JOHANNESBURG/LUSAKA: African politicians labelled US President Donald Trump a racist on Friday after he was reported to have described some immigrants from Africa and Haiti as coming from “shithole” countries.
Sources told Reuters on Thursday that Trump had questioned why the United States would want immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti and some African countries during a briefing on draft immigration legislation.
Trump denied on Friday using such derogatory language, but he had already been widely condemned in many African countries and by international rights organizations.
“Ours is not a shithole country and neither is Haiti or any other country in distress,” Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary general of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress told reporters at a news conference in East London.
“We would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that about any country that has any kind of socio-economic or other difficulties,” Duarte said, adding that much like their African counterparts millions of US citizens were affected by problems such as unemployment.
Botswana’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador in protest and called the comments “highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist.”
It said in a statement that it had asked the US government, through its ambassador, to “clarify” if the derogatory remark also applied to Botswana given that there were Botswana nationals living in the United States and others who wished to go there.
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that Trump’s comments were “shocking and shameful”.
Since taking office a year ago, Trump has pursued controversial policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration into the United States as part of a hard-line “America First” agenda.
Trump said on Twitter on Friday that he merely used “tough” language when discussing a new immigration bill with a group of US senators.
He said the bill was a step backwards because it would force the United States “to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly”.
The Trump administration has spoken little about how it wants to engage with African countries, focusing its foreign policy instead on issues like North Korea and Daesh.
In November it ended Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Nicaragua, giving 59,000 Haitian immigrants until July 2019 to return home or legalize their presence in the United States.
On the streets of Lusaka, capital of the southern African country of Zambia, Trump’s reported remark reinforced long-held views about the U.S. leader.
“Trump has always been a racist, only a racist can use such foul language,” said Nancy Mulenga, a student at the University of Zambia. Robert Chiponda, a communications consultant in Lusaka, said he never took Trump seriously.
Others used humour to ridicule the offensive comments.
“As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the president’s remarks,” US television program The Daily Show wrote on Twitter, referring to its South Africa-born host Trevor Noah.
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week.
One month from today, the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21 will make its way across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina. As the clock ticks down to the big day, the question is: Are you prepared?
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the disk of the sun. While partial solar eclipses are common, with two to five occurring around the world each year, a total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth only about once every 18 months. The last total solar eclipse touched the continental United States in 1979, and the last to cross from ocean to ocean occurred in 1918.
The 6-year-old son of Cecil the Lion was shot and killed on July 7 just outside Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, meeting the same end his father did in 2015, according to news reports.
A private hunter in Zimbabwe reportedly led the hunt that brought down Xanda, though his clients' identities are not known, according to a statement by Lions of Hwange National Park.
A 9-year-old boy hiking in the Las Cruces desert in New Mexico recently tripped over what is now thought to be a 1.2-million-year-old Stegomastodon skull.
After realizing Jude had tripped on a fossilized tusk, the Sparks contacted Peter Houde, a biology professor at NMSU who is also the curator-in-charge at the university's The Vertebrate Museum.
Exactly 218 years ago today, on July 19, 1799, French troops in Rosetta, Egypt, uncovered a striking black stone carved with three ancient texts: two Egyptian texts and a Greek one.
The discoverer of the Rosetta Stone was a French military officer, Pierre François Xavier Bouchard, who spotted it while he and his men were demolishing a wall to extend Fort Julien in Rosetta, a port city now known as Rashid. The troops were part of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, in which he (temporarily) conquered the country — and brought a bevy of scientists along who were eager to study what was to them unfamiliar land.
In a surreal development almost worthy of one of his paintings, Salvador Dalí's grave is scheduled to be opened tomorrow (July 20) in an effort to collect DNA samples that could settle a paternity claim against the artist's estate.
A spokesperson for the Dalí estate told AFP that the exhumation was scheduled to proceed on July 20, but an appeal is being filed against the court's decision.
The trillion-ton iceberg that broke off Antarctica last week will not go quietly into the night.
