livescience--2020-12-08--Puerto Rican scientists mourn loss of Arecibo Observatory's iconic telescope

In a year full of terrible new sorrows and burdens , the collapse of 's iconic radio telescope feels like a particularly brutal loss to Puerto Ricans .
The 57-year-old telescope , a massive dish 1,000 feet ( 305 meters ) across , has been an icon of science on the island , several Puerto Ricans told Space.com .
The observatory 's conferences have brought a wide variety of researchers to visit the island , field trips to its visitors ' center have been a `` rite of passage '' for Puerto Rican children , and its local research programs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to them. ''
, it was the biggest radio telescope in the world , and that was always a point of pride for Puerto Rico , '' Emily Alicea-Muñoz , who grew up in Puerto Rico and trained as a radio astronomer before becoming a physics education researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology , told Space.com .
`` We may be a tiny little island in the middle of the Caribbean , but we can do big science . ''
Related : Losing Arecibo Observatory creates a hole that ca n't be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radio telescope 's 900-ton down into the massive dish , destroying it .
Scientists around the world mourned , as did everyday Puerto Ricans all across the island .
`` It 's like losing an elderly relative , '' Alicea-Muñoz said .
`` It was there , it was a thing ; maybe it was taken for granted that it would always exist . ''
Over the past two decades , the observatory and the island alike had weathered challenge after challenge .
The facility survived an island-wide economic crisis and budget cuts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In 2017 , Hurricane Maria battered the island , killing 3,000 people , and the from the storm 's gusts .
The observatory and the island rang in the most recent new year to a series of earthquakes ; shortly thereafter , the novel coronavirus pandemic took hold of the island and the world .
But for Arecibo Observatory , the worst was yet to come .
First , one of the thick cables supporting the radio telescope 's massive equipment platform slipped out of its socket in August .
Just as engineers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ damage , a second supporting cable snapped on Nov. 9 , leaving the observatory at the brink of collapse and with a from the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) , which owns the site .
The platform fell on Dec. 1 , shattering itself and swaths of the dish .
For Puerto Ricans , and Puerto Rican scientists in particular , it was a painful sight .
`` I just ca n't help but question that lack of urgency [ after the August failure ] , and it feels like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over and over , especially in the last three or four years , '' Mónica Feliú-Mójer , a neurobiologist and the director of communications and science outreach for the nonprofit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico , told Space.com .
`` Our country is crumbling in front of our eyes , '' Feliú-Mójer said .
`` Puerto Ricans have been through one trauma after the other , especially since 2017 .
And so it hurts a little more , I think , because of that .
It hurts a lot , but I think it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which this is happening . ''
Related : The Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico has collapsed Scientist after scientist used the word pride to describe Puerto Ricans ' relationship with as the foremost institution of research and education on the island .
`` This is the only icon of science that we have in the island , '' Paola Figueroa-Delgado , a Ph.D. student in cell biology at Yale University who participated in a high-school research program at the observatory , told Space.com `` Yes , we have research institutions and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a picture , you know that is in Arecibo and you have heard about it at some point in your lifetime . ''
Figueroa-Delgado is proof of Arecibo 's role pointing Puerto Rican students toward careers in science .
While her field of study is nothing related to the , atmospheric studies or planetary science that make up Arecibo Observatory 's research legacy , it was through thinking about sustainability in space at the facility 's high-school research program that she first encountered the idea of 3D-printed human organs .
`` It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the observatory , '' Figueroa-Delgado said .
`` If I did n't have the opportunity , I really would n't be here , because it exposed me to not only engineering , astronomy and astrophysics , but it exposed me to my current field .
It trained me to be a scientist , and to think that I could pretty much forge my own career toward science , and it valued my contributions . ''
Related : Arecibo is n't the first radio telescope to unexpectedly fail .
Here 's what we can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The inspirational role of Arecibo Observatory has been particularly strong after the site 's visitors ' center opened in 1997 ; it hosts more than 100,000 tourists per year , according to the NSF .
With that investment came a suite of other educational and outreach programs to match .
`` My first research experience ever , not just in astronomy but ever , was in college and it was connected to the Arecibo telescope , '' Romy Rodríguez-Martínez , now pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy at Ohio State University , told Space.com @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to that project , and so it has a special place in my heart for that reason ; it was the first astronomy project I ever did . ''
And before the collapse , she treasured the possibility that after she earned her PhD , she could perhaps find a job at the observatory .
`` Obviously , now that possibility is completely off the table . ''
Working at Arecibo has been a longstanding dream for Puerto Ricans interested in astronomy , even long before the visitor 's center energized its outreach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ astronomer at Yale University , grew up seeing the telescope 's massive dish in a poster at his grandfather 's house .
Already interested in astronomy , he later saw the dish in person , and the hope of returning guided his decision to specialize in radio astronomy .
`` I knew of the existence of the observatory and that astronomy could be a science you could pursue and maybe get hired at some point to work back in Puerto Rico , '' Arce told Space.com .
`` The fact that I knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Puerto Rico , and that if I continued to pursue a career in astronomy , that there could be a place for me to work back in Puerto Rico — that was always in my mind . ''
That hope faded in the mid-2000s , he said , when the NSF laid off a round of astronomers and first floated the idea of in order to invest in new telescopes .
Since then , he said , Puerto Ricans and observatory users alike have struggled to trust the NSF , regardless of how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been and its continued funding of new research at Arecibo .
`` It was always in the mind of people that the NSF did n't care much about the observatory , '' Arce said .
`` There was always a sense of insecurity … I think they failed in trying to convince the people that they were supporting the observatory . ''
And as it turns out , Puerto Ricans love the facility , despite its roots as a Department of Defense project of a federal government that has refused to .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view in terms of the political status of the island , people are proud of the observatory being there , '' Arce said .
`` Yes , it is a U.S. installation , the government provided the money to build it and then to operate it , but many other people who have kept it alive have been Puerto Ricans . ''
Some Puerto Ricans see the telescope 's collapse as a sign of the damage colonialism has done to the island , since the Puerto Rican government does n't have authority over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting representation in Congress , which allocates money to the NSF .
`` There has been some mentions of the fact that the observatory did n't receive the necessary maintenance , maybe in part because it 's just on a territory , '' Saida Caballero-Nieves , an astronomer at the Florida Institute of Technology , told Space.com .
`` I really ca n't speak to how much truth there is in that .
But really , the sentiment is that this brought pride to us , and seeing it fall apart like that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spent much of her childhood away from the island , remembers visiting the observatory just before high school and the fascination her father , a civil engineer , felt for the staggeringly large dish and the heavy platform suspended above .
`` I feel like it 's one of the modern seven wonders of the world , '' she said .
`` It does n't matter how many times I went back , just seeing how big it is was really awe-inspiring . ''
And then , of course , there was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still be scientifically relevant for almost six full decades is really , really impressive , '' she said .
And Puerto Ricans know exactly what they 've lost with Arecibo .
Junellie Gonzalez-Quiles , now pursuing a Ph.D. in planetary science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland , is one of those students who first saw the observatory in high school through a research program hosted by the facility .
She describes walking up the hill from the parking lot to the platform overlooking the radio dish and the impression it made on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was really eye-opening and impressive how big this telescope was , '' she said .
`` It hurts saying 'was . '
'' She and others with similar stories have decided to turn that hurt into action , launching to intervene on Arecibo Observatory 's behalf .
The first , posted on Nov. 21 , called for a rescue attempt and , posted the day after the telescope 's collapse , asked for federal support in building a new , equally sophisticated observatory on the site in honor of its standing in Puerto @ @ @ @ @ @ @ door of opportunities that we just saw shatter when the Arecibo Observatory collapsed , '' she said .
After the cable failures and later collapse , NSF officials have repeatedly emphasized their commitment to the larger observatory facility and to Puerto Rico itself , but it 's unclear how likely that is to translate into a new cutting-edge telescope , as Gonzalez-Quiles and other Puerto Ricans hope .
Related : Losing Arecibo 's giant dish leaves humans more vulnerable to space rocks , scientists say '' Historically , in the colonial relationship that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ States , we do n't have a lot of power , or at least we 're told we do n't have a lot of power to do anything , '' Feliú-Mójer said .
There 's a common narrative on the island , she added : `` We need the United States , we 're a small little island in the middle of the Caribbean , we do n't have a lot of power , we 're dispossessed , and if we do n't have the United States , we are going to perish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has underscored the pernicious effects of colonialism on the island , she said , she 's greeted the response to the tragedy with optimism that Arecibo may one day be rebuilt .
`` One of the things that has given me a lot of hope is the amount of interest that I 've seen , not just in Puerto Rico but from the international community , and not just the scientific community but just in general , '' she said , particularly welcoming the advocacy campaign young Puerto Rican scientists are spearheading .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'We can rebuild , ' '' Feliú-Mójer said .
`` There 's still a lot of value on rebuilding a radio telescope — a better , stronger , more powerful radio telescope in that same place . ''
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels @ space.com or follow her on Twitter @ meghanbartels .
Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

