livescience--2020-12-04--Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates

Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates

Refresh
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--2020-12-04--World's oldest animal fossil actually came from rotting algae

Hundreds of millions of years ago , one of the very first animals on Earth died at the bottom of an ancient ocean .
In life , it was a humble sea sponge ; in death , it had no bones , nor teeth , nor shell to leave behind as evidence of its brief , bottom-dwelling existence .
But it did have fat molecules — or so it seemed .
In 2009 , a group of much later animals ( human scientists ) were studying a slab of ancient sea sediment when they discovered the fossilized remnants of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ molecules , trapped among the rocks .
The sediment dated to 635 million years ago — roughly 100 million years earlier than the on record — but the ancient molecules were unmistakably biological in origin , and matched those found in modern sponges , .
As more and more of these biomarkers were discovered across ancient seafloor samples , a question emerged : How could these early sponges be so widespread , and yet not leave a single body fossil behind ?
Now , two new papers in the journals and provide an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't come from an animal at all , the researchers argue , but rather from some old , rotten whose molecular remains were transformed by the ravages of geologic time .
After mimicking those geologic processes in a lab experiment , the researchers successfully altered modern algae molecules into fats identical to those found in the ancient sediment .
`` This all means that the evidence previously linked to the oldest animals on Earth is derived from algae , not animals , '' Lennart van Maldegem , a co-author of one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University , told Live Science .
`` That moves the oldest definitive evidence of animals by almost 100 million years , to the , roughly 558 million years ago . ''
The crucial molecule in all these studies is a distinct type of sterol , or fat compound , called C30 24-isopropylcholestane — essentially , a blob of fat wrapped in 30 atoms .
While some sterols , such as , are widespread among animals ( including humans ) , these unique C30 sterols are almost exclusively associated with demosponges — a diverse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three-quarters of all known on Earth .
When the authors of the 2009 study found an abundance of C30 sterols in 635-million-year-old sediment samples , they interpreted it as evidence that ancient sea sponges had lived and died there , one million centuries before Earth became replete with animals during an event known as the ( about 540 million years ago ) .
However , that is not the only plausible interpretation of those sterols .
`` We know now that the first algae ( the ancestor to modern plants ) became prominent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million years before the Cambrian Explosion , '' van Maldegem said .
`` So , in our study we had another look at the molecules preserved in these ancient sediments . ''
Alongside the sterols attributed to sponges , the researchers also found an abundance of molecules associated with algae , as well as non-biological molecules that result from a geological process called diagenesis , or the process that turns grainy sediments into hard rocks over millions of years .
Van Maldegem likened the process to baking bread ; after being exposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of years , an `` irreversible chemical reaction '' alters the sediment 's molecular structure , just as a warm oven transforms wet , floppy dough into a firm loaf of bread .
Sometimes , van Maldegem said , these processes can alter organic molecules as well .
In the ancient sediment samples , sterols associated with sea sponges and molecules produced by diagenesis were often located right next to each other , suggesting that both molecules had arisen by similar geologic processes , van Maldegem said .
To test whether these processes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right C30 sterols , the team removed various molecules from modern red and green algae samples , then heated them to more than 600 degrees F ( 315 C ) in an oven and exposed them to intense pressure — conditions meant to mimic geological processes that normally take millions of years .
The process successfully transformed some algae molecules into the same sponge-related sterols present in the 635 million-year-old sediment .
This means that those ancient sterols are not evidence of animals at all , but of algae , van Maldegem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the earliest evidence of animal life on Earth may have just been negated .
It 's still possible that animals began evolving on Earth hundreds of millions of years before this , van Maldegem said , but scientists should no longer look to these particular fatty sponge molecules as evidence of this .
`` We have had a thorough look at the earliest evidence for animals on Earth … and are gaining a better understanding for how the first animals evolved , '' van Maldegem said .

Hundreds of millions of years ago, one of the very first animals on Earth died at the bottom of an ancient ocean. In life, it was a humble sea sponge; in death, it had no bones, nor teeth, nor shell to leave behind as evidence of its brief, bottom-dwelling existence. But it did have fat molecules — or so it seemed.
In 2009, a group of much later animals (human scientists) were studying a slab of ancient sea sediment when they discovered the fossilized remnants of what appeared to be those same sponge fat molecules, trapped among the rocks. The sediment dated to 635 million years ago — roughly 100 million years earlier than the oldest confirmed animal fossil on record — but the ancient molecules were unmistakably biological in origin, and matched those found in modern sponges, the researchers wrote . As more and more of these biomarkers were discovered across ancient seafloor samples, a question emerged: How could these early sponges be so widespread, and yet not leave a single body fossil behind?
Now, two new papers in the journals Nature Ecology and Evolution provide an answer. Those ancient fat molecules didn't come from an animal at all, the researchers argue, but rather from some old, rotten algae whose molecular remains were transformed by the ravages of geologic time. After mimicking those geologic processes in a lab experiment, the researchers successfully altered modern algae molecules into fats identical to those found in the ancient sediment.
"This all means that the evidence previously linked to the oldest animals on Earth is derived from algae, not animals," Lennart van Maldegem, a co-author of one of the studies and a geoscientist at Australia National University, told Live Science. "That moves the oldest definitive evidence of animals by almost 100 million years, to the fossil imprint of Dickinsonia , roughly 558 million years ago."
Secrets in the rock
The crucial molecule in all these studies is a distinct type of sterol, or fat compound, called C30 24-isopropylcholestane — essentially, a blob of fat wrapped in 30 carbon atoms. While some sterols, such as cholesterol , are widespread among animals (including humans), these unique C30 sterols are almost exclusively associated with demosponges — a diverse class of marine animals that includes about three-quarters of all sea sponges known on Earth.
When the authors of the 2009 study found an abundance of C30 sterols in 635-million-year-old sediment samples, they interpreted it as evidence that ancient sea sponges had lived and died there, one million centuries before Earth became replete with animals during an event known as the Cambrian Explosion (about 540 million years ago). However, that is not the only plausible interpretation of those sterols.
"We know now that the first algae (the ancestor to modern plants) became prominent in all the world's oceans 200 million years before the Cambrian Explosion," van Maldegem said. "So, in our study we had another look at the molecules preserved in these ancient sediments."
Alongside the sterols attributed to sponges, the researchers also found an abundance of molecules associated with algae, as well as non-biological molecules that result from a geological process called diagenesis, or the process that turns grainy sediments into hard rocks over millions of years. Van Maldegem likened the process to baking bread; after being exposed to heat and pressure for hundreds of millions of years, an "irreversible chemical reaction" alters the sediment's molecular structure, just as a warm oven transforms wet, floppy dough into a firm loaf of bread. Sometimes, van Maldegem said, these processes can alter organic molecules as well.
In the ancient sediment samples, sterols associated with sea sponges and molecules produced by diagenesis were often located right next to each other, suggesting that both molecules had arisen by similar geologic processes, van Maldegem said. To test whether these processes could have transformed ancient algae molecules into the right C30 sterols, the team removed various molecules from modern red and green algae samples, then heated them to more than 600 degrees F (315 C) in an oven and exposed them to intense pressure — conditions meant to mimic geological processes that normally take millions of years.
The process successfully transformed some algae molecules into the same sponge-related sterols present in the 635 million-year-old sediment. This means that those ancient sterols are not evidence of animals at all, but of algae, van Maldegem said. If that's the case, the earliest evidence of animal life on Earth may have just been negated.
It's still possible that animals began evolving on Earth hundreds of millions of years before this, van Maldegem said, but scientists should no longer look to these particular fatty sponge molecules as evidence of this.
"We have had a thorough look at the earliest evidence for animals on Earth … and are gaining a better understanding for how the first animals evolved," van Maldegem said.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-05--Amazing images: The best science photos of the week