Satellite images from ESA and the European Union’s Copernicus Program show that the massive iceberg is splintering and a constellation of smaller icebergs are surrounding it. The vagaries of ocean currents and buoyancy of ice will dictate how long the pack of 'bergs travels together. It's possible the smaller chunks could be the first drift north toward warmer waters in the South Atlantic where they would meet their likely demise.
The world's first laser weapon — one that can "kill" threatening, airborne drones — is ready for action, according to news sources.
The LaWS laser beam is completely silent and invisible. It's also fast: The laser travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second, or about 300,000 kilometers per second), meaning it's about 50,000 times the speed of an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile, such as the one North Korea is testing, the Navy told CNN.
Scientists will soon venture to the world's hidden eighth continent, the sunken land of Zealandia.
In February, scientists argued in the journal GSA Today that Earth has a hidden eighth continent, which should be reflected on maps.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your television, the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" and National Geographic Wild's "SharkFest" are hitting the air with competing daily programming.
As director of the Florida Program for Shark Research and curator of the International Shark Attack File, I offer the advice to viewers to cast a jaundiced eye on each episode's title and premise. Remember, TV show titles and preview teases are constructed to hook an audience.
Successful nonvegetarians
Here are some flagrant characterizations of sharks that viewers are likely to hear, and alternative phrasings that are more measured and scientifically accurate:
"savage killers" = predators
"deadly" = carnivorous
"man-eater" = occasional attacker of humans
"terror" = fear
"fierce predator" = successful nonvegetarian
"shark-infested waters" = the ocean
"killing machines" = efficient carnivores
Another question to consider as you read or listen to the tease for a show is whether or not the featured "marine biologist" or "shark expert" really is one. A quick search on the internet for academic or laboratory affiliation and scientific publications should let you know if you're watching a practicing biologist or a shark groupie. Then you can decide how seriously to take what you're hearing.
If a "biological study" or "research" is legitimate, it should be asking a genuine scientific question by testing a well-considered hypothesis. Watching a shark chase a towed neoprene decoy shaped like a seal until it breaches the water is not scientific research.
On the rebound
White sharks – scientists don't usually insert "great" – always are prominently featured on these shows, and we can expect more of the traditional emphasis on the "terror" associated with this "savage, man-eating, deadly killing machine." The real news is that white shark populations on both coasts of the United States appear to be on the rise, and that's good.
This slow growth toward recovery comes primarily from governmental restrictions on killing white sharks and protection of their preferred food items. White sharks have been listed as a prohibited species for two decades by the National Marine Fisheries Service, which has essentially eliminated all human-induced mortality of the largest of the predatory sharks in U.S. waters.
Perhaps even more importantly, the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 has safeguarded seals, sea lions, dolphins and whales – an adult white shark's favorite food items – which has allowed these equally vulnerable species gradually to return to normalcy. Score one for the good guys.
With these increases, there are more opportunities for sharks and marine mammals to interact with humans. Conflicts are bound to occur, and they do. Some are minor, such as seals defecating on boats and docks. Others, such as increased sightings of white sharks off our bathing beaches, are more significant.
We can logically predict that the latter trend will lead to more bites in the future, although on a per-capita basis one's odds of being attacked likely will not change much, because both parties' populations are growing. However, knowing about this trend allows humans to figure out ways to stay safe as we jockey with sharks for the same space. Of course, that aquatic environment belongs to sharks and seals, so we're the species that will have to adapt.
The real killers
One topic that the shark shows are unlikely to cover is the relationship between killer whales, or orcas, and white sharks. Although shark biologists like myself often refer to sharks as apex predators, the real top of the food chain truthfully belongs to orcas. (An argument can be made that sperm whales are ahead of sharks as well.)
In the last several months we have seen dead adult white sharks wash ashore in South Africa. Scientific examination of the carcasses reveal they had died from orca attacks to their bellies, and that their oil-rich livers often were missing. A similar attack by an orca on a white shark was witnessed in 1997 off California. The orca was seen apparently playing with the liver, pushing it up and down the water column, after the attack. Orcas also have been known to attack tiger sharks, mantas and stingrays.
