An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: More than 1 billion people could be immunized against coronavirus by the end of next year with shots from the first two companies to reveal positive results, after the latest vaccine was shown to be nearly 95% effective in trials. With the US’s top infectious diseases official, Anthony Fauci, hailing “the light…
Tag: long-term
Uber In Talks To Sell ATG Self-Driving Unit To Aurora
Uber is reportedly in talks to sell its $7.25 billion self-driving car unit, Uber Advanced Technologies Group, to competing autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation. TechCrunch reports: Aurora Innovation, the startup founded by three veterans of the autonomous vehicle industry who led programs at Google, Tesla and Uber, is in negotiations to buy Uber ATG. Terms of the deal are still…
Chinese Glaciers Melting At ‘Shocking’ Pace, Scientists Say
An anonymous reader writes: Glaciers in China’s bleak Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, long-term water shortages, scientists say. The largest glacier in the 800-kilometer (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 meters since the 1950s, when researchers…
Pfizer Stuns Experts With Early Data that Vaccine Is More Than 90% Effective
The drug maker Pfizer announced on Monday that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine was robustly effective in preventing Covid-19, a promising development as the world has waited anxiously for any positive news about a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people. From a report: Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with the German drugmaker…
On Older Versions of Android, Many Let’s Encrypt-Secured Sites May Stop Working in 2021
This year Let’s Encrypt announced that it’s issued a billion certificates, and it’s been estimated they’ve made certs for almost 30% of web domains. But Friday they posted that “The DST Root X3 root certificate that we relied on to get us off the ground is going to expire — on September 1, 2021. Fortunately, we’re ready to stand on our…
The T-Cell Immune Response To COVID-19 Lasts At Least Six Months
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Economist: Over the past year, many reports have shown rapidly waning levels of covid-specific antibodies after the initial burst caused by an infection. […] Yet antibodies tell only part of the story. Another important actor is the T-cell. Rather than attacking viruses directly, T-cells attack infected cells, to stop the virus reproducing. The…
The Yarkovsky effect: Pushing asteroids around with sunlight
The Yarkovsky effect is a minuscule push on a small body in space, imparted by nothing more than sunlight. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/the-yarkovsky-effect-pushing-asteroids-around-with-sunlight…