Free Republic

Had COVID? You might want to clean your freezer out. A new study suggests that cousins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can survive on frozen meat and fish for up to 30 days. The research -- prompted by COVID outbreaks in Asia in which packaged meat was suspected as the virus' source -- was conducted on frozen chicken, beef, pork and salmon. The findings were published recently in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology. "Although you might not store meat in the fridge for 30 days, you might store it in the freezer for that...

In 1958, a combine carrying a full load of freshly harvested crops might weigh 8,800 pounds (4000 kg). Today, a fully loaded combine can clock in at 80,000 pounds (36,000 kg). The story of increasingly large farm vehicles isn't necessarily bad. The invention of these huge machines — along with advances like new fertilizers and genetically modified crops — mean that today's farmers can grow far more food than ever before. But there's reason to worry that equipment manufacturers have begun pushing the envelope too far. In a paper published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal PNAS, researchers show that farm...

For too long, sunlight reflection has been the third rail of climate change politics, a relegation that has severely crippled its basic research and discussion in diplomatic circles. This situation, however, is starting to change as the devastating implications of a fast-warming planet become impossible to ignore. Today, the Council on Foreign Relations released a new Special Report on the topic: Reflecting Sunlight to Reduce Climate Risk: Priorities for Research and International Cooperation. It calls on the United States to launch a robust sunlight reflection research program and spearhead international negotiations to advance multilateral scientific assessments of and collective decision-making...