138662318
submission
hey! writes:
Pfizer's BNT162b2 vaccine must be stored at a constant -100F/-70C temperature, presenting a logistical nightmare for hospitals, which don't normally have freezers that go that low. This is because it is an mRNA vaccine, and mRNA is unstable unless stored at extremely low temperatures.
Pfizer will distribute doses in dry-ice packed "suitcase" shipping containers containing 1000 — 5000 doses, but these cases only work for ten days, during which they may be opened only twice a day, each time for less than three minutes. This will pose a special challenge for rural hospitals, who can't afford specialized freezers; they'll be forced to distribute hundreds of doses a day from the dry ice packed shipping crates to avoid their stocks going bad. Rural vaccination is further complicated by the fact that the vaccine must be given in two doses spaced three weeks apart.
The Moderna MRNA-1273 vaccine candidate is also an mRNA vaccine, but can be stored at -4F/-20C. This is because Moderna has experience in stabilizing mRNA. MRNA-1273 can be stored in a regular hospital freezer, making it a better candidate for smaller hospitals and clinics, although nationwide distribution in the volumes of doses needed is still going to take an unprecedented effort.
If both vaccines are approved at the same time, we'll likely see both rolled out in parallel, with smaller hospitals and clinics getting the Moderna vaccine and higher volume facilities getting the Pfizer vaccine.
98529235
submission
hey! writes:
Benjamin D. Morrison of Beaver Dam Wisconsin was killed on March 5 while synthesizing explosives in his apartment. The compound in question has not been named in news sources, but the accident has left the apartment building so contaminated that it will be demolished in a controlled burn today (Thursday), and residents are not being allowed in to retrieve any of their belongings.
People who knew Morrison say he was unlikely to be a bomb-maker; given his background as a pre-pharmacy major with a chemistry minor he may well have been experimenting with explosives synthesis.
97119733
submission
hey! writes:
Last week the Japan Space Agency JAXA successfully placed a 3 kg cubesat into a 180 by 1,500 kilometer orbit at 31 degrees inclination to the equator. The payload was launched on a modified sounding rocket, called the SS-520-5. The assembled rocket weighed a mere 2600 kg on the launchpad, making the SS-520-5 the smallest vehicle ever to put an object into orbit.
Note that the difference in the SS-520's modest orbital capacity of 4kg and its ability to launch 140 kg to 1000 km on a suborbital flight. That shows how much more difficult it is to put an object into orbit than it is to merely send it into space.
96009805
submission
hey! writes:
On Friday the Washington Post reported that the Trump Administration has forbidden the Centers for Disease Control from using seven terms in certain documents: "science-based", "evidence-based", “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” and “fetus".
It's important to note that the precise scope and intent of the ban is unknown at present. Scientific and medical personnel as of now have not been affected, only policy analysis preparing budgetary proposals and supporting data that is being sent to Congress. So it is unclear the degree to which the language mandates represent a change in agency priorities vs. a change in how it presents itself to Congress. However banning the scientifically precise term "fetus" will certainly complicate budgeting for things like Zika research and monitoring.
89845655
submission
hey! writes:
The US Office of Management and Budget has released a budget "blueprint" which outlines substantial cuts in both basic research and applied technology funding.
The proposal includes a whopping 18% reduction in National Institutes of Health medical research. NIH does get a new 500 million fund to track emerging infectious agents like Zika in the US, but loses its funding to monitor those agents overseas.
The Department of Energy's research programs also get an 18% cut in research, potentially affecting basic physics research, high energy physics, fusion research, and supercomputing. Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) gets the ax, as does the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program which enabled Tesla to manufacture its Model S sedan.
EPA loses all climate research funding, and about half the research funding targeted at human health impacts of pollution. The EnergyStar program is eliminated Superfund funding is drastically reduced. The Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes cleanup programs are also eliminated, as is all screening of pesticides for endocrine disruption.
In the Department of Commerce, Sea Grant is eliminated, along with all coastal zone research funding. Existing weather satellites GOES and JPSS continue funding, but JPSS-3 and -4 appear to be getting the ax. Support for transfer of federally funded research and technology to small and mid-sized manufacturers is eliminated.
NASA gets a slight trim, and a new focus on deep space exploration paid for by an elimination of Earth Science programs.
You can read more about this "blueprint" in Nature, Science, and the Washington Post, which broke the story.
29836577
submission
hey! writes:
On February 18 of this year, global giant payment processor PayPal sent eBook publisher Smashwords an ultimatum: if Smashwords didn't remove all eBooks with certain erotic content from its catalog in the next several days, PayPal would immediately stop handling payments.
Smashword's TOS already precluded child pornography, but now PayPal wants them to also censor depictions of consenting, non-related adults acting out incest fantasies. Likewise fantasy novels in which human characters transform into non-humans are affected if those characters have sex. ZDNet has a summary of the impact of these changes, which would among other things ban Vladmir Nabokov's *Lolita*.
As outrage mounts, finger pointing is in full swing. Smashwords blames PayPal, and PayPal blames the banks it deals with. The crux seems to be that erotica buyers have a higher rate of "chargebacks" — customers who buy stuff then demand their money back. Fair enough, but is a customer really more likely to return a book because it depicts one kind of fantasy between consenting adults vs. another? Perhaps the problem is just the quality of writing.
22191
submission
hey! writes:
The Bush administration has announced a new space security policy, which includes the statement that "Consistent with this policy, the United States will preserve its rights, capabilities and freedom of action in space ... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
Strictly speaking, this doesn't say that the US policy is to deny space access to hostile countries. It just says that the US can do so if it is "necessary". Possibly this is meant to cover situations similar to those in which we would deny a hostile seafaring nation access to non-territorial waters. While attacking hostile assets in space would be a regrettable scenario, it is probably inevitable that spacefaring nations contemplate this. Even so, this has been widely reported as a kind of declaration of space imperialism by the US (e.g.,
"US spreads its wings over space control",
"US turns space into its colony", and
"America wants it all — life, the Universe and everything"), whereas China's blinding of a US satellite a few weeks ago was largely tolerated or even lauded. Could US international prestige possibly sink lower?
