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OPINION: FAKE NEWS ABOUT THE CORONA VIRUS AND SCIENCE IN GENERAL

By Marc Schiltz

The news about the Corona Virus epidemic is making many people hold their breath on a daily basis. A theory has been spreading on social media that the virus did not – as assumed – start on a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, but that it was created in a lab where scientists experimented with viruses. The ‘theory’ is that something went wrong with their experiment and this led to the virus. Despite no foundation for this claim, it is spreading like fire, like the virus itself.

The internet and social networks pose a new and difficult challenge for dealing with information. Scientific studies have shown that false information spreads on social media up to ten times faster than truthful information, and that false information tends to reach a wider number of users.

Then there is the phenomenon of “social robots”: robots deployed on social media to spread information in a way where it appears they are real users. A recent study indicated that one quarter of the tweets about climate change were posted by such robots, with the majority devoid of any scientific foundation. This proportion was higher in certain topics—robots were responsible for 38% of tweets about “fake science” and 28% of all tweets about the petroleum giant Exxon.

Science struggles with Fake News. Most of the time, Fake News are short and very objective. On the other hand, Scientific and medical articles are long and complex. Still, science must try to fight back– for example what the WHO is trying to do with information about the Corona Virus epidemic.

One avenue is to get more visibility, for example by bringing science together with ‘influencers’, supporting science journalists, or increasing the communication coming directly from the scientists. Science actors can also create their

own platforms with large visibility – as Luxembourg has done with science.lu.

It is clear – it will be a great challenge to limit the spread of Fake News and pseudo-science, just like the Corona Virus.

Glossary: spread: espalhar; foundation: fundamento; deployed: implantados; devoid: desprovido(a); struggles: luta

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ARE VIRUSES ALIVE?

For about 100 years, the scientific community has repeatedly changed its collective mind over what viruses are. First seen as poisons, then as lifeforms, then biological chemicals, viruses today are thought of as being in a gray area between living and nonliving: they cannot replicate on their own but can do so in truly living cells and can also affect the behavior of their hosts profoundly. Finally, however, scientists are beginning to appreciate viruses as fundamental players in the history of life.

To Be or Not to Be

The seemingly simple question of whether or not viruses are alive, which my students often ask, has probably defied a simple answer all these years because it raises a fundamental issue: What exactly defines “life?” A precise scientific definition of life is an elusive thing, but most observers would agree that life includes certain qualities in addition to an ability to replicate. For example, a living entity is in a state bounded by birth and death. Living organisms also are thought to require a degree of biochemical autonomy, carrying on the metabolic activities that produce the molecules and energy needed to sustain the organism. This level of autonomy is essential to most definitions.

Viruses, however, parasitize essentially all biomolecular aspects of life. That is, they depend on the host cell for the raw materials and energy necessary for nucleic acid synthesis, protein synthesis, processing and transport, and all other biochemical activities that allow the virus to multiply and spread. One might then conclude that even though these processes come under viral direction, viruses are simply nonliving parasites of living metabolic systems.

A página Greengo Dictionary apresenta, em inglês, interpretações bem-humoradas de expressões do português do Brasil.

Muere el astronauta Michael Collins, uno de los tres miembros del Apolo 11

Miami (EE.UU.) / El histórico vuelo del Apolo 11, la primera misión de aterrizaje lunar en 1969, perdió este miércoles a su piloto, el astronauta Michael Collins, quien murió a los 90 afios después de batallar contra un cancer.

“Collins escribió y ayudó a contar la historia de los notables logros de nuestra nación en el espacio”, manifestó e! presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden.

Con su fallecimiento, el único sobreviviente de la hazafia en suelo marciano es el astronauta Buzz Aldrin, quien lamentó hoy la pérdida de su compafero.

“Querido Mike, dondequiera que hayas estado o estés, siempre tendrás el fuego para llevarnos habilmente a nuevas alturas”, expresó el astronauta.

Neil Armstrong. el otro de los pioneros de la Luna, murió a los 82 afios en 2012 debido a complicaciones tras someterse a una cirugia.

