The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021

From amazing firsts on Mars to the impacts of climate change on Earth, these science stories stood out as the most important of 2021 Photo illustration by Meilan Solly / Photos via Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons

Covid-19 dominated science coverage again in 2021, and deservedly so. The disease garnered two entries on this list of our picks for the most important science stories of the year. But other key discoveries and achievements marked the year in science too, and they deserve more attention. NASA and private companies notched firsts in space. 

Scientists discovered more about the existence of early humans. And researchers documented how climate change has impacted everything from coral reefs to birds. Covid-19 will continue to garner even more attention next year as scientists work to deal with new variants and develop medical advances to battle the virus. But before you let stories about those topics dominate your reading in 2022, it’s worth it to take a look back at the biggest discoveries and accomplishments of this past year. To that end, here are our picks for the most important science stories of 2021.

The Covid Vaccine Rollout Encounters Hurdles

A healthcare worker receives a vaccine in Miami, Florida. Almost 40 percent of the United States population hasn’t been fully vaccinated. Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Last year the biggest science story of the year was that scientists developed two mRNA Covid vaccines in record time. This year the biggest Covid story is that the rollout of those vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, and one other by Johnson and Johnson, haven’t made their way into a large proportion of the United States population and a significant portion of the world. 

As of this writing on December 21, roughly 73 percent of the U.S. population has received one dose, and roughly 61 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. An incomplete rollout allowed for a deadly summer surge, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. Experts pointed out that vaccination rates lagged due to widespread disinformation and misinformation campaigns. It didn’t help that some popular public figures—like Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, musician Nick Minaj, podcast host Joe Rogan and rapper Ice Cube—chose not to get vaccinated. 

Luckily, by November, U.S. health officials had approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as five, providing another barrier against the deadly disease’s spread, and Covid rates declined. But while the wall against the disease in the U.S. is growing, it is not finished. As cases surge as the Omicron variant spreads around the country, building that wall and reinforcing it with booster shots is critically important. In much of the rest of the world, the wall is severely lacking where populations haven’t been given decent access to the vaccine. 

Only 8 percent of individuals in low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and a WHO Africa report from this fall said that on that continent, less than 10 percent of countries would hit the goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of their citizens by the end of the year. Globally, less than 60 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The holes in vaccination coverage will allow the virus to continue to kill a large number of individuals, and allow an environment where possibly other dangerous variants can emerge.

Perseverance Notches Firsts on MarsNASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars to be retrieved on a future mission. NASA / JPL-Caltech

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Raining

Build Back Better

 

Lavender

STEM Education Crisis in the USA

How does the US rank in STEM education?

From 2015 to 2018, US students improved their international standing, according to PISA. In 2015, tenth-grade students ranked 35th in math and 17th in science; in 2018, tenth-grade students ranked 30th in math and 11th in science. Despite that, actual scores have remained stagnant for over a decade, said ECE.Jan 3, 2020

What could be the apparent reason for the current state of STEM education in the US? And how are we going to address the issue? Here, we look at some of the hurdles and how we can tackle them.

Sean Mathew bailed out of his physics degree from one of the top colleges in the US in his senior year. He had been the kind of student that most employers would love to hire. His scores were excellent and he had planned to be a theoretical physicist like his role model Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. But as Sean sat in his major class of 2016, he realized, he couldn’t relate his class theories to real-life problem solving skills. And when he looked at the curriculum, he didn’t see any respite. He was completely disillusioned.

So Sean, a 23-year-old, switched to international relations, where he says “classes are a lot more interesting”. Of his five friends at the college, two of them have followed in his footsteps. While the other two, who are still pursuing their course, plan to do business after they complete their degree.

Sean and his friends’ experience shows how some of the best performing students are getting disillusioned by the way engineering or STEM subjects are being taught in schools and colleges, where there is more focus on theory rather than in hands-on learning.

Their stories are not isolated. There are many like them who are switching to non-STEM subjects citing the same reason. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2019 there will be a requirement of 1.9 million STEM educated professionals in the US, but roughly 40 percent of students, who intend to do a major in STEM, end up switching to other subjects.


STEM crisis in the US: Is it for real?
“Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs.” – Obama




During his tenure, Obama had pushed for STEM education and endorsed for more public-private partnerships, more career training at community colleges and for more American innovation. And now, carrying his predecessor’s legacy forward and recognizing the importance of STEM education in enhancing a new generation of American workers, President Donald Trump had recently signed a memorandum for STEM education funding.

