Featured Articles

Foliar Application Of Zinc Boosts Wheat Output

Foliar Application Of Zinc Boosts Wheat Output

Apr 09 2021 | comment(s)

Micronutrient deficiencies pose health problems for a third of the world's population. Worldwide, zinc deficits are more problematic in the rural areas of developing countries, where diets are largely limited to vegetable products grown in soils suffering from low nutrient availability.

Biofortification, the process of bolstering the nutritional value of crops by increasing the concentration of vitamins and minerals in them, has arisen as a remedy for this problem.  Recent trials determined that foliar application, applying liquid fertilizer directly to leaves instead of the soil, boosted the zinc content of wheat grain by up to 50 percent.
Genetically Rescued Organism: Eucalyptus That Can't Be An Invasive Species

Genetically Rescued Organism: Eucalyptus That Can't Be An Invasive Species

Apr 08 2021 | comment(s)

Eucalyptus trees are a pest-resistant evergreen that produce good lumber and oil that wealthy elites in the "wellness" marketplace buy - they are also an invasive species.

A new paper shows how scientists used CRISPR-Cas9 to knock out LEAFY, the master gene behind flower formation, so the trees will not reproduce sexually. The greenhouse study involved a hybrid of two species, Eucalyptus grandis and E. urophylla, that is widely planted in the Southern Hemisphere; there are more than 700 species of eucalyptus, most of them native to Australia.
91% Of The World Don't Live In Polluted Air, And It Has Not Made COVID-19 Worse

91% Of The World Don't Live In Polluted Air, And It Has Not Made COVID-19 Worse

Apr 08 2021 | comment(s)

COVID-19 has been worse than the coronavirus pandemics of 2012 and 2003 yet the air is cleaner than ever, so a new op-ed claiming that 'virtual' pollution - so small you can't see it without an electron microscope - is the reason SARS-CoV-2 has been so bad comes across as silly, and bordering on deceptive.

Even sillier, they claim that 91 percent of planet earth lives in unsafe air.
Looking For A Ph.D. In Physics Or Computer Science? Look No Further

Looking For A Ph.D. In Physics Or Computer Science? Look No Further

Apr 08 2021 | comment(s)

Today the University of Padova has issued a call for Ph. D. positions to start in October 2021, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy has 23 new openings. The English version of the call page is here.
No Muon G-2 Hasn’t Found A Fifth Force Yet, A Win For Science Either Way.

No Muon G-2 Hasn’t Found A Fifth Force Yet, A Win For Science Either Way.

Apr 08 2021 | comment(s)

Humanity has not found a fifth force of nature. This is a warning to the media at large. Please do not tell people muon g-2 found a fifth force of nature or make any other such claims.  There are a few serious issues to consider with how the recent muon g-2 experiment results are being reported on.

Standard Model Rethink: Does Measurement Of Muon Magnetics Mean New Physics Are Coming?

Standard Model Rethink: Does Measurement Of Muon Magnetics Mean New Physics Are Coming?

Apr 07 2021 | comment(s)

Muons are leptons(1), fundamental particles formed in the atmosphere by cosmic rays that are a heavier cousin of electrons. The Standard Model has three generations of leptons; electrons, muons, and tau plus their three neutrinos. The Standard Model is in line with "the big bang" and measurements of the hydrogen/helium ratio - because the number of types of neutrinos affects the prevalence of helium.

Things were great, or at least in a kind of intellectual détente on the Standard Model, until recently.
New Muon G-2 Results!

New Muon G-2 Results!

Apr 07 2021 | comment(s)

Note: this is an updated version of the article. For the original discussion of the muon anomaly, published before the release of results, please scroll down.
Suicides Did Not Go Up During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Suicides Did Not Go Up During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Apr 06 2021 | comment(s)

A giant concern about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been economic. With government still spending like it's the 2017-2019 boom but tens of millions of Americans no longer working, there is a bill that will come due soon. A less urgent concern than the disease itself was mental health. A number of high-profile suicides occurred, which has led to worry that the mental health toll was being swept into a corner.

According to new National Vital Statistics System (CDC) data, mental health impacts such as suicide have not increased. Instead, suicides dropped last year, to the lowest gross total since 2015.
Spent Grain From Beer Making As Human Food

Spent Grain From Beer Making As Human Food

Apr 06 2021 | comment(s)

Beer has been important throughout human history. Given how dangerous water was in the past, it is arguably true that civilization would not exist without beer.

Yet if you make your own, you have to think about waste. Spent grain, the malt and adjuncts left over from the mash, is 85 percent of brewing waste. If you don't have a compost pit or a farm somewhere close by, it's going inro the garbage.
Just Correlation: Meat And 'Higher Risk' Of Death

Just Correlation: Meat And 'Higher Risk' Of Death

Apr 06 2021 | comment(s)

Your risk of death is 100 percent. Yet your risk of early demise can be mitigated if you avoid things like ingesting alcohol and cigarettes and mustard gas.

Those are clear killers. What about salt, sugar, and meat? Those have not been established as science at all, they are instead examples of correlation. To create correlation is easy, it only requires looking at a group of people, finding what diseases they have, finding what foods they eat, and creating a "statistically significant" link between them.
CDC: Fomites Are Not The COVID-19 Concern So We Can Stop With 'Hygiene Theater' Deep Cleaning

CDC: Fomites Are Not The COVID-19 Concern So We Can Stop With 'Hygiene Theater' Deep Cleaning

Apr 05 2021 | comment(s)

The CDC has bad news for Purell.

