The items below are highlights from the newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here: https://robinlloyd.substack.com. Surgeon, writer and public health researcher Atul Gawande has written an excellent feature story for The New Yorker (5/13/20) on the changes needed to make reopened communities safe. His guidance […]
Scientists sent patterns of electricity coursing across people’s brains, coaxing their brains to see letters that weren’t there. The experiment worked in both sighted people and blind participants who had lost their sight in adulthood, according to the study, published today (May 14) in the journal Cell. Although this technology remains in its early days, implanted […]
The first two dogs reported to have coronavirus probably caught the infection from their owners, say researchers who studied the animals and members of the infected households in Hong Kong. An analysis of viral genetic sequences from the dogs showed them to be identical to those in the infected people. Researchers suspected that the infection […]
Originally published in June 1899 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “A true comparison of the relative cost of operation of cable, electric and horse traction for street railways points unmistakably to the great superiority of electricity, not only in traffic-handling capacity but in economy. On January 1, 1893, the entire street railway system of New York […]
President Donald J. Trump: “We have more cases than anybody in the world. But why? Because we do more testing. When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.” The logic is unassailable. As writer […]
Robin Hood famously stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Young, newly hatched barn owls do something similar. On average, barn owls raise six chicks at once—and sometimes as many as nine. But they don’t all hatch at the same time, which means the older owlets are generally larger and healthier than their […]
Blockbuster flooding events such as Hurricane Harvey grab headlines, but urban flooding is a routine—and growing—problem: in a 2018 report, 83 percent of municipal stormwater and flood managers surveyed in the U.S. reported such inundation in their areas. Though heavier downpours fueled by climate change are a factor, the expansion of pavement and other impervious […]
Among the many pains associated with coronavirus is a feeling of helplessness. Even if you are sheltered in place, you can do more good than you may think by reaching out to others and connecting. But first, you have to overcome the tendency to underestimate how positively others will respond when you try. Beyond the […]
Robin Hood famously stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Young, newly hatched barn owls do something similar. On average, barn owls raise six chicks at once. And sometimes as many as nine. But they don’t all hatch at the same time, which means the older owlets are generally larger and healthier than […]
Damage assessments of flood-ravaged communities used to rely on post-disaster surveys. That’s changing. Scientists at one of the nation’s leading climate research consortiums last week released an “augmented reality” smartphone application that simulates how floodwater would inundate specific houses under varying storm surge conditions. While AR simulations are still an emerging technology, experts say they […]