Meet the relatives
Watching this year's "Sharkathon," it's easy to think that all sharks are apex predators, but that is far from the truth. Some sharks drop farther down the food chain and occupy the middle of the pack as "meso-predators." Plankton-eating specialists, such as whale, basking and megamouth sharks, fall even lower.
Mantas, stingrays, skates and sawfishes, collectively called batoids, are close relatives of the sharks. They share a cartilaginous skeleton – that is, one with no bones, just cartilage – and gill slits (usually five). Most batoids have pancaked shark bodies that look like cartoon characters that met a steamroller. Their paired pectoral fins form wing-like structures along the body starting at or near the head.
By contrast, most sharks are more cylindrical in cross section and have traditional-shaped pectoral fins that are placed just behind the head and emerge from shorter bases. Most batoids have small teeth designed for crushing food items, while most sharks have larger, pointed teeth that are capable of shearing or impaling prey. The gill slits of sharks lie on the sides of the head, while those of batoids are located on the bottom of the head.
Don't take the bait
The most important takeaway from "Sharkathon" television is that these shows are primarily entertainment viewing. They often are far closer to reality TV than to traditional documentaries, and most episodes wouldn't make it as scientifically rigorous documentaries. This makes it important to take some of the content with a grain of (sea) salt, until you can do a bit of post-view fact checking. Enjoy them, but don't fall for them hook, line and sinker.
George Burgess, Director, Florida Program for Shark Research and Coordinator of Museum Operations, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.
Phelps vs. Shark! Why the Olympic Medalist Stands Little Chance
It's hard to imagine how Olympic-gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps could win in a race against a great white shark, but the Discovery Channel is giving him every advantage in the book.
During Sunday's program, "Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White," Michael Phelps will wear a monofin — a single fin-like foot flipper that will help him swim like a shark — as well as a wetsuit known as the Phantom, which increases buoyancy and reduces drag, according its maker Aqua Sphere.
But even with these accessories, can Phelps beat a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), a fish that can swim upwards of 25 mph (40 km/h)? [7 Unanswered Questions About Sharks]
"My money is on the shark, even with a Phelps' monofin," Andrew Nosal, a marine biologist and shark scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, who is not involved with the Discovery Channel program, told Live Science in an email.
Few details are available about the 100-meter (330 feet) race, which the Discovery Channel filmed last month. But channel spokespeople confirmed that the race takes place off the coast of South Africa, although they wouldn't reveal the stroke used by Phelps, who has set 39 world records and won 23 Olympic golds.
But Phelps confirmed that the race was held in open water and that "we were very safe. We had about 15 safety divers around," he told Entertainment Weekly. In addition, Phelps told Time that he and the shark "weren't side by side."
"For me, the biggest thing was just trying to stay warm; that was something that was extremely challenging, just because the water is 55 degrees [Fahrenheit, or 13 degrees Celsius]," Phelps said in the Entertainment Weekly interview. "It's something that a shark can survive in, and a human really can't survive in water like that."
Warm-blooded fish
Unlike most other sharks, great whites are endothermic, or "warm blooded," and thus can survive and swim quickly in cold water, Nosal said.
"This means their core body temperature is warmer than [that of] the surrounding water, allowing their aerobic swimming muscles to contract harder and for longer periods of time," Nosal said.
This endothermy is maintained by a special arrangement of blood vessels called "countercurrent heat exchangers," which prevent metabolic heat generated from core muscle contractions from being lost to the surrounding water, he said.
Great whites use their extreme speed to ambush prey, such as elephant seals and other marine mammals, which are smart and nimble, Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology at California State University, Long Beach, told Live Science in a previous interview.
However, great whites aren't even the fastest of the endothermic sharks. The mako shark has been estimated to swim between 40 mph and 60 mph (64 and 96 km/h), Nosal said.
In contrast, Phelps has been fast … but for a human, not for a shark.