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can .
Along the way , we uncover some amazing and cool images .
Here you 'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week , and the remarkable stories behind them .
An 8-mile-long `` canvas '' filled with ice age drawings of mastodons , giant sloths and other extinct beasts has been discovered in the Amazon rainforest .
The gorgeous art , drawn with — a red pigment frequently used as paint in the ancient world — spans nearly 8 miles ( 13 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ above three rock shelters in the Colombian Amazon , a new study finds .
`` These really are incredible images , produced by the earliest people to live in western Amazonia , '' study co-researcher Mark Robinson , an archaeologist at the University of Exeter , who analyzed the rock art alongside Colombian scientists , .
Deep in an underwater canyon off the coast of Puerto Rico , there 's a party of balloon-like sea creatures keeping things festive in the abyssal depths .
Their bodies are small — about the size of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inches , or 6 centimeters , long ) — but they 're vibrant ; when the creatures move and pulse , rows of tiny hair-like cilia light into a prism of shining colors .
Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) first spotted these mysterious party blobs in 2015 , sighting three of them near the seabed at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet ( 4,000 meters ) .
Now , in a paper published Nov. 18 in the journal , the team has identified the blobs as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ predators also known as or `` sea walnuts '' –- called Duobrachium sparksae .
While their wee bodies and shimmering cilia are traits commonly shared among the 100-plus known ctenophore species , the Puerto Rican party blobs still represent an exciting first in marine biology .
According to the researchers , this is the first underwater species NOAA researchers have ever described from pictures alone ; the team had no access to physical samples for their new study .
[ Read more : Newfound marine blob looks like 'party balloon ' with two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and video documented the beginning of the end for one of the world 's most iconic telescopes .
The National Science Foundation 's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico , known for its studies of asteroids and aliens and for its cameo in a James Bond film , collapsed this morning ( Dec. 1 ) .
The 900-ton platform that hung above the radio dish fell 450 feet ( 140 meters ) into the structure below around 8 a.m. local time , causing massive damage documented online .
The pictures of the destruction are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a surprise after the National Science Foundation announced days ago it would need to decommission the observatory following hurricane and cable damage at the famed observatory .
[ Read more : These photos of the Arecibo Observatory telescope collapse are just heartbreaking ] As a polar explorer lay frostbitten and starving in a frozen cave , he smeared a black spot onto the bottom of his last journal entry .
More than a century later , that dark smudge has revealed grim new details of the dying man 's final hours .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Greenland-born Inuit and was part of a three-man team on the Denmark Expedition to Greenland 's Northeast Coast , conducted from 1906 to 1908 and led by Danish ethnologist Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen .
Brønlund died in November 1907 and was the last of the team to perish — and the only one whose body was ever recovered .
He recorded his final thoughts in a diary , and the last page included a heavy black smudge .
Researchers recently conducted extensive analysis of the spot , finding that it contained burnt rubber , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Brønlund 's desperate and unsuccessful attempts to light a life-saving petroleum burner before he succumbed to cold and hunger , scientists wrote in a new study .
[ Read more : Mysterious black spot in polar explorer 's diary offers gruesome clue to his fate ] Researchers with Australia 's government science agency , CSIRO , keep discovering mysterious round blobs in space .
What are they ?
Nobody knows .
But astronomer Ray Norris of Western Sydney University : '' We dubbed them ORCs , which stands for 'odd radio circles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how big or far away they are .
They could be objects in our galaxy , perhaps a few light-years across , or they could be far away in the Universe and maybe millions of light years across .
We have ruled out several possibilities for what ORCs might be .
They are not supernova remnants , because they are far from most of the stars in the Milky Way and there are too many of them .
Could they be the rings of radio emission sometimes seen in galaxies undergoing intense ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ t see any underlying galaxy that would be hosting the star formation .
In our paper about ORCs , which is forthcoming in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , we run through all the possibilities and conclude these enigmatic blobs don ’ t look like anything we already know about .
So we need to explore things that might exist but haven ’ t yet been observed , such as a vast shockwave from some explosion in a distant galaxy . ''
[ Read more : Ghostly circles in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ astronomers are excited .
An ancient Greek inscription dating to the second century A.D. is essentially a thank-you note for a shady cash gift , a new translation reveals .
The inscription immortalized the words of a Roman emperor who accepted piles of silver from a city anxious to demonstrate its loyalty .
During a time of political upheaval in the , residents of the city Nicopolis ad Istrum , in what is now Bulgaria , backed an unsuccessful contender for the emperor 's seat .
After their champion 's loss , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Severus — 700,000 silver coins , as a sign of fealty .
Emperor Severus openly acknowledged accepting their donation in a letter that was sent to the town in A.D. 198 , written in ancient Greek .
The letter 's text was then immortalized by the city as a stone monument .
Scholars recently restored the broken artifact and translated the inscription , making it available to the public for the first time , a researcher with the restoration project told Live Science in an email .
[ Read more : Roman subjects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them alone , inscription reveals ] A new map of the stars Astronomers in Australia have just mapped 83 % of the observable universe , in just 300 hours .
This new sky survey , which Australia 's national science agency ( CSIRO ) as a `` Google map of the universe '' , marks the completion of a big test for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder ( ASKAP ) radio telescope –- a network of 36 antennas rooted in the remote Western Australia Outback .
While astronomers have been using ASKAP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( including mysterious ) since 2012 , the telescope 's full array of antennas has never been used in a single sky survey –- until now .
By harnessing the telescope 's full potential , researchers mapped roughly 3 million galaxies in the southern sky , according to a paper published Nov. 30 in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia .
As many as 1 million of these distant galaxies may be previously unknown to astronomy , the researchers wrote , and that 's likely just the beginning .
With @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CSIRO scientists are already planning even more in-depth observations in the coming years .
[ Read more : Scientists just mapped 1 million new galaxies , in 300 hours ] A mysterious minimoon temporarily orbiting is n't a chunky space rock , but a 1960s rocket booster , NASA reported Wednesday ( Dec. 2 ) .
Researchers had an inkling that the , but it was n't until this week that they confirmed it , after analyzing its composition from afar at NASA 's Infrared Telescope Facility ( IRTF ) .
In fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the elusive near-Earth object — known as 2020 SO — made its closest approach to our planet on Tuesday ( Dec. 1 ) .
However , 2020 SO is n't here to stay .
Minimoons are small satellites that orbit Earth for only a short time .
Over the next several months , 2020 SO will hang out in the `` hill sphere '' — a region that extends about 930,000 miles ( 1.5 million kilometers ) from Earth — until it escapes from our gravitational force and starts orbiting the sun instead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though 2020 SO is leaving Earth 's immediate neighborhood , scientists plan to monitor its travels for years to come , NASA said .
For the first time , physicists have recorded sound waves moving through a perfect fluid with the lowest possible viscosity , as permitted by the laws of quantum mechanics , an ascending glissando of the frequencies at which the fluid resonates .
This research can help us to understand some of the most extreme conditions in the Universe - the interiors of ultradense neutron stars , and the quark-gluon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the years just after the Big Bang .
`` It 's quite difficult to listen to a neutron star , '' of MIT .
`` But now you could mimic it in a lab using atoms , shake that atomic soup and listen to it , and know how a neutron star would sound . ''
( You can listen to the recording here . )
[ Read more : Physicists recorded the flowing sound of a 'perfect ' fluid for the first time ] A small , mysterious galaxy 44 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secrets .
Revealed last year to have a shockingly low amount of dark matter , the galaxy NGC 1052-DF4 posed a significant challenge to our models of galaxy formation .
Those models yet live another day .
According to new research , NGC 1052-DF4 is indeed lacking in dark matter - but only because another nearby galaxy nicked it .
`` The dark matter is n't there because it 's already been removed , '' of the University of New South Wales in Australia and the Space Telescope Science Institute .
`` We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearby massive galaxy NGC1035 is removing its stars - and dark matter . ''
[ Read more : Mystery of galaxy 's missing dark matter solved .
( And it involves a thief . )
] • Earth from Above : 101 Stunning Images from Orbit • From Big Bang to Present : Snapshots of Our Universe Through Time

