The carbon footprint of next-generation colliders depends on the energy budget of the Future Circular Collider and the Cool Copper Road, according to Wang Yifan

Researchers disagree with eLife’s plan to publish all its papers for peer review. Nuclear-safety treaties are strained by the carbon footprint of a Giles factory and attacks on Ukraine.

Physicists around the world are vying to build the next super collider — but the carbon footprints of the designs could be vastly different. Physicists calculated the energy consumption of five proposed ‘Higgs factories’ and found that energy consumption varied wildly. The Future Circular Collider is the least-polluting of the three options, using only half the energy of the Cool Copper Road to make one particle. Wang Yifan is the director of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and he believes that future carbon footprints could change dramatically if countries expand access to renewable power.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03600-z

Why did the first nuclear power plant come under attack during war? A story of flies and scientists in the aftermath of the Zaporizhia disaster

The first time this year a civilian nuclear-power facility came under attack was during war, says Anthony Burke. The Zaporizhzhia power station is Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant and has been attacked by Russia. Conditions at Zaporizhzhia are dire, with the integrity of reactor cores and storage pools as key concerns. Burke says another Chernobyl could be possible if one wrong move is made. He calls on the international community to urgently address the inadequacy of nuclear-safety agreements that “were never designed to grapple with the nightmare of nuclear-power stations coming under military attack”.

Fruit flies can use specific muscles to move their eyes in ways that will allow them to see deeper, which is something we discovered this week. Plus, how families on three continents inherited their epilepsy from a single person.

Results from tomorrow’s elections could affect the science agenda proposed by President Joe Biden and the Democrats. Recent polling suggests that Republicans will win control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate, which could cause reductions in science funding, as well as increased congressional scrutiny of science programmes.

The party that holds the White House loses seats during the mid-term elections after a new president takes office. But the stakes are especially high this time around, as the country grapples with growing inflation and an energy crisis worsened by the war in Ukraine. Some fear that democracy itself is also on the line, as former president Donald Trump and many of the candidates he has endorsed at both the state and national level continue to question — without any evidence — the results of the 2020 election that put Biden in office. Some Republicans are threatening to indict Biden if the party takes power.

House Republicans have already called for an investigation of a top climate official in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Jane Lubchenco. She was censured by the US National Academy of Sciences in August for violating scientific-integrity rules and editing a paper by a family member. Observers who spoke to Nature say that if Republicans take over, this will be just the beginning.

Segal says that there has never been a question of bipartisan support for the National Institute of Health. The spread of misinformation and a heightened political environment could end up taking the bipartisan environment down with them, he says. Republicans have also vowed to investigate Anthony Fauci, who announced that he would retire later this year as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in connection with COVID-19’s origins and the country’s pandemic response.

This could be a challenge for the CHIPS and Science Act, which authorized US$280 billion for science and technology programmes across multiple federal agencies, including what would be a historic boost in funds for the NSF. The legislation was passed in July but Republican leadership in the House urged opposition.

The China Initiative, which was launched during the Trump administration to counter attempts by the Chinese government to steal US secrets, was officially closed early this year by the Biden administration. Concerns about research security remain high on both sides of the political aisle, but the justice department ended the programme partly because of the perception that the initiative discriminated unfairly against scientists of Chinese heritage.

Some Republicans are already pushing legislation to reinstate the programme. If both chambers of Congress become Republican-controlled, such legislation could gain momentum — but it would be hard to fully bring back the initiative as long as Biden is in charge, observers say.

Concerns about Chinese espionage, national security and economic competitiveness have made it possible for Democrats and Republicans to work together. The CHIPS and Science Act could reduce reliance on China by fostering domestic production of semiconductors, the argument being made by 24 House Republicans.

Political forces are at work in the energy and climate arenas. Although Republicans have steadfastly opposed legislation to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, many supported major investments in clean energy sought by the Biden administration and Democrats. The upshot is that more than half a trillion dollars in clean-energy investments have been locked in with the passage of a pair of major bills over the past year.

David Hart is a researcher who tracks energy issues, and he says that there is a pretty solid front against both China and Russia. In the next congress, that factor is likely to continue, according to Hart, because of the strong unifying factor that happened in this last Congress.

How genetics influenced California’s environmental calamity: A bio-inspired physicist’s view of modern physics

The state of California is experiencing more and more fires because of climate change, bad tree management and old power lines. The world’s most expensive natural disaster that year was the Camp Fire, due to the failure of a century-old electrical hook. Pacific Gas and Electric filed for temporary reorganization due to the fire. The journalist’s disturbing history of California’s environmental calamity ends in 2021. the company’s new CEO has announced costly underground power lines.

Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist and philosopher. He wants to create a world in which most people have informed views about modern physics. His skilful book, the first of a planned trilogy, covers space, time and motion. Unlike most introductory physics books, it includes mathematical equations and expected metaphorical language.

According to Gregory Morgan, work stemming from diseases caused by cancer won seven Nobel Prizes between 1966 and 2020. It is not mentioned in discussions of how genetics helped us understand cancer. As Morgan observes in his path-breaking history, this inhibits a complete understanding of this field as a technoscientific force.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03749-7

Neuroscientist Paco Calvo and the discovery of an anomalous particle decaying into electrons rather than muons and antimuons

Philosopher of science Paco Calvo says that we find it hard to imagine other kinds of internal experience because humans are so focused on brain-focused consciousness. Might plants be intelligent (‘sapiens’)? His book is not only for believers but also for non-believers. His experiments, such as putting the touch-sensitive plant Mimosa pudica to ‘sleep’ with anaesthetic, provoke thought, as does his note that Charles Darwin requested burial under an ancient village yew, rather than in Westminster Abbey.

Just before anthropologist Dimitris Xygalatas’s university went into COVID-19 lockdown, his students had one main concern: would there be a graduation ceremony? He says rituals help us to cope with many of life’s challenges, even if we don’t understand how. Wearable sensors and brain-detection technology have helped scientific investigation, as rituals do not flourish in a laboratory.

Data that had raised hopes for a new elementary particle has turned out to be a mistake. There are issues like plastic hurting sea urchins and science changing because of it.

An intriguing anomaly in data gathered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that raised hopes of a new elementary particle has turned out to be a fluke. The scientists at CERN found that some massive particles decay more often into electron–positron pairs than into muon–antimuon pairs. This imbalance defied the standard model of physics, which predicts both pairs to occur with roughly the same frequency. Misidentifying other particles as electrons was the reason for the discrepancy.

Science on Twitter : Should scientists stay or go? Dr. Oppenheimer, the first atomic bomb, has faced a difficult decision

Sea urchins can be fatal in their Development because of fatal anomalies in the plastic pellets used for raw material in the modern world. Scientists think high concentrations of zinc could be the cause of the water quality problems. Plastic can also kill animals by chemicals found in it or on it even if it is not killing animals by ingestion orentanglement.

The security clearance of Robert Oppenheimer, who led the creation of the first atomic bomb, was revoked in 1954. The Atomic Energy Commission decision ended his government career. “Historical evidence suggests that the decision to review Dr. Oppenheimer’s clearance had less to do with a bona fide concern for the security of restricted data and more to do with a desire on the part of the political leadership of the AEC to discredit Dr. Oppenheimer in public debates over nuclear weapons policy,” said Granholm in a statement.

Scientists on Twitter are facing a difficult decision: should they stay or go? Many people are worried that the site could be abused and misinformation could be spread by Musk. The platform has become a way for half a million researchers to communicate their findings and connect with people. Some researchers are leaving for open-source alternatives. Others feel duty-bound to keep providing their expertise to Twitter users.

“Leading NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has been the job I’ve loved most,” says Thomas Zurbuchen. Now, he has made the decision to step down after more than six years. Knowing when to leave is an important but underappreciated skill, he says. “Every leader has weaknesses. It is time for someone with fresh ideas to step in when their weaknesses weigh on an organization.

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04563-x

The Impact of 2022 Vaccination Policy on Children’s Health and Mental Health: A Conversation with Dr. Camilo Ortiz

Global vaccination rates are at their lowest since 2008. As the pandemic disrupted health services and cancelled vaccination campaigns, many children missed out on the shots meant to protect them from serious diseases such as measles and polio. And even before 2020, vaccination rates had been stagnating. This is partly because of safety concerns, mistrust in public-health institutions and politicized perceptions of vaccines. An assessment shows that many people don’t see the need for vaccinations because they aren’t concerned about diseases.

From China–US tensions to continued COVID-19 vaccine nationalism and Russia’s war halting many research collaborations, 2022 saw a trend of science being used as leverage in international politics. A Nature Editorial argues that political objectives must not be allowed to stop researchers from different countries working together to solve global problems.

Clinical psychologist Camilo Ortiz, who treats children for anxiety, is among the clinicians and researchers who say that kids need to experience independence and autonomy to develop good mental health. 9 min read.