July 30th marked the successful launch of a new NASA Mars mission, named “Perseverance”. The launch of this rover was preceded by two other space missions: the United Arab Emirates' “Hope”, and China's “Tianwen-1”. All three launches were able to take advantage of an alignment between the Earth and Mars that only occurs once every 26 months.
Even towards the end of September, it is still necessary to take precautions with regards to heat. While the summer is traditionally the season for iced drinks, paper fans, and fireworks, this year we encountered conditions that were far from normal. Specifically, an unusually long rainy season in July with low temperatures made many feel somewhat unprepared for the daily scorching real-feel temperatures above 30° that finally arrived in August.
Scientists worldwide are continuing to contribute to a rapidly growing repository of knowledge in efforts to combat COVID-19. In support of the rapid dissemination of relevant literature, many major publishers have already unlocked paywalls on papers relating to the novel coronavirus. However, one of the biggest questions in the academic publishing industry at the moment is whether the current trends in publishing will continue once the global emergency has ended.
Many countries in East Africa and Western Asia have been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic and famine. Unfortunately, these countries are facing another serious problem with locust swarms that are growing much worse every day. Locusts are insects that usually live alone, but can gather into huge groups called swarms. Locusts are herbivores that eat crops like grains and vegetables. In fact, a swarm of 40 million locusts can eat the same amount of food in a single day as 3 million people.