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can. Along the way, we uncover some amazing and cool images. Here you'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week, and the remarkable stories behind them.
Gargantuan "growlers"
(Image credit: RAF)
In July 2017, a gargantuan iceberg spanning five times the area of New York's five boroughs snapped off the coast of Antarctica and began to drift northward.
Though its edges have crumbled considerably since then, the iceberg — named A-68a — is still the largest on Earth , and it's currently barreling toward an island wildlife refuge in the South Atlantic Ocean. New aerial footage taken by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF) reveals just what that island might be up against.
For starters, the RAF footage really drives home how massive this ice giant is. (As of early April, A-68a measured about 2,000 square miles, or 5,100 square kilometers, in area, Live Science previously reported ). The berg's steep walls tower 100 feet (30 meters) above the sea, according to RAF News , and are gouged with tunnels, fissures and caves. Huge chunks of ice, or "growlers," are rapidly cracking off on all sides, leaving behind a trail of debris that could impede boat traffic in the future.
[Read more: World's largest iceberg still barreling toward penguin habitat, new footage confirms ]
Clear head, nine arms, can't lose
(Image credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images)
A nine-armed octopus caught off Japan's coast nearly ended up being dinner, until the family preparing it noticed its extra limb and sent it to a museum instead, according to news sources. While unusual, this extra appendage — which wasn't fully formed, but a small offshoot on a regular arm — isn't unheard of in octopuses, said Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved with this octopus's discovery.
Octopuses are capable of regenerating their arms, but "sometimes regeneration doesn't work quite right," Vecchione told Live Science. "If an arm gets damaged, it might regenerate wrong; it could wind up with extra tissue growing out, and that extra tissue could turn into an arm."
The nine-armed oddity was caught in a trap with three other octopuses on Nov. 13 in Shizugawa Bay, in the northeastern town of Minamisanriku, Japan, according to The Mainichi , a Japanese newspaper.
[Read more: Rare 9-armed octopus found off Japan coast ]
The sound of a supernova
(Image credit: NASA)
In space, nobody can hear you scream — or explode, or collapse, or slowly collide with a neighboring galaxy. But now, thanks to a new " data sonification " program at NASA, you can at least get a sense of what some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe might sound like when converted to sound played by Earthly instruments.
To hear what that sounds like, we turn to NASA's Chandra X-ray center — which has been imaging distant galaxies with its Chandra X-ray observatory for 20 years now. In their new initiative, Chandra researchers have taken three iconic images from their archives and translated different frequencies of light into different pitches of sound.
The first video shows the crab nebula (a supernova remnant powered by a windy neutron star , shown above). In NASA's data sonification of the nebula, X-ray light (blue and white) is represented by brass instruments; optical light (purple) is played by string instruments; and infrared light (pink) is represented by woodwinds. The sounds converge near the center of the nebula, where a rapidly swirling pulsar is blasting gas and radiation in all directions. Listen to this cosmic symphony (and two others) at the link below.
[Read more: This is what a supernova sounds like, according to NASA ]
Pterosaur's missing cousin
(Image credit: Rodolfo Nogueira)
Nearly nothing is known about the family tree of pterosaurs — iconic reptiles that flew alongside the dinosaurs . These now-extinct beasts appear in the fossil record with already developed wings and senses adapted for flying, with researchers having nary a clue about their immediate evolutionary history.
But now, the pterosaur's family tree has a new branch; an enigmatic group of small reptiles, known as lagerpetids, might be the closest-known pterosaur relatives on record, the researchers of a new study say.
Unlike pterosaurs, however, lagerpetids did not fly. "Now, we have an idea of what a flightless pterosaur relative would look like," study co-researcher Sterling Nesbitt, an associate professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech, told Live Science.
[Read more: Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered ]
The changing face of ice
(Image credit: NOAA/Photo courtesy of Caitlin Bailey, GFOE, The Hidden Ocean 2016: Chukchi Borderlands)
From vanishing sea ice to blistering air temperatures to zombie fires , climate change is reshaping the Arctic. And that transformation may be permanent, researchers said on Tuesday (Dec. 8) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The Arctic has warmed and melted at an alarmingly accelerating pace over the last 15 years, and the impacts are accumulating so rapidly that "there's no reason to think that in 30 years anything will be as it is today," Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), said at the conference, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Tuesday.
This year's news was not good: June snow cover across the Eurasian Arctic was at its lowest in 54 years; coastal permafrost erosion is increasing; and glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland continued a trend "of significant ice loss," according to the report.
[Read more: Dramatic transformation of the Arctic landscape may be permanent ]
Starship down
(Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's Starship spaceflight system just took a big step on its path to Mars. The latest Starship prototype, a shiny silver vehicle known as SN8, launched on an epic high-altitude test flight on Dec. 9, taking off at 5:45 p.m. EST from SpaceX's facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.
The goal was to soar about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the sky, perform some complex aerial maneuvers — including a "belly flop" like the one the final Starship will perform when coming back to Earth on operational flights — and then land safely near the launch stand. The 165-foot-tall (50 meters) SN8 appeared to notch all of these big milestones, except for the final one: The vehicle hit its landing mark but came in too fast, exploding in a dramatic fireball 6 minutes and 42 seconds after liftoff.
SN8's rapid unplanned disassembly did nothing to dampen the spirits of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, who was thrilled by the results of today's flight.
[Read more: SpaceX's Starship SN8 prototype soars on epic test launch, with explosive landing ]
Amazonian universe
Billions of lasers shot from a helicopter flying over the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest have detected a vast network of long-abandoned circular and rectangular-shaped villages dating from 1300 to 1700, a new study finds.
The round villages all had remarkably similar layouts, with elongated mounds circling a central plaza, like marks on a clock. "These latter elongated mounds, when seen from above, look like the rays of the sun, which gives them the common name of 'Sóis,'" the Portuguese word for "suns," the researchers wrote in the study.
The discovery is part of a new archaeological focus on the pre-Columbian Amazon. Within the past 20 years, researchers have learned that the rainforest's southern rim was home to a great diversity of soil-sculpting cultures that engineered the landscape before the Europeans arrived. Within the past decade, scientists have uncovered the remnants of so-called "mound villages," which are shaped as circles or rectangles, and connected by road networks.
[Read more: Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos ]
The sky is falling
(Image credit: ESA)
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.
[Read more: Epic time-lapse shows what the Milky Way will look like 400,000 years from now ]
Gold in the garden
(Image credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum)
A family in England was weeding their garden when they unearthed a valuable treasure — a buried hoard of gold coins dating back to the 1400s, depicting English monarchs from Edward IV to Henry VIII.
The hoard — a stash of 63 gold coins and one silver coin — contains money minted over a period of nearly 100 years, from the late 15th to the 16th centuries. Four of the coins feature Henry VIII and, curiously, one of the initials of three of his wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Upon finding the cache, the family, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, a county in southeastern England, notified the British Museum, which runs the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). This program partners with local people who find historical artifacts in the United Kingdom, so the findings can be documented and studied, the British Museum said in a statement Thursday (Dec. 10).
[Read more: Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden ]
Enigma of the deep
(Image credit: Florian Huber/WWF)
Divers trying to remove old fishing nets from the Baltic sea have accidentally stumbled on a Nazi code-making machine. The Enigma machine, as it's called, looks a bit like a typewriter. In fact, the diver who found the device on the ocean floor initially thought that's what the artifact was, according to AFP . But the diving team, on assignment for the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), quickly realized that they had something much stranger.
During World War II, Enigma machines were used to encode German military messages, in hopes of preventing Allied powers from learning about troop movements and other plans. The devices consisted of a keyboard and a series of rotors that did the encoding. The rotors substituted different letters for the ones typed in; different Enigma machines used between three and eight rotors, which moved independently after each keystroke so that the same initial letter typed into the machine would appear as multiple different letters in the final code.
The Enigma machine found by the WWF diving crew was at the bottom of the Bay of Gelting in northeast Germany. It had three rotors, making it the type used on warships, not U-boats. That suggests that the machine may have been tossed overboard in the final days of World War II, in an attempt to keep the technology out of enemy hands, historian Jann Witt of the German Naval Association told the DPA news agency.
[Read more: Nazi 'Enigma' machine found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea ]
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-05--Most accurate map of our galaxy pinpoints 1.8 billion cosmic objects

