The Jeff Bezos-Richard Branson Space Race Is About More Than Two Billionaires ’ Egos
Nobody is selling Team Bezos or Team Branson t-shirts just yet. The competition between billionaires Jeff Bezos (founder of Blue Origin) and Richard Branson (co-founder of Virgin Galactic) to see who can be first to space may never have the historical cachet of Red Sox versus Yankees, Lincoln versus Douglas, Hamilton versus Burr, but it’s a hot contest all the same. This Sunday, July 11, it could reach its pinnacle, when Branson, along with three other Virgin Galactic corporate officers and two pilots, take off aboard their VSS Unity space plane to attempt a suborbital mission that will earn all six their astronaut w...
Source: TIME: Science - July 9, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
In memoriam: Dr. Gerald S. Levey, 84, oversaw building of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Dr. Gerald Levey, who led the transformation of UCLA ’s hospitals and medical school into a world-class academic health system, died at home of Parkinson’s disease on June 25. He was 84. Levey served the campus as vice chancellor of medical sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA from 1994 to 2010. During his tenure, Levey amassed an extraordinarily long list of achievements, crowned by the construction of the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and the sealing of a $200 million gift to the UCLA School of Medicine by entertainment executive David Geffen. “It’s not possible to say in a sh...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - June 30, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news
The new wave of gravitational waves
Ripples in spacetime caused by the collision of black holes were first detected in 2015. Now astrophysicists are looking for the waves created by the big bang itselfAbout 10 billion-trillion-trillionths of a second into the start of creation in the big bang, the universe is believed to have had a brief but absurdly fast growth spurt. This episode, called inflation, was so cataclysmic that the very fabric of space and time was set juddering with gravitational waves (GWs). By comparison, the GWs that were first detected six years ago to much fanfare were small-scale affairs caused by black holes colliding. But now scientists...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 27, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Philip Ball Tags: Space Physics Astronomy Gravity Science Source Type: news
How Can We Escape the COVID-19 Vaccine Culture Wars?
On Friday, March 19, my wife and I got in our cars to drive an hour south of our home in Franklin, Tennessee, a prosperous suburb of Nashville. The purpose of our trip was simple—to drive where it was easier and faster to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination. In Franklin it was hard. Demand was outstripping supply. Drive an hour south—to more rural Tennessee—and it was easy. Supply outstripped demand.
When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see that the site was at least a little bit busy. The room was social-distanced but reasonably full. The atmosphere was pleasant and maybe even a little festive. Th...
Source: TIME: Health - June 8, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: David French Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news
The U.S. Government ’s Long-Awaited UFO Report Is Here. Its Findings? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The U.S. Navy pilots flying maneuvers in their F/A-18 Super Hornets in 2015 did not have to wait for yesterday’s leak of the classified government report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)—better known as UFOs—to know that they were seeing things they could not explain outside their windscreens. The objects were, yes, saucer-shaped, and they were bobbing, darting and changing directions with a speed and nimbleness that no known technology could manage.
“Look at that thing, dude!” one pilot shouted. “Oh my gosh. There’s a whole fleet of them. They’re going against the wind...
Source: TIME: Science - June 4, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Finding New Optimism In Those Pandemic Babies
Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. A version of this article also appeared in theIt’s Not Just You newsletter.Sign up here to receive a new edition every Sunday. As always, you can send comments to me at: Susanna@Time.com.
A slew of beloved friends have been having babies lately. I’m embarrassingly emotional about their arrival, or even just the news that they’re on their way. Knowing that this new crop of young ones will uncover delight in this bruised world is one of those ancient wonders.
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It’s been a fractious and scary year, but these p...
Source: TIME: Health - May 30, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Susanna Schrobsdorff Tags: Uncategorized It's Not Just You Source Type: news
A Blind Patient Regained Partial Sight in a Breakthrough Study, Offering Hope to Millions
The darkness descends slowly for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye disease that affects 2 million people worldwide. The condition is typically diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, but it can take until middle age before a person’s vision has deteriorated severely enough that they are fully or effectively blind. When the lights finally do go out, however, they stay out.
Or that’s the way things used to be. In a breakthrough study published today in Nature Medicine, investigators report a relatively simple yet remarkably effective way to restore partial vision to RP patients—one th...
Source: TIME: Health - May 24, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized embargoed study Innovation Source Type: news
A Blind Patient Regained Partial Sight in a Breakthrough Study, Offering Hope to Millions
The darkness descends slowly for people with retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative eye disease that affects 2 million people worldwide. The condition is typically diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, but it can take until middle age before a person’s vision has deteriorated severely enough that they are fully or effectively blind. When the lights finally do go out, however, they stay out.
