This is a fascinating read from The Bulletin of the Atoimc Scientists – A ‘plague’ comes before the fall: lessons from Roman history. How and why it happened and what parallels are applicable today.
This highly cited article – Pandemics Throughout History – merits a perusal.
There are too many to individually highlight, so here are some sites that aggregate them:
Solar Eclipse: Stories from the Path of Totality;
Royal Observatory Greenwich: Solar Expeditions;
Royal Society (Dozens of reports). And here you will find contributions by the famed explorer James Cook: An observation of an eclipse of the Sun at the Island of New-found-land, August 5, 1766, by Mr. James Cook, with the longitude of the place of observation deduced from it: Communicated by J. Bevis, M. D. F. R. S. and his co-authored report Observations made, by appointment of the Royal Society, at King George’s Island in the South Sea [1771].
Founders Online: Eclipse (letters from such luminaries as Jefferson, Franklin, Washington on eclipses); and
This NASA feature highlights the contributions/activities of female astronauts; linked biographies provide additional information.
Also, consult the NASA Technical Reports Server for numerous publications on women in space and the sciences.
The Association for Women in Science hosts Celebrating Pioneering Women In Science paying particular attention to women of color. Biographies along with supplemental links provide overviews of each individual’s achievements in their respective fields.
Annual Reviews “is a nonprofit publisher dedicated to synthesizing and integrating knowledge for the progress of science and the benefit of society.” (about) To that end, it disseminates annual tomes in a wide variety of scientific topics ranging from analytical chemistry to vision science. Each volume contains articles that:
Capture current understanding of a topic, including what is well supported and what is controversial;Set the work in historical context; Highlight the major questions that remain to be addressed and the likely course of research in upcoming years;and Outline the practical applications and general significance of research to society. (about)
The articles are highly supported with secondary literature featuring both past and current research and act as a synthetic guide to the literature. As an added bonus, many of these reviews feature long runs of open access volumes that can be found here.
Another useful feature is the Article Collection Archives that provides interdiscplinary examinations of such current topics as Climate Change and Human Behavior and AI, Machine Learning, and Society.
According to this interactive fall foliage prediction map for the contiguous United States, New Jersey’s peak season will be around October 16. You can also see where the colors will be most vibrant in other states as well. Scroll down in the above site for more interesting facts about fall foliage.
With so many moon landings planned for this year, now is an ideal time to read The Artemis Accords, a document for the peaceful civil exploration of space and signed by almost thirty nations. Based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, “The principles set out in these Accords are intended to apply to civil space activities conducted by the civil space agencies of each Signatory. These activities may take place on the Moon, Mars, comets, and asteroids, including their surfaces and subsurfaces, as well as in orbit of the
Moon or Mars, in the Lagrangian points for the Earth-Moon system, and in transit between these
celestial bodies and locations.” (4)
An informative overview and a brief bibliography can be found here.
FYI, Artemis is the sister of Apollo as the Artemis Program is related to the Apollo Program.
This ongoing project – The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein – now has sixteen volumes online, taking us to May 1929. There are two works per volume, one presents the papers in German while there is also an accompanying supplement with the documents rendered into English. Almost thirty institutions’ libraries/archives were searched to provide as full an enumeration as possible of his writings.
This feature from the Library of Congress, takes the volume including 1905 (The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, vol. 2: The Swiss Years: Writings 1900-1909, Princeton University Press, 1990. English translation supplement) and presents four of his seminal papers written in that year.
According to this article from Nature – Warning of a forthcoming collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation – the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (of which the Gulf Stream is a major part) could be severely disrupted by the effects greenhouse gasses (increased freshwater melting from the Arctic) sooner than the IPCC prediction of 2100; the newer models have it collapsing mid-century.
What are the consequences of this? An abrupt climate change, which is what we are talking about, would result in “… an ice age in Europe and sea-level rise in cities such as Boston and New York, as well as more potent storms and hurricanes along the East Coast.” (USA Today) The Union of Concerned Scientists postulates that “The rising sea levels will impact coastal communities as flooding happens more often and damage from coastal storms becomes more severe. Some regions will become much drier, while others will become much wetter, affecting agriculture, water supply, and the spread of diseases. “
While the Nature article is highly technical, here is an accessible explanation of it: A crucial system of ocean currents is heading for a collapse that ‘would affect every person on the planet’ from CNN.
Additional information on climate change can be found here at the National Academies.
With major climatic upheavals being witnessed throughout the world, especially the rising heat and flooding rains, this relevant article from The Guardian – From climate change ‘certainty’ to rapid decline: a timeline of IPCC reports – comes none too soon. It traces the publication of the IPCC reports and special reports over a thrity-year timeframe as well as offering a brief summary of each one. We have ignored these scientific releases for far too long; we have too many climate deniers in high places.