In a year full of terrible new sorrows and burdens, the collapse of Arecibo Observatory 's iconic radio telescope feels like a particularly brutal loss to Puerto Ricans.
The 57-year-old telescope, a massive dish 1,000 feet (305 meters) across, has been an icon of science on the island, several Puerto Ricans told Space.com. The observatory's conferences have brought a wide variety of researchers to visit the island, field trips to its visitors' center have been a "rite of passage" for Puerto Rican children, and its local research programs have shown students that science is open to them.
" Until very recently , it was the biggest radio telescope in the world, and that was always a point of pride for Puerto Rico," Emily Alicea-Muñoz, who grew up in Puerto Rico and trained as a radio astronomer before becoming a physics education researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Space.com. "We may be a tiny little island in the middle of the Caribbean, but we can do big science."
Related: Losing Arecibo Observatory creates a hole that can't be filled
But on Dec. 1, the radio telescope's 900-ton hanging platform crashed down into the massive dish, destroying it. Scientists around the world mourned, as did everyday Puerto Ricans all across the island. "It's like losing an elderly relative," Alicea-Muñoz said. "It was there, it was a thing; maybe it was taken for granted that it would always exist."
Over the past two decades, the observatory and the island alike had weathered challenge after challenge. The facility survived an island-wide economic crisis and budget cuts that threatened to shutter the observatory. In 2017, Hurricane Maria battered the island, killing 3,000 people, and the telescope sustained miraculously minimal damage from the storm's gusts. The observatory and the island rang in the most recent new year to a series of earthquakes; shortly thereafter, the novel coronavirus pandemic took hold of the island and the world.
But for Arecibo Observatory, the worst was yet to come.
The Arecibo Observatory Visitors' Center was mostly undamaged by the telescope's collapse, according to NSF officials. (Image credit: Courtesy of the NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)
First, one of the thick cables supporting the radio telescope's massive equipment platform slipped out of its socket in August. Just as engineers had prepared a plan to address the damage, a second supporting cable snapped on Nov. 9, leaving the observatory at the brink of collapse and with a decommission verdict from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which owns the site. The platform fell on Dec. 1, shattering itself and swaths of the dish.
For Puerto Ricans, and Puerto Rican scientists in particular, it was a painful sight.
"I just can't help but question that lack of urgency [after the August failure], and it feels like a bigger theme that Puerto Ricans have experienced over and over, especially in the last three or four years," Mónica Feliú-Mójer, a neurobiologist and the director of communications and science outreach for the nonprofit organization Ciencia Puerto Rico, told Space.com.
"Our country is crumbling in front of our eyes," Feliú-Mójer said. "Puerto Ricans have been through one trauma after the other, especially since 2017. And so it hurts a little more, I think, because of that. It hurts a lot, but I think it hurts more because of the context in which this is happening."
Related: The Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico has collapsed
Loss of an icon
Scientist after scientist used the word pride to describe Puerto Ricans' relationship with Arecibo Observatory as the foremost institution of research and education on the island.
"This is the only icon of science that we have in the island," Paola Figueroa-Delgado, a Ph.D. student in cell biology at Yale University who participated in a high-school research program at the observatory, told Space.com "Yes, we have research institutions and labs, but you recognize the observatory in a picture, you know that is in Arecibo and you have heard about it at some point in your lifetime."
Figueroa-Delgado is proof of Arecibo's role pointing Puerto Rican students toward careers in science. While her field of study is nothing related to the radio astronomy , atmospheric studies or planetary science that make up Arecibo Observatory's research legacy, it was through thinking about sustainability in space at the facility's high-school research program that she first encountered the idea of 3D-printed human organs.
"It always comes down to the opportunity of the observatory," Figueroa-Delgado said. "If I didn't have the opportunity, I really wouldn't be here, because it exposed me to not only engineering, astronomy and astrophysics, but it exposed me to my current field. It trained me to be a scientist, and to think that I could pretty much forge my own career toward science, and it valued my contributions."
Related: Arecibo isn't the first radio telescope to unexpectedly fail. Here's what we can learn from Green Bank's collapse.
The inspirational role of Arecibo Observatory has been particularly strong after the site's visitors' center opened in 1997; it hosts more than 100,000 tourists per year, according to the NSF .
With that investment came a suite of other educational and outreach programs to match. "My first research experience ever, not just in astronomy but ever, was in college and it was connected to the Arecibo telescope," Romy Rodríguez-Martínez, now pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy at Ohio State University, told Space.com. "My first visit was related to that project, and so it has a special place in my heart for that reason; it was the first astronomy project I ever did."
And before the collapse, she treasured the possibility that after she earned her PhD, she could perhaps find a job at the observatory. "Obviously, now that possibility is completely off the table."
Working at Arecibo has been a longstanding dream for Puerto Ricans interested in astronomy, even long before the visitor's center energized its outreach efforts. Hector Arce, a radio astronomer at Yale University, grew up seeing the telescope's massive dish in a poster at his grandfather's house. Already interested in astronomy, he later saw the dish in person, and the hope of returning guided his decision to specialize in radio astronomy.
"I knew of the existence of the observatory and that astronomy could be a science you could pursue and maybe get hired at some point to work back in Puerto Rico," Arce told Space.com. "The fact that I knew that the Arecibo Observatory was there in Puerto Rico, and that if I continued to pursue a career in astronomy, that there could be a place for me to work back in Puerto Rico — that was always in my mind."
A troubled history
That hope faded in the mid-2000s, he said, when the NSF laid off a round of astronomers and first floated the idea of cutting funding to Arecibo Observatory in order to invest in new telescopes. Since then, he said, Puerto Ricans and observatory users alike have struggled to trust the NSF, regardless of how earnest the agency's intentions may have been and its continued funding of new research at Arecibo.
"It was always in the mind of people that the NSF didn't care much about the observatory," Arce said. "There was always a sense of insecurity … I think they failed in trying to convince the people that they were supporting the observatory."
And as it turns out, Puerto Ricans love the facility, despite its roots as a Department of Defense project of a federal government that has refused to grant the island statehood . "I think regardless of political affiliation or view in terms of the political status of the island, people are proud of the observatory being there," Arce said. "Yes, it is a U.S. installation, the government provided the money to build it and then to operate it, but many other people who have kept it alive have been Puerto Ricans."
Related: Terrifying footage shows collapse of Arecibo Observatory's massive radio telescope
Some Puerto Ricans see the telescope's collapse as a sign of the damage colonialism has done to the island, since the Puerto Rican government doesn't have authority over the observatory and islanders don't have voting representation in Congress, which allocates money to the NSF.
"There has been some mentions of the fact that the observatory didn't receive the necessary maintenance, maybe in part because it's just on a territory rather than a state ," Saida Caballero-Nieves, an astronomer at the Florida Institute of Technology, told Space.com. "I really can't speak to how much truth there is in that. But really, the sentiment is that this brought pride to us, and seeing it fall apart like that really hurts."
Caballero-Nieves, who spent much of her childhood away from the island, remembers visiting the observatory just before high school and the fascination her father, a civil engineer, felt for the staggeringly large dish and the heavy platform suspended above.
"I feel like it's one of the modern seven wonders of the world," she said. "It doesn't matter how many times I went back, just seeing how big it is was really awe-inspiring." And then, of course, there was the science. "For a facility to still be scientifically relevant for almost six full decades is really, really impressive," she said.
And Puerto Ricans know exactly what they've lost with Arecibo.
Uncertainty and hope
Junellie Gonzalez-Quiles, now pursuing a Ph.D. in planetary science at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, is one of those students who first saw the observatory in high school through a research program hosted by the facility. She describes walking up the hill from the parking lot to the platform overlooking the radio dish and the impression it made on her at the time. "It was really eye-opening and impressive how big this telescope was," she said. "It hurts saying 'was.'"
She and others with similar stories have decided to turn that hurt into action, launching petitions to the White House to intervene on Arecibo Observatory's behalf. The first, posted on Nov. 21, called for a rescue attempt and a second , posted the day after the telescope's collapse, asked for federal support in building a new, equally sophisticated observatory on the site in honor of its standing in Puerto Rico.
"It's like a door of opportunities that we just saw shatter when the Arecibo Observatory collapsed," she said.
After the cable failures and later collapse, NSF officials have repeatedly emphasized their commitment to the larger observatory facility and to Puerto Rico itself, but it's unclear how likely that is to translate into a new cutting-edge telescope, as Gonzalez-Quiles and other Puerto Ricans hope.
Related: Losing Arecibo's giant dish leaves humans more vulnerable to space rocks, scientists say
A view of the science platform from the center of the iconic radio dish at Arecibo Observatory. (Image credit: Courtesy of the NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)
"Historically, in the colonial relationship that Puerto Rico has had with the United States, we don't have a lot of power, or at least we're told we don't have a lot of power to do anything," Feliú-Mójer said. There's a common narrative on the island, she added: "We need the United States, we're a small little island in the middle of the Caribbean, we don't have a lot of power, we're dispossessed, and if we don't have the United States, we are going to perish."
And while seeing Arecibo fall has underscored the pernicious effects of colonialism on the island, she said, she's greeted the response to the tragedy with optimism that Arecibo may one day be rebuilt.
"One of the things that has given me a lot of hope is the amount of interest that I've seen, not just in Puerto Rico but from the international community, and not just the scientific community but just in general," she said, particularly welcoming the advocacy campaign young Puerto Rican scientists are spearheading.
"Efforts are now shifting toward, 'We can rebuild,'" Feliú-Mójer said. "There's still a lot of value on rebuilding a radio telescope — a better, stronger, more powerful radio telescope in that same place."
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


livescience--2020-12-08--China plants its flag on the moon with Chang'e 5 lunar lander (photo, video)

