The New Yorker: The Fall and Rise of Kamala Harris

The New Yorker: The Fall and Rise of Kamala Harris

By Dana Goodyear

    Joe Biden has fulfilled his pledge to choose a woman as his vice president, along with responding to many black women and the Black Lives Matter movement by choosing an African-Asian-American woman, the first ever on a VP ballot.

    This is just another first on Harris's list of firsts, starting from San Francisco all the way to state and Senate seats. In all of them, she was the first African American woman in her position. During the Democratic primary, she seemed confident that she could add presidency to her list as well. Unfortunately, her failure to provide a clear cut message to voters, along with her shaky record in the criminal justice reform movement, prevented her from getting voters. Her final moment of glory was in a Democratic debate when she grilled Biden over his opposition to buses in the 1970s, "That little girl was me." That left the two in an awkward position should she be considered for vice president.

    However, Biden's acceptance of that and choosing her anyway fit into his whole narrative of broadening perspectives, and it worked out in the end.

Air and Space: How Many Drones Are Smuggling Drugs Across the U.S. Southern Border?

Air and Space: How Many Drones Are Smuggling Drugs Across the U.S. Southern Border?

By Tim Wright

    Recently, drones have become a large part of illegal drug trade. Smugglers once used boats and low flying planes to cater drugs across the US-Mexico border. They could carry larger payloads but were easy to find and track. Drones, however, go undetected by most radar systems and can use predetermined flight patterns to prevent tracing.

    The drug-smuggling drones are called narcodrones and have only recently entered the picture as companies started selling commercial drones to the general public. Previously, they couldn't take much payload, but the new ones by companies like DJI can carry much more.

    Most radars operate on L and S frequencies which are fine for tracking big planes at high altitude. But these waves are too big to catch the small drones. To detect drones, X band frequencies must be used. But the problem with that is that they don't reflect well off non-metal objects, which is a problem as drone parts are replaced with cheaper composites.

    Furthermore, drones can sit and watch the border with cameras for hours until it is safe to go across. So what is the plan for stopping them? Jamming and spoofing, as well as drone shooting or collisions, which are regularly used by the military, are banned because the drones fly over civilian populations, and it could cause mayhem. The department in charge of the border actually doesn't have any plans right now, and this is a quickly evolving battle.

National Geographic: Nano needles. Facial recognition. Air travel adapts to make travel safer

National Geographic: Nano needles. Facial recognition. Air travel adapts to make travel safer

By Jackie Snow

    Airports and airlines were already looking into high tech devices to make air travel better. Now, the coronavirus has sped that up. Robots that would have wandered around airports for several hours using water and disinfectant have now incorporated UV-C light to kill the virus. This is also good for the human staff because it lets them go to other places that require sanitization. There are also more complex robots that use Roomba like systems to map their routes and avoid obstacles.

    Touchless technology sped up lines. Now, they can help prevent virus transmission by reducing the number of times you have to take out your identification and show it to someone. Face recognition that uses unique facial features can identify people even with a mask on, but there are security concerns over the technology. Mobile apps can also be used to help enforce social distancing and do remote check ins.

    Health screening with those no-touch thermometers are becoming standard. But because these don't detect non-symptomatic people, there are more advanced technologies that can detect respiration rates and heart rate. They aren't COVID-19 tests, but they are better than the traditional thermometers. Some Chinese airports also have a negative pressure pod that does a 40 second treatment with "'nano needles,' photocatalyst technology, and a sanitizing spray."

    Plus, flight attendants have new PPE uniforms. However, many airlines still treat uniforms as a sort of fashion, drawing criticism that valuable supplies are being wasted.

TedEd: The last living members of an extinct species

A TedEd by Jan Stejskal

Nájin and Fatu, who live in the savannahs of Kenya, are the last remaining members of their species, the northern white rhinoceros. Unfortunately, they are both female, meaning the species is functionally extinct because they cannot reproduce. But what if we could still save them? About 50 years ago, poachers began illegally killing thousands of these animals for their horns. The northern white rhino population quickly shrank, and panicked researchers tried to breed them in captivity. Nájin and Fatu are the last two remaining from the total of 4 bred in captivity. Neither can have a calf due to medical issues. In 2018, Sudan, the last male of their speices, died. The only hope is artificial breeding from stored semen. First, eggs would have to be removed from a sedated rhino in a procedure that takes up to 2 hours. Then, the cells would be used to create an embryo in a lab, which no one knew how to do. Then, a surrogate mother in another species would have to bear the calf. The southern white rhino, which is a closely related species that diverged from their northern counterparts a million years ago, could work. Researchers experimented with southern rhino eggs and discovered a way to create an embryo in an Italian lab. In 2018~19, Nájin and Fatu's eggs were sent there, and 3 viable embryos were created and frozen for later use. Researchers will continue taking eggs three times a year. When a good surrogate southern rhino mother is found, she would be injected with the embryo. It helps that the two species have similar pregnancy lengths. If this works, researchers hope to create a breeding population with genetic diversity from a century ago over the next few decades. This opens up more questions. Humans have driven many animals to the brink of extinction. Is it our duty to bring them back, and how far should we go to do it?