‘Persistent imbalance’ in ERC grants ‘undermines science’ - Times Higher Education

For dec­ades, dis­in­form­a­tion has thrived, even at the highest levels of gov­ern­ment. Some of its con­sequences are well doc­u­mented in the sci­entif­ic lit­er­at­ure. For example, it is known that expos­ure to mis­in­form­a­tion dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic con­trib­uted to increased vac­cine hes­it­ancy among a seg­ment of the pub­lic1,2. A recent review shows that con­spir­acy the­or­ies pro­mote the rejec­tion of cli­mate sci­ence3. This art­icle has also been pub­lished in our magazine 3.14 « Sci­ence under sus­pi­cion ». Down­load it here.

New simulations reveal why solar wind waves favor one side of Earth's magnetic shield and how the sun's magnetic field influences their location. Wind blowing across a lake raises waves. The same thing happens where the gas streaming off the sun slides past the outer edge of Earth’s magnetic field. Those waves are known to form on the flanks of that boundary, and the usual mental picture puts them on both sides at once. A new simulation suggests these waves favor one side. In a model of Earth’s magnetosphere run with the sun’s magnetic field pointing one way, the waves grew along the dawn flank and barely formed at dusk. When the field direction was reversed, the waves switched sides. In both simulations, they formed only in the northern hemisphere, which was tilted away from the sun. The study was conducted by Lauri Holappa and Jone Laitinen of the University of Oulu in Finland. The researchers also collaborated with Katariina Nykyri of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Brandon Burkholder of NASA Goddard. Waves on the shield’s edgeEarth sits inside a magnetic bubble that deflects most of what the sun throws at it, from the steady breeze to a full solar storm.