Or that’s the way things used to be. In a breakthrough study published today in Nature Medicine, investigators report a relatively simple yet remarkably effective way to restore partial vision to RP patients—one th...
Source: TIME: Science - May 24, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized embargoed study Innovation Source Type: news
From the archive: How a tax haven is leading the race to privatise space – podcast
We are raiding the Audio Long Reads archives and bringing you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.This week, from 2017: Luxembourg has shown how far a tiny country can go by serving the needs of global capitalism. Now it has set its sights on outer space. ByAtossa Araxia AbrahamianContinue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - May 19, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Written by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, read by Christopher Ragland and produced by Simon Barnardwith additions by Esther Opoku-Gyeni Tags: Space Luxembourg Tax havens Mining Science Source Type: news
Suicide Among Black Girls Is a Mental Health Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
Discussion and dialogue about historical events such as the civil rights movement or the Holocaust is key; so is making a greater effort to present minority figures as role models and giving positive examples of diversity. “When you encounter someone who is different than you, it’s a pretty normal reaction to have stereotypical thoughts,” Nickerson says. “But how can you consciously think about that and get to know people as individuals and recognize their strengths?”
The majority of U.S. primary-school teachers in the country are white and female, according to data from the National Center fo...
Source: TIME: Health - May 11, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kyra Aurelia Alessandrini Tags: Uncategorized feature Source Type: news
A Free & Accessible Vaccine is Just out of Reach for Palestinians
Young Palestinians drive their boat along the coast near the Gaza Sea port, selling boat rides as a way to earn a living. Credit: Laila Barhoum/ Oxfam By Laila BarhoumGAZA, Apr 29 2021 (IPS) We were able to keep the coronavirus at bay for five months in Gaza, the densely populated Palestinian strip of land surrounded by Israel that I call home. But the Coronavirus doesn’t respect walls or artificial borders. While preparations were made for the pandemic to inevitably breach a blockade so few Palestinians can, we waited for it to come for us. And it did.
In one of the most sealed off places in the world, we knew the viru...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - April 29, 2021 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Laila Barhoum Tags: Aid Development & Aid Featured Global Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news
India ’s COVID-19 Crisis Is Spiraling Out of Control. It Didn’t Have to Be This Way
Dusk is falling in the Indian capital, and the acrid smell of burning bodies fills the air. It’s the evening of April 26, and at a tiny crematorium in a Delhi suburb, seven funeral pyres are still burning. “I have lived here all my life and pass through this area twice a day,” says local resident Gaurav Singh. “I have never seen so many bodies burning together.”
Scenes of mass death are now unavoidable in what’s often called the world’s largest democracy. Social media is filled with images of body bags and urgent requests for medical aid. Indians gasping for breath are being turned...
Source: TIME: Health - April 29, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Naina Bajekal Tags: Uncategorized Cover Story COVID-19 feature India Londontime Magazine Source Type: news
‘A fleeting vacation from terrestrial concerns’: readers’ best stargazing photos
Many people have spent more time at home due to the pandemic, creating opportunity for some, to do more stargazing. Readers share their astrophotographyThis photo of the Whirlpool galaxy was taken from my backyard in Commack, New York, over the course of two nights in mid January, 2021. Stargazing has helped me throughout the pandemic because it gave me something to do during the many months I was out of school and home during the summer. I used my Orion 150mm telescope and a dedicated astrophotography camera to take many long exposure images which are stacked together and edited to get the image that you see here. My sigh...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 26, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Guardian readers and Alfie Packham Tags: Astronomy Space Science Environment Photography Source Type: news
Meet the Inspiration4 Team, the World ’s First Non-Astronaut Space Crew
Sian Proctor may owe her life to Apollo 11—literally. Born in Guam—the daughter of an engineer who worked at the local tracking station that helped NASA maintain communications with its lunar crews—she was the fourth child of a couple that she suspects did not plan for so many kids, and came into the world just nine months after Apollo 11 stuck its historic first moon landing.
“I think I was a celebration baby,” she says with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for human space flight.”
Proctor herself has a lot to celebrate this year. Come September, if all goes t...
Source: TIME: Science - April 23, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
Meet the Inspiration4 Team, the World ’s First Non-Professional Astronaut Space Crew
Sian Proctor may owe her life to Apollo 11—literally. Born in Guam—the daughter of an engineer who worked at the local tracking station that helped NASA maintain communications with its lunar crews—she was the fourth child of a couple that she suspects did not plan for so many kids, and came into the world just nine months after Apollo 11 stuck its historic first moon landing.
“I think I was a celebration baby,” she says with a laugh. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for human space flight.”
Proctor herself has a lot to celebrate this year. Come September, if all goes t...
Source: TIME: Science - April 23, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news
