Short Takes – 7-28-24

A new dashboard underscores the severity of the logjam that’s plagued the agency since February. NextGov.com article. Pull quote: ““We’ve observed that the number of vulnerabilities have been going up.” Said Bryan Cowan, a product owner and security researcher at Fortress who’s overseen the dashboard’s development. Since Analygence was brought on to untangle the backlog, marginal improvements have been made to the analysis process, but it’s not clear at this point if that assessment rate will increase, he said.”

Vaccines in US stockpile may protect against current H5N1 virus strain. CEN.ACS.org article. Pull quote: ““This data shows that at least a good percentage of people who were vaccinated with those vaccines induced antibodies that, at least theoretically, would provide some protection against the 2.3.4.4b viruses,” says Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital who was not involved in the research. “I think it’s really good news. It suggests that those older stockpile vaccines are still useful.””

NASA Did Not Say It Found Life on Mars. But It’s Very Excited About This Rock. NYTimes.com article (free). Pull quote: “The rock, which scientists named Cheyava Falls, possesses features that are reminiscent of what microbes might have left behind when this area was warm and wet several billion years ago, part of an ancient river delta. The scientists clarified that they did not spot anything that they thought might be actual fossilized organisms.”

Fast charging supercapacitors. ChemistryWorld.com article. Long read. Pull quote: “This transition has already begun, Dunn says. ‘Electric vehicle circuit designers are not waiting around for one material to do everything, they are already combining supercapacitors with batteries to optimise performance,’ he says. Whether the ultimate device combines supercapacitors and batteries at the device level or the material level remains to be seen, he adds. ‘But that’s why you investigate materials.’”