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With India charging toward full internet connectivity, the state of Kerala looks to lead the way. They are hoping to become the country’s first fully digital state. Every school is reportedly connected. Now the government is pushing to make sure everyone has access, including citizens below the country’s poverty line. http://bit.ly/35wEtFw
China has been vocal about shifting toward clean energy and reducing its reliance on coal. Only problem is that new data indicates that they’re going in the opposite direction and quickly. As per the Guardian, “countries reduced their capacity by 8GW in the 18 months to June because old plants were retired faster than new ones were built. But over the same period China increased its capacity by 42.9GW despite a global move towards cleaner energy sources and a pledge to limit the use of coal.” So it goes. http://bit.ly/33ausMp
The world’s plastic problem is a problem. Deep sea plastics are proving to be even more of an issue. http://bit.ly/2KPkxFT
With the increasing number of scientific papers being called out for either poorly constructed or even fabricated data, some universities have taken the logical step and have required their researchers to submit their papers to a third-party fact checking company before publishing. According to Nature, “amid rising concern about the quality and reproducibility of research, particularly in the biomedical sciences, a handful of European institutions have told Nature that they have now hired external companies or dedicated in-house experts to check research manuscripts.” Needless to say, there are many scientists who vehemently disagree with the practice. https://go.nature.com/35tXVT2
The future is now. People have been placed in suspended animation in a trial in the US. It is for medical purposes, unfortunately, and not for space travel. As per the Guardian, “The process involves rapidly cooling the brain to less than 10C by replacing the patient’s blood with ice-cold saline solution. Typically the solution is pumped directly into the aorta, the main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of the body.” Hope they can get the sci-fi version of suspended animation together before I get much older… http://bit.ly/2DcpAMa
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