China now has a real flag flying on the moon .
The sample-collecting Chang ' e 5 moon lander deployed a small version of China 's five-star red flag on Thursday ( Dec. 3 ) , shortly before the mission 's attached ascent vehicle launched into lunar orbit carrying the precious dirt and rock .
According to ( CCTV ) , this is the first time that China has realized the `` independent display '' of the five-star flag on the lunar landscape .
The flag weighs just 0.4 ounces ( 12 grams ) and can `` maintain its true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plus or minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit ( 150 degrees Celsius ) .
The flag was deployed from the lander 's body , not planted in the gray dirt .
Video : China on the moon !
A history of Chinese lunar missions in pictures Chang ' e 5 's lunar flag display system consists of three parts : the flag , a compression release device and a small pyrotechnic deployment mechanism .
The entire system is about 1.6 feet ( 0.5 meters ) long and weighs just 2.2 lbs .
( 1 kilograms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China 's earlier lunar surface vehicles , the Chang ' e 3 and Chang ' e 4 lander-rover duos , sported flags that were painted on .
Chang ' e 5 broke ground by carrying a real fabric flag to the moon 's surface .
The five-star red flag that unfolded in the form of a scroll is relatively flat and was designed to be wrinkle-proof , Chinese officials said .
The Chang ' e 5 team spent more than a year selecting materials for the flag .
A new type of composite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ red flag can withstand the harsh environment of the moon and does not fade , color or deform .
`` Although this is just a thin five-star red flag , it has a very high technological content , '' said Ma Wei , the commander of the five-star red flag display system project , according to CCTV .
Chang ' e 5 's flag is not alone on the lunar surface .
The six that landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972 all planted American flags .
Leonard David is author of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rush : The New Space Race '' published by National Geographic in May 2019 .
A longtime writer for Space.com , David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades .
Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .
This version of the story published on Space.com .

China now has a real flag flying on the moon.
The sample-collecting Chang'e 5 moon lander deployed a small version of China's five-star red flag on Thursday (Dec. 3), shortly before the mission's attached ascent vehicle launched into lunar orbit carrying the precious dirt and rock .
According to China Central Television (CCTV), this is the first time that China has realized the "independent display" of the five-star flag on the lunar landscape.
The flag weighs just 0.4 ounces (12 grams) and can "maintain its true colors" under a temperature difference of plus or minus 270 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius). The flag was deployed from the Chang'e 5 lander's body, not planted in the gray dirt.
Video: Watch China's Chang'e 5 mission land on the moon
China on the moon! A history of Chinese lunar missions in pictures
A fabric first
China's Chang'e 5 moon lander deployed a small fabric flag on Dec. 3, 2020. (Image credit: CNSA/CLEP)
Chang'e 5's lunar flag display system consists of three parts: the flag, a compression release device and a small pyrotechnic deployment mechanism. The entire system is about 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) long and weighs just 2.2 lbs. (1 kilograms), Chinese officials have said.
China's earlier lunar surface vehicles, the Chang'e 3 and Chang'e 4 lander-rover duos, sported flags that were painted on. Chang'e 5 broke ground by carrying a real fabric flag to the moon's surface.
The five-star red flag that unfolded in the form of a scroll is relatively flat and was designed to be wrinkle-proof, Chinese officials said.
The Chang'e 5 team spent more than a year selecting materials for the flag. A new type of composite material was chosen so that the five-star red flag can withstand the harsh environment of the moon and does not fade, color or deform.
"Although this is just a thin five-star red flag, it has a very high technological content," said Ma Wei, the commander of the five-star red flag display system project, according to CCTV.
Chang'e 5's flag is not alone on the lunar surface. The six Apollo missions that landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972 all planted American flags.
Leonard David is author of the recently released book, "Moon Rush: The New Space Race" published by National Geographic in May 2019. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. This version of the story published on Space.com.


livescience--2020-12-09--Dogs will never speak human. Here's why.

You probably think your dog is the smartest ( and cutest ! )
when they learn to sit or give a paw .
But most dogs can pick up only a limited number of words in their lives , and a new study may help explain why .
The study found that dogs ' brains can not distinguish words that differ by a single speech sound , such as `` dig '' versus `` dog , '' or `` sit '' versus `` set . ''
This makes dogs similar to , who also ca n't distinguish between words with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 20 months , babies typically start to learn that every sound in a word matters ( i.e .
that `` dog '' and `` dig '' are different words ) , and this allows their vocabulary to soar , the authors said .
It appears that dogs never grasp these distinctions .
`` Dogs might not attend to all details of speech sound when they listen to words , '' study senior author Attila Andics , of the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary , .
`` Further research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason that incapacitates dogs from acquiring a sizable vocabulary . ''
For the study , published Tuesday ( Dec. 8 ) in the journal , the researchers monitored the of 17 very good dogs using a technique called electroencephalography ( EEG ) .
The study is one of the first to use EEG on awake dogs that did n't have any specific training .
The dogs visited the lab with their owners , and once the dogs got used to the new environment , they sat down on a mattress with their owners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the dogs ' heads with tape .
Then , the dogs listened to pre-recorded words that they knew ( e.g .
`` sit '' ) , as well as nonsense words that sounded similar ( e.g .
`` sut '' ) and nonsense words that sounded very different ( e.g .
`` bep '' ) .
The dogs ' brains could quickly discriminate the words that they knew from the nonsense words that sounded very different ( `` sit '' vs. `` bep '' ) .
But their brains seemed to make no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nonsense words that differed by only a single speech sound ( `` sit '' vs. `` sut '' ) .
Researchers have seen a similar pattern in infants younger than 14 months .
It 's not that the dogs ca n't hear the different sounds — studies have found that dogs can distinguish individual speech sounds ( such as `` d , '' `` o '' and `` g '' ) .
But they may have `` attentional and processing biases '' that prevent them from attending to all the sounds in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ studies with a large number of participants and more trials of words are needed to confirm the findings , they said .

A new study finds that dogs' brains cannot distinguish words that differ by a single speech sound, such as "sit" versus "set." For the study, the researchers attached electrodes to the dogs' heads with tape and monitored their brain waves as they listened to pre-recorded words.
You probably think your dog is the smartest (and cutest!) when they learn to sit or give a paw. But most dogs can pick up only a limited number of words in their lives, and a new study may help explain why.
The study found that dogs' brains cannot distinguish words that differ by a single speech sound, such as "dig" versus "dog," or "sit" versus "set." This makes dogs similar to human infants , who also can't distinguish between words with similar sounds. But around age 14 to 20 months, babies typically start to learn that every sound in a word matters (i.e. that "dog" and "dig" are different words), and this allows their vocabulary to soar, the authors said.
It appears that dogs never grasp these distinctions. "Dogs might not attend to all details of speech sound when they listen to words," study senior author Attila Andics, of the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, said in a statement . "Further research could reveal whether this could be a reason that incapacitates dogs from acquiring a sizable vocabulary."
Related: 7 surprising health benefits of dog ownership
For the study, published Tuesday (Dec. 8) in the journal Royal Society Open Science , the researchers monitored the brain waves of 17 very good dogs using a technique called electroencephalography (EEG). The study is one of the first to use EEG on awake dogs that didn't have any specific training. The dogs visited the lab with their owners, and once the dogs got used to the new environment, they sat down on a mattress with their owners, and the researchers attached electrodes to the dogs' heads with tape.
Then, the dogs listened to pre-recorded words that they knew (e.g. "sit"), as well as nonsense words that sounded similar (e.g. "sut") and nonsense words that sounded very different (e.g. "bep").
The dogs' brains could quickly discriminate the words that they knew from the nonsense words that sounded very different ("sit" vs. "bep"). But their brains seemed to make no distinction between the words they knew and the nonsense words that differed by only a single speech sound ("sit" vs. "sut"). Researchers have seen a similar pattern in infants younger than 14 months.
It's not that the dogs can't hear the different sounds — studies have found that dogs can distinguish individual speech sounds (such as "d," "o" and "g"). But they may have "attentional and processing biases" that prevent them from attending to all the sounds in a word, they said.
Future studies with a large number of participants and more trials of words are needed to confirm the findings, they said.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-08--Coronavirus outbreak: Live Updates

Coronavirus outbreak: Live Updates

90-year-old woman in the UK receives first dose of Pfizer vaccine , FDA review confirms vaccine is safe and effective A 90-year-old woman ( who will turn 91 next week ) became the first in the world to be given Pfizer 's coronavirus vaccine outside of clinical trials , according to the BBC .
Margaret Keenan , who is originally from Northern Ireland , was given the vaccine at the University Hospital in Coventry , England .
She received the first of 800,000 doses expected to be administered in the U.K. in the coming weeks , according to the BBC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19 , '' Keenan said , according to the BBC .
`` It 's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year . ''
`` My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it .
If I can have it at 90 , then you can have it too , '' she added .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's vaccine is expected to be given to people in the U.K. by the end of the month .
Meanwhile , a 53-page Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) review published Tuesday ( Dec. 8 ) confirmed that Pfizer 's vaccine is safe and effective , according to The Washington Post .

