Tag: human

A Black Hole, Could A Human Enter One To Study It
SCIENCE

A Black Hole, Could A Human Enter One To Study It

To solve the mysteries of black holes, a human should just venture into one. A person falling into a black hole and being stretched while approaching the black hole’s horizon. Leo Rodriguez and Shanshan Rodriguez, CC BY-ND   Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Could a human enter a black hole to study it? – Pulkeet, age 12, Bahadurgarh, Haryana, India However, there is a rather complicated catch: A human can do this only if the respective black hole is supermassive and isolated, and if the person entering the black hole does not expect to report the findings to anyone in the entire universe. We are both physicists who study black holes, albeit from a very safe d...
Human Artifacts, Neil Armstrong’s Bootprint On Moon Officially Protected By New US Law
IN OTHER NEWS, VIDEO REELS

Human Artifacts, Neil Armstrong’s Bootprint On Moon Officially Protected By New US Law

It’s hard to care about bootprints sunk in soil 238,900 miles away as humanity suffers the combined burden of an unforgiving virus and a political unease. These astronaut footprints on the Moon aren’t protected yet. NASA But how humans treat those bootprints and the historic lunar landing sites upon which they are found will speak volumes about who we humans are and who we seek to become. On Dec. 31, the One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act became law. As far as laws go, it’s pretty benign. It requires companies that are working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on lunar missions to agree to be bound by otherwise unenforceable guidelines intended to protect American landing sites on the Moon. That’s a pretty small pool of affected entities. However,...
One Small Part Of A Human Antibody Has The Potential To Work As A Drug For Both Prevention And Therapy Of COVID-19
COVID-19

One Small Part Of A Human Antibody Has The Potential To Work As A Drug For Both Prevention And Therapy Of COVID-19

Although a vaccine could be the ultimate solution to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and stop future ones, it will not be 100% effective. If it is anything like the flu vaccine, it will most likely be slightly more than 50% effective. What is important to recognize is that a vaccine can protect but cannot treat an already infected person. In contrast, drugs including laboratory-made antibodies (Y-shaped proteins that can help fight a foreign substance) can do both – protect and treat. This is why currently many companies are developing antibodies for prevention and therapy of COVID-19. Physicians would inject patients with these antibodies, which would immediately recognize and inactivate the virus. Such a therapy would bridge the lag until the patient’s immune system was able to produce enoug...
Why hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine don’t block coronavirus infection of human lung cells
SCIENCE

Why hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine don’t block coronavirus infection of human lung cells

The big idea A paper came out in Nature on July 22 that further underscores earlier studies that show that neither the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine nor chloroquine prevents SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – from replicating in lung cells. Most Americans probably remember that hydroxychloroquine became the focus of numerous clinical trials following the president’s statement that it could be a “game changer.” At the time, he appeared to base this statement on anecdotal stories, as well as a few early and very limited studies that hydroxychloroquine seemed to help patients with COVID-19 recover. Many in the antiviral field, including myself, questioned the validity of both, and in fact, one of the papers was later disparaged by the scientific society and the editor of the jo...
Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly
COVID-19, Journalism

Lethargic global response to COVID-19: How the human brain’s failure to assess abstract threats cost us dearly

More U.S. citizens have confirmed COVID-19 infections than the next five most affected countries combined. Yet as recently as mid-March, President Trump downplayed the gravity of the crisis by falsely claiming the coronavirus was nothing more than seasonal flu, or a Chinese hoax, or a deep state plot designed to damage his reelection bid. The current U.S. administration’s mishandling of the coronavirus threat is part of a larger problem in pandemic management. Many government officials, medical experts, scholars and journalists continued to underestimate the dangers of COVID-19, even as the disease upended life in China as early as mid-January. The results of this collective inertia are catastrophic indeed. The U.S., along with Italy, Spain, Iran and the French Alsace, is now the site of...
Tomanowos, the meteorite that survived mega-floods and human folly
ENVIRONMENT, VIDEO REELS

Tomanowos, the meteorite that survived mega-floods and human folly

The rock with arguably the most fascinating story on Earth has an ancient name: Tomanowos. It means “the visitor from heaven” in the extinct language of Oregon’s Clackamas Indian tribe. The Clackamas revered the Tomanowos – also known as the Willamette meteorite – believing it came to unite heaven, earth and water for their people. Surface detail of the Tomanowos meteorite, showing cavities produced by dissolution of iron. Eden, Janine and Jim/Wikipedia, CC BY Rare extraterrestrial rocks like Tomanowos have a kind of fatal attraction for us humans. When European Americans found the pockmarked, 15-ton rock near the Willamette River more than a century ago, Tomanowos went through a violent uprooting, a series of lawsuits and a period under armed guard. It’s one of the strangest rock stories...
SOCIAL JUSTICE, VIDEO REELS

NYC Commission on Human Rights bans hair discrimination

Earlier this week, the New York City Commission on Human Rights instituted a law that bans discrimination by employers, schools and other public places, based upon hairstyle. Banning certain hairstyles, whether in the workplace or at a school, is now considered a form of racial discrimination in New York. Guidelines released by the city's Commission on Human Rights apply to everyone, but are particularly geared towards protecting the rights of black people. Violators can be fined up to $250,000, although proving the discrimination may still be difficult. by Kristen Saloomey Al Jazeera's Kristen Saloomey reports from New York.