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31.10.2022
THEME: TECHNOLOGY

China space station is close to completion as the Mengtian laboratory module has been successfully launched

Today the last of the three modules - Mengtian - of the Chinese space station Tiangong (translated as “Celestial Palace”) has successfully left the Earth and reached its orbit, now waiting for the final docking to the other modules. Tiangong will soon be the second permanently inhabited outpost in low-earth orbit after the NASA-led International Space Station. The uncrewed Mengtian - or "Dreaming of the Heavens" - module was launched atop China's most powerful rocket, the Long March 5B, at 3:37 PM from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in the southern island province of Hainan. The completion of the Chinese space station, designed for a lifespan of at least ten years, will be a milestone in China's ambitions in space exploration. During this time, China has planned more than 1,000 scientific experiments - from studying how plants adapt in space to how fluids behave in microgravity. China has approved at least nine proposals from scientists in countries ranging from Switzerland to India in the first batch of experiments in cooperation with the United Nations space office. Mengtian is a crucial part of the space station as it is the most advanced laboratory module, carrying many advanced instruments. The 17.88-meter-long, 4.2-meter-diameter mega space lab weighs around 23.3 tons by launch - the heaviest payload China has ever launched. Mengtian does not have life support systems like the other two modules Tianhe and Wentian, nor dormitory and restrooms. It is designed as a working zone with 13 cabinets designed to host various experiments mainly in the fields of microgravity, fluid physics, combustion, materials, and space technologies. The Mengtian will also carry the world's first space-based set of cold atomic clocks - a hydrogen clock, a rubidium clock, and an optical clock. If successful, these atomic clocks will form the most precise time and frequency system in space, which should not lose one second in hundreds of millions of years. Scientists explained that the space cold atomic clock technology will contribute to higher-precision satellite positioning, and navigation systems, as well as support fundamental physics research such as dark matter probes and gravitational wave detection. The Tiangong space station will also become a new platform for China to explore and push forward cooperation with other nations.

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30.10.2022
THEME: POLITICS

Brazil elected the new president in a violent climate: Lula won the elections with a 0.9% margin

More than 156 million Brazilians - those eligible to vote - were called to elect the new president Sunday, October 30. These elections, which saw two candidates - Lula and Bolsonaro - radically opposite in almost every aspect of their politics, were characterized by an extreme climate of violence. Recent events include shootings in public places, the murder of a politician, and even explosives thrown at the crowd of a political rally. Due to the tense climate, the two candidates have been seen constantly escorted by security or police, even wearing bulletproof vests. Pre-election polls suggested Lula was slightly favorite to come back for a third term, capping a remarkable political renaissance after his jailing on graft convictions that were overturned. But Bolsonaro is known as a hard-to-beat politician, very well capable of upturning polls predictions with promises through electoral campaigns - in his last days of the campaign he promised, for instance, a raise of the minimum wage to $260. Besides electoral promises, Bolsonaro was involved in more than one questionable episode. On Sunday, one of Bolsonaro's allies opened fire on Federal Police officers coming to arrest him. A week earlier Bolsonaro had to defend himself from personal attacks after he told an anecdote about meeting Venezuelan migrant girls in suggestive terms. During the last debate on Friday night, both candidates returned repeatedly to Lula's two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, when high commodity prices helped to boost the economy and combat poverty. Lula vowed to revive those boom times, while Bolsonaro suggested current social programs are more effective. In such a controversial climate the Brazilians were called to vote and made their choice: for the next four years, Lula is the elected president of Brasil, as he won by obtaining 50.9% of the total valid votes. Since the current president Bolsonaro made clear that he would not easily accept a defeat, many observers are worried that a peaceful transition of power may not take place. Indeed, during vote counting, Bolsonaro has cast unsubstantiated doubts on the trustworthiness of Brazil's electronic voting system this cycle. At the same Lula da Silva, allies accused the police of blocking buses and cars carrying Lula voters from getting to voting sites. However, the Superior Electoral Court, which runs Brazil's elections, said no one had been prevented from voting and declined to extend the voting time. In these hours leaders from around the world are sending Lula congratulations and best wishes for the difficult mandate he just obtained.

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27.10.2022
THEME: ENVIRONMENT

The habit of nose-picking is common in primates and the cause may be evolutionary

Nose-picking is a common behavior in humans, often avoided in public since generally considered rude, “low class”, or even repugnant. Probably for the same reason, it is a behavior that remains poorly understood and studied even in animals. But not for the zoologist Anne-Claire Fabre of the University of Bern, who recently published a paper in the Journal of Zoology reporting noise picking in the lemur species aye-aye. In the same article, she also reviews the presence of this habit in various primate species, showing that it is present in at least 12 species. In the aye-aye lemur - whose characteristic is an extremely long, skinny, and mobile middle finger - accurate imaging shows that the insertion depth during the gesture reaches the pharynx. Since so many primates - many humans included - would utilize their fingers to collect and ingest nasal mucus, the scientists suspect that the behavior may have evolved for selective reasons such as, for instance, a sanitary or even a medical advantage. More studies will be needed to demonstrate any of such advantages. However, nose-picking is possible only in those species - like primates - that have fine manipulative skills, and therefore are sufficiently evolved. Some primates even use utensils to collect mucus from the nose. Once more, nature offers an unparalleled source of information, crucial to understand even those behaviors that pass unseen in our quotidian life. Biodiversity is the only mirror we have for transcending the social paradigms, observing the animal features that we all share, and understanding their importance.

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25.10.2022
THEME: HEALTH

Two respiratory viruses - RSV and Influenza - can fuse together to form a more potent hybrid virus

Each year, about 5 million people are hospitalized with influenza A worldwide. Another common virus, the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), is the leading cause of acute infections of the lower respiratory tract in children under five years old. It can spread to the lower respiratory tract, causing pneumonia or bronchiolitis - an inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs. Although co-infection is common, it was still unclear how these viruses would respond if they are together in the same cell. A recent study published in Nature Microbiology - led by Prof. Pablo Murcia from the University of Glasgow - showed that the two viruses, rather than competing with one another, can fuse to form a hybrid virus: a more potent and new type of pathogen. Whereas influenza usually infects cells in the nose, RSV tends to go lower down into the respiratory tract reaching the lung cells. The possibility of forming a hybrid may increase the chances of triggering severe lung infections. The study has shown that once formed, the hybrid can infect neighboring cells even in presence of neutralizing antibodies against influenza - which would normally block the infection. A likely explanation is that, although the antibodies still attack the hybrid’s surface, the RSV viral proteins are used as a Trojan horse to resist the attack and penetrate the cells. It is the very first time that such cooperation between two common respiratory viruses has been observed. Researchers believe that these findings could explain why co-infections can lead to significantly worse diseases in some patients, including hard-to-treat viral pneumonia.

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