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90-year-old woman in the UK receives first dose of Pfizer vaccine, FDA review confirms vaccine is safe and effective A 90-year-old woman (who will turn 91 next week) became the first in the world to be given Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine outside of clinical trials, according to the BBC. Margaret Keenan, who is originally from Northern Ireland, was given the vaccine at the University Hospital in Coventry, England. She received the first of 800,000 doses expected to be administered in the U.K. in the coming weeks, according to the BBC. "I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19," Keenan said, according to the BBC."It's the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year." "My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it. If I can have it at 90, then you can have it too," she added. Up to four million doses of Pfizer's vaccine is expected to be given to people in the U.K. by the end of the month. Meanwhile, a 53-page Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review published Tuesday (Dec. 8) confirmed that Pfizer's vaccine is safe and effective, according to The Washington Post.
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine starts to work just 10 days after 1st dose Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine starts to protect people from the novel coronavirus just 10 days after the first dose, according to new documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The documents were released on Tuesday (Dec. 8), two days before a meeting of the FDA's vaccine advisory panel, which will vote on whether to recommend authorization of the vaccine in the U.S, Live Science reported . The FDA analyzed data from Pfizer's phase 3 clinical trial, which included some 44,000 people in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Turkey, about half of whom received the vaccine while the other half received a placebo. Both groups received two shots, 21 days apart. About 10 days after the first dose, there was a noticeable drop-off in new COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group compared with the placebo group, indicating that even one dose provides some protection, the report said. However, scientists don't know how long the protection from a single dose will last, so it will still be important for people to receive two shots, according to The New York Times . Overall, the vaccine was 52% effective after the first dose and 95% effective after the second dose, the report said.
People with significant allergies should avoid Pfizer vaccine, UK warns The U.K.'s Regulatory Agency is advising people with a history of "significant" allergic reactions to avoid Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, after two National Health Service members developed severe allergic reactions to it on Tuesday (Dec. 8), Live Science reported. "As is common with new vaccines the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination after two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday," Stephen Powis, the national medical director for England's National Health Service said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 9). Both workers have a history of severe allergies and carry adrenaline auto injectors (such as EpiPens) around with them, according to The Guardian. Shortly after receiving the vaccine, both NHS workers developed anaphylaxis-like symptoms, or severe allergic reactions, but have recovered after receiving treatment. The MHRA will investigate further and Pfizer and BioNTech will support their investigation, according to Reuters. "Allergic reaction occurs with quite a number of vaccines, and perhaps even more frequently with drugs. So it is not unexpected," Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in remarks to journalists published by Britain's Science Media Center. “What would be wise, as the MHRA have already advised, would be for anyone who has known severe allergic reaction such that they need to carry an EpiPen, to delay having a vaccination until the reason for the allergic reaction has been clarified," he said. For the general population this does not mean that they would need to be anxious about receiving the vaccination, he added. "One has to remember that even things like marmite [a quintessential British food spread] can cause unexpected severe allergic reactions.”
Canada approves Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Canada has authorized Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine, with the first doses expected to be administered there as early as next week. Health Canada, the country's health regulatory agency, said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec. 9) that it had determined that the vaccine "meets the Department's stringent safety, efficacy and quality requirements for use in Canada," according to CTV News . "We expect vaccines to arrive maybe as early as Monday [Dec. 14]. It takes time to prepare the vaccine," said Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the top military general leading the vaccine rollout for the Public Health Agency of Canada, according to CTV News. The first doses could be administered by the middle of next week, he said. Canada is the third country in the world to authorize the Pfizer vaccine, following the United Kingdom and Bahrain. The country should receive up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine by the end of December, and has purchased 20 million doses total, with the option to purchase more, CTV News reported.
Daily COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. reaches record-high, surpassed 9/11 On Wednesday (Dec. 9), the U.S. recorded 3,124 new COVID-19 deaths, the highest daily death toll to date, according to CNN . In comparison, 2,977 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. has now recorded 280,488 deaths related to the virus, according to The COVID Tracking Project . A forecast from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that the total death toll can increase to between 332,000 and 362,000 by January 2, according to CNN. There are currently 106,671 people hospitalized with the virus in the U.S.; 20,903 of them are currently in the ICU and 7,621 are currently on a ventilator, according to the COVID Tracking Project. On Thursday (Dec. 10), the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is set to meet to discuss an emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
FDA panel recommends authorization of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine A panel of experts for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended that the agency authorize Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. On Thursday (Dec. 10), the panel voted 17 to 4 to recommend that the vaccine receive emergency use authorization (EUA) for people ages 16 and older, according to The New York Times . The FDA typically follows the advice of its panels, and so today's vote is an important step towards the vaccine's authorization. It is anticipated that the agency will officially authorize the vaccine on Saturday (Dec. 12), the Times reported. Several countries have already authorized Pfizer's vaccine, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Bahrain.
Vaccine approval could come this weekend, as U.S. continues to record high daily death tolls On Thursday (Dec. 10), the U.S. recorded another 2,902 COVID-19 deaths, a day after the country set a record of 3,253 deaths, according to Reuters . “Probably for the next 60 to 90 days, we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had on 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Council on Foreign Relations on Thursday, according to Reuters. "The reality is the vaccine approval this week is not going to really impact that, I think, to any degree for the next 60 days." On Thursday, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee discussed, voted and recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should grant an emergency use authorization for Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine has already been approved in the U.K. and in Canada, and FDA approval for use in the U.S. could come this weekend.
Australia abandons local COVID-19 vaccine after it caused false-positive HIV tests An Australian COVID-19 vaccine that had shown promising results in early trials is being abandoned after researchers found that the shot caused false-positive results on HIV tests. On Friday (Dec. 11), Australian officials said they had canceled an order for some 51 million doses of the vaccine, which was being developed by The University of Queensland and CSL Ltd., a local biotech company, according to The New York Times . In an early trial with 216 participants, the vaccine appeared to be safe and to produce a robust immune response against COVID-19, according to a statement from CSL . But some volunteers falsely tested positive for HIV, which officials feared would undermine trust in the vaccine, the Times reported. The vaccine contained small fragments of an HIV protein, which helped stabilize the vaccine. Some of the participants developed antibodies against these fragments, and these antibodies triggered false positive results on some HIV tests. It's important to note that there is no way for the vaccine to cause an HIV infection, because it contains harmless fragments of the virus.
ICU nurse in New York becomes first person in the US to receive a coronavirus vaccine outside of clinical trials New York, the worst-hit state at the start of the pandemic, just became the first to administer a coronavirus vaccine outside of clinical trials, kicking off a long, massive effort to vaccinate the American people, Live Science reported. Around 9 a.m. E.T. on Monday (Dec. 14), the very first dose of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine was given to Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse in Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York, according to The New York Times. This comes as the U.S. continues to battle a massive wave of the virus that has more than 109,000 people currently hospitalized, according to The COVID Tracking Project. Since the start of the pandemic, New York has recorded more than 780,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 35,100 deaths, according to The Times. "This vaccine is exciting because I believe this is the weapon that will end the war," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a live broadcast of the first vaccination. "It's the beginning of the last chapter of the book, but now we just have to do it."
FDA analysis confirms Moderna's vaccine is safe and effective, emergency authorization is likely to come Friday A new briefing document from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released on Tuesday (Dec. 15) confirmed that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective, according to NPR . Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is 94% effective and has "a favorable safety profile," according to the document. A panel of experts is set to meet on Thursday (Dec. 17) to discuss the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine and vote on whether or not the FDA should grant emergency approval to the vaccine. Last week, the same panel voted that the FDA should grant emergency approval to Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine; the authorization came a day late and the first doses were given on Monday (Dec. 15). The FDA will likely approve Moderna's vaccine for emergency use on Friday (Dec. 18), according to The New York Times .
FDA authorizes first over-the-counter COVID-19 test The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the first over-the-counter COVID-19 test, which can be done at home and does not need a prescription. The test, made by the Australia-based company Ellume, provides results in as little as 20 minutes, according to a statement from the FDA . It is a "lateral flow antigen test," meaning it works in a similar way to a home pregnancy test, by running a "liquid sample along a surface with reactive molecules," the FDA said. The test works in conjunction with a smartphone app. Users take a nasal swab and place their sample in an analyzer, which communicates to the smartphone app via Bluetooth. The results are delivered through the app, and also reported to public health authorities (based on a user's zip code) through a secure cloud connection, the company said . Ellume is ramping up production of its test, and expects to produce three million tests in January 2021, and 20 million within the first half of 2021.
A wild mink tested positive for the coronavirus, it may be the first wild animal to have a confirmed case A wild mink in Utah may be the first "free-ranging, native wild animal" confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Live Science reported. The mink was found near a mink farm and likely picked up the infection from the farmed mink. There's no evidence that the virus spread to other minks or wild animals; but if the virus does begin circulating in wild animals, it could pick up mutations that COVID-19 vaccines may not protect well against if it spreads back to humans, according to the report. "If it does [establish a reservoir], then we've got a long-term issue here, where this virus has the potential to be with us for millennia," Sarah Olson, associate director of the health program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, told Vox. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has screened other animal species for the virus near mink farms in Utah, Michigan and Wisconsin, but all of them have tested negative so far, according to a statement.
An FDA advisory panel will meet today to vote on whether to recommend Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for emergency approval On Thursday (Dec. 17), a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee will meet to determine whether to recommend that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency approval, according to The New York Times . This panel, composed of independent experts, will vote on whether to recommend the vaccine after hearing from the company, FDA scientists and the public, according to The Times. Last week, the same panel of experts met to discuss Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine and voted to recommend emergency authorization; the authorization came the next day. There have now been more than 16.9 million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 307,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard . There are currently 113,090 people hospitalized across the country with more than 21,900 of them in the ICU and 7,778 on a ventilator, according to The COVID Tracking Project .
California becomes new epicenter of COVID-19 in U.S. California, once praised for its early pandemic response, is now the new U.S. hotspot for COVID-19 infections. The state has reported an alarming surge in cases, breaking previous records for daily cases. On Thursday (Dec. 17), the state reported some 50,000 COVID-19 infections in 24 hours, and nearly 100,000 in 48 hours, according to The Washington Post . That's more than the daily cases reported in many countries, including India, Germany and Britain, the Post reported. The state also set a record for daily deaths on Thursday, with 379 fatalities reported, up from the previous high of 293. Capacity in intensive care units has also dropped dramatically, with hospitals in Southern California reporting zero percent capacity on Thursday. "I want to be very clear: Our hospitals are under siege, and our model shows no end in sight," said Christina Ghaly, director of Los Angeles County's Department of Health Services, the Post reported.
FDA expected to authorize Moderna's vaccine on Friday The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine on Friday (Dec. 18). Once authorized, it will be the second coronavirus vaccine to get the green light from the agency in just a week, with Pfizer's vaccine gaining authorization on Dec. 11. Moderna is expected to begin shipping 5.9 million doses of its vaccine on Sunday (Dec. 20), with the first deliveries arriving Monday (Dec. 21), according to The New York Times . Unlike the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna's vaccine does not require storage in extremely cold temperatures, and states are hoping to distribute the vaccine to rural hospitals and community health centers, the Times reported.
COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the U.S. There have now been more than 17 million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and more than 300,000 deaths, according to The COVID Tracking Project . There are currently 114,237 people hospitalized across the country and 21,900 people in the ICU. California is facing a massive surge in cases; the state reported 41,012 new COVID-19 cases and 300 new deaths on Thursday (Dec. 17), according to the state's COVID-19 dashboard . By comparison, at the start of November, California was reporting a seven-day average of 4,183 cases, compared to an average of 38,774 on Thursday, according to CNN . "We're experiencing an explosive and very deadly surge," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Public Health Director said, according to CNN. Intensive care unit beds are rapidly filling up across the state; there are only 1,234 ICU beds left available in California, according to the dashboard. Current closures across California are impacting around 98% of the state's population, according to CNN.
London and southeast England are under an emergency lockdown Following concerns of a new version of the coronavirus that might be more transmissible, London and most of southeast England are now under an emergency lockdown, according to The New York Times . Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the lockdown on Saturday (Dec. 19) citing concerns that the mutated virus — which was detected a couple of weeks ago in southeast England — may be as much as 70% more transmissible than previous versions, according to the Times. The new version of the coronavirus is detected in more than 60% of new infections in London and have also been detected in several other countries, according to the Times. But it's not yet clear if this coronavirus version is any more infectious than the last and thorough analyses will need to be conducted before conclusions are made, scientists cautioned. In South Africa, a similar version of the virus has been found in up to 90% of new cases detected since mid-November, according to The Times . It's common for viruses to mutate, and this particular coronavirus has mutated many times since the start of the pandemic. But experts told The Times that it would take years for the virus to mutate enough such that it would make the current vaccines developed to fight COVID-19 ineffective.
Biden gets Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine President-elect Joe Biden received a dose of Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine on Monday (Dec. 21), according to The New York Times . He received the shot on camera at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware. "I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine. There's nothing to worry about," Biden said.
Antarctica has its 1st COVID-19 outbreak The first COVID-19 cases have been reported in Antarctica , meaning the disease has now spread to every continent in the world. On Tuesday (Dec. 22), Chilean officials reported an outbreak of 36 COVID-19 cases at the Chilean research base General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme on the Antarctic Peninsula, according to the BBC . Of these, 26 cases were military personnel and 10 were maintenance workers, the BBC reported. All of these cases have been evacuated from Antarctica to Punta Arenas, Chile, according to The Guardian . Antarctica had been COVID-19 free up until the current outbreak. The continent has no permanent residents, but about 1,000 people, including scientists and other workers, stayed there this past winter, The Guardian reported.
Live updates will continue in 2021!


