Science News Roundup: NASA probe leaking asteroid samples after hearty collection; Wildfire smoke may help virus spread, mouthwash helps curb it and more

Wildfire smoke likely helped to spread COVID-19 Test and trace works better when numbers are low: UK science adviser England's test and trace scheme needs improvement and it is hard to run an effective system when there are large and increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, UK chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Thursday.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 24-10-2020 18:41 IST | Created: 24-10-2020 18:29 IST
Science News Roundup: NASA probe leaking asteroid samples after hearty collection; Wildfire smoke may help virus spread, mouthwash helps curb it and more
Representative image Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Japan PM's meddling in science panel a 'dangerous direction': scholars

Scholars excluded from Japan's top science advisory panel said the move was unconstitutional and a dangerous sign of how newly installed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will wield power. Suga broke precedent in rejecting membership to six scholars to the Science Council of Japan (SCJ), a body set up after World War Two to provide independent scientific input for policy-making.

NASA probe leaking asteroid samples after hearty collection

The U.S. probe that collected a sample from an asteroid earlier this week retrieved so much material that a rock is wedged in the container door, allowing rocks to spill back out into space, NASA officials said on Friday. The robotic arm of the probe, OSIRIS-REx, on Tuesday night kicked up a debris cloud of rocks on Bennu, a skyscraper-sized asteroid some 200 million miles (320 million km) from Earth and trapped the material in a collection device for the return to Earth.

Wildfire smoke may help virus spread, mouthwash helps curb it

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.

Wildfire smoke likely helped to spread COVID-19 Test and trace works better when numbers are low: UK science adviser

England's test and trace scheme needs improvement and it is hard to run an effective system when there are large and increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, UK chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said on Thursday. "It's undoubtedly the case that test trace and isolation becomes much more difficult to have an impact once numbers are high. So, it's much more effective when numbers are low," he said at a news conference.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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