En julio de 1969 alrededor de un millón de personas se congregaron en Cabo Cafiaveral, en Florida, para presenciar el lanzamiento del Apolo 11 con los tres astronautas.

Armstrong y Aldrin fueron los primeros humanos en pisar la superficie lunar. A diferencia de ellos, Collins nunca caminó sobre la Luna pero pilotó el módulo de comando.

“Puede que no haya recibido la misma gloria, pero fue un socio igualitario, lo que le recordó a nuestra nación la importancia de la colaboración al servicio de las grandes metas”, manifestó el presidente Biden.

Desde Miami para la Agencia EFE, Ivonne Malaver. (29 de abril de 2021, EFE/Practica Espariol)

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Tower of London’s “queen” raven Merlina missing

Merlina, who joined the flock in 2007, has not been seen for several weeks.

The Tower usually has six ravens at any time and, according to legend, if they ever leave then both the fortress and the kingdom will fall. There are currently seven in residence.

A spokesman said Merlina’s “continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away”.

He added: “Merlina was our undisputed ruler of the roost, queen of the Tower ravens. She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the ravenmaster, and all of us in the Tower community.”

Ravenmaster Christopher Skaife said he would be taking some time to mourn Merlina, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

“I know so many of you lovely folk will be saddened by this news,” he said in a social media statement. “None more than me. Please excuse my absence for a few days.”

Tower staff added that they had no immediate plans to replace Merlina. Charles II is believed to have been the first monarch to officially decree that the birds must be kept at the Tower at all times.

When numbers fell to just a single raven guard, Winston Churchill ordered that the flock — known as an “unkindness” — was increased to at least six.

In 2018 the Tower launched a raven breeding programme after Historic Royal Palaces warned it was becoming “increasingly difficult” to source the birds.

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O uso do modo imperativo deve ser feito cuidadosamente por se tratar de uma forma direta.

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Consumption is in the very nature of living. To live is to consume. But it becomes excessive when it extends beyond what is needed. Our Earth produces enough resources to meet all of our needs, but it does not produce enough resources to meet all of our wants. And whether you consider yourself an environmentalist or not, it is difficult to argue with the fact that consuming more resources than the earth can replace is not a healthy trend, especially when it is completely unnecessary.

THE THINGS THAT MAKE US WHO WE ARE

Our cultural values get baked into the materials we create, changing humanity along the way

Humans spend a lot of time and effort making stuff. At last count, humanity has created more than 100,000 different materials from which we build our cities, our clothing, our smartphones, our world. Without our stuff, we would be naked, vulnerable, and, arguably, not very human. The question of how much of our humanity is due to this material wealth and how our cultural values are baked into the materials we create is the subject of Ainissa Ramirez’s fascinating new treatise, The Alchemy of Us.[…] The book’s central thesis is that we make materials and materials make us. […]

Ramirez’s meditation on the materials that have facilitated community (“share”) is particularly illuminating. Here, she writes about the phonograph’s impact on how music was enjoyed. The ability to record music meant that the experience of listening to it no longer had to be a communal one. […] – but it also opened up uncharted horizons. The recordings allowed a cross-fertilization of musical culture between jazz, blues, and rock and roll, even as the musicians themselves remained segregated by race politics.

On the subject of race and racial discrimination, Ramirez argues that a society that is racist will reflect racism in the substances that it makes. For example, photographic film, she writes, was largely developed by white people for white people. Because dark skin absorbs more light than white skin, early photographs of black people were often underexposed, rendering images that were barely recognizable. […]

Ramirez is particularly keen to debunk the idea that materials arise from flashes of insight experienced by extraordinary individuals, instead painting a picture of a diverse range of people from all walks of life driven by love, passion, and intellect. The culture of innovation, she maintains, does not belong only to privileged elites, it can be found in all those who care enough to reinvent the material world and, as a result, themselves.

The phenomenon E-democracy [electronic democracy] is well known and well used in Sweden. E-democracy is a solution that makes it easier for the population to vote or to participate in different questions, or just to make themselves heard. E-democracy is used a lot of municipalities as a simple way for the inhabitants to participate in the local debate. E-democracy is often argued as a tool that makes participation more available for everyone.

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A good CV