livescience--2020-12-08--Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine starts to work just 10 days after 1st dose

Pfizer 's new starts to protect people from the novel coronavirus just 10 days after the first dose , according to from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) .
The documents were released on Tuesday ( Dec. 8 ) , two days before a meeting of the FDA 's vaccine advisory panel , which will vote on whether to recommend authorization of the vaccine in the U.S .
The FDA analyzed data from , which included some 44,000 people in the United States , Brazil , Argentina , Germany and Turkey , about half of whom received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a placebo .
Both groups received two shots , 21 days apart .
About 10 days after the first dose , there was a noticeable drop-off in new COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group compared with the placebo group , indicating that even one dose provides some protection , the report said .
However , scientists do n't know how long the protection from a single dose will last , so it will still be important for people to receive two shots , according to .
Overall , the vaccine was 52 % @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % effective after the second dose , the report said .
The news comes as a 90-year-old woman in the U.K. became the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside of a clinical trial , according to the BBC .
The new documents also provide more information on the vaccine 's side effects .
FDA experts said there were no specific safety concerns that would prevent officials from issuing an emergency use authorization ( EUA ) for the vaccine .
About 84 % of participants reported pain at the injection site ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported headache ; 38 % reported muscle pain ; 32 % reported chills ; 23 % reported joint pain ; and 14 % reported fever .
These side effects were more common after the second dose than the first dose .
But side effects were short-lived , lasting about one to two days .
Still , given these unpleasant side effects , some people may need to take a day off work after the second dose , the Times reported .
There was some suggestion that the vaccine would also benefit people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of reinfection , but there was too little data about this for researchers to draw firm conclusions .
The FDA 's advisory panel will meet Thursday ( Dec. 10 ) , and after this , the FDA could announce authorization within days , .

Pfizer's new COVID-19 vaccine starts to protect people from the novel coronavirus just 10 days after the first dose, according to new documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The documents were released on Tuesday (Dec. 8), two days before a meeting of the FDA's vaccine advisory panel, which will vote on whether to recommend authorization of the vaccine in the U.S.
The FDA analyzed data from Pfizer's phase 3 clinical trial , which included some 44,000 people in the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and Turkey, about half of whom received the vaccine while the other half received a placebo. Both groups received two shots, 21 days apart.
Related: Coronavirus live updates
About 10 days after the first dose, there was a noticeable drop-off in new COVID-19 cases in the vaccine group compared with the placebo group, indicating that even one dose provides some protection, the report said. However, scientists don't know how long the protection from a single dose will last, so it will still be important for people to receive two shots, according to The New York Times .
Overall, the vaccine was 52% effective after the first dose and 95% effective after the second dose, the report said.
The news comes as a 90-year-old woman in the U.K. became the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside of a clinical trial, according to the BBC .
The new documents also provide more information on the vaccine's side effects. FDA experts said there were no specific safety concerns that would prevent officials from issuing an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine.
About 84% of participants reported pain at the injection site; 63% reported fatigue; 55% reported headache; 38% reported muscle pain; 32% reported chills; 23% reported joint pain; and 14% reported fever. These side effects were more common after the second dose than the first dose. But side effects were short-lived, lasting about one to two days.
Still, given these unpleasant side effects, some people may need to take a day off work after the second dose, the Times reported.
There was some suggestion that the vaccine would also benefit people who already had COVID-19, reducing their chances of reinfection, but there was too little data about this for researchers to draw firm conclusions.
The FDA's advisory panel will meet Thursday (Dec. 10), and after this, the FDA could announce authorization within days, according to CNBC .
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-08--Epic time-lapse shows what the Milky Way will look like 400,000 years from now

Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time ?
If you 'd like to , the European Space Agency ( ESA ) is offering you two options : Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our drifts steadily through the ( some patience required ) — or , watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing , courtesy of the ESA 's Gaia space observatory .
In the new simulation , 40,000 stars — all located within 325 of Earth 's sun — whiz through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind them .
Each point of light represents one real object in the Milky Way , and each shining trail shows that object 's projected movement through the galaxy over the next 400,000 years .
Brighter , faster streaks are located closer to our solar system , while dimmer , slower ones live much farther away .
Related : 9 Ideas about black holes that will blow your mind According to ESA researchers , the simulation shows an unsurprising pattern : By the end of the animation , most stars seem to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screen , while the left remains relatively empty .
It 's not because the stars are being pulled by some newborn black hole or an alien tractor beam ; it 's simply that our sun is constantly moving too , causing passing stars to appear more clustered in the opposite direction .
`` If you imagine yourself moving through a crowd of people ( who are standing still ) , then in front of you the people will appear to move apart as you approach them , while behind you the people will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you move away from them , '' ESA researchers .
`` This effect also happens due to the motion of the sun with respect to the stars . ''
The data that made this mosaic of cosmic fireflies possible comes from the Gaia satellite 's third official data release ( EDR3 ) , which became publicly available on Dec. 3 .
The new data dump contains detailed information on more than 1.8 billion celestial objects , including the precise positions , velocities and orbital trajectories of more than 330,000 stars within 325 light-years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( The 40,000 stars represented in the simulation were chosen at random . )
The Gaia satellite launched in 2013 with the express mission of measuring the positions , distances and motions of the stars .
The second data release , which dropped in 2018 , helped astronomers assemble the most detailed map of the universe ever .
The new , third release adds about 100 million new objects to that treasure trove , ESA researchers said .

Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time?
If you'd like to, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering you two options: Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our solar system drifts steadily through the Milky Way (some patience required) — or, watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing, courtesy of the ESA's Gaia space observatory.
In the new simulation, 40,000 stars — all located within 325 light-years of Earth's sun — whiz through space, leaving long trails of light behind them. Each point of light represents one real object in the Milky Way, and each shining trail shows that object's projected movement through the galaxy over the next 400,000 years. Brighter, faster streaks are located closer to our solar system, while dimmer, slower ones live much farther away.
Related: 9 Ideas about black holes that will blow your mind
According to ESA researchers, the simulation shows an unsurprising pattern: By the end of the animation, most stars seem to be clustered to the right side of the screen, while the left remains relatively empty. It's not because the stars are being pulled by some newborn black hole or an alien tractor beam; it's simply that our sun is constantly moving too, causing passing stars to appear more clustered in the opposite direction.
"If you imagine yourself moving through a crowd of people (who are standing still), then in front of you the people will appear to move apart as you approach them, while behind you the people will appear to stand ever closer together as you move away from them," ESA researchers wrote in a blog post . "This effect also happens due to the motion of the sun with respect to the stars."
The data that made this mosaic of cosmic fireflies possible comes from the Gaia satellite's third official data release (EDR3), which became publicly available on Dec. 3. The new data dump contains detailed information on more than 1.8 billion celestial objects, including the precise positions, velocities and orbital trajectories of more than 330,000 stars within 325 light-years of Earth, according to a news release from the ESA. (The 40,000 stars represented in the simulation were chosen at random.)
The Gaia satellite launched in 2013 with the express mission of measuring the positions, distances and motions of the stars. The second data release, which dropped in 2018, helped astronomers assemble the most detailed map of the universe ever. The new, third release adds about 100 million new objects to that treasure trove, ESA researchers said.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-08--Watch SpaceX test a giant 'Starship' over Texas today

Update Tuesday , Dec. 8 at 5:41 p.m. EST : An automatic engine abort with 1 second to go before launch prevented a test flight from taking place Tuesday .
This page will be updated if SpaceX says it will re-attempt a launch .
SpaceX plans to test its enormous Starship prototype over Boca Chica , Texas , on Tuesday ( Dec. 8 ) .
Starship is SpaceX 's big , shiny rocket standing 160 feet ( 49 meters ) tall and 30 feet ( 9 m ) wide .
Unlike the Crew Dragon , which is currently docked to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company 's fleet of more standard rockets , Starship has n't been built to serve a specific space agency or private customer 's needs .
Instead , it 's designed to further CEO Elon Musk 's stated goal of delivering large numbers of people or heavy payloads to the moon and eventually Mars — a goal NASA supported earlier this year with a $ 135 million investment , The anticipated test will mark the first opportunity to see a completed Starship prototype in action .
Related : Here 's every spaceship that 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's 41,000-foot ( 12,500 m ) test flight will top out slightly below the 50,000 feet ( 15,240 m ) Musk initially projected , Dave Mosher reported for .
There 's no official start time , but SpaceX said in the caption of a livestream posted to YouTube that if the flight does n't take place by 5 p.m. CST it will likely be bumped to Wednesday ( Dec. 9 ) or Thursday ( Dec. 10 ) .
Spaceflight Now reporter Stephen Clark to point out that a NASA surveillance plane will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , making that a plausible launch window .
SpaceX has previously tested a Starship prototype , Starship Serial Number 4 ( SN4 ) , which exploded just after an engine test .
This test of Starship Serial Number 8 ( SN8 ) will take the rocket high into the atmosphere , turn it on its side , then have it attempt to right itself again for a landing .
SpaceX has cautioned that a total success , including a safe landing , is unlikely , and that a failure at some stage would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Several YouTube channels are livestreaming the launch site .
The stream below from NASA Spaceflight includes a checklist of steps SpaceX will take before launch , giving viewers clues as to when the test might occur .

Update Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 4:27 p.m. EST: The launch is now on "hold," and now anticipated to take place at 5:40 p.m. EST.
Update Wednesday, Dec. 9 at 4:02 p.m. EST: SpaceX is getting ready to launch again any minute. A livestream is below.
Update Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 5:41 p.m. EST: An automatic engine abort with 1 second to go before launch prevented a test flight from taking place Tuesday. This page will be updated if SpaceX says it will re-attempt a launch.
SpaceX plans to test its enormous Starship prototype over Boca Chica, Texas, on Tuesday (Dec. 8).
Starship is SpaceX's big, shiny rocket standing 160 feet (49 meters) tall and 30 feet (9 m) wide. Unlike the Crew Dragon, which is currently docked to the International Space Station, or the company's fleet of more standard rockets, Starship hasn't been built to serve a specific space agency or private customer's needs. Instead, it's designed to further CEO Elon Musk's stated goal of delivering large numbers of people or heavy payloads to the moon and eventually Mars — a goal NASA supported earlier this year with a $135 million investment, Spaceflight Now reported. The anticipated test will mark the first opportunity to see a completed Starship prototype in action.
Related: Here's every spaceship that's ever carried an astronaut into orbit
Today's 41,000-foot (12,500 m) test flight will top out slightly below the 50,000 feet (15,240 m) Musk initially projected, Dave Mosher reported for Business Insider . There's no official start time, but SpaceX said in the caption of a livestream posted to YouTube that if the flight doesn't take place by 5 p.m. CST it will likely be bumped to Wednesday (Dec. 9) or Thursday (Dec. 10). Spaceflight Now reporter Stephen Clark tweeted to point out that a NASA surveillance plane will be in the area around 3 p.m. CST, making that a plausible launch window.
SpaceX has previously tested a Starship prototype, Starship Serial Number 4 (SN4), which exploded just after an engine test. This test of Starship Serial Number 8 (SN8) will take the rocket high into the atmosphere, turn it on its side, then have it attempt to right itself again for a landing. SpaceX has cautioned that a total success, including a safe landing, is unlikely, and that a failure at some stage would be normal for a test flight.
Several YouTube channels are livestreaming the launch site. The stream below includes a checklist of steps SpaceX will take before launch, giving viewers clues as to when the test might occur.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-08--Who was Carl Linnaeus?

Who was Carl Linnaeus?