It’s true that the educators, policy makers, politicians, businesses are waking up to the importance of STEM today, but we all know that our nation had always had a shortage of STEM workforce.

According to the third annual US News/Raytheon 2016 STEM Index, US continues to have a shortage of STEM professionals despite an increase in the number of STEM degrees. A Census Bureau report shows that about 74 percent of college graduates with STEM degrees are opting for non-STEM jobs starting from law to education and social work.

This is certainly a bad news for employers who want to fill STEM vacancies. According to the US Department of Commerce, STEM graduates are the most in demand and earn higher salaries than their non-STEM counterparts. The demand for STEM professionals is growing as the US economy has transitioned to a more focused technological-based economy from an industrial-dependent economy.  READ MORE...

Community Walk

 

STEM Education in the USA

VISION STATEMENT

“All citizens can contribute to our nation’s progress and vibrancy. To be prepared for the STEM careers of the future, all learners must have an equitable opportunity to acquire foundational STEM knowledge. The STEM Education of the Future brings together our advanced understanding of how people learn with modern technology to create more personalized learning experiences, to inspire learning, and to foster creativity from an early age. It will unleash and harness the curiosity of young people and adult learners across the United States, cultivating a culture of innovation and inquiry, and ensuring our nation remains the global leader in science and technology discovery and competitiveness.”

Rapid technological advancements and societal changes are our daily reality. While the future of work, the economy, and society is uncertain, one thing is not: To maintain the nation’s leadership in science and technology discovery, we must create an approach to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education that prepares and advances the U.S. for this future.

Experts agree that science, technology, engineering and math will drive new innovations across disciplines, making use of computational power to accelerate discoveries and finding creative ways to work across disciplinary silos to solve big challenges. To remain competitive going forward, our nation must continue to design and build a thriving innovation economy, supported by a citizenry that is invested in the STEM enterprise. To succeed, the nation must invest in new research and innovation infrastructures that include all people, regardless of their background.

HOW DO WE ACHIEVE THIS VISION?

We instill creativity, innovation, and a passion for STEM from an early age, and we maintain that engagement and enthusiasm throughout their lives. Doing so will unleash an innovation culture, teaching learners of all ages to take risks, be creative, and problem-solve. Today, we are far from this goal. 

Many Americans are entering the workforce without a basic grasp of STEM facts and approaches. Equally worrisome, amid the stagnant or dipping numbers of U.S.-born STEM workers, there is a critical lack of women, people with disabilities and African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans who remain underrepresented in STEM. This underrepresentation is especially evident in several strategic areas critical for U.S. progress and security, including computer science, mathematics, and engineering. 

We are in dire need of STEM role models and leaders for the future. By 2060,1 Black and Hispanic youth will comprise nearly half of all U.S. school-age children. However, STEM faculty from these backgrounds are currently scarce, and trends among the number of domestic students who pursue advanced research degrees in STEM disciplines—particularly computer science, mathematics, and engineering...  READ MORE...

Mariana Stars

 

Robots Already Taking US Jobs

GETTY

If we didn’t have enough to worry about—Covid-19, a nation divided, massive job losses and civil unrest—now we have to be concerned that robots will take our jobs.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) concluded in a recent report that “a new generation of smart machines, fueled by rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, could potentially replace a large proportion of existing human jobs.” Robotics and AI will cause a serious “double-disruption,” as the coronavirus pandemic pushed companies to fast-track the deployment of new technologies to slash costs, enhance productivity and be less reliant on real-life people.

Millions of people have lost their jobs due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and now the machines will take away even more jobs from workers, according to the WEF. The organization cites that automation will supplant about 85 million jobs by 2025. WEF says there’s nothing to worry about since its analysis anticipates the future tech-driven economy will create 97 million new jobs. Currently, approximately 30% of all tasks are done by machines—and people do the rest. However, by the year 2025, it's believed that the balance will dramatically change to a 50-50 combination of humans and machines.

Management consulting giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers reported, “AI, robotics and other forms of smart automation have the potential to bring great economic benefits, contributing up to $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030.” However, it will come with a high human cost. “This extra wealth will also generate the demand for many jobs, but there are also concerns that it could displace many existing jobs.”

