JUNK plastic in the ocean is serving as a raft to carry potentially harmful creatures around the world. Experts warn the alien invaders may have diseases harmful to humans or threaten existing animals. Almost 400 species have been identified in North America after travelling 5,000 miles from Japan. They include fish, starfish, mussels, crabs, clams, oysters, sponges and sea anemones. Some had survived seven years at sea after scrambling on to plastic washed away in the 2011 Japanese tsunami. In other cases they had mated multiple times during the journey, with the fifth generation making landfall. Prof Jim Carlton, from Williams College, Connecticut, said animals previously travelled on wood, which sank after two or three years. But they are now “rafting across the ocean” on plastic, which can last much longer and travel further. He added: “The stuff washed into the ocean from land, floated near shore for a while, then colonised. GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 … [Read more...] about Rafts of ocean plastic rubbish carry harmful species around the world, experts find
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Facebook, Google, CDC under pressure to stop anti-vax garbage from spreading
With five measles outbreaks ongoing in the US, lawmakers are questioning both health officials and tech giants on their efforts to combat the noxious anti-vaccine misinformation fueling the spread of disease. Last week, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate health committee, along with ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) sent a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Health and Human Services. The lawmakers asked what health officials were doing to fight misinformation and help states dealing with outbreaks. “Many factors contribute to vaccine hesitancy, all of which demand attention from CDC and [HHS’ National Vaccine Program Office],” the lawmakers wrote. On Thursday, February 14, the committee announced that it will hold a hearing on the subject on March 5. Also Thursday, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sent letters to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In them, Schiff expressed concern over the outbreaks as … [Read more...] about Facebook, Google, CDC under pressure to stop anti-vax garbage from spreading
Atmospheric Rivers Get an Intensity Scale—Like Hurricanes
For the last two days, a colossal, coursing stream of super-soaked subtropical air has been pummeling California with record-shattering amounts of moisture. On Wednesday, parts of northern California received more snow in a day than New England cities like Boston have seen all winter. On Thursday, Palm Springs got eight months’ worth of rain in as many hours. In San Diego and Los Angeles, brown water thick with desert dust flooded streets, triggered mudslides, and opened up sinkholes. The 300-mile-wide, 1,000-mile-long atmospheric river that carried all this precipitation is starting to dry up, and the worst of the drench-fest is over. But all the new rainfall records highlight the fact that atmospheric rivers, while long a distinctive feature of weather in the American West, are intensifying in a climate-changed world. If you haven’t heard the phrase “atmospheric river” before, don’t feel too bad. It’s a meteorological term of art that hasn’t … [Read more...] about Atmospheric Rivers Get an Intensity Scale—Like Hurricanes
Huge study finds professors’ attitudes affect students’ grades
“You just have to believe!” is the kind of trite line you’d expect in a kids’ movie about a magic talking dog. But it seems the phrase doubles as important advice for college professors. That’s the upshot of a huge study at Indiana University, led by Elizabeth Canning, where researchers measured the attitudes of instructors and the grades their students earned in classes. Mind the gap One of the disappointing problems in higher education is the frequent existence of an “achievement gap” between underrepresented minorities and other students. It seems to be the result of various obstacles that students face along the way, from stereotypes about which groups are naturally skilled in which fields, to cultural differences that make some students hesitant to seek help in a class, to a lack of advantages in primary and secondary education. A lot of things can get in the way. So these scenarios don’t have to take the ugly form of a racist … [Read more...] about Huge study finds professors’ attitudes affect students’ grades
Darpa Wants to Solve Science’s Reproducibility Crisis With AI
Say this much for the “reproducibility crisis” in science: It’s poorly timed. At the same instant that a significant chunk of elected and appointed policymakers seem to disbelieve the science behind global warming, and a significant chunk of parents seem to disbelieve the science behind vaccines … a bunch of actual scientists come along and point out that vast swaths of the social sciences don’t stand up to scrutiny. They don’t replicate—which is to say, if someone else does the same experiment, they get different (often contradictory) results. The scientific term for that is bad. What’s good, though, is that the scientific method is built for self-correction. Researchers are trying to fix the problem. They’re encouraging more sharing of data sets and urging each other to preregister their hypotheses—declaring what they intend to find and how they intend to find it. The idea is to cut down on the statistical shenanigans and … [Read more...] about Darpa Wants to Solve Science’s Reproducibility Crisis With AI