As Google faces at least four major antitrust investigations on two continents, internal documents obtained by The Markup show its parent company, Alphabet, has been preparing for this moment for years, telling employees across the massive enterprise that certain language is off limits in all written communications, no matter how casual. From a report: The taboo words include “market,” “barriers to…
Tag: continents
A Volunteer Supercomputer Team is Hunting for Covid Clues
The world’s fastest computer is now part of “a vast supercomputer-powered search for new findings pertaining to the novel coronavirus’ spread” and “how to effectively treat and mitigate it,” according to an emerging tech journalist at Nextgov. It’s part of a consortium currently facilitating over 65 active research projects, for which “Dozens of national and international members are volunteering free compute…
A proposed new mission to Venus
The proposed VERITAS mission to Venus is one of the finalists for NASA’s Discovery Program. If selected, it will revolutionize our knowledge about the planet’s geology and how this formerly habitable world became a fiery wasteland. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/veritas-mission-venus-surface-interior-geology…
Plastic rain: More than 1,000 tons of microplastic rain onto western US
New research finds that microplastics are emitted into the atmosphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/microplastic-rain-western-us…
Evolution: Why it seems to have a direction, and what to expect next
Does evolution always and inevitably generates greater diversity and complexity, having a predictable direction? Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/evolution-direction-what-to-expect-next…
Scientists identify cleanest air on Earth
Researchers say they’ve identified the cleanest air on the planet – free from particles caused by human activity – over the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/scientist-identify-cleanest-air-on-earth-southern-ocean…
WHO Temporarily Suspends Trial of Hydroxychloroquine Over Safety Concerns
The World Health Organization is temporarily pausing tests of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment in order to review safety concerns, the agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu said Monday. From a report: The decision comes after a retrospective review published in The Lancet found that coronavirus patients who took hydroxychloroquine or its related drug chloroquine were more likely to…
Alternative Earths: Characterizing the Earth during different stages of its 4.5-billion-year existence
Three billion years ago, Earth was a very different place. The sun that shone on its oceans and continents was not as bright as it is today, and rather than the oxygen-rich atmosphere humans need to survive, methane played a much bigger role in the gas layer that encased our young planet. Despite their differences, this early Earth and our current…
Insects have declined worldwide since 1925
A new study has offered the clearest indication yet of how insects all over the world are faring. The researchers studied data on the numbers and total weight of insects and arachnids (spiders and mites) sampled in 41 countries on five continents. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/insects-declined-worldwide-since-1925…
A rainforest in Antarctica during the age of dinosaurs
A temperate rainforest once flourished in Western Antarctica, just 560 miles from the South Pole, 90 million years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/a-temperate-rainforest-in-antarctica-during-the-age-of-dinosaurs…