Lifeboat Foundation

China’s claims of how it’s handling coronavirus recovery should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.

Even before COVID-19 became a global crisis, Chinese leaders had been criticized for their handling of the situation and lack of transparency about the disease’s progression. Things now look like they’re on the upswing, and businesses even appear to be headed back to work — but whistleblowers and local officials tell Caixan that’s just a carefully crafted ruse.

Beijing has spent much of the outbreak pushing districts to carry on business as usual, with some local governments subsidizing electricity costs and even installing mandatory productivity quotas. Zhejiang, an province east of the epicenter city of Wuhan, claimed as of Feb. 24 it had restored 98.6 percent of its pre-coronavirus work capacity.

How’s this for 2020 vision? Over the holidays, I took a series of high-res photos of my hometown on Mars. This panorama is made up of a crisp 1.8 billion pixels. It’s my most detailed view to date.

Zoom in: https://go.nasa.gov/3ap38hB

I’m nothing… You are nothing… We all nothing…

NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the agency’s Psyche mission. The Psyche mission currently is targeted to launch in July 2022 on a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The total cost for NASA to launch Psyche and the secondary payloads is approximately $117 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs.

The Psyche mission will journey to a unique metal-rich asteroid, also named Psyche, which orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid is considered unique, as it appears to largely be made of the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet – one of the building blocks of our solar system.

The crypto wars are back in full swing.

If news from Earth has got you down, maybe this update from the Red Planet will take your mind off things. NASA’s Curiosity rover mission has produced an incredible 1.8-billion-pixel image of the surface of Mars.

The image above doesn’t nearly do it justice, so be sure to watch the video below. You can also use this NASA webpage to explore the panorama in detail.

The company’s solar-storing tiles are making waves.

Music therapy can help improve brain and motor function in stroke patients, scientists say.

A new study has found taking part in music sessions can boost mood and improve concentration in patients recovering from stroke. Those participating in the two-year sessions alongside existing stroke rehabilitation treatment also reported physical benefits such as better arm function and gait.

Based on their trials, the researchers are preparing a proposal for an NHS-funded permanent music therapy sessions post on the stroke ward at the Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, where the study was conducted.

China has said that some vaccines for the novel coronavirus could be in clinical use next month as the number of global coronavirus cases soared past 100,000.

The country’s scientists are striving to develop immunisation products with five technologies simultaneously, according to officials.

Continue reading “The first coronavirus vaccine could be in ‘clinical use’ in April” »