"In a race, I think my fastest speed was about 5 or 6 mph [8 to 10 km/h]," Phelps told USA Today. With the monofin, Phelps said he thinks he reached up to "8 to 10, maybe 12 [mph, or 13 to 19 km/h]. But for me, it actually gives me more of an appreciation for how fast [sharks] move through the water, especially at their size." [Aahhhhh! 5 Scary Shark Myths Busted]
It should be noted that several excerpts from the program made available to reporters paired footage of a shark with ominous, suspenseful music. This isn't uncommon — most movies and even nature documentaries play scary music when a shark swims onto the screen. However, menacing music makes people feel unjustly terrified of sharks, Nosal and his colleagues found in a 2016 study published in the journal PLOS One.
If people are frightened of sharks, they likely won't work to protect the animals, even those that are endangered, Nosal told Live Science in a previous interview.
The program will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday, July 23, on the Discovery Channel.
Huge Underground Lab Seeks to Explain 'Ghosts of the Universe'
Big science usually means hard thinking and clever planning, which lead to cutting-edge facilities and, hopefully, paradigm-changing discoveries. Today, scientific leaders and invited dignitaries to take a concrete step toward making these dreams a reality: They will break ground on a scientific laboratory that they hope will reveal something about the rules that govern the universe.
This new facility, called the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), will be housed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in what was once the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota.
DUNE is a huge endeavor involving more than 1,000 scientists from across the globe. The detector is enormous and will require the construction of a cavern 4,850 feet (1,500 meters) underground, in the Homestake mine. To make this cavern, workers need to excavate 800,000 tons (725,000 metric tons) of rock, which is equal to the weight of about eight modern aircraft carriers. At peak effort, this digging will create about 2,000 jobs in South Dakota and a similar number in Illinois near Fermilab. [6 Cool Underground Science Labs]
Ghostly particles
Neutrinos are subatomic particles, but unlike protons, neutrons and electrons, they don’t play a key role in the structure of atoms. Instead, on Earth, they are created when radioactive elements decay — a process called beta decay — specifically when a neutron decays into a proton. The weak nuclear force is what causes beta decay. In fact, of the three known subatomic forces (electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces), neutrinos feel only the weak force. Because the weak force is, well, weak, neutrinos interact very little with matter.
These ghostly particles are ubiquitous in the universe. In addition to being created in beta radiation, they are copiously made in nuclear reactors. However, while the nuclear power stations sprinkled across the globe do make neutrinos, the biggest nuclear reaction around, by far, is the sun. The sun emits so many neutrinos per second that, even though Earth is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away, on average, about 100 trillion neutrinos from the sun pass through you every second of your life. These neutrinos pose no danger to you at all.
To give a sense of why that's true, suppose you were a neutrino-phobic person and wanted to shield yourself from this constant rain from above. That is possible, at least in a theoretical sense. Neutrinos do interact weakly with matter. And if you wanted to shield yourself from the neutrinos from the sun, you could use a thick block of lead. And by thick, I mean really thick — to stop just half of the sun's neutrinos, this block of lead would have to be thick enough to fill up the space between Earth and the second-closest star after our sun: Alpha Centauri, which is more than 4 light-years away. If neutrinos can pass through that much lead, they certainly can pass through you (and even Earth, for that matter).
Neutrino surprises
So, why are neutrinos interesting? Well, they have surprised scientists many times over the past century or so. Even though neutrinos are emitted in beta decay, they interact so weakly that scientists were unable to detect them long ago. Consequently, it looked like beta decay broke the laws of physics, as energy and momentum seemed not to be conserved. (In other words, the energy of the initial atomic nucleus could not be fully accounted for after it decayed.)
In 1930, physicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed the invisible, and essentially undetectable, particle as a "desperate remedy" to explain the problems of beta decay. (And, as a side note, Pauli presented his idea at a conference by way of a letter, rather in person. It seems that he was indispensable at a party and couldn't come to the conference. That's not so surprising — physicists are well known as the "fun" scientists.)