Carl Linnaeus was the famous 18th century Swedish botanist and naturalist who created the basic biological taxonomy — the so-called binomial classification system — that is the foundation of our modern taxonomic system .
Linnaeus ' classification , at its most basic , uses the dual `` genus , species , '' nomenclature to classify organisms — everything from slime molds and bacteria to elephants and humans .
All biologists , from first-year biology undergraduates to Ph.D. ecologists , use this basic system .
Today , Linnaeus occupies an honored place among the world 's biologists , but for non-scientists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often just a name faintly remembered from a half-forgotten biology class .
But during his lifetime , and especially at his death , Linnaeus was a celebrity .
He was praised throughout Europe as one of the continent 's greatest minds .
According to Uppsala University in Sweden , the famous German poet Goethe wrote of Linnaeus , `` With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza , I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly . ''
Linnaeus was born in 1707 in the southern Swedish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 241 kilometers ) west of Stockholm .
His father was a Lutheran minister and amateur botanist who helped instill a love of nature in his son .
Linnaeus was especially fond of plants and flowers and was given his own plot of land to start a small garden .
According to William MacGillivray 's book `` Lives of Eminent Zoologists '' ( Oliver and Boyd , 1834 ) , Linnaeus `` devoted a great part of his earlier years to the cultivation of a corner of the family-garden , which he profusely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woods and fields . ''
Linnaeus 's parents made sure their young son received an extensive education .
His father , Nils , taught him Latin , geography and religion in the hope he would become a clergyman .
Later , his parents employed a personal tutor to continue the boy 's education in these subjects .
Eventually , Linnaeus continued his schooling at the Vaxjo Gymnasium , a school that was designed to prepare young men for careers in the clergy .
But his first love was botany .
While ostensibly studying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study botany , reading everything he could find on the subject .
`` He nearly flunked out of [ the school ] , '' said Karen Beil , the author of `` What Linnaeus Saw '' ( W.W. Norton and Company , 2019 ) , `` because he was usually off rummaging around in some meadow or marsh collecting plants rather than studying Latin and Greek . ''
It was at Vaxjo that Linnaeus met Johann Rothman , Beil wrote .
Rothman was a physician and botanist who was influential in introducing Linnaeus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taught the young man to classify plants using the taxonomic system of the day .
By this time , Linnaeus 's father realized that his son would never join the clergy , so reluctantly allowed him to pursue medicine , a career path suggested to Nils by Rothman and one that required students to be well-versed in botany .
At age 21 , Linnaeus entered Lund University in Sweden , but the next year he transferred to Uppsala University , the country 's oldest and most prestigious center of higher learning .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , according to Beil .
His expertise impressed his professors so much that he began to teach classes as an undergraduate , frequently lecturing on botany .
During a break in his studies , he traveled to the far north of Scandinavia , to the region known as Lapland on a six-month long research expedition sponsored by the Uppsala Academy of Sciences .
The goal was to collect and record different species of plants , animals and minerals .
`` He went on horseback , traveling up to the Arctic Circle and around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' Beil said .
`` He collected some 400 species of plants , many of which were previously unknown to the scientists of the time . ''
He also studied the indigenous Sami people ( also known as Laplanders ) who inhabited the region and were nomadic reindeer herders , hunters and fishermen .
He kept a journal , Beil said , in which he `` recorded everything from the way [ the Sami ] made their beds from moss to how they made their bread . ''
All Swedish medical students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sweden , so Linnaeus finished his studies at the University of Harderwijk in the Netherlands in 1735 .
His doctorate was focused on the causes of malaria , Beil said , a malady he erroneously attributed not to mosquitoes but to regions with clay-rich soils .
He remained in the Netherlands for another three years , enrolling in the University of Leiden to continue his studies .
His time in the Netherlands played a major role in his education .
`` While there , he ended up befriending all of the greatest scientists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ becoming mentors to him , '' Beil said .
He soon returned to Sweden , married , and set up his medical practice .
He also helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Science .
He did not remain a practicing doctor for long , but was appointed professor of medicine at Uppsala University in 1741 , eventually becoming rector of the school ( similar to a Dean ) in 1750 .
During his tenure , he was responsible for maintaining the university 's Botanical Garden , a task he carried out with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own Linnaean classification .
In the same year Linnaeus finished his doctorate , he published a brief pamphlet that would eventually revolutionize the fields of biology and scientific taxonomy .
`` Originally it was just his list that organized all plants , animals and minerals , '' Beil said .
`` But it became a blueprint for the world 's scientists to follow to classify nature .
He kept revising and expanding it for the rest of his life . ''
This `` list '' was written in Latin and was called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nature '' ) .
It proposed a radical new approach to the ordering and classification of plants and animals .
His system was hierarchically ranked , meaning that organisms were grouped into successively larger groups based on morphological traits ( that is , physical attributes ) .
At the broadest level , the classification system was divided into three broad kingdoms : animals , plants and minerals ( the mineral designation was subsequently dropped ) .
These categories were further subdivided into increasingly specific designations , which included `` classes , '' `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and `` species . ''
Scientific classification during the 18th century was chaotic , Beil said .
There were several different classification schemes in vogue and new specimens were being discovered all the time , especially from areas outside Europe that were the focus of European colonization .
These specimens were scrutinized by scientists from different countries , each of whom used his own method and terminology .
This led to many of the same species acquiring several different names , frequently in different languages .
And often the names would be interminably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long list of the organisms ' attributes so that a single organism might be identified using upwards of ten or more words .
In her book , Beil gives the example of asparagus , which , prior to the Linnaean system , was classified as Asparagus caule inermi fruticoso , folis aciformibus perennantibus mucronatis termis aequalibus .
In short , the classification schemes in existence before Linnaeus ' system were confusing and idiosyncratic and there was little effort , if any , to systematize the methods .
Systema Naturae grew out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Linnaeus was just trying to standardize everything , '' she said .
`` He was attempting to bring a little order .
He had a hyper-organized mind and he was an obsessive list-maker , so I think that helped him 'clear the desktop of science ' by bringing order to taxonomy . ''
At its most basic level , the Linnaean system assigns each unique species of organism two names , hence the identification of the system as a binomial ( two-named ) classification .
Although similar two-named systems had been used in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had never been used in any systematic manner , nor had they been used consistently .
Linnaeus combined two terms , genus and species , and used this combination to identify each particular organism .
The species designation , a term he borrowed from the English naturalist and parson John Ray , indicates the most basic unit of classification , traditionally defined as organisms capable of interbreeding .
The genus designation ( gens is Latin for `` tribe '' ) ranks above species and designates the larger group of related organisms .
For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) is a different species from a wolf ( Canis lupus ) , but both belong to the same genus , Canis .
This genus , in turn , could then be related to the higher-order ranks , such as order ( Carnivora ) , class ( Mammalia ) and so on , all the way up to the highest rank , the kingdom ranking ( Animalia ) .
Related : The 10 weirdest medical cases in the animal kingdom Linnaeus continued to revise Systema Naturae throughout his lifetime .
It eventually grew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to more than 2,000 pages , Beil said , as new species were added over time .
Linnaeus also made several changes , such as changing the classification of whales from fishes to mammals in the 10th edition , which was published in 1758 .
In all , Linnaeus classified some 7,700 plants and 4,400 animals during his lifetime , Beil said .
Today , Systema Naturae is recognized as one of Western Civilization 's most important scientific works .
Although Linnaeus was ignorant of Darwinian evolution and modern genetic concepts , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system differs from Linnaeus ' system in many important respects , the principles laid down in Systema Naturae are the basis for modern taxonomy .
Linnaeus spent many years teaching at Uppsala University where he was a popular lecturer and enjoyed considerable status as an important man of science and an authority on botany .
He corresponded with many prominent scientists and continued to work and write , producing several more influential works , including `` Philosophia Botanica '' and `` Species Plantarum , '' the latter considered by many to be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He was especially famous for his field trips , Beil said , which were basically botanical excursions during which he took students out into the countryside to collect plants .
Several of his most promising students , facetiously called the `` apostles , '' went on to successful botanical and natural history careers , many of whom carried out famous zoological or botanical expeditions .
One of these , Daniel Solander , became the chief naturalist on Captain James Cook 's first Pacific voyage , Biel said .
Eventually Linnaeus bought a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Uppsala .
There he built a museum to house his extensive natural history collections , which had grown throughout his life as scientists from all over the world sent him specimens .
The estate also contained a garden in which he cultivated both native and exotic plants .
For his numerous accomplishments he was made a nobleman by the King of Sweden in 1761 .
After many years of teaching at Uppsala University , Linnaeus retired in 1772 and lived on his estate until his death in 1778 .
Linnaeus ' work influenced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including Charles Darwin , Alfred Russel Wallace and Gregor Mendel .
His natural history collections and manuscripts are currently held by the Linnean Society in London , an international society for the study of natural history .
• Learn more about Linnaeus ' life and studies at The Linnaeus Museum in Sweden .
• Find more videos and information about Linnaeus at The Linnean Society of London 's website .