Astronomers were hit Thursday ( Dec. 3 ) with a huge wave of data from the European Space Agency 's .
Those researchers can now explore the best-yet map of the , with detailed information on the positions , distances and motion of 1.8 billion cosmic objects , to help us better understand our place in the universe .
`` Gaia data is like a tsunami rolling through astrophysics , '' said Martin Barstow , head of the physics and astronomy department at the University of Leicester , who is part of Gaia 's data processing team .
He was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thursday , at which another Gaia researcher , Giorgia Busso of the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands , also told reporters that this data has produced `` a revolution '' in many fields of , from the study of galactic dynamics like stellar evolution to the study of nearby objects like asteroids in the solar system .
Gaia launched in December 2013 to map the galaxy in unprecedented detail .
The $ 1 billion spacecraft orbits the , or L2 , point , a spot about 1 million miles ( 1.5 million kilometers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gravitational forces between our planet and the sun are balanced and the view of the sky is unobstructed .
Gaia can measure about 100,000 stars each minute , or 850 million objects each day , and can scan the whole sky about once every two months .
The latest trove of data improves upon the precision and scope of the two previous Gaia data sets , which were released in 2016 and .
For example , compared to the 2018 data , which included measurements for 1.7 billion objects , the 2020 data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accuracy of the data points for proper motion , or the apparent change in the position of a star as viewed from our solar system .
`` It really gives us an insight into how the Milky Way lives , '' Nicholas Walton , an astronomer at the University of Cambridge who is part of Gaia 's science team , said at the same .
`` We 're talking about billions of stars , which really gives us the ability to probe at a meaningful level the whole population of the Milky Way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do with studying people . ''
Walton said the cosmic census would be like having trackers on every person in the U.K. to map their location and monitor their health .
`` If everyone 's got a tracker , we could tell you if they 're sweating or not .
It 's a bit like that with the stars here : We can tell you which ones are sweating , which ones are active , which ones are dormant , which ones are going to die , which ones are going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already been used across a wide range of applications over the past four years .
The mission has helped researchers find the that the Milky Way cannibalized 10 billion years ago , spot unexpectedly zooming toward the galactic center , and identify about where hypothetical extraterrestrials would be able to see signs of life on Earth .
Closer to home , the spacecraft has allowed scientists to find previously unknown , and its precise data even allowed NASA to make a crucial , to the path of its New Horizons probe in 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arrokoth , the most distant and primitive object in the solar system ever visited by a spacecraft .
So far , some 1,600 studies have been published based on Gaia data , Barstow said .
More will surely result from the newly released material , now available on ESA 's website , and by the time the briefing for scientists and reporters ended , Walton said he expected a lot of scientists were already poring over it : `` I think a lot of astronomers would have left this broadcast to go work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the new Gaia data has already been used to make discoveries .
One group of researchers led by scientists at the measured how our solar system is accelerating inside the Milky Way , using as reference points Gaia 's 1.6 million newly observed quasars , which are so far away they appear fixed in space , like galactic lighthouses .
The solar system was measured to be very slightly accelerating , as predicted by theorists , toward the galactic center .
Busso said this barely perceptible acceleration only became observable in this newly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the measurements increased hugely . ''
These super precise tests of the way masses are distributed and accelerated are essential for `` probing the limits of fundamental physics , '' Gerry Gilmore , an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and a Gaia scientist , said during the event .
Such measurements might help scientists understand the nature of the that we know is lurking throughout the universe .
`` Even our own sun is moving so fast that our whole Milky Way would fly apart if it was n't held together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 've got no idea what the dark matter is , '' Gilmore said .
`` The hope is that by continuing experiments along the line that we 're doing — and making them more precise , and doing them on different scales — we 'll be able to see if there are different types of dark matter . ''
The third Gaia data set was set to be released in 2022 , but the mission scientists decided to release preliminary data now so astronomers could use it sooner , with at least two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coming years .
The spacecraft will operate until at least 2022 , but its mission may be extended until 2025 .
Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

