and organizations.On Oct. 5, the day after the declaration was made public, the three authors -- Bhattacharya, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard -- arrived in Washington at the invitation of Atlas to present their plan to a small but powerful audience: the health and human services secretary, Alex Azar.Over the course of an hourlong meeting in a wood-paneled, sixth-floor suite atop the health department's headquarters, the researchers walked the secretary and Atlas through their thinking.Azar later tweeted: "We heard strong reinforcement of the Trump Administration's strategy of aggressively protecting the vulnerable while opening schools and the workplace."Battered by lost jobs, pandemic fatigue and isolation, and worried for their children, there is little doubt that Americans loathe lockdowns, although many still see them as necessary to control the virus.Among scientists, too, there is near-universal agreement that lockdowns are harmful. Even Fauci has suggested that another national lockdown must be instituted only as a last resort.But mostly, scientific disagreement centers on whether lockdowns are a necessary move when other strategies to contain the virus have not even been put in place, or have failed."This has been wrongly framed as a debate between lockdown and no lockdown," said Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London.Dr. David Nabarro, a special envoy to the World Health Organization, has urged governments not to resort to lockdowns as the primary method to control the virus. Masks, social distancing, fewer crowds, testing and tracing -- these are the ways to control the virus in the long run, he said in an interview.But the lockdowns in the spring were necessary, he added, as emergency measures to give countries time to put in place strategies to control the virus."There is a middle way," Nabarro added, between strict lockdowns and letting the virus freely infect people. "If only we had a few more world leaders who would understand this, we wouldn't have this debate going on."But Bhattacharya and his supporters go further. They say that governments should never have imposed lockdowns at all, and never should have tried to institute coronavirus testing and contact-tracing.The manifesto's central tenet is that young people should be free to resume normal life -- to reenter the workforce, attend college, dine in restaurants. They would become infected, hopefully without much illness, and gain immunity.Eventually the virus would not be able to find new victims and would fade away."People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity," the declaration said.The strategy includes keeping older people cloistered, with regular testing to detect possible outbreaks in nursing homes, and with groceries and other necessities delivered to anyone over 60 sheltering at home. Alternately, older people might move to other facilities for isolation or quarantine.There would be no widespread surveillance for the coronavirus. People would be given information about testing, with an emphasis on those who have symptoms -- but when and how to get tested, and whether to isolate if infected, would be left up to individuals."Testing and isolating indiscriminately causes too much collateral damage for it to be useful," Bhattacharya said.But some experts said the strategy was highly impractical, given the difficulty in determining who is truly susceptible. The risk of death from COVID-19 rises sharply with age, but about 37% of adults in America also are at significant risk because of obesity, diabetes or other underlying conditions.The most recent statistics indicate that 20% of deaths from COVID-19 occur in people under age 65. And about a third of people who have recovered from the disease, including the young, still struggle with symptoms weeks later (a phenomenon the Barrington authors contest). "It's amazingly irresponsible" not to take these risks into account, Nabarro said.The declaration's strategy is both unethical and fails to account for human behavior, said Ruth Faden, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins University.Many high-risk groups -- people who live in multigenerational families or in crowded living situations, or who have diabetes and obesity -- are disproportionately found in poor communities, she said. The declaration's strategy would require them to move away from their families or to risk having younger family members bring the virus home."Are we going to compel these people to leave? And if we're not going to compel them to leave, then how's this supposed to go?" she said. "Then you are going to see the deaths that you say we're not going to see."Reopening schools when community levels of the virus are high similarly rests on a misguided assumption that parents and teachers would agree to the strategy, she added.Scientists who have signed the declaration did not offer many details for putting its ideas in place."I don't know exactly how it would work," said Gabriela Gomes, a mathematical modeler at the University of Strathclyde in Britain and one of 42 co-signers.Another supporter, Paul McKeigue, a genetic epidemiologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said, "Specific