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People wait to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Mumbai.Credit: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP through Getty
India, one of the world’s greatest vaccine suppliers, is dealing with a COVID-19 vaccine crunch, partly due to an explosion of cases linked to new variants. This spells bother for a lot of international locations counting on Indian-made vaccines equipped by way of the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative for equitable entry to vaccines. On Monday, India reported virtually 170,000 new COVID-19 circumstances, its highest each day complete but. It has now had greater than 13.5 million confirmed circumstances, overtaking Brazil as the world’s second-worst-hit nation, behind the United States. India is supposed to provide one billion vaccine doses to COVAX, however solely 28 million have arrived to date.
Astronomers dwelling outdoors China can now submit proposals to use the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single-dish telescope. Ten per cent of the telescope’s time will likely be open to overseas scientists. The transfer is especially welcomed by scientists who have been counting on the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which collapsed final December. “We expect that FAST would not only take the place of Arecibo in supporting astronomers doing good science in relevant research areas, but also make breakthroughs and open new windows for research in radio astronomy,” says astronomer Keping Qiu, the chief of the committee evaluating incoming proposals.
SARS-CoV-2 variants are difficult: every one is made up of a group of mutations, all of which have the potential to change the virus in unexpected ways. A Nature video explores what they may imply for the future of the pandemic.
Nature | 6 min video (on YouTube)
Features & opinion
Cascades of excessive occasions attributable to local weather change may derail the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), argue researchers Markus Reichstein, Felix Riede and Dorothea Frank. “A heatwave can spark forest fires, which lead to air pollution, thus damaging public health. Drought-wrecked harvests can result in food-price volatility, which can increase social unrest or migration,” they write. “Yet these domino effects are barely considered in most countries’ strategies for achieving the [SDGs].” The authors define how new models, better metrics and more investment can better prepare us for the altering and interconnected nature of danger in a warming world.
Halting efforts to take away house junk illustrate how hard it is to clean up Earth orbit. Proof-of-concept missions, corresponding to the End-of-Life Services by Astroscale Demonstration (ELSA-d), which launched final month, supply some hope. But the persevering with launch of ‘megaconstellations’ of tens of 1000’s of satellites, corresponding to SpaceX’s Starlink system, far outpace any clean-up efforts. Space scientists more and more worry a runaway cascade of collisions that will make low-Earth orbit unusable — a situation dubbed ‘the Kessler syndrome’ after NASA orbital-debris researcher Donald Kessler. But there’s little financial reward for clearing up after your self in house. And there’s the extra fear that any expertise that might take away junk may be used as a weapon in opposition to satellites.
Scientific American | 7 min read
Breathalysers have been used to take a look at blood alcohol content material since the 1950s, however there is a lot more to discover in our breath. More correct exams for drink and medicines may make roadside testing simpler or enable folks to check themselves earlier than they get behind the wheel. And biomarkers in the air we breathe may determine lung irritation and even SARS-CoV-2, ushering in a brand new age for breath exams.
Image of the week
Chemist Richard Layfield was shocked when a retiring colleague at the University of Sussex handed him the unique samples of fullerenes — C60 and C70 — purified by the late Harry Kroto. Kroto was at Sussex when he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of these closed carbon ‘buckyball’ molecules. Layfield was additionally gifted with the unique instrument that analysed them, which nonetheless works.(Credit: Richard Layfield)