Astronomers were hit Thursday (Dec. 3) with a huge wave of data from the European Space Agency's Gaia space observatory .
Those researchers can now explore the best-yet map of the Milky Way , with detailed information on the positions, distances and motion of 1.8 billion cosmic objects, to help us better understand our place in the universe.
"Gaia data is like a tsunami rolling through astrophysics," said Martin Barstow, head of the physics and astronomy department at the University of Leicester, who is part of Gaia's data processing team. He was speaking at a virtual news conference held Thursday, at which another Gaia researcher, Giorgia Busso of the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, also told reporters that this data has produced "a revolution" in many fields of astrophysics , from the study of galactic dynamics like stellar evolution to the study of nearby objects like asteroids in the solar system.
Photos: Gaia spacecraft to map Milky Way galaxy
Gaia launched in December 2013 to map the galaxy in unprecedented detail. The $1 billion spacecraft orbits the Lagrange-2 , or L2, point, a spot about 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth, where the gravitational forces between our planet and the sun are balanced and the view of the sky is unobstructed. Gaia can measure about 100,000 stars each minute, or 850 million objects each day, and can scan the whole sky about once every two months.
The latest trove of data improves upon the precision and scope of the two previous Gaia data sets, which were released in 2016 and 2018 . For example, compared to the 2018 data, which included measurements for 1.7 billion objects, the 2020 data improves by a factor of two the accuracy of the data points for proper motion, or the apparent change in the position of a star as viewed from our solar system.
"It really gives us an insight into how the Milky Way lives," Nicholas Walton, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge who is part of Gaia's science team, said at the same science and news conference . "We're talking about billions of stars, which really gives us the ability to probe at a meaningful level the whole population of the Milky Way, similar to what you'd want to do with studying people."
Walton said the cosmic census would be like having trackers on every person in the U.K. to map their location and monitor their health. "If everyone's got a tracker, we could tell you if they're sweating or not. It's a bit like that with the stars here: We can tell you which ones are sweating, which ones are active, which ones are dormant, which ones are going to die, which ones are going to explode."
Data from Gaia has already been used across a wide range of applications over the past four years. The mission has helped researchers find the corpse of a galaxy that the Milky Way cannibalized 10 billion years ago, spot 20 hypervelocity stars unexpectedly zooming toward the galactic center, and identify about 1,000 nearby stars where hypothetical extraterrestrials would be able to see signs of life on Earth.
Closer to home, the spacecraft has allowed scientists to find previously unknown asteroids , and its precise data even allowed NASA to make a crucial, last-minute adjustment to the path of its New Horizons probe in 2018 to successfully swing past the icy rock Arrokoth, the most distant and primitive object in the solar system ever visited by a spacecraft.
So far, some 1,600 studies have been published based on Gaia data, Barstow said. More will surely result from the newly released material, now available on ESA's website , and by the time the briefing for scientists and reporters ended, Walton said he expected a lot of scientists were already poring over it: "I think a lot of astronomers would have left this broadcast to go work on the data."
This image shows the paths of 40,000 stars located within 326 light-years of our solar system over the next 400,000 years based on measurements and projections from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft. (Image credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Acknowledgement: A. Brown, S. Jordan, T. Roegiers, X. Luri, E. Masana, T. Prusti and A. Moitinho.)
Some of the new Gaia data has already been used to make discoveries. One group of researchers led by scientists at the Dresden University of Technology measured how our solar system is accelerating inside the Milky Way, using as reference points Gaia's 1.6 million newly observed quasars, which are so far away they appear fixed in space, like galactic lighthouses.
The solar system was measured to be very slightly accelerating, as predicted by theorists, toward the galactic center. Busso said this barely perceptible acceleration only became observable in this newly released Gaia data because "the precision of the measurements increased hugely."
These super precise tests of the way masses are distributed and accelerated are essential for "probing the limits of fundamental physics," Gerry Gilmore, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and a Gaia scientist, said during the event. Such measurements might help scientists understand the nature of the dark matter that we know is lurking throughout the universe.
"Even our own sun is moving so fast that our whole Milky Way would fly apart if it wasn't held together by the dark matter, and we've got no idea what the dark matter is," Gilmore said. "The hope is that by continuing experiments along the line that we're doing — and making them more precise, and doing them on different scales — we'll be able to see if there are different types of dark matter."
The third Gaia data set was set to be released in 2022, but the mission scientists decided to release preliminary data now so astronomers could use it sooner, with at least two more data sets to be released in the coming years. The spacecraft will operate until at least 2022, but its mission may be extended until 2025.
Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


livescience--2020-12-05--What color is the sun?

What color is the sun?

If you cast your mind back to school and can remember when your teacher shone light through a prism to create an artificial rainbow , then you 'll probably already know the answer to this question .
`` The entire sun and all of its layers are glowing , '' said Christopher Baird , an assistant professor of physics at West Texas A & M University in Canyon , Texas .
`` The 'color of the sun ' is the spectrum of colors present in sunlight , which arises from a complex interplay of all parts of the sun .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to figure out what color the sun is , we need to dissect the sun 's rays here on and quantify them .
There are a few different ways to do this and they are n't especially high-tech — in fact , most kids have probably done some version of this experiment .
Related : Will our solar system survive the death of our sun ?
`` The color content of a beam of light can easily be identified by running the beam through a prism , '' Baird told Live Science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handheld objects spread out the beam of light into its various pure color components .
Each pure color has a distinct wave frequency . ''
That 's why scientists tend to use the words `` color '' and `` frequency '' interchangeably , because a ray of light 's color is defined by its frequency — for , red has the lowest frequency and violet has a highest .
The range of colors , or frequencies in a beam of light is called a spectrum .
When we direct solar rays through a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the rainbow come out the other end .
That 's to say we see all the colors that are visible to the human eye .
`` Therefore the sun is white , '' because white is made up of all the colors , Baird said .
The slightly more sophisticated way of doing this is with a camera , which takes a quantitative measurement of the brightness of light hitting different pixels , and therefore gives us a way to plot the brightness of the different frequencies in the solar spectrum .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ than any of the others , we could conclude the sun is a shade of that color , but that 's not the case .
`` When we do this , we find quantitatively that all of the visible colors are present in sunlight in approximately equal amounts , '' Baird said .
Critically , though , these frequencies are n't present in precisely the same amount , it 's just that the variances are n't significant enough to be meaningful .
`` The color components of sunlight are so close enough to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is much more correct to say that the sun is white than to say it is yellow , orange , or any other single , pure color , '' Baird said .
So , white it is then .

If you cast your mind back to school and can remember when your teacher shone light through a prism to create an artificial rainbow, then you'll probably already know the answer to this question.
"The entire sun and all of its layers are glowing," said Christopher Baird, an assistant professor of physics at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. "The 'color of the sun' is the spectrum of colors present in sunlight, which arises from a complex interplay of all parts of the sun."
So essentially, if we're trying to figure out what color the sun is, we need to dissect the sun's rays here on Earth and quantify them. There are a few different ways to do this and they aren't especially high-tech — in fact, most kids have probably done some version of this experiment.
Related: Will our solar system survive the death of our sun?
"The color content of a beam of light can easily be identified by running the beam through a prism," Baird told Live Science. "These simple, cheap, handheld objects spread out the beam of light into its various pure color components. Each pure color has a distinct wave frequency." That's why scientists tend to use the words "color" and "frequency" interchangeably, because a ray of light's color is defined by its frequency — for visible light , red has the lowest frequency and violet has a highest. The range of colors, or frequencies in a beam of light is called a spectrum.
The electromagnetic spectrum, from highest to lowest frequency waves. (Image credit: Shutterstock)
When we direct solar rays through a prism, we see all the colors of the rainbow come out the other end. That's to say we see all the colors that are visible to the human eye. "Therefore the sun is white," because white is made up of all the colors, Baird said.
The slightly more sophisticated way of doing this is with a camera, which takes a quantitative measurement of the brightness of light hitting different pixels, and therefore gives us a way to plot the brightness of the different frequencies in the solar spectrum. If one particular frequency were consistently brighter than any of the others, we could conclude the sun is a shade of that color, but that's not the case. "When we do this, we find quantitatively that all of the visible colors are present in sunlight in approximately equal amounts," Baird said.
Critically, though, these frequencies aren't present in precisely the same amount, it's just that the variances aren't significant enough to be meaningful. "The color components of sunlight are so close enough to being present in equal amounts that it is much more correct to say that the sun is white than to say it is yellow, orange, or any other single, pure color," Baird said.
So, white it is then.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-06--Is anyone on Earth not an immigrant?