In a dire prediction, WEF said, “While some new jobs would be created as in the past, the concern is there may not be enough of these to go round, particularly as the cost of smart machines falls over time and their capabilities increase.”

Concerns of new technologies disrupting the workforce and causing job losses have been around for a long time. On one side, the argument is automation will create better new jobs and erase the need for physical labor. The counterclaim is that people without the appropriate skills will be displaced and not have a home in the new environment.  READ MORE...

Rainy Day

Illegal Drugs in the USA

The news media is constantly reporting on the amount of illegal drugs that are being smuggled into this country... and while that should concern many of us, my concern is WHY???

WHY are so many illegal drugs coming into the USA?

You can be the best hamburger maker in the USA but if nobody wants to buy your burger, then what damn difference does it make that you are the best???

In  other words...

Illegal drugs are only being smuggled into this country because AMERICANS have an uncontrollable desire to buy and use them...

AMERICANS who take illegal drugs are the PROBLEM, not just the illegal drug smugglers...

What causes AMERICANS to want to use ILLEGAL DRUGS???

That is the question we have to answer...  but, no one really wants to answer that question, they just want to bitch about illegal drugs coming here...

That approach is ASS BACKWARDS...

Global Corporation of Technology, Commerce, and Space Exploration

Capitalism is our global future...  it will eventually replace Communism, Socialism, Monarchs, and Dictatorships as our world needs to the fair and balanced, effective and efficient, and relishes outcomes and the achievment of goals by allowing people to achieve their full potential and be rewarded for that potential.  However, on the other side of the coin, we have a society where life for them is predicated upon doing the least amount of work and still survive...  these will always be challenges for society and only capitalism will be able to financial support this mentality.

Collectively, there will be no need for governments of any kind, shape, and/or form and will be replaced by a Board of Directors reflective of the various larger countries and an  Executive Committee that will the comprised of the top global countries like: USA, UK, EU, Russia, China, Africa, South America, etc.

There will be a board of Reagents or Governors which again is reflective of all the major countries and it will be their responsibility to create the laws and rules that will regulate and control the residents of this global society.  In order to make this reflective of our global society, representatives from all the major religions and philosophies will be part of this board as well.

The legal side of our new global community will be reflective and represented all classes of society as well as the major religions.  These various classes will be seen as:  poor, middle class, upper middle class, rich, ultra rich, weathly, and the 1%.

It is hoped that all the various cultures will be maintained but will remain subordinate to the complete authority of the Global Corporation of Technology, Commerce, and Space Exploration.

INTERPOL will still be in effect as well as the Global Court in The Hague, Holland...  of course, these two entities will be expanded to cover their expanded duties and reponsibilities.

There will no longer be a need to expand one's territory as each country will be surbordinate to the Global Corporation of Technology, Commerce, and Space Exploration.  All militaries will become one global military that will be responsible for protecting EARTH and space exploration.

There will be no paper money, no checks, and no credit cards and will be replaced by virtual currency called CREDITS.  Credits will be given for work and everyone will be given a basic allowance of credits each year whether they work or not.  These credits will be sufficient to live a basic life for food, shelter, housing, clothing, and transportation.  All medical will be free as will be education.  

All work will be done by robots and all transportation will be public, however, you will need credits to fly from North America to Europe for example.  There will be no need to be wealthy although some will still wanted to achieve that wealthy classification and they should be encouraged rather than discouraged.  For example, in order to make sure all global residents have housing then one's house or home will be no larger than one needs.  A couple, for example, should not have a need for a house any larger than 5,000 square feet which is enough for families and their children and their families.  

Families living together should be encouraged at all times and housing will be reflective of that.  Smaller houses connected by a covered hallway would be sufficient for their needs both now and in the future.

A Global Corporation of Technology, Commerce, and Space Exploration will replace a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT concept...  government by definition is layered with bureaucracies and by definition therefore are inefficient and ineffective and are unproductive...  a global society can no longer toloerate that incompetence...

The Dumbing Down of K-12 Education in America

The inability of U.S. students to perform on par with the majority of other developed nations should cause alarm, given its implications for America’s global leadership. Instead, while other countries take their K-12 education seriously, American leaders are satisfied with pumping more money into an outdated system that continues to fail students and produces mediocre results.

