Each week, BIV staff will share with you some of the interesting stories we have found from around the web.
Kirk LaPointe, publisher/editor-in-chief:
Two exceptional tales about the virologist who discovered asymptomatic coronavirus, but the world wouldn’t listen. How the world missed the story. – Wired and The New York Times.
https://www.wired.com/story/nathan-wolfe-global-economic-fallout-pandemic-insurance/
Fretting about investment? Some simpler moves might navigate the gyrations of the market. – The New York TImes
Are shopping malls ever returning to their glory? The outlook is rather grim. – The Walrus
https://thewalrus.ca/shopping-malls-might-not-be-coming-back/
Timothy Renshaw, managing editor:
Add this to your 21st century anxiety inventory: the rapidly rising dark art of cybercrime. – National Institute of Standards and Technology
https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/cybercrime-its-worse-we-thought
Some help, perhaps, in the global initiative to reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector: the International Transport Forum has just released its transport climate action directory for public use. It includes a wide range of options to help decision makers with viable ways to decarbonize transportation in their jurisdictions. They/we need all the help we can get in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, which emits an estimated 23% of the world's energy-related CO2
Emma Crawford Hampel, online editor:
I had no idea crabs had anything to do with vaccines. Apparently they do – quite a bit, in fact. Horseshoe crab blood is key to making a COVID-19 vaccine, but the ecosystem may suffer. – National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/07/covid-vaccine-needs-horseshoe-crab-blood/
Mark Falkenberg, deputy managing editor
One of the big hurdles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is air travel – jet engines are megapolluters. A Chinese discovery may offer a way to solve the problem. Researchers have developed a prototype design for a jet engine that uses microwave air plasmas, powered by electricity instead of fossil fuel – UPI
When my wife sent me a link to this story about “giant vampire anchovies,” I assumed it was a gag, but no. Scientists say new research into a pair of fossils reveals that the tiny modern plankton-noshing fish had sabre-toothed ancestors, too big to end up on any pizza and prone to using their outsized fangs to snag other fish as prey. – Global
https://globalnews.ca/news/6943277/sabre-tooth-anchovy-vampire/