Is anyone on Earth not an immigrant?

Human beings tend to be fascinated with their beginnings .
Origin stories are found across cultures , religions , ethnicities and nationalities — and they are all deeply important .
These stories tell people where they come from , how they fit in and how everyone fits together .
One of these stories , of course , is the story of human genes , and it 's a story anyone with human shares .
As scientists find more ancient human DNA , sample more modern DNA and develop more ways to analyze this genetic material , it 's revealing a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and moved and moved — around the world , coming to inhabit nearly every swath of land .
So after thousands and thousands of years of nearly constant migration , are there any people out there who have never left the spot where it 's thought Homo sapiens evolved ?
Put another way , is there anybody on Earth who is n't an immigrant ?
Related : Why have n't all primates evolved into humans ?
`` From a scientific point of view , maybe the only people that you could consider not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' said Austin Reynolds , an assistant professor of anthropology at Baylor University in Texas who specializes in human population genetics .
The designation Khoe-San ( pronounced coy-sawn ) refers to certain African communities in the areas of Botswana , Namibia , Angola and South Africa who speak similar languages with distinctive clicking consonants , Reynolds told Live Science .
Reynolds said there are two main factors indicating that Khoe-San groups may be non-migratory descendants of original humans : They live in the place where it 's likely humans first appeared , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diversity .
A good way to understand why high genetic diversity indicates original ancestry is by comparing genes to a bowl of M & Ms , Reynolds said .
Handfuls taken out of the bowl — i.e .
people who broke off from the original human population — might have only a couple M & Ms colors in them , but the original bowl will have all the colors .
Yet despite the Khoe-San groups ' proximity to the proverbial `` cradle of humankind '' and their significant genetic diversity , identifying them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not cut and dry .
Firstly , researchers don ’ t know for sure that southern Africa is the cradle of humankind .
Some scientists think humans first evolved in East Africa , said Reynolds , and scientists have n't amassed enough archaeological evidence in either area to be completely certain just where Homo sapiens first came on the scene .
There 's even a possibility people evolved in western Africa , Mark Stoneking , a molecular geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig , Germany , told Live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or better job at preserving fossil remains , Stoneking said , so just because human remains were or were not found in specific places does n't mean humans did n't live there long ago .
Stoneking does n't think there are any folks left on Earth who are n't — scientifically , at least — immigrants .
`` People have always been on the move , '' Stoneking said .
His recent genetic research on populations across Asia has shown that there 's a touch of just about everyone in everyone else .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact with others , '' including the Khoe-San , he said , denoted by evidence in their genes , their cultures and their languages .
Early humans moved extensively around Africa for more than 100,000 years before leaving , at which point they probably moved out of eastern Africa into the Middle East , Stoneking said .
It 's likely that not long afterward , people headed southeastward along the Indian coast , with many more waves of migrants following these original adventurers over a span of tens of thousands of years .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ been a great exchange of DNA , Stoneking said , and these two components — movement and intermixture — is what he sees as a defining characteristic of the human species .
`` Humans — what they like to do is migrate , and they like to have sex , '' Stoneking said .
And so it seems to have been since time immemorial .

Human beings tend to be fascinated with their beginnings. Origin stories are found across cultures, religions, ethnicities and nationalities — and they are all deeply important. These stories tell people where they come from, how they fit in and how everyone fits together.
One of these stories, of course, is the story of human genes, and it's a story anyone with human DNA shares.
As scientists find more ancient human DNA, sample more modern DNA and develop more ways to analyze this genetic material, it's revealing a lot about how early humans moved — and moved and moved — around the world, coming to inhabit nearly every swath of land.
So after thousands and thousands of years of nearly constant migration, are there any people out there who have never left the spot where it's thought Homo sapiens evolved? Put another way, is there anybody on Earth who isn't an immigrant?
Related: Why haven't all primates evolved into humans?
"From a scientific point of view, maybe the only people that you could consider not to be immigrants would be some Khoe-San-speaking groups in southern Africa ," said Austin Reynolds, an assistant professor of anthropology at Baylor University in Texas who specializes in human population genetics.
The designation Khoe-San (pronounced coy-sawn) refers to certain African communities in the areas of Botswana, Namibia, Angola and South Africa who speak similar languages with distinctive clicking consonants, Reynolds told Live Science.
Reynolds said there are two main factors indicating that Khoe-San groups may be non-migratory descendants of original humans: They live in the place where it's likely humans first appeared, and they have a high amount of genetic diversity. A good way to understand why high genetic diversity indicates original ancestry is by comparing genes to a bowl of M&Ms, Reynolds said. Handfuls taken out of the bowl — i.e. people who broke off from the original human population — might have only a couple M&Ms colors in them, but the original bowl will have all the colors.
Yet despite the Khoe-San groups' proximity to the proverbial "cradle of humankind" and their significant genetic diversity, identifying them as the last genetically aboriginal peoples is not cut and dry.
Firstly, researchers don’t know for sure that southern Africa is the cradle of humankind. Some scientists think humans first evolved in East Africa, said Reynolds, and scientists haven't amassed enough archaeological evidence in either area to be completely certain just where Homo sapiens first came on the scene.
There's even a possibility people evolved in western Africa, Mark Stoneking, a molecular geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, told Live Science. Different environments do a worse or better job at preserving fossil remains, Stoneking said, so just because human remains were or were not found in specific places doesn't mean humans didn't live there long ago.
Stoneking doesn't think there are any folks left on Earth who aren't — scientifically, at least — immigrants.
"People have always been on the move," Stoneking said. His recent genetic research on populations across Asia has shown that there's a touch of just about everyone in everyone else. "All human populations have been in contact with others," including the Khoe-San, he said, denoted by evidence in their genes, their cultures and their languages.
Early humans moved extensively around Africa for more than 100,000 years before leaving, at which point they probably moved out of eastern Africa into the Middle East, Stoneking said. It's likely that not long afterward, people headed southeastward along the Indian coast, with many more waves of migrants following these original adventurers over a span of tens of thousands of years. Along the way, there would have been a great exchange of DNA, Stoneking said, and these two components — movement and intermixture — is what he sees as a defining characteristic of the human species.
"Humans — what they like to do is migrate, and they like to have sex," Stoneking said. And so it seems to have been since time immemorial.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-06--Voyager mission finds a new type of electron burst at the edge of our solar system

