Scientists Look to Soils to Learn How Forests Affect Air Quality and Climate Change Details
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Trees are often heralded as the heroes of environmental mitigation. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which slows the pace of climate change, and sequester nutrients such as nitrogen, which improves water and air quality.
Trees are often heralded as the heroes of environmental mitigation. They remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which slows the pace of climate change, and sequester nutrients such as nitrogen, which improves water and air quality. Not all tree species, however, perform these services similarly, and some of the strongest impacts that trees have on ecosystems occur below the surface, away from the eyes of observers. This complicates efforts to predict what will happen as tree species shift owing to pests, pathogens, and climate change as well as to predict which species are most beneficial in reforestation efforts.
Business experts are available to comment on the challenges of COVID-19 vaccine shortages, distribution, and demand. 29-Jan-2021 4:15 PM EST, by Indiana University
INDIANAPOLIS and BLOOMINGTON, Ind. Alleviating the coronavirus pandemic rests on worldwide vaccination efforts, but many countries are reporting dwindling supplies of the COVID-19 vaccine. At the same time, the Biden administration aims to buy 200 million more doses, to provide enough vaccine for the entire adult U.S. population by the end of the summer. How will drugmakers like Moderna and Pfizer be able to meet the demand and handle the enormous logistical challenges of distributing doses? Experts from Indiana University Bloomington and IUPUI are available to discuss these topics.
If you squeeze the coronavirus, does it shatter?
Scientists are exploring the physics of viruses, to understand how these pathogens assemble themselves and might be rent apart. New York Times
Representative image
Of all the pandemic questions bedeviling scientists, the one that Juan Perilla is asking might be among the strangest: If a shrunk-down hand were to squeeze the coronavirus, would it squish, or would it shatter?
Viruses like HIV tend to be on the softer side, smooshing down like a foam ball, whereas the ones that cause influenza are more brittle, prone to cracking like an egg, said Perilla, a biophysical chemist at the University of Delaware in Newark. Coronaviruses, he suspects, are somewhere in the middle, a sort of tactile Goldilocks in the world of infectious disease.
Whenever there’s an analysis or discussion about how much people know about the Holocaust, the focus is often on what they don’t know.
For instance, a 2018 survey of 1,350 people age 18 and older found that 11% of U.S. adults and 22% of millennials had not heard of – or were not sure if they had heard of – the Holocaust.
Almost half of U.S. adults – 45% – and millennials – 49% – could not name one concentration camp or ghetto that was established in Europe during the Holocaust, the survey found.
The survey also showed how there’s an overwhelming lack of personal connections to the Holocaust. Most Americans – 80% – had never visited a Holocaust museum and two-thirds – 66% – did not know, or know of, a Holocaust survivor. A significant majority of American adults believed that fewer people care about the Holocaust today than before.