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Georgia Tech
The science of the snap
The first systematic analysis of finger snapping reveals that the process depends on the friction of human skin, which acts as a ‘latch’ to control the resulting high velocities and accelerations. Researchers used high-speed imaging and force sensors to watch volunteers click their fingers while wearing a variety of finger coverings. People couldn’t snap when gloves were too slippery or too sticky, and the skin had to be soft enough to deform a bit, too. Biophysicist Saad Bhamla was inspired by a pivotal plot point in an Avengers movie to dig deep into the physics of snapping. “I was like, no way can Thanos snap with that Infinity Gauntlet,” he says.
NPR | 3 min read & Nature Research Highlight | 2 min read, Nature paywall
Reference: Journal of the Royal Society Interface paper
Switzerland donates spot in vaccines queue
Switzerland is the first country to respond to a call to trade places with the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative in manufacturers’ supply queues. One million doses of the Moderna vaccine originally destined for Switzerland will instead be made available to COVAX later this year, which could boost desperately needed distribution in lower-income nations. Switzerland will then take COVAX’s place in the queue, and receive these doses later in 2022. Reuters reports that the country’s voluntary vaccination campaign has stalled, with just over 65% of the population fully vaccinated.
US braces for ‘fifth wave’ of COVID
Health-care leaders in the United States warn that Thanksgiving-holiday travel and social mixing might have dangerous consequences in a country made vulnerable by low vaccination rates in some areas, the politicization of public-health measures and rising complacency about the disease. “We are preparing for the absolute worst,” said Andrew Jameson, an infectious-disease physician at a hospital in Michigan, where daily case numbers have almost doubled since the start of November. “We are exhausted. It’s hard.”
The Financial Times | 5 min read
Features & opinion
Research integrity: stop the blame game
“If the quality of every scientist’s work could be made just a little better, then the aggregate impact on research integrity would be enormous,” says neurologist Malcolm Macleod. As the academic lead for research improvement and research integrity at the University of Edinburgh, UK, he has concentrated on research improvement rather than researcher accountability. He shares ideas for how institutions can encourage broad, incremental improvements that focus on helping every scientist to improve, rather than ferreting out a few frauds.
What we can never know
There are limits to human knowledge. The speed of light puts a boundary on how far we can travel and what we can observe. But not all limits are physical, notes science writer Ryan Mandelbaum. Some scientific questions are so big that people might not ever gather the financial and political will to answer them.
