Paul Sutton

science

Paper on Covid 19 transmission

I was sent this during a discussion on Mastodon about masks and how effective masks are, when worn by people who may not put on properly, compared to a doctor who has a team of people to ensure this happens. Interesting discussion and nice be sent a link to an actual paper to provide some help with the discussion.

Feel free to join / continue the discussion, however you will need to join mastodon and follow me @[email protected] to do so.

Links

Tags

#Science,#Journal,#PNAS,#Article,#Research,#Covid19,#Transmission,#Mastodon.

Bibliography Information (just for reference)

@article {Bagherie2110117118,
	author = {Bagheri, Gholamhossein and Thiede, Birte and Hejazi, Bardia and Schlenczek, Oliver and Bodenschatz, Eberhard},
	title = {An upper bound on one-to-one exposure to infectious human respiratory particles},
	volume = {118},
	number = {49},
	elocation-id = {e2110117118},
	year = {2021},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.2110117118},
	publisher = {National Academy of Sciences},
	abstract = {Wearing face masks and maintaining social distance are familiar to many people around the world during the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Evidence suggests that these are effective ways to reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, it is not clear how exactly the risk of infection is affected by wearing a mask during close personal encounters or by social distancing without a mask. Our results show that face masks significantly reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to social distancing. We find a very low risk of infection when everyone wears a face mask, even if it doesn{\textquoteright}t fit perfectly on the face.There is ample evidence that masking and social distancing are effective in reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission. However, due to the complexity of airborne disease transmission, it is difficult to quantify their effectiveness, especially in the case of one-to-one exposure. Here, we introduce the concept of an upper bound for one-to-one exposure to infectious human respiratory particles and apply it to SARS-CoV-2. To calculate exposure and infection risk, we use a comprehensive database on respiratory particle size distribution; exhalation flow physics; leakage from face masks of various types and fits measured on human subjects; consideration of ambient particle shrinkage due to evaporation; and rehydration, inhalability, and deposition in the susceptible airways. We find, for a typical SARS-CoV-2 viral load and infectious dose, that social distancing alone, even at 3.0 m between two speaking individuals, leads to an upper bound of 90\% for risk of infection after a few minutes. If only the susceptible wears a face mask with infectious speaking at a distance of 1.5 m, the upper bound drops very significantly; that is, with a surgical mask, the upper bound reaches 90\% after 30 min, and, with an FFP2 mask, it remains at about 20\% even after 1 h. When both wear a surgical mask, while the infectious is speaking, the very conservative upper bound remains below 30\% after 1 h, but, when both wear a well-fitting FFP2 mask, it is 0.4\%. We conclude that wearing appropriate masks in the community provides excellent protection for others and oneself, and makes social distancing less important.Previously published data were used for this work (https://aerosol.ds.mpg.de/). All other study data are included in the article and/or SI Appendix.},
	issn = {0027-8424},
	URL = {https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2110117118},
	eprint = {https://www.pnas.org/content/118/49/e2110117118.full.pdf},
	journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences}

The Webb Space Telescope: Launching a Legacy

This is the December public lecture from the Space Telescope Science Institute

Location: Online Attendance Only Date ; December 7th 2021 Time: 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM *

  • US Time (Baltimore)

Links

Tags

#Science,#Space,#stsci,#Telescope,#Astronomy,#JamesWebb,#Webb

Ask for Evidence infographic

This is a really good resource to help people get to the facts by asking for evidence. I have some information at Paignton Library about this too, along with more resource set aside for the next STEM group meeting on the 11th December.

Hopefully it will make a good discussion topic at the meeting too.

This is a really important issue. Especially given all the information we are bombarded with on a daily basis, different viewpoints, sources separating good and bad information is a skill. This goes for looking up how to undertake tasks, you need to find the right information, this takes time.

When looking at Science it is about doing proper, robust and high quality research,

Getting this peer reviewed is an important step. However the resource on this is really useful for understanding the peer review process, as I this is an important step to ensure we can trust the research in the first place.

Ask for Evidence infographic

Links

Tags

#Science,#Evidence,#AskForEvidence,#Infographic

Library display

I have added some of the resources that Sense About Science sent me to the display.

AskForEvidence

AskForEvidence

AskForEvidence

Peer review process

I have been contacting various organisations to ask for resources for the STEM group, Sense About Science [1] have now sent the Library some resources.

On their website, I found a really interesting document looking at the peer review process [2].

Well worth reading, even if you are not in academia.

Links

  1. SenseAboutScience
  2. Peer review process

Tags

#Science,#Papers,#Resarch,#PeerReview,#AskforEvidence

Muon g-2 experiment finds strong evidence for new physics

Just sharing this video posted by Fermilab to dioide.zone on Peertube. This is a really nice, beginner friendly explanation.

The first results from the Muon g-2 experiment hosted at Fermilab show fundamental particles called muons behaving in a way not predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. Announced on April 7, 2021, these results confirm and strengthen the findings of an earlier experiment of the same name performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Combined, the two results show strong evidence that our best theoretical model of the subatomic world is incomplete. One potential explanation would be the existence of undiscovered particles or forces. This video explains what a muon is, how the Muon g-2 experiment works, and the significance of this result.

REFERENCES

Also discuss further on IRC ##physics on freenode

TAGS

#Physics,#muon,#New,#Discovery,#Science,#StandardModel,#g-2,#Experiment

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Updated STEM display at Paignton Library

As next week is Chemstry week, I have further updated the display at Paignton library. Be sure to drop in and check out the info on offer.

Display1

Display2

Display3

Display4

Tags

#Chemistry,#Week,#Science,#Diversity,#RSC

Women in Chemistry

To celebrate International Women's day, Compound Chemistry have released a great poster celebrating the contribution women have made to Chemistry.

Posting here too, in the hope it will inspire more Women and Girls in Science and Chemistry.

Women in Chemistry Poster

REFERENCES

TAGS

#YearOfTheFediverse,#Chemistry,#Women,#science,#international, #women's, #day,#women, #WomenInChemistry

Graphic from OpenClipart Graphic : Open Clipart

How Dark is space

This is the October public lecture from the Space Telescope Science Institute

Location: Online Attendance Only Date ;October 5 2021 Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Links

Tags

#Science,#Space,#stsci,#Telescope,#Astronomy,#Astrology

3 neutrino flavours

Tags

#Science,#Physics,#Neutrinos,