Here’s the sad truth. Twenty-five countries outperform U.S. K-12 students. Those leading the way are China, Hong Kong, Finland, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Canada. China’s students not only place first overall, but they dominate each individual subject as well. U.S. students straggle in at 33rd in math, 23rd in science, and 17th in reading.

Of course, you wouldn’t learn this listening to the rhetoric coming from our political and educational leaders. Instead, they tout data that ranks U.S. students against other American students, states boast about their performance relative to other states, and school districts flaunt two percent gains in graduation rates.

The reality is even worse than the weak performance on average. The majority of U.S. public school students do not achieve grade level proficiency. The Nation’s Report Card reveals that only 28.7 percent of 4th-graders, 26.4 percent of 8th-graders, and a mere 22.8 percent of 12th-graders reach basic proficiency levels averaged across seven subjects (civics, geography, mathematics, reading, science, U.S. history, and writing) on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. In other words, over 71 percent of our students lack basic academic proficiencies at the end of their 13-year K-12 schooling.

At a time in history when more learning and skill development are needed, the opposite has occurred. As witnessed throughout the 2020-2021 school year, teacher unions led the charge in our government-funded and run K-12 public education system to make things worse. Putting partisan politics and self-promotion ahead of student learning, they refused to allow teachers to return to their classrooms until outlandish demands are met — including moratoriums on charter schools, defunding the police, and Medicare for all.

Furthermore, the school week was reduced from five days to four days a week, with instruction only provided a few hours a day remotely. When in-person school finally resumed after an entire calendar year, the low norm accepted by multiple governors was a mere 30 percent of pre-pandemic instruction hours — e.g., two-and-a-half-hour school days, four days a week.  READ MORE...

Crystal Snow

 

Robots Take Jobs

PhonlamaiPhoto | Getty Images


Robots could take over 20 million manufacturing jobs around the world by 2030, economists claimed Wednesday.

According to a new study from Oxford Economics, within the next 11 years there could be 14 million robots put to work in China alone.

Economists analyzed long-term trends around the uptake of automation in the workplace, noting that the number of robots in use worldwide increased threefold over the past two decades to 2.25 million.

While researchers predicted the rise of robots will bring about benefits in terms of productivity and economic growth, they also acknowledged the drawbacks that were expected to arise simultaneously.

“As a result of robotization, tens of millions of jobs will be lost, especially in poorer local economies that rely on lower-skilled workers. This will therefore translate to an increase in income inequality,” the study’s authors said.

However, if robot installations were boosted to 30% more than the baseline forecast by 2030, researchers estimated it would lead to a 5.3% boost in global GDP that year.

“This equates to adding an extra $4.9 trillion per year to the global economy by 2030 (in today’s prices) — equivalent to an economy greater than the projected size of Germany’s,” the report said.

Regional vulnerabilities
According to the report, the number of robots installed in workplaces in the past four years is the same as the number put to work over the eight years previous.

Approximately every third robot in industry is now installed in China, researchers found, with the world’s second-largest economy accounting for around one-in-five of the global stock of robots.

It was predicted that by 2030, more than 1.5 million jobs would have been lost to robots in the United States. In China, that number was expected to exceed 11 million. Across EU member states, almost 2 million people would lose out on employment because of automation, the report said.

When it came to job losses, the most vulnerable states in the U.S. included Texas, Louisiana and Indiana, with Oregon named the most susceptible to the negative effects of automation.

The regions of Chemnitz, Thuringen and Oberfranken were most vulnerable in Germany, while the Midlands and North West of England were Britain’s most vulnerable regions.  READ MORE...




https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/26/robots-could-take-over-20-million-jobs-by-2030-study-claims.html

Great Effort

 

Artificial Intelligence LEADER will rule the WORLD

A couple of years ago,Vladimir Putin warned Russians that the country that led in technologies using artificial intelligence will dominate the globe. He was right to be worried. Russia is now a minor player, and the race seems now to be mainly between the United States and China. But don’t count out the European Union just yet; the EU is still a fifth of the world economy, and it has underappreciated strengths. Technological leadership will require big digital investments, rapid business process innovation, and efficient tax and transfer systems. China appears to have the edge in the first, the U.S. in the second, and Western Europe in the third. One out of three won’t do, and even two out three will not be enough; whoever does all three best will dominate the rest.

