Short Takes – 7-25-24

How SpaceX Will Turn a Workhorse Vehicle into a Hulking Destroyer of Space Stations. SCientificAmerican.com article. Pull quote: “In addition to nearly tripling the number of engines of a typical Dragon, SpaceX’s plan calls for the deorbit vehicle to launch with some 16,000 kilograms (about 35,000 pounds) of propellant. That’s six times more than a standard Dragon, said Sarah Walker, director of Dragon mission management at SpaceX, during the press conference.”

How the Nutrition Facts Label Has Changed Food in the U.S. TheConversation.com article. Pull quote: “Surprisingly, the Nutrition Facts label’s greatest impact may have been driving the food industry to reformulate products to achieve appealing nutrient profiles – even if consumers weren’t closely reading the labels. While envisioned as an education tool, I believe the Nutrition Facts label in practice has worked more like a market infrastructure, reshaping the food supply to meet shifting dietary trends and public health goals long before consumers find those foods at the supermarket.”

From Iron Dome to Cyber Dome: Defending Israel’s Cyberspace. IDSA.in article. Pull quote: “The cyber-dome initiative fundamentally constitutes an active defence encompassing enhanced detection, investigation and mitigation of threats along with the expansion of existing information-sharing mechanisms. The coordinated detection and response efforts involving all agencies, including the IDF, underscore the importance of collaborative action in an interconnected domain. The centralised, real-time and AI-enabled system proactively protecting Israeli cyberspace is an extension of its national and international cybersecurity strategy.”

A New Way to Make Element 116 Opens the Door to Heavier Atoms. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “If discovered, element 120 would be the heaviest atom created and would sit on the eighth row of the periodic table. It falls on the shores of the “island of stability,” a theorized group of superheavy elements with unique properties. While the superheavy elements discovered so far break apart almost instantaneously, the right combination of protons and neutrons could create a more stable nucleus that survives for longer – giving researchers a better chance to study it. Exploring elements at the extremes can provide insights into how atoms behave, test models of nuclear physics, and map out the limits of atomic nuclei.”

Mini lungs make major COVID-19 discoveries possible. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “In another surprising result, Leibel, Snyder and team discovered that the mini lungs have their own intrinsic “first response” system in reaction to sensing SARS-CoV-2. Even though the mini lungs lack any connection to an immune system, this study shows that lung cells can initiate many of the same biologic and cell signaling changes in response to a viral threat that are observed when the immune system is present.”

Using AI, CIPHER bird flu study shows greater antibody evasion in newer H5N1 strains. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “According to the study, virus mutations related to “host-shifts” from birds to mammals had a statistically significant negative impact on the ability of antibodies to bind to and fight off H5N1. Researchers also found that based on the wide variety of host species and geographic locations in which H5N1 was observed to have been transmitted from birds to mammals, there does not appear to be a single central reservoir host species or location associated with H5N1’s spread. This indicates that the virus is well on its way to moving from epidemic to pandemic status in the near future.”