The Voyager probes left our Solar System years ago , yet even as they travel through interstellar space , they are still detecting bursts of cosmic rays from our Sun , more than 23 billion kilometers ( 14 billion miles ) away .
A detailed analysis of recent data from both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 has now revealed the first bursts of cosmic ray electrons in interstellar space .
Carried to the fringes of our Solar System by the shock waves of solar eruptions known as coronal mass ejections , these energized particles appear to accelerate even beyond the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` The idea that shock waves accelerate particles is not new , '' notes astrophysicist Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa .
He says similar processes have been observed within the borders of our Solar System where solar wind is most powerful .
`` [ But ] no one has seen it with an interstellar shock wave , in a whole new pristine medium , '' he adds .
The surface of our Sun continuously emits solar wind - a stream of charged particles in the form of plasma , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's hard to define the boundaries of our Solar System , but the 'bubble ' created by solar wind and the material it carries is called the heliosphere .
Eventually , this solar wind , having travelled past every planet and object in our Solar System , sprinkles out into the interstellar medium .
This is what largely defines the boundaries of our Solar System .
Beyond the Sun 's magnetic field , in the cold of interstellar space where conditions are vastly different , it 's not clear what happens to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manage to get this far when carried on a shock wave .
The Voyager probes are finally giving us the opportunity to find out more .
Astronomers are now proposing a new model for what happens to these shockwaves in interstellar space .
It all starts , they say , with a massive eruption on the surface of the Sun , which sends a quasi-spherical shock wave out into the Solar System .
When a wave of energy followed by plasma from a coronal mass ejection reaches interstellar space , the shock wave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tangent magnetic field generated by the wave , and another shock reflects and accelerates them into the higher energy state , as detected by Voyager .
The plasma heats low-energy electrons which then propagate out along magnetic fields .
In some cases , data from the Voyagers suggest it took as long as a month for the plasma to even catch up with the shock wave speeding ahead .
This upstream region is what scientists are now calling 'the cosmic-ray foreshock ' , and the team thinks it occurs just behind the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as shown below .
`` We have identified through the cosmic ray instruments these are electrons that were reflected and accelerated by interstellar shocks propagating outward from energetic solar events at the Sun , '' says Gurnett .
`` That is a new mechanism . ''
It 's an exciting discovery that fits in well with other recent data .
Since crossing over the heliosphere , the Voyager probes have sent back measurements that suggest there is a stronger magnetic field beyond the heliopause than we thought - possibly enough for electrons at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bounce off of and accelerate further .
`` We interpret these bursts of high-energy electrons as arising from the reflection ( and acceleration ) of relativistic cosmic-ray electrons at the time of first contact of the shock with the interstellar magnetic field line passing through the spacecraft , '' the authors conclude .
Understanding the physics of cosmic radiation and solar shock waves will not only help us better define the boundaries of our own Solar System , it will also help us better understand exploding stars and the threat of radiation in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the job , NASA 's longest running space mission is still teaching us so much .
The study was published in the The Astronomical Journal .
This article was originally published by ScienceAlert .
Read the original article here .

The Voyager probes left our Solar System years ago, yet even as they travel through interstellar space, they are still detecting bursts of cosmic rays from our Sun, more than 23 billion kilometers (14 billion miles) away.
A detailed analysis of recent data from both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 has now revealed the first bursts of cosmic ray electrons in interstellar space.
Carried to the fringes of our Solar System by the shock waves of solar eruptions known as coronal mass ejections, these energized particles appear to accelerate even beyond the borders of our Sun's powerful winds.
"The idea that shock waves accelerate particles is not new," notes astrophysicist Don Gurnett from the University of Iowa.
He says similar processes have been observed within the borders of our Solar System where solar wind is most powerful.
"[But] no one has seen it with an interstellar shock wave, in a whole new pristine medium," he adds.
The surface of our Sun continuously emits solar wind - a stream of charged particles in the form of plasma, which generates an accompanying magnetic field. It's hard to define the boundaries of our Solar System, but the 'bubble' created by solar wind and the material it carries is called the heliosphere.
Eventually, this solar wind, having travelled past every planet and object in our Solar System, sprinkles out into the interstellar medium. This is what largely defines the boundaries of our Solar System.
Beyond the Sun's magnetic field, in the cold of interstellar space where conditions are vastly different, it's not clear what happens to the solar plasma and cosmic rays that do manage to get this far when carried on a shock wave.
The Voyager probes are finally giving us the opportunity to find out more. Astronomers are now proposing a new model for what happens to these shockwaves in interstellar space.
It all starts, they say, with a massive eruption on the surface of the Sun, which sends a quasi-spherical shock wave out into the Solar System.
When a wave of energy followed by plasma from a coronal mass ejection reaches interstellar space, the shock wave propels higher energy cosmic rays to hit the tangent magnetic field generated by the wave, and another shock reflects and accelerates them into the higher energy state, as detected by Voyager.
The plasma heats low-energy electrons which then propagate out along magnetic fields. In some cases, data from the Voyagers suggest it took as long as a month for the plasma to even catch up with the shock wave speeding ahead.
This upstream region is what scientists are now calling 'the cosmic-ray foreshock', and the team thinks it occurs just behind the magnetic field line of interstellar space, as shown below.
"We have identified through the cosmic ray instruments these are electrons that were reflected and accelerated by interstellar shocks propagating outward from energetic solar events at the Sun," says Gurnett.
"That is a new mechanism."
It's an exciting discovery that fits in well with other recent data. Since crossing over the heliosphere, the Voyager probes have sent back measurements that suggest there is a stronger magnetic field beyond the heliopause than we thought - possibly enough for electrons at the front of a shock wave to bounce off of and accelerate further.
"We interpret these bursts of high-energy electrons as arising from the reflection (and acceleration) of relativistic cosmic-ray electrons at the time of first contact of the shock with the interstellar magnetic field line passing through the spacecraft," the authors conclude.
Understanding the physics of cosmic radiation and solar shock waves will not only help us better define the boundaries of our own Solar System, it will also help us better understand exploding stars and the threat of radiation in space.
After more than four decades on the job, NASA's longest running space mission is still teaching us so much.
The study was published in the The Astronomical Journal.
This article was originally published by ScienceAlert. Read the original article here.


livescience--2020-12-06--How COVID-19 vaccines will get from the factory to your local pharmacy