We are on the cusp of colossal changes. But you don’t have to take Mr. Putin’s word for it, nor mine. This is what Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and a serious student of the effects of digital technologies, says:  “This is a moment of choice and opportunity. It could be the best 10 years ahead of us that we have ever had in human history or one of the worst, because we have more power than we have ever had before.”

To understand why this is a special time, we need to know how this wave of technologies is different from the ones that came before and how it is the same. We need to know what these technologies mean for people and businesses. And we need to know what governments can do and what they’ve been doing. With my colleagues Wolfgang Fengler, Kenan Karakülah, and Ravtosh Bal, I have been trying to whittle the research of scholars such as David Autor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Diego Comin down to its lessons for laymen. This blog utilizes the work to forecast trends during the next decade.

4 WAVES, 3 FACTS
It is useful to think of technical change as having come in four waves since the 1800s, brought about by a sequence of “general purpose technologies” (GPTs). GPTs are best described by economists as “changes that transform both household life and the ways in which firms conduct business.” The four most important GPTs of the last two centuries were the steam engine, electric power, information technology (IT), and artificial intelligence (AI).

All these GPTs inspired complementary innovations and changes in business processes. The robust and most relevant facts about technological progress have to do with its pace, prerequisites, and problems:

• Technological change has been getting quicker. While the pace of invention may not have accelerated, the time between invention and implementation has been shrinking. While average implementation lags are difficult to measure precisely, it would not be a gross oversimplification to say that they have been cut in half with each GPT wave. Based on the evidence, the time between invention and widespread use was cut from about 80 years for the steam engine to 40 years for electricity, and then to about 20 years for IT (Figure 1). There are reasons to believe that the implementation lag for AI-related technologies will be about 10 years. With technological change speeding up and first-mover advantages as big as they have always been, the need for large and coordinated investments is growing.  READ MORE..

Yawn

 

The Future of Work

The future of work is uncertain. Some say robots will dominate the workforce, perhaps eliminating human jobs altogether. The guesswork doesn't stop in imagining possible futures of an even more technology-driven economy. Amid such speculation, it’s easy for business owners to feel unsure about how to plan for the next decade.

In this article, we’ll look at the underlying trend expected to dominate the future workplace: The rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Recently, Gartner made six predictions about how businesses will work by 2028 (full content available to Gartner clients). These got us thinking about two critical impacts AI will have on the future workplace, what these mean for small and midsize businesses, and how business owners and HR leaders can start preparing for these trends in advance.

Prediction #1: AI will replace a number of middle management jobs

Ever imagined taking orders from a robot? This could soon be a reality.

Machine bosses will replace human bosses by the end of the decade. Algorithms that boss employees around, also known as robobosses, will be responsible for assigning work based on skill sets. Robobosses will also decide whether employees will get a promotion and what their salary increases will be.

Here are the top reasons why businesses will be interested in implementing robobosses:

• Data-driven decision-making: It’s true that robots can't show emotions or empathy, but there's one area where they can outperform humans: data-driven decision-making. AI can scan large datasets and apply predictive algorithms to provide actionable insights to business owners. For instance, a roboboss can use factors such as efficiency, skill, knowledge, and motivation level to select team members for projects. This practice will ensure that members with the right skill set and work attitude are chosen, which will increase the chances of timely project completion.
• Cost-effectiveness: Robobosses will take over most middle management tasks, eliminating the need for multiple middle management positions. This will not only lower the salary costs associated with middle managers but also make team management more efficient.
• Availability: Unlike human bosses, robobosses will be available 24/7, making it easier for businesses to manage a global workforce operating in different time zones.
• Impact of this prediction – 2020 vs. 2030

Team composition at the beginning of the decade
Today’s teams comprise employees with expertise in particular skill sets brought together by organizational hierarchy. For instance, a marketing team consists of members who have expertise in search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, social media marketing, and analytics. Each team has a manager who supervises projects, manages conflicts and people-centric issues, assigns tasks to members, and ensures smooth project execution. The team manager is also responsible for monitoring employee performance and scaling the team size (up or down) as per business requirements.

Team composition at the end of the decade
By the end of the decade, a large number of teams will be autonomous with robobosses responsible for functions currently performed by team managers. Robobosses will manage project allocation, deadlines, delivery, and communication. Smart machines will be responsible for ensuring coordination among different teams, such as sales, marketing, and finance. They will also monitor employee performance and assess the need for upscaling or downsizing based on predicted project workloads.  READ MO

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