And if the dire predictions in these reports were not sufficient enough to change minds, this just-released study – Extreme heat in North America, Europe and China in July 2023 made much more likely by climate change – baldly states that “Without human induced climate change these heat events would however have been extremely rare.”
This can be further reinforced by this July 18, 2023 document Simultaneous heatwaves hit northern hemisphere in summer of extremes from the World Meteorological Organization that states that what is presently occurring is the “new normal”.
We in the Northeast of late have encountered unprecedented atmospheric perturbations due to Canadian wildfires. But what we have experienced pales in comparison to the aftereffects of a nuclear exchange. Imagine what we have gone through magnified over decades. Such is the scenario first presented in the 1983 Long-Term Biological Consequences of Nuclear War, a groundbreaking examination authored by some of the world’s most respected scientists, among them Carl Sagan. What is explained in the article is what is termed “nuclear winter“.
I count myself in this group. If, when you are watching the Weather Channel, you encounter a word or phrase you are not familiar with, then peruse the Glossary of Meteorology produced by the American Meteorological Society; it contains thousands of definitions enhanced by graphics, links, and references to open full text material.
As if that is not enough, the AMS also offers free access to the following: its annual review, State of the Climate; numerous open articles from its Journals Online feature; entry into its Special Collections site that focuses on thematic topics; and the ability to read other publications as outlined here.
It makes sense to have standardized terminology when discussing matters of grave importance. To that end, the Genome Editing Vocabulary was established in late 2021. Here are terms/definitions/syndetic structures that will enable researchers to communicaticate using a systematic nomenclature.
NASA has released the first photos from the James Space Webb Telescope that sees in the infrared spectrum. These images include galaxies from 13 billion years ago (measured in millions of parsecs); newly-formed stars, and planetary nebula. These releases signal a deeper examination of the universe and its mysteries.
The NAS is pushing for a transparent, independent inquiry based on the facts that much of the data gathered by the intelligence community has not been made public, and that the NIH (National Institutes of Health) has not been forthcoming with the information it gleaned from its own research.
To quote:
This lack of an independent and transparent US-based scientific investigation has had four highly adverse consequences. First, public trust in the ability of US scientific institutions to govern the activities of US science in a responsible manner has been shaken. Second, the investigation of the origin of SARS-CoV-2 has become politicized within the US Congress (5); as a result, the inception of an independent and transparent investigation has been obstructed and delayed. Third, US researchers with deep knowledge of the possibilities of a laboratory-associated incident have not been enabled to share their expertise effectively. Fourth, the failure of NIH, one of the main funders of the US–China collaborative work, to facilitate the investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 (4) has fostered distrust regarding US biodefense research activities.
“Special Features in PNAS are curated collections of articles that explore significant topics in areas of interest to PNAS readers and make important contributions to the science and literature.” Many of these are interdisciplinary in nature and explore such diverse topics as Dynamics of Political Polarization to Antimicrobial Resistance and the Role of Vaccines. The articles in each topical collection are buttressed with charts, graphs, figures, and a bibliography; in many cases, the articles are accompanied by prompts leading to additional readings that were published after these special issues were disseminated.
There are a number of oral history programs covering the vast domain of NASA. These interviews, well over 1,000 and counting, include astronauts, administrators, even lawyers who were employed by the programs. Some individuals are the subject of more than one interview; most individuals also have a biographical link. The informal tone of the questions, and their responses, lends an air of authenticity to these documents.
From the news release: “A new decadal survey from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies scientific priorities, opportunities, and funding recommendations for the next 10 years of astronomy and astrophysics. The report presents a visionary plan for the field to pursue discovery and exploration of habitable planets, enhance understanding of the dynamic and changing universe, and study what drives the formation of galaxies. It recommends an ambitious program of investments to strengthen the profession, change how large strategic space missions are developed and matured, and achieve broad scientific capabilities.”
Here is interactive overview of this report.
Dire predictions on the rapid acceleration of climate change are detailed in the AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis from the IPCC. It has gotten so bad that even if measures are immediately instituted to mitigate the carbon emissions, it will take decades before the planet reaches a new equilibrium. We have little time to correct the downward spiral we are now in. The full report, all 4000 pages – is available here. A more manageable summary – 42 pages – is also online.
Reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post provide succinct overviews of the situation.
The National Geographic Resource Library is a vast cornucopia of encycloedia entries, infographics, collections, maps, photographs, etc that can be filtered by grade level. By limiting your choice to “articles”, one calls up encyclopedia entries on a vast number of scientific topics; each entry has links to explain terminology/definitions and most end with linked further reading, whether from newspaper article, government site, or verified websites.
Easy to navigate and pleasing on the eye, this site offers a wealth of information distilled into very understandable presentations. A lot of work was done to put this resource together; one should take advantage of it.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 