Not until 1956 did scientists detect neutrinos emitted by a nuclear reactor. The scientists who performed the experiment, Frederick Reines and Clyde Cowan, had considered trying to capture the neutrino pulse from a nuclear detonation before they decided to use the less dramatic reactor. [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics]
Also in 1956, a different experiment, performed by Chien-Shiung Wu, used beta decays of cobalt nuclei to show that the force that governs neutrinos — that is, the weak nuclear force — had a surprising feature. Phenomena involving the weak force that can be observed in our familiar universe were impossible in a mirror universe, which is to say one in which the directions are switched — for example, right and left are swapped, up and down are flipped, etc.
This idea contrasts starkly with the strong nuclear force and electromagnetism, in which this swapping of directions could be done. But because the weak force does not obey this type of up-down, left-right symmetry, if Alice really did go through the looking glass, she would have encountered a reality very different from our own. It was eventually demonstrated by Russian physicist Lev Landau that the laws that govern matter in our universe govern antimatter in the mirror universe, or that matter and antimatter are mirror images. This discovery involving neutrinos and the weak force caused the textbooks to be rewritten.
Misbehaving particles
In the 1960s, neutrinos had a couple more surprises for us. In 1962, physicists Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger discovered that two types of neutrinos existed. (Scientists observed a third neutrino type at Fermilab in 2000.) The bigger surprise occurred when chemist Raymond Davis tried to detect neutrinos from the sun by using an Olympic-pool-size vat of dry-cleaning fluid to serve as a neutrino detector. The chlorine in the fluid interacted with neutrinos from the sun, converting to radioactive argon and an electron. By measuring the argon, the scientists indirectly detected the neutrinos. As an interesting historical note, his detector was also located in the Homestake gold mine.
Although Davis observed solar neutrinos, he saw only a third as many as he expected. While that could have been due to an error in either the measurement or the prediction, subsequent experimentation showed that his measurement was correct. The reason for the discrepancy could have been that neutrinos were decaying in flight — but as it turned out, that was not the answer. Another possibility was that neutrinos could morph from one variant to one of the other two. This morphing is called neutrino oscillation, as the neutrinos could morph from one type to another and back again. Neutrino oscillation was proved in a series of experimental results announced between 1998 and 2001.
Mysteries of antimatter
With the discovery of neutrino oscillations, it was imperative for scientists to get a better understanding of the phenomenon. This knowledge is most easily gained using particle accelerators. In the U.S., Europe and Japan, scientists generated beams of neutrinos. The most powerful beams were constructed at Fermilab. An early experiment called the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) was based in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota. Fermilab shot beams of neutrinos through the Earth to the MINOS detector. (Remember that neutrinos interact very little with matter, so there is no tunnel. The neutrinos literally shot through the Earth.) The MINOS experiment ran from 2005 to 2016. A follow-up experiment is called NuMI Off-Axis Neutrino Appearance (NOVA). The distant detector, located in Ash River, Minnesota, began operations in 2014. Fermilab also provides the neutrinos for this experiment.
So, naturally, Fermilab would be the host accelerator laboratory to shoot neutrinos to DUNE — this time, in South Dakota, not Minnesota.
So, what do scientists hope to accomplish with DUNE? Well, it will better characterize the properties of neutrino oscillation, but there is one question that is particularly intriguing. Fermilab can make beams of both neutrinos and antimatter neutrinos, and the DUNE experiment can use both sets of beams to study the oscillation properties of both matter and antimatter neutrinos. Our best theory describing the behavior of matter and energy (called the Standard Model) predicts that these two kinds of oscillations are the same. The DUNE experiment could determine whether that's the case.
Why is it such a tantalizing possibility that matter and antimatter neutrinos might oscillate differently? It might address an issue with the Standard Model. The Standard Model says we can convert energy into matter and vice versa. But when energy is converted into matter, an equal amount of antimatter should also be created. And at the Big Bang, there was a lot of energy. Thus, our universe should consist of equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but it is made solely of matter. We don't know why.
But remember that Wu's 1956 experiment showed that the laws of the weak force that govern matter in our universe govern antimatter in a mirror universe. So this difference may also manifest in differences in matter and antimatter neutrino oscillation. If scientists observe an asymmetry in these oscillations, that might reveal something about the matter-antimatter asymmetry.