Bahar Aliakbarian is an expert in supply chain management in pharmaceuticals and a professor at the School of Packaging at Michigan State University .
Below , she describes the vaccine supply chains of Pfizer and Moderna , which are expected to be the two major early suppliers of the COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. She also talks about challenges in distribution and the work being done to ensure safe and systematic delivery of the vaccines .
What are the main challenges in distributing the newly developed COVID-19 vaccines ?
The two major U.S. developers of the early COVID-19 vaccines are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mRNA vaccines , a relatively new type of vaccine .
A major supply chain issue is the temperature requirement for these vaccines .
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at between minus 112 F ( minus 80 C ) and minus 94 F ( minus 70 C ) , and the Moderna vaccine needs temperatures around minus 4 F ( minus 20 C ) , which is close to the temperature of commercial-grade freezers .
A third company developing vaccines , AstraZeneca , says it needs regular refrigeration temperature of 36 F @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8 C. Moderna ’ s vaccine can remain at minus 4 F for up to six months , and then for a month in a refrigerator , according to the company .
Pfizer says its vaccine has a shorter shelf life of five days after being transferred from ultracold storage to a refrigerator , leaving a short window to administer the vaccines .
How will these vaccines be transported and stored ?
Moderna plans to use an approach similar to that used in previous outbreaks such as the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be shipped from the manufacturing facilities in the Northeast U.S. and Europe to a distribution center in Irving , Texas , which will be equipped with freezers to store the vaccine for longer periods .
From there they are distributed to hospitals , pharmacies and other vaccine administration sites .
Pfizer is manufacturing its vaccines in Kalamazoo , Michigan .
It will handle the transportation to the administration sites by working with logistics partners .
Because ultracold storage is available only at large facilities and hospitals , that ’ s where they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before being distributed to administration sites .
Some states , like New York , are considering setting up their own distribution hubs .
How will the required temperatures be maintained ?
Pharmacies and hospitals are trying to develop or acquire ultralow-temperature freezers , but it is a huge cost for them .
We ’ re now seeing extremely high demand for freezers and dry ice , and there is risk of shortage .
So the vaccines need to be supplied and administered efficiently to ensure they reach the public without any waste or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2019 alone , around US $ 34 billion worth of vaccines were wasted because of fluctuations in temperature during transportation .
Dry ice is an inexpensive way to maintain low temperatures .
Pfizer ’ s suitcaselike “ thermal shippers ” need about 50 pounds of dry ice to keep them at temperature for a few days .
It is considered to be a hazardous material in planes , but the Federal Aviation Administration has granted permission to use up to five times the normally permitted amount to be transported along with the vaccines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be trained to check the temperature and make sure that Pfizer ’ s thermal box is not being opened more than a few times a day , not more than a few minutes at a time , and to fill it with new dry ice at the right times .
Some of this training is already underway .
What can be done about monitoring and traceability ?
Tracking and monitoring them throughout the process ensures that the vaccines are stable and not tampered with .
Making this data accessible to governments and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
This is especially important because these vaccines require two doses to work , and we need people to come back to get the second one , and to follow up with them for feedback about any possible adverse effects .
My team and I are working on developing technologies to improve tracking and monitoring using smart packaging by implementing sensors and other communication technologies .
[ Deep knowledge , daily .
Sign up for The Conversation ’ s newsletter . ]
Monitoring and tracking also involves developing databases that integrate data within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manufacturers to the administration sites .
Right now , Pfizer and Moderna will have the information until it reaches the administration sites , and the hospitals and pharmacies will have the data about the patients though electronic health records ( EHR ) .
So there are some challenges we are still trying to overcome to have an integrated and interoperable system with improved capability to be upgraded and used nationwide .
Insurance companies and the government are thinking about how to provide coverage for the vaccines while the Centers for Disease Control and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the population receives the vaccine efficiently .
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license .
Read the original article .
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook and Twitter .
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher .
This version of the article was originally published on Live Science .

Dry ice pellets can be used to maintain the ultra-cold temperatures required for Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. Shown here, those pellets are being manufactured at Capitol Carbonic, a dry ice factory, in Baltimore, Maryland, on Nov. 20, 2020
Bahar Aliakbarian is an expert in supply chain management in pharmaceuticals and a professor at the School of Packaging at Michigan State University. Below, she describes the vaccine supply chains of Pfizer and Moderna, which are expected to be the two major early suppliers of the COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. She also talks about challenges in distribution and the work being done to ensure safe and systematic delivery of the vaccines.
What are the main challenges in distributing the newly developed COVID-19 vaccines?
The two major U.S. developers of the early COVID-19 vaccines are Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. They both developed mRNA vaccines, a relatively new type of vaccine. A major supply chain issue is the temperature requirement for these vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at between minus 112 F (minus 80 C) and minus 94 F (minus 70 C), and the Moderna vaccine needs temperatures around minus 4 F (minus 20 C), which is close to the temperature of commercial-grade freezers. A third company developing vaccines, AstraZeneca, says it needs regular refrigeration temperature of 36 F to 46 F, or 2 to 8 C.
Moderna’s vaccine can remain at minus 4 F for up to six months, and then for a month in a refrigerator, according to the company. Pfizer says its vaccine has a shorter shelf life of five days after being transferred from ultracold storage to a refrigerator, leaving a short window to administer the vaccines.
How will these vaccines be transported and stored?
Moderna plans to use an approach similar to that used in previous outbreaks such as the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009. In this case the vaccines will be shipped from the manufacturing facilities in the Northeast U.S. and Europe to a distribution center in Irving, Texas, which will be equipped with freezers to store the vaccine for longer periods. From there they are distributed to hospitals, pharmacies and other vaccine administration sites.
Pfizer is manufacturing its vaccines in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It will handle the transportation to the administration sites by working with logistics partners. Because ultracold storage is available only at large facilities and hospitals, that’s where they’ll be stored for short periods before being distributed to administration sites.
Some states, like New York, are considering setting up their own distribution hubs.
How will the required temperatures be maintained?
Pharmacies and hospitals are trying to develop or acquire ultralow-temperature freezers, but it is a huge cost for them. We’re now seeing extremely high demand for freezers and dry ice, and there is risk of shortage. So the vaccines need to be supplied and administered efficiently to ensure they reach the public without any waste or bottlenecks in the supply chain. In 2019 alone, around US$34 billion worth of vaccines were wasted because of fluctuations in temperature during transportation.
Dry ice is an inexpensive way to maintain low temperatures. Pfizer’s suitcaselike “thermal shippers” need about 50 pounds of dry ice to keep them at temperature for a few days. It is considered to be a hazardous material in planes, but the Federal Aviation Administration has granted permission to use up to five times the normally permitted amount to be transported along with the vaccines.
The staff at administration sites must be trained to check the temperature and make sure that Pfizer’s thermal box is not being opened more than a few times a day, not more than a few minutes at a time, and to fill it with new dry ice at the right times. Some of this training is already underway.
What can be done about monitoring and traceability?
Tracking and monitoring them throughout the process ensures that the vaccines are stable and not tampered with. Making this data accessible to governments and the public can increase trust in the vaccines. This is especially important because these vaccines require two doses to work, and we need people to come back to get the second one, and to follow up with them for feedback about any possible adverse effects.
My team and I are working on developing technologies to improve tracking and monitoring using smart packaging by implementing sensors and other communication technologies.
[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]
Monitoring and tracking also involves developing databases that integrate data within an end-to-end supply chain, from the manufacturers to the administration sites. Right now, Pfizer and Moderna will have the information until it reaches the administration sites, and the hospitals and pharmacies will have the data about the patients though electronic health records (EHR). So there are some challenges we are still trying to overcome to have an integrated and interoperable system with improved capability to be upgraded and used nationwide.
Insurance companies and the government are thinking about how to provide coverage for the vaccines while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues guidelines to ensure that most of the population receives the vaccine efficiently.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates — and become part of the discussion — on Facebook and Twitter. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-12-07--Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates

Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates