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Apr 14, 2020

Hokkaido declares new state of emergency amid ‘second wave’ of coronavirus infections

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government

While Hokkaido was not covered in the state’s declaration of an emergency, the prefectural government and the municipal government of Sapporo, the prefectural capital, issued a joint emergency declaration following reports of double-digit increases in infections for the fifth straight day.

“We are facing a crisis of a second wave in the spread of (the coronavirus) infections,” Hokkaido Gov. Naomichi Suzuki told reporters, asking residents to refrain from making nonessential outings.

Hokkaido had declared its own state of emergency on Feb. 28 ahead of the government and lifted it on March 19, citing signs that the coronavirus spread was abating in the prefecture, a popular area for both Japanese and foreign tourists.

Apr 14, 2020

There’s no Such Thing as “Solving Our Problems on Earth Before Going to Space”

Posted by in category: space

[THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS “SOLVING OUR PROBLEMS ON EARTH BEFORE GOING TO SPACE”](https://spacerenaissance.space/heres-no-such-thing-as-solvin…-to-space/)

Apr 14, 2020

Coyotes, bobcats and bears: Wildlife is reclaiming Yosemite National Park

Posted by in category: futurism

Bears, bobcats and other critters are roaming free in California’s most popular national park, closed to visitors since March 20.

Apr 13, 2020

Pope Francis: ‘This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage’

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, economics, employment

Talk of a universal basic income (UBI), or regular cash payments with minimal or no requirements for receiving the money, has been brought to the forefront as social distancing and economic concerns have put millions of people out of work.


Amid the COVID-19 pandemic Pope Francis says it might be time for some sort of universal basic income.

“This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage” to “acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks” and to “achieve the ideal … of no worker without rights,” Pope Francis said in a letter to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, an organization representing global grassroots organizations, published on Sunday via the Vatican.

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Apr 13, 2020

Mutant Enzyme Recycles Plastic in Hours, Could Revolutionize Recycling Industry

Posted by in categories: materials, sustainability

Scientists have engineered a mutant enzyme that converts 90 percent of plastic bottles back to pristine starting materials that can then be used to produce new high-quality bottles in just hours. The discovery could revolutionize the recycling industry, which currently saves about 30 percent of PET plastics from landfills, reported Science Magazine.

Apr 13, 2020

The role of global cooperation in space after COVID-19

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, education, food, government, health, neuroscience

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people across the globe. It is also causing huge damage to the global economy. According to the predictions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2020 could be the worst year since the Great Depression in the 1930s, with more than 170 countries likely to experience negative per capita income growth due to the pandemic. Countries are taking different measures to mitigate that economic impact, depending on the situations in their countries. However, the process of overcoming economic crisis is going to be extremely difficult. Few businesses would find it hard even to sustain and there is going to be a significant upsurge in unemployment rates.

Like much of the rest of the world, India is under lockdown. It is bit premature to predict the exact impact of coronavirus crisis on the Indian economy since the situation is still evolving. However, it is clear at this stage that the country will be facing major economic downturn and levels of unemployment will steeply rise. The government has already offered an economic package of 1.7 trillion rupees ($22.3 billion) in the last month for providing food security and money to the poor. It is expected that the government would shortly announce the next economic stimulus package.

All this would require the government of India to undertake a ruthless review of existing patterns of expenditure. The government budgeting caters to the requirements of various segments of the society, including agriculture, health, education, and railways. The budget has two other important areas of attention: defense and science & technology.

Apr 13, 2020

The Venus Project Plans to Bring Humanity to the Next Stage of Social Evolution. Here’s How

Posted by in categories: evolution, futurism

Since 1975, Roxanne Meadows has worked with renowned futurist Jacque Fresco to develop and promote The Venus Project. The function of this project is to find alternative solutions to the many problems that confront the world today. She participated in the exterior and interior design and construction of the buildings of The Venus Project’s 21-acre research and planning center.

Apr 13, 2020

Virology lab finds drug originally meant for Ebola is effective against a key enzyme of coronavirus that causes COVID-19

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry

Scientists at the University of Alberta have shown that the drug remdesivir is highly effective in stopping the replication mechanism of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, according to new research published today in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The paper follows closely on research published by the same lab in late February that demonstrated how the drug worked against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, a related coronavirus.

“We were optimistic that we would see the same results against the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” said Matthias Götte, chair of medical microbiology and immunology at U of A.

Apr 13, 2020

Why There May Be One Human Government

Posted by in categories: futurism, government

Hey all! I have recently made a video on how it may be possible for all of humanity to be united under one government in the far future. I have posted a link to the video here. If you find it worthy, please consider liking and subscribing!


A topic of controversy, “one human government” is a very real possibility in the far future. In this video, I talk about the politics of the future human civilization and why I personally believe that there will not only be one human government but that the one government will be good for humanity.

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Apr 13, 2020

Quantum computation solves an old enigma: Finding the vibrational states of magnesium dimer

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, quantum physics

High vibrational states of the Magnesium dimer (Mg2) are an important system in studies of fundamental physics, although they have eluded experimental characterization for half a century. Experimental physicists have so far resolved the first 14 vibrational states of Mg2, despite reports that the ground-state may support five additional levels. In a new report, Stephen H. Yuwono and a research team in the departments of physics and chemistry at the Michigan State University, U.S., presented highly accurate initial potential energy curves for the ground and excited electron states of Mg2. They centered the experimental investigations on calculations of state-of-the-art coupled-cluster (CC) and full configuration interaction computations of the Mg2 dimer. The ground-state potential confirmed the existence of 19 vibrational states with minimal deviation between previously calculated rovibrational values and experimentally derived data. The computations are now published on Science Advances and provide guidance to experimentally detect previously unresolved vibrational levels.

Background

Weakly bound alkaline-earth (AE2) dimers can function as probes of fundamental physics phenomena, such as ultracold collisions, doped helium nanodroplets, binary reactions and even optical lattice clocks and quantum gravity. The magnesium dimer is important for such applications since it has several desirable characteristics including nontoxicity and an absence of hyperfine structure in the most abundant 24 Mg isotope that typically facilitates the analysis of binary collisions and other quantum phenomena. However, the status of Mg2 as a prototype heavier AE2 species is complicated since scientists have not been able to experimentally characterize its high vibrational levels and ground-state potential energy curve (PEC) for so long.