DUNE has other capabilities, too. For one, it will be able to detect neutrinos from supernovas (star explosions) that occur in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. It also can search for neutrino emissions from violent astronomical events in which neutron stars merge, or maybe even say something about black hole interactions.
DUNE will also hunt for proton decay. The Standard Model predicts that protons are stable and do not decay. Experimentally, we know that if protons do decay, their half-lives are longer than 10^34 years. (That is, if they decay at all.) However, some new theories extending the Standard Model predict that protons might decay on timescales only slightly longer than current limits. Thus, if DUNE sees proton decay, this will teach us something very profound about the universe and will do so at energies much higher than those accessible to the Large Hadron Collider, which is the world's highest-energy particle accelerator.
DUNE (and its associated Fermilab neutrino beamline) is expected to be the United States' flagship experiment for the next couple of decades. A huge collaboration of experts will probe the data, looking to see if neutrinos do something unexpected. That's a real possibility, and it won't be the first time they've surprised us.
Solar Eclipse Day Craziness Could Resemble the Zombie Apocalypse — Are You Ready?
One month from today, the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21 will make its way across the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina. As the clock ticks down to the big day, the question is: Are you prepared?
While you may have thought to grab eclipse-viewing glasses or make hotel reservations, the massive crowds expected all along the eclipse path could present challenges you haven't considered.
"There are so many ways in which eclipse day is going to resemble a zombie apocalypse," Angela Speck, a researcher at the University of Maryland and member of the American Astronomical Society's eclipse team, told Space.com by email. [The Best ISO-Certified Gear to See the 2017 Solar Eclipse]
"There will hopefully be less bloodshed, but zombies don't need regular food, or sleep, or toilets," Speck said. Eclipse spectators, on the other hand, need all those things.
Once-in-a-lifetime sight
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the disk of the sun. While partial solar eclipses are common, with two to five occurring around the world each year, a total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth only about once every 18 months. The last total solar eclipse touched the continental United States in 1979, and the last to cross from ocean to ocean occurred in 1918.
The August eclipse will pass through 14 states and five state capitals. During the partial phase, as the moon takes a bite out of the sun, observers should use eclipse glasses or a pinhole camera to watch the eclipse, as should those only able to observe a partial eclipse.
Totality (the period in which the disk of the sun is completely hidden) will last less than 3 minutes, but can be a truly stunning sight. After the body of the sun is completely blocked and the vicinity is cloaked in darkness, observers can remove their glasses. The dancing tendrils of the sun's outer atmosphere, usually outshone by its brighter body, will become visible.
REMEMBER: Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. See our complete viewing guide to find out how to view the eclipse safely.
As the final days wind down to the eclipse, make sure you have your eclipse glasses. Sunglasses — even multiple pairs — are insufficient for viewing an eclipse. A pinhole viewer can also allow you to safely watch the event without damaging your vision.
"Many cities along the path of totality have been preparing for this and [are setting] up multiple observing sites with safe solar viewing gear," Paul Sutter, a researcher and outreach coordinator at Ohio State University (and a Space.com contributor), said in an email.
Don't despair if you can't make it to one of these sites.
"Just go somewhere else," Sutter said. "A park, a parking lot, your back yard. You just need a good view of the sky and you're golden."
While the eclipse itself is brief, it may be worth coming early for the science talks that may occur.
"If you can, I highly recommend making a whole day out of it," Sutter said.
Zombie apocalypse
While 12 million people live within the path of totality, another 200 million people live within a day's drive of the eclipse. How many intend to travel to see the eclipse remains unknown. Michael Zeiler, an eclipse cartographer, conservatively estimates that between 1.85 million and 7.4 million people may journey experience the total eclipse.
If you are planning to travel for the eclipse, you've hopefully already made hotel reservations. Most — if not all — of the hotel rooms along the eclipse path are filled, as serious eclipse hunters have been planning for the event for well over a year. Alternative housing arrangements, such as campsites or rooms in private homes, may still be available. But even if you are planning to stay with a friend, expect problems.
That's because the population of cities along the eclipse path is expected to double in the days around the event, Speck said, a rise that could trigger a host of unexpected problems.
"No town or city has the capacity to house so many visitors in hotels; nowhere has enough restaurants to feed such a huge crowd," she said. "Are there enough bathrooms? Probably not."
Folks who live along the path — whether they plan to see the eclipse or not — should prepare much like they would before a major storm. Speck advises folks to stock their fridges and fill up their cars with gas, "because the chances are that neither supermarkets nor gas stations will be sufficiently supplied." That means if you're crashing with friends or family, don't bank on eating out or parking downtown. [How to Survive the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017]
Speck proposed that communities can prepare by having gas stations fill up extra tanks and supermarkets keep refrigerated trucks on hand for extra storage.
"Maybe restaurants could do special reduced menus to get the crowd thru quicker, maybe they could hire extra staff just for the event."
Businesses aren't the only ones who need to prepare.
"Maybe churches could host food lines and make some money whilst helping to prepare for the crowds," she said.
While traffic leading up to the eclipse will likely be bad — Speck suggested at least doubling the anticipated travel time between destinations — it could be even worse during the event. An unexpected patch of clouds across a clear sky could send people to their cars in search of a clear view, causing even more problems.
Logistical problems aside, Speck is looking forward to the eclipse.
"It is such an all-encompassing experience," she said.
Sutter, who will be leading an event in Nashville, Tennessee, is equally enthusiastic.
"I'm really looking forward to sharing this spectacle with my group, and really sharing it with the entire country," he said. "Nature is putting on a free show for us, and it's something we all get to enjoy!"
'Atomic Fingerprinting' Tech Could End Counterfeit Goods
In the sophisticated world of counterfeiting, it can often be difficult to tell fakes from the real deal. But now, scientists have developed a new method that can stamp things with "atomic fingerprints" to keep phony products at bay.
"There is no bigger crime than counterfeit crime," said Robert Young, a professor of physics at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom and chief technology officer of the tech startup Quantum Base. [Faux Real: A Gallery of Forgeries]
Earlier this month, Young and his colleagues announced a relatively simple technique for confirming the authenticity of an object — an advance that could put a dent in the counterfeit industry, where fakes, forgeries and imitations cost the global economy half a trillion dollars in lost revenue each year, according to the most recent data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, headquartered in Paris.
The unique pattern is created by intentionally fabricating flaws into an atom-thin layer of material, such as graphene oxide. Flaws may include removing a carbon atom, or adding extra oxygen atoms, or creating a ridge of atoms, according to the researchers. Once the flaw is set, the material is incorporated into an ink and then, using an inkjet printer, printed onto a hologram, which can be added as a label to any product.
To confirm the presence of the atomic pattern, a person would use a smartphone camera and its built-in flash to photograph the label. The flash excites the atoms, which produce a unique color based on the pattern. A corresponding app can instantly analyze the image and confirm whether the label is authentic or not, the researchers said.
"I'm really satisfied by how simple it is," Young told Live Science.
Solving such an extensive problem like counterfeiting requires a solution that can be adopted by a large number of people, Young added. A technique that's easy to incorporate and easy to analyze could ensure that it's widely adopted much faster, he said.
Young and his team are working with a company that prints 10 billion holograms per year and said that the first application could be in the automotive industry, where parts are already spray-painted with labels. By piggybacking onto existing manufacturing applications, the researchers can prove that the method works, according to Young.
"We're expecting the first products in market in the first quarter of next year, in 2018," he said.
From there, the researchers would like to branch out to other industries, including pharmaceuticals, where $200 billion a year is lost from counterfeit drugs, Young said. And what's worse, this illegal medicine can sometimes lead to death.
"Thirty percent of counterfeit pharmaceuticals don't contain the correct active ingredient," Young said. "People buy these things, believe they're real, but they're not being treated for the disease."
Young said that eventually, the atomic fingerprints his team has developed could be laminated directly onto individual pills.
"This is genuinely a really exciting application," he said.
