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A stripe of red dots shows the area at risk of a hypothetical asteroid strike.Landsat/Copernicus/Google Earth/Dept. of State Geographer
An asteroid is (NOT) about to hit Earth
NASA, ESA and a host of other space agencies are staging a planetary defence drill to prepare for the possibility of an asteroid hitting Earth. Participating scientists and engineers face realistic uncertainties about the fictional space rock’s size, trajectory and risk to the planet. Particularly charming is how everything from ESA’s live tweets to NASA’s webpage is covered in screaming red warnings about how it’s all a drill, so DON’T FREAK OUT.
Clinical trials aren’t reported on time in Europe
Last month, we told you that many leading US universities are breaking the law by failing to make the results of clinical trials public within 12 months. An analysis reveals that the top research universities in Europe are falling short, too. Only 162 of 940 clinical trials (17%) that were due to be published by 1 April had been posted on the European Union’s trials register — and 14 of the 30 universities involved posted nothing at all.
Reference: Clinical Trial Transparency at European Universities report
Algorithm clears the names of thousands
After marijuana was legalized in California in 2016, an estimated 1 million people became eligible to have their cannabis-related criminal convictions expunged — but the process isn’t easy. Now, an algorithm developed by a non-profit software company can do the hard work by scanning court documents, identifying eligible cases and filling out the necessary paperwork. Last month, a San Francisco judge cleared the criminal records of more than 8,000 people identified by the software, freeing them from the job, housing and other restrictions that come with being a felon.
FEATURES & OPINION
The Batagaika crater in eastern Russia was formed when land began to sink in the 1960s owing to thawing permafrost.Credit: Yuri Kozyrev/NOOR/eyevine
Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release
The sudden collapse of thawing soils in the Arctic might double the warming from greenhouse gases released from the tundra, warn biologist Merritt Turetsky and her colleagues. As pockets of ice in the permafrost melt, rapid thawing triggers flooding, landslides and erosion that release much more carbon than previously estimated. “Frozen soil doesn’t just lock up carbon — it physically holds the landscape together.”
Hobbies are more than a nice-to-have
Giving up favourite pastimes can also sap your scientific motivation, curiosity and creativity, says PhD student Javad Alizadeh. He explains how he made the hard choices to prioritize a healthy work–life balance at graduate school.
“Underwings, flash your white, underwrite our long disappearing”
British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy presents a series of poems, by herself and others, commissioned in response to the global threat to insect populations. “Everything that lives is connected and poetry’s duty and joy is in making those connections visible in language,” says Duffy.
