Enlarge (credit: SNCF) Every year, the Journées Européennes Patrimoine (European Heritage Days) weekend in September offers visitors a chance to visit numerous monuments all over Europe. Among the attractions in Paris this year was an orange-colored electric train with a name that has become a byword for speed and cutting-edge technology: the particular TGV. Thousands […]
Enlarge / Natural color images from March 1999, April 2005, May 2011, and April 2021 by Landsat satellites chronicle the shrinking Lake Powell reservoir and Lower Colorado River. (credit: NASA/USGS) A Delta rocket launched the small Earth Resources Technology Satellite in July 1972 with a simple mission: to capture multi-spectral imagery of the planet and […]
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) For decades, doctors and hospitals saw kidney patients differently based on their race. A standard equation for estimating kidney function applied a correction for Black patients that made their health appear rosier, inhibiting access to transplants and other treatments. On Thursday, a task force assembled by two leading kidney care societies […]
Enlarge / A second-grade teacher talks to her class during the first day of school at Tustin Ranch Elementary School in Tustin, CA on Wednesday, August 11, 2021. (credit: Getty | Paul Bersebach) Schools with universal masking were 3.5 times less likely to have a COVID-19 outbreak and saw rates of child COVID-19 cases 50 […]
Enlarge / NASA first began using the 1983-model Airstream for space shuttle missions in 1984. (credit: NASA) NASA has asked industry with regard to ideas to develop an “Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle” that will take its astronauts from suit-up facilities to the launch pad on launch day. The space agency, of course, has not launched […]
Enlarge / CDC Director Rochelle Walensky testifies during a Senate committee hearing in July 2021. (credit: Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) Just past midnight last night, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overruled a committee of independent advisers, allowing for use of a Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine booster dose in people with increased risk of […]
Enlarge / The Inspiration4 mission, inside a Crew Dragon, splashes down on Saturday in the Atlantic Ocean. Interest in such tourist missions is soaring. (credit: SpaceX) Welcome to Edition 4.17 of the Rocket Report! After the successful conclusion of the Inspiration4 mission this past weekend, we can now look ahead to some significant launches in […]
Enlarge / Signage outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, March 14, 2020. (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images) An independent committee of experts that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Thursday to recommend booster doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine for persons ages 65 […]
Enlarge / HOUSTON, TX – FEBRUARY 18, 2021: Dialina Ganzo, 29, rests on a bed while taking shelter at a Gallery Furniture store that opened its door and transformed into a warming station after winter weather caused electricity blackouts. (credit: Go Nakamura / Getty Images ) With autumn arriving in much of the US, it […]
Footprints left behind in layers of clay and silt at New Mexico’s White Sands National Park may be between 23, 000 and 21, 000 years old. That’s based on radiocarbon dating associated with the remains of grass seeds buried in the layers regarding sediment above and below the tracks. If the dates are correct, the […]