“It is possible for people to be infected through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects (fomites), but the risk is generally considered to be low,” they write in their latest guidance. 
EU Says It Will Recycle 70% Of Electric Car Batteries - Here's Why That's Actually Worse For The Environment

EU Says It Will Recycle 70% Of Electric Car Batteries - Here's Why That's Actually Worse For The Environment

Apr 05 2021 | comment(s)

Electric cars are popular, thanks to government mandates and subsidies, but they have a problem in the distance; massive amounts of battery waste.

The EU, for example, wants to have 30 million electric cars by 2030 and while politicians can ignore the fossil fuel demands and strain on the grid, electric cars bring something they can't ignore; the environmental impact of giant toxic batteries in landfills.
USA Can Easily Release 10 Million Unused Astrazeneca Doses To Protect Health Care Workers In Africa - Many Trained By Them

USA Can Easily Release 10 Million Unused Astrazeneca Doses To Protect Health Care Workers In Africa - Many Trained By Them

Apr 02 2021 | comment(s)

There are billions of vaccine doses coming along later this year. Biden says he will give excess doses to other countries, so the US is expected to be a huge donor later this year. Even if the US fully vaccinates everyone, adults and children, twice over, now and in the fall, the US has secured so many doses for 2021 that it will be able to fully vaccinate 1.3 billion people outside the US as well.

Remembering Marni

Remembering Marni

Apr 01 2021 | comment(s)

The remains of what probably was Marni Dee Sheppeard were found last week in the mountains of the west coast of New Zealand, near Otira. Although a positive identification is still pending, this does seem to mean that Marni has died while hiking in her beloved mountains, some time between mid November and December of last year.
Imaginarity: New Paper Says The Imaginary Part Of Quantum Mechanics Can Be Observed

Imaginarity: New Paper Says The Imaginary Part Of Quantum Mechanics Can Be Observed

Mar 31 2021 | comment(s)

Mathematics is a language and languages can be used to create stories. It just takes imagination to create time travel or wormholes or theories of strings or lots of nice things theoretical physicists throw into arXiv.

Sometimes math has to create a story because real numbers don't work, even if the physics does.

Wave-particle duality, a foundation of quantum mechanics, has a fascinating science history. James Clerk Maxwell, whose equations govern the device you are reading this article on, couldn't explain everything - he died of cancer at age 46. It was left to Albert Einstein a generation later, in his 1905 paper, to describe light as photons containing properties of both particles and electromagnetic fields - the waves of Maxwell.
A Day Without Antimicrobials

A Day Without Antimicrobials

Mar 30 2021 | comment(s)

Before 2020, it’s likely the word “antimicrobial” did not often cross your mind. Perhaps you walked down the cleaning aisle in the grocery store and saw a disinfectant with the phrase “Kills 99.9% of Germs,” but it’s likely that you didn’t give it too much thought.

This $1000 Says Lepton Universality Is OK

This $1000 Says Lepton Universality Is OK

Mar 29 2021 | comment(s)

Almost exactly 15 years ago, I was following a nice conference in the Azores island of San Miguel, where I witnessed with a bit of gloom how the Standard Model was capable of explaining to the tiniest level all observed features not only of electroweak physics observables, but also of low-energy hadronic physics in weak decays of bottom hadrons, from a number of different experiments. I especially remember a talk by Guido Martinelli, among others, who was remarking that if new physics was there, it was really well concealed.
WHO Call For Rapid Transfer Of COVID Vaccine Technology To Weaker Economies To Solve Bottlenecks & Vaccinate World Ultrafast

WHO Call For Rapid Transfer Of COVID Vaccine Technology To Weaker Economies To Solve Bottlenecks & Vaccinate World Ultrafast

Mar 28 2021 | comment(s)

We have major bottlenecks with producing the vaccines, but the WHO say that it doesn't have to be like this. We already have millions of extra doses of COVID today because of the early technology transfer by AstraZenecs at the end of last year. This empowers the rest of the world to make the doses, which greatly increases vaccine supply and helps to end the pandemic fast. Novavax is also in the process of transferring technology in the same way, ready for when it gets approved. However most vaccine manufacturers are not doing this and as a result we are missing out on many millions of doses the world could have if they did facilitate technology transfer.

Just How Hard Did the Ever Given Hit The Suez Canal UPDATE Totally Freed

Just How Hard Did the Ever Given Hit The Suez Canal UPDATE Totally Freed

Mar 27 2021 | comment(s)

Basic physics can answer this question in a few different ways and it gives an insight into just how hard it will be to get the Ever Given out of the Canal.  First there is the question of how to quantify in scientific terms “hitting hard”.   This can be done with a number of distinctly different but related concepts, momentum (p), force (F) and kinetic energy (T).  Once we consider these numbers the task before the salvage crews can be understood at a very basic level.

UPDATE: On social media there is video which shows that the Ever Given appears to be unstuck and is floating.

US Urged To Loan From AstraZeneca Hoard As Health Workers Die In Africa & Assist Technology Transfer To Stop Pandemic Fast

US Urged To Loan From AstraZeneca Hoard As Health Workers Die In Africa & Assist Technology Transfer To Stop Pandemic Fast

Mar 27 2021 | comment(s)

The US has enough doses to vaccinate its entire population twice over and have enough left to fully vaccinate 1.3 billion people outside the USA by the end of 2021. It's not going to run out of doses. As most of you will know, Biden has committed now to roll out 200 million doses to the USA in his first 100 days in office. The USA is making huge steps forward with its own population.