control measures for preventing coronavirus transmission are not my area of expertise."The lack of a clear plan has turned away even some would-be supporters. Dr. Stefan Baral, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, attended part of the Great Barrington, Massachusetts, meeting and said he was sympathetic to the effort.But Baral, a Swedish citizen who supports that country's approach, said he did not sign the declaration because it did not lay out a plan for workplace or housing accommodations for people at risk.Sweden adopted an unrestrictive approach, offering guidelines to its citizens but leaving compliance up to them. The country is often cited as the model for controlling the virus without restrictions, but has among the highest death rates in the world, particularly among the elderly. It has also suffered economic losses comparable to those of other Nordic countries.It's possible to avoid even those risks without lockdowns if governments impose some reasonable restrictions like physical distancing and universal masks and install test and trace strategies, Nabarro said."I will contest anybody who says it is undoable," he added. "It's doable without collateral damage if you bring together all the local communities."The town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, home to the American Institute for Economic Research, recently distanced itself from the declaration, saying the strategy it proposed could "cost millions of lives.""Anyone who might avoid Great Barrington, due to confusion over the Declaration, is invited to visit and see how COVID-safe works in a small New England town," the town's leaders wrote."Please wear a mask."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
Reuters
All-female scientific coalition calls for protection of Antarctic Peninsula
Climate change and human activity are harming Antarctica and threatening wildlife from humpback whales to microscopic algae, more than 280 scientists and conservation experts say in urging protections for the icy region. The coalition - all women - called for creating a new marine protection area around Antarctica, as governments on Monday began a two-week meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Two Antarctica areas are already protected: The South Orkney Islands and the Ross Sea.
Reuters
Millennials get little satisfaction from democracy - Cambridge study
Young people are less satisfied with democracy and more disillusioned than at any other time in the past century, especially in Europe, North America, Africa and Australia, a study by the University of Cambridge has found. Millennials, or those born between 1981 and 1996, are more disillusioned than Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1981, or Baby Boomers born between 1944 and 1964 and the Interwar Generation of 1918-1943. "Across the world, younger generations are not only more dissatisfied with democratic performance than the old, but also more discontented than previous generations at similar life stages," the Cambridge study found.
Business Insider
After a lemur was stolen from the San Francisco Zoo, a 5-year-old boy helped zookeepers track it down
James Trinh spotted Maki the lemur outside his preschool in Daly City. He and his family now have lifetime memberships to the San Francisco Zoo.
Business Insider
Space-station crew members just found an elusive air leak by watching tea leaves float in microgravity
Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin released some tea leaves to float inside the station, then saw them cluster around a "scratch" in the wall.
Business Insider
Experts say Amy Coney Barrett's nomination could threaten IVF. Here's why.
The judge has a history of supporting anti-choice groups that believe life begins at fertilization and seek to criminalize aspects of IVF.
Business Insider
WHO: The US and Europe still aren't quarantining correctly, and that's why we're headed for a COVID-19 disaster this winter
Get people who've been exposed to the virus away from everybody else, fast. That means no going to the grocery store, and no socializing with friends.
Reuters
Long-term problems in younger low-risk COVID-19 patients; flu shot may offer some protection
Young, healthy adults with COVID-19 who do not require hospitalization are still at risk for long-term health problems, Oxford University researchers found. At an average of 140 days after their symptoms began, 98% were still fatigued, 92% had heart and lung symptoms, 88% had muscle aches, 87% had breathlessness, 83% headaches, and 73% gastrointestinal symptoms. The researchers say their study, posted on Friday on medRxiv ahead of peer review, cannot prove the virus caused these later issues.
Associated Press
Egypt says another trove of ancient coffins found in Saqqara
Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed another trove of ancient coffins in a vast necropolis south of Cairo, authorities said Monday. The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement that archaeologists found the collection of colorful, sealed sarcophagi buried more than 2,500 years ago at the Saqqara necropolis. Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said more than 80 coffins were found.