Carl Linnaeus was the famous 18th century Swedish botanist and naturalist who created the basic biological taxonomy — the so-called binomial classification system — that is the foundation of our modern taxonomic system. Linnaeus' classification, at its most basic, uses the dual "genus, species," nomenclature to classify organisms — everything from slime molds and bacteria to elephants and humans. All biologists, from first-year biology undergraduates to Ph.D. ecologists, use this basic system.
Today, Linnaeus occupies an honored place among the world's biologists, but for non-scientists he is largely a forgotten figure, often just a name faintly remembered from a half-forgotten biology class. But during his lifetime, and especially at his death, Linnaeus was a celebrity. He was praised throughout Europe as one of the continent's greatest minds. According to Uppsala University in Sweden, the famous German poet Goethe wrote of Linnaeus, "With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, I know no one among the no longer living who has influenced me more strongly."
A blossoming interest in nature
Linnaeus was born in 1707 in the southern Swedish province of Småland, approximately 150 miles (241 kilometers) west of Stockholm. His father was a Lutheran minister and amateur botanist who helped instill a love of nature in his son. Linnaeus was especially fond of plants and flowers and was given his own plot of land to start a small garden. According to William MacGillivray's book "Lives of Eminent Zoologists" (Oliver and Boyd, 1834), Linnaeus "devoted a great part of his earlier years to the cultivation of a corner of the family-garden, which he profusely stocked with wild plants collected in the woods and fields."
Linnaeus's parents made sure their young son received an extensive education. His father, Nils, taught him Latin, geography and religion in the hope he would become a clergyman. Later, his parents employed a personal tutor to continue the boy's education in these subjects. Eventually, Linnaeus continued his schooling at the Vaxjo Gymnasium, a school that was designed to prepare young men for careers in the clergy. But his first love was botany. While ostensibly studying for the clergy, he continued to study botany, reading everything he could find on the subject.
"He nearly flunked out of [the school]," said Karen Beil, the author of "What Linnaeus Saw" (W.W. Norton and Company, 2019), "because he was usually off rummaging around in some meadow or marsh collecting plants rather than studying Latin and Greek."
It was at Vaxjo that Linnaeus met Johann Rothman, Beil wrote. Rothman was a physician and botanist who was influential in introducing Linnaeus to the period's botanical literature and taught the young man to classify plants using the taxonomic system of the day. By this time, Linnaeus's father realized that his son would never join the clergy, so reluctantly allowed him to pursue medicine, a career path suggested to Nils by Rothman and one that required students to be well-versed in botany.
Portrait of Carl Linnaeus painted in 1739 by Johan Henrik Scheffel (1690-1781). (Image credit: DeAgostini/Getty Images)
At age 21, Linnaeus entered Lund University in Sweden, but the next year he transferred to Uppsala University, the country's oldest and most prestigious center of higher learning. He studied botany and medicine at the university, according to Beil. His expertise impressed his professors so much that he began to teach classes as an undergraduate, frequently lecturing on botany. During a break in his studies, he traveled to the far north of Scandinavia, to the region known as Lapland on a six-month long research expedition sponsored by the Uppsala Academy of Sciences. The goal was to collect and record different species of plants, animals and minerals.
"He went on horseback, traveling up to the Arctic Circle and around the Gulf of Bothnia and into Finland," Beil said. "He collected some 400 species of plants, many of which were previously unknown to the scientists of the time."
Related: Cost to identify all unknown animals: $263 billion
He also studied the indigenous Sami people (also known as Laplanders) who inhabited the region and were nomadic reindeer herders, hunters and fishermen. He kept a journal, Beil said, in which he "recorded everything from the way [the Sami] made their beds from moss to how they made their bread."
All Swedish medical students were required to receive their degrees outside Sweden, so Linnaeus finished his studies at the University of Harderwijk in the Netherlands in 1735. His doctorate was focused on the causes of malaria, Beil said, a malady he erroneously attributed not to mosquitoes but to regions with clay-rich soils. He remained in the Netherlands for another three years, enrolling in the University of Leiden to continue his studies.
His time in the Netherlands played a major role in his education. "While there, he ended up befriending all of the greatest scientists of the day, many of them becoming mentors to him," Beil said.
He soon returned to Sweden, married, and set up his medical practice. He also helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Science. He did not remain a practicing doctor for long, but was appointed professor of medicine at Uppsala University in 1741, eventually becoming rector of the school (similar to a Dean) in 1750. During his tenure, he was responsible for maintaining the university's Botanical Garden, a task he carried out with enthusiasm, arranging the plants according to his own Linnaean classification.
Title page of Praeludia sponsaliorum plantarum (Prelude to the betrothal of plants), written by Carl Linnaeus at Uppsala in 1729. (Image credit: DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/Getty Images)
His pivotal work: Systema Naturae
In the same year Linnaeus finished his doctorate, he published a brief pamphlet that would eventually revolutionize the fields of biology and scientific taxonomy.
"Originally it was just his list that organized all plants, animals and minerals," Beil said. "But it became a blueprint for the world's scientists to follow to classify nature. He kept revising and expanding it for the rest of his life."
This "list" was written in Latin and was called Systema Naturae ("The System of Nature"). It proposed a radical new approach to the ordering and classification of plants and animals. His system was hierarchically ranked, meaning that organisms were grouped into successively larger groups based on morphological traits (that is, physical attributes). At the broadest level, the classification system was divided into three broad kingdoms: animals, plants and minerals (the mineral designation was subsequently dropped). These categories were further subdivided into increasingly specific designations, which included "classes," "orders," "genera," and "species."
Related: Ancient mystery creature that defied classification is Earth's oldest animal
Scientific classification during the 18th century was chaotic, Beil said. There were several different classification schemes in vogue and new specimens were being discovered all the time, especially from areas outside Europe that were the focus of European colonization. These specimens were scrutinized by scientists from different countries, each of whom used his own method and terminology. This led to many of the same species acquiring several different names, frequently in different languages. And often the names would be interminably long, complex and unwieldy — essentially a long list of the organisms' attributes so that a single organism might be identified using upwards of ten or more words. In her book, Beil gives the example of asparagus, which, prior to the Linnaean system, was classified as Asparagus caule inermi fruticoso, folis aciformibus perennantibus mucronatis termis aequalibus. In short, the classification schemes in existence before Linnaeus' system were confusing and idiosyncratic and there was little effort, if any, to systematize the methods.
The cover page of Systema Naturae, published in 1756. (Image credit: CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Systema Naturae grew out of practical reasons, Beil said. "Linnaeus was just trying to standardize everything," she said. "He was attempting to bring a little order. He had a hyper-organized mind and he was an obsessive list-maker, so I think that helped him 'clear the desktop of science' by bringing order to taxonomy."
At its most basic level, the Linnaean system assigns each unique species of organism two names, hence the identification of the system as a binomial (two-named) classification. Although similar two-named systems had been used in the past, Beil said, they had never been used in any systematic manner, nor had they been used consistently.
Linnaeus combined two terms, genus and species, and used this combination to identify each particular organism. The species designation, a term he borrowed from the English naturalist and parson John Ray, indicates the most basic unit of classification, traditionally defined as organisms capable of interbreeding. The genus designation (gens is Latin for "tribe") ranks above species and designates the larger group of related organisms. For example, a coyote (Canis latrans) is a different species from a wolf (Canis lupus), but both belong to the same genus, Canis. This genus, in turn, could then be related to the higher-order ranks, such as order (Carnivora), class (Mammalia) and so on, all the way up to the highest rank, the kingdom ranking (Animalia).
Related: The 10 weirdest medical cases in the animal kingdom
Linnaeus continued to revise Systema Naturae throughout his lifetime. It eventually grew from 11 pages in the first edition to more than 2,000 pages, Beil said, as new species were added over time. Linnaeus also made several changes, such as changing the classification of whales from fishes to mammals in the 10th edition, which was published in 1758. In all, Linnaeus classified some 7,700 plants and 4,400 animals during his lifetime, Beil said.
Today, Systema Naturae is recognized as one of Western Civilization's most important scientific works. Although Linnaeus was ignorant of Darwinian evolution and modern genetic concepts, and, in fact, the modern binomial system differs from Linnaeus' system in many important respects, the principles laid down in Systema Naturae are the basis for modern taxonomy.
Linnaeus' legacy
Linnaeus spent many years teaching at Uppsala University where he was a popular lecturer and enjoyed considerable status as an important man of science and an authority on botany. He corresponded with many prominent scientists and continued to work and write, producing several more influential works, including "Philosophia Botanica" and "Species Plantarum," the latter considered by many to be the most important early treatise on botanical nomenclature. He was especially famous for his field trips, Beil said, which were basically botanical excursions during which he took students out into the countryside to collect plants.
Several of his most promising students, facetiously called the "apostles," went on to successful botanical and natural history careers, many of whom carried out famous zoological or botanical expeditions. One of these, Daniel Solander, became the chief naturalist on Captain James Cook's first Pacific voyage, Biel said.
Eventually Linnaeus bought a large estate in Hammarby, just outside Uppsala. There he built a museum to house his extensive natural history collections, which had grown throughout his life as scientists from all over the world sent him specimens. The estate also contained a garden in which he cultivated both native and exotic plants.
For his numerous accomplishments he was made a nobleman by the King of Sweden in 1761. After many years of teaching at Uppsala University, Linnaeus retired in 1772 and lived on his estate until his death in 1778.
Linnaeus' work influenced many scientists who came after him, including Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and Gregor Mendel. His natural history collections and manuscripts are currently held by the Linnean Society in London, an international society for the study of natural history.
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