Physics Today Daily Edition
Nature: China's National Natural Science Award is so highly prized by Chinese government officials that they don't award it in years when they don't think a suitable recipient is available. Now, the computer scientist that received the award in January has been accused of copying open-source software and claiming it as original work. Zhang Yaoxue of Tsinghua University was awarded the prize for a computer program that allows access to multiple operating systems on a remote computer. But Chinese social media users soon pointed out that Zhang's work appeared to be heavily based on an open-source program available on the software sharing site GitHub. The author of that program, Iordan Iordanov, a Bulgarian-born Canadian, had posted his software under a license allowing anyone to use the program as long as they did not claim copyright. The Chinese government has acknowledged the allegations, but has not said whether they will have any effect on Zhang's award.
BBC: A new analysis of climate models by Ben Cook of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and his colleagues suggests that the US is likely to experience droughts on a scale unseen in nearly 1000 years. Cook's team combined reconstructions of past climate conditions and compared the data with 17 future climate models. According to their analysis, after 2050 the central and southwestern parts of the US will probably shift to conditions that will make them susceptible to decade-long droughts. The researchers also found that if current climate change rates are unchanged, there's an 85% chance that a 35-year-long drought will occur in those regions.
Court ruling: Journalists must not treat a scientist as “unavoidable road kill on the highway of public controversy”
Nature: Every few years the Higher Education Funding Council for England assesses the value of the research performed by the UK’s universities. The 2014 audit required that universities explain the impact of their research efforts through case studies that would account for 20% of their grade; the council received nearly 7000 of them. At the request of Nature, Paul Ginsparg of Cornell University performed a statistical analysis of the words used and found some predictable results, such as the frequent use of "research" and "impact." Other words used often were "development," "policy," and "health." Ginsparg noted a correlation between high assessment scores and the frequent use of words such as "million," "market," "government," "major," and "global." He also found a similar correlation between low scores and the repeated use of words such as "conference," "university," "academic," and "project." That could suggest that language used to show the research’s economic impact was more appealing to the graders.
Ars Technica: Many of the stars in the Milky Way coexist in binary, trinary, or larger systems. Despite the number of such systems, not much is known about their formation. New images of a star-forming area in the Perseus region have revealed the presence of a 0.1-solar-mass protostar surrounded by three other clusters of material, referred to as condensations, that are all likely to become protostars in the next 40 000 years. The condensations are connected to each other and to the protostar by filaments of gas that stretch across distances of up to 10 000 AU. Observations of the system revealed that the protostar and the condensations were barely moving relative to each other, which indicates that the regions are all gravitationally bound to each other. Whether the arrangement will actually evolve into a four-star system is not clear, but its existence supports the theory that gravitationally entangled stars can form from the same cloud of gas, rather than forming separately and only becoming entangled when they cross paths.
The Guardian: Researchers led by Emmanuel Virot of CNRS in Paris believe that they have an explanation for the popping sounds of popcorn. They combined high-speed cameras and audio recordings of popping kernels to show that the pop is not from the cracking of the kernel shells. Instead, the shape of the kernel serves as an acoustic resonator and causes the release of pressurized vapors to create the audible pop. A similar effect causes the pop of champagne corks. The team also found that the kernels pop when the vapor reaches 180 °C and that the "jump" of the pop occurs when starch in the kernel expands into the fluffy leaves that give popped corn its appearance.
BBC: Earlier today, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) atop a Vega rocket from French Guiana. The IXV will reach an altitude of 450 km before descending. The primary mission is a test of re-entry control systems on the wedge-shaped vehicle. The ESA has limited experience with returning vehicles to Earth and hopes to incorporate the knowledge gained from the launch into future craft.
Nature: A report by the US National Research Council (NRC) says that none of the plans put forward to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide through geoengineering are likely to be effective. The report provides an official stance for the government regarding a field that the NRC calls "climate intervention" because other names imply a level of knowledge and ability that does not exist. Several proposed plans to change the atmosphere's reflectivity to directly alter Earth's climate were rejected as too risky; information about the full effects of such plans is lacking. In contrast, plans for carbon capture and storage were considered not particularly risky. However, the report considers the technology to be too new, expensive, inefficient, and damaging to the environment in other ways to be truly effective at reducing CO2 levels significantly in the near term.
Sydney Morning Herald: Karen Andrews, parliamentary secretary to the minister for industry and science, has called for a national focus on STEM education. She said the government would be considering a range of proposals in the quest to establish a national strategy for advancing scientific innovation. Australia's current economy is heavily dependent on mining and industries that will likely shrink significantly in the next 40 years. Andrews says a shift to a science- and technology-oriented economy could strengthen the country going forward.
Science: The Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru serves as a record of the tropical region's wet and dry seasons, which can be easily traced in the alternating layers of clean and dusty snow compacted in the glacier. A study of ice cores by Paolo Gabrielli of the Ohio State University and his colleagues has also revealed details about air pollution in the region over time. Around 1400 CE, the Incas began mining and smelting silver, which released lead and other materials into the atmosphere. Gabrielli's team found that, between 1450 and 1900, levels of lead in the ice cores doubled and concentrations of antimony increased 3.5 times. The researchers believe the largest contributor was the Potosí silver mine operated by the Spanish, who came to South America in the 16th century. Air pollution decreased slightly during the 1800s, perhaps due to the South American wars of independence and the economic downturns that accompanied them. However, pollution levels increased drastically between 1900 and 1989 as mining expanded to copper and molybdenum and the number of automobiles multiplied. In that period, silver levels in the ice cores tripled, copper and lead levels doubled, and molybdenum levels increased more than twofold.
Ars Technica: In Canadian law, libel is defined as the publication of statements that are factually inaccurate and that damage "the plaintiff's reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person." A Canadian court has held that several pieces published by Toronto's National Post libeled climate scientist Andrew Weaver. The judge found that the paper misrepresented Weaver's statements and activities regarding climate change. As punishment, the Post will have to remove all the offending posts from its website and pay a fine of C$50 000 ($39 500). The paper avoided further penalty by removing the libelous reader comments.