Reuters
ICUs without air-conditioning could shield doctors from COVID-19: study
Intensive care units (ICUs) at hospitals treating COVID-19 patients should do away with air-conditioning to limit the risk of infecting doctors, a study from a top Indian research institute has said. "The recirculation of the air by the centralized air-conditioning systems is what has led to the significant infection of our committed medical fraternity and has also led to deaths of doctors and nurses," the study by the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, considered one of the country's best science universities, said. Previous studies have suggested countries in hot climates should take care that indoor rooms are not dried out by overcooling with air conditioning, noting that keeping indoor humidity levels between 40% and 60% will help limit airborne transmission of the virus.
Business Insider
3 billion people could struggle to get a COVID-19 vaccine because the world doesn't have enough fridges to store it
Large parts of Asia, Latin America, and Africa lack sufficient cold storage facilities to keep a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
Reuters
Hospitalised COVID-19 patients can have ongoing symptoms for months: study
It found that some patients have abnormalities in multiple organs after being infected with the novel coronavirus and that persistent inflammation caused problems for some for months. The study has not been peer-reviewed by other scientists but was published before review on the MedRxiv website.
Associated Press
UN hopes meeting will raise $1 billion for key Sahel nations
The U.N. humanitarian chief is hoping a major ministerial meeting Tuesday will not only raise $1 billion for the three countries at the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis in Africa’s Sahel region but also spur leaders to address the underlying causes, including increasing conflict and insecurity, weak governance and a lack of development. Undersecretary-General Mark Lowcock said in an interview with The Associated Press that the troubling situation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is a symptom “of failure to deal with all of those causes of problems” as well as rapid population growth and climate change.
Business Insider
Top infectious-disease expert says 'the next 6 to 12 weeks are going to be the darkest of the entire pandemic'
Dr. Michael Osterholm predicted that by the holidays, the US "will see numbers much, much larger than even the 67,000 to 75,000 cases."
Business Insider
What would happen to you if you never washed your hands
Your hands can pick up a few million germs from the world around you. So what would happen if you just stopped washing your hands?
Associated Press
Plan to retrieve Titanic radio spurs debate on human remains
No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights. Lawyers for the U.S. government have raised that question in an ongoing court battle to block the planned expedition. “Fifteen hundred people died in that wreck,” said Paul Johnston, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Business Insider
The Arctic is on track to lose more ice this century than at any point since the end of the Ice Age. Photos show the dramatic melting.
Melting ice could cause 3 feet of sea-level rise over the next 80 years, displacing 680 million people globally.
BBC
Gardens help towns and cities beat countryside for tree cover
A survey of tree cover in England and Wales throws up a few surprises.
Business Insider
A groundbreaking new British drug offers hope to opioid addicts
Buvidal, is an injectable form of Buprenorphine, that acts as a slow-release drug that blocks the opioid receptors in the brain.
Business Insider
China is back to normal — the US and Europe are not. Here's how it succeeded.
China stamped out COVID-19 within months and has responded to small outbreaks by testing entire cities in days.
Associated Press
'Big pile' of eels dumped in NYC park; impact not yet known
Andrew Orkin was taking a break from his evening jog to sit by Prospect Park Lake when he turned around and was startled to see a tangle of wriggling snakes. There are no plans to eradicate the eels.
Business Insider
The year's best wildlife photos reveal a super-chill monkey, a rare Siberian tiger, and an ant clinging to a beetle's leg
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest drew more than 49,000 entries. The winners show animals struggling to survive a human-dominated world.
Reuters
Art imitates life at Plastic Bag Store pop-up in New York
The pop-up art installation in the heart of Times Square is meant to raise environmental awareness, coinciding with New York State's ban on all plastic carryout bags. "There are humorous and satirical takes on everyday products that highlight the amount of waste that we're using, and the environmental problems related," said Brooklyn artist and creator of The Plastic Bag Store, Robin Frohardt. "And so because The Plastic Bag Store feels like a regular grocery store, I think the next time you go to a grocery store, it... might make you think a little bit about what's happening to the planet and the packaging situation."