The Arecibo Radio Telescope's Massive Platform Has Collapsed

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December 01, 2020

Dear Reader,   Puerto Rico's most venerable astronomy facility, the Arecibo radio telescope, has sadly collapsed in an uncontrolled structural failure. Our lead story has the details. In other space news, China has landed on the moon again and this time the country plans to bring home lunar samples. Today is also World AIDS Day. In opinion, Steven Thrasher writes about how the HIV and coronavirus pandemics are crashing into each other. Plus, an AI network has made a giant leap in solving one of biology’s grandest challenges.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Space The Arecibo Radio Telescope's Massive Platform Has Collapsed The hanging structure crashed through Arecibo's dish after major cable failures By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Policy & Ethics World AIDS Day Is a Grim Reminder That We Have Many Pandemics Going On The coronavirus is amplifying racial, class and other disparities, just as HIV has been doing for decades By Steven W. Thrasher

Mental Health Psilocybin Treatment for Mental Health Gets Legal Framework Oregon became the first state to legalize therapeutic use of the drug, as new research affirms its benefits for treating depression By Zoe Cormier

Computing DeepMind's AI Makes Gigantic Leap in Solving Protein Structures Google’s deep-learning program for determining the 3-D shapes of proteins stands to transform biology, scientists say By Ewen Callaway,Nature magazine

Space China's Chang'e 5 Lands on Moon to Collect Fresh Samples The ambitious mission is the first effort since 1976 to bring lunar material back to Earth By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Biology Viruses Can Help Us as Well as Harm Us Experts are figuring out how to exploit the 380 trillion viruses that make up the human virome By David Pride

Policy & Ethics Our Immigration Policy Has Done Terrible Damage to Kids Here are four steps the Biden-Harris administration should take immediately to prevent further harm By Lucy Bassett,Hirokazu Yoshikawa

Physics Are We Real? And Other Questions of Physics Do we live in a higher being’s computer? Advanced research may tell us By Andrea Gawrylewski

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 29, Issue 4s

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Legendary Arecibo Observatory Faces a Bleak Future Although still producing world-class science, a lack of funding could soon mothball the storied radio telescope By Alexandra Witze,Nature magazine | January 2017

QUOTE OF THE DAY "What a sad day for Astronomy and Planetary science worldwide and one of the most iconic telescopes of all time." Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science via Twitter

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