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Martian cave shelter + Poor studies on long Covid are sensationalized by the media

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Martian cave entrances may offer the perfect radiation shelter for human settlements
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-...ttlements/

EXCERPTS: There are very good reasons why Mars is such a desolate, barren landscape. With no thick atmosphere nor a magnetic field, the Red Planet’s surface is bombarded daily by radiation up to 900 times higher than seen on Earth. However, some places are sheltered. New research has found that cave entrances are shielded from the harmful radiation that normally hits Mars. This may make them ideal as both sites for future settlements and robotic missions meant to scour for signs of alien life.

[...] “Caves and their entrances have been proposed as habitable environments and regions that could have preserved evidence of life, mostly due to their natural shielding from the damaging ionizing and non-ionizing radiation present on the surface. However, no studies to date have quantitatively determined the shielding offered by these voids on Mars,” the researchers wrote in the journal Icarus.

The researchers found that the levels of UV radiation inside Martian caverns were, in some cases, ~2% of those values found on the surface. “Numerical simulations of cave entrances show a reduction even more than two orders of magnitude in UV radiation, both in the maximum instantaneous and cumulative doses, throughout the year and at any location of the planet,” the researchers found.

What’s more, the amount of active radiation is still higher than the minimum required for Earth-like photosynthesis. In other words, cave entrances could shelter both humans and their plant food source. However, it’s unclear whether ionizing radiation — the kind of electromagnetic radiation associated with cancer — is blocked in the same way as UV radiation.

“Ionizing radiation doesn’t present exactly the same behavior as UV radiation,” Viúdez-Moreiras. told New Scientist. “However, it is expected that ionizing radiation will also be strongly attenuated in pit craters and cave skylights.” (MORE - details)


Poor studies on long Covid are sensationalized by the media
https://sciencenorway.no/covid19-journal...ia/1901927

INTRO: Many recent reports in the media have given the impression that people are experiencing major long-term effects after having even mild Covid-19. This impression does not correspond with the knowledge we have accumulated so far.

We must dedramatise the long-term effects of Covid-19, often referred to as long Covid. The media have a responsibility in this regard. They must become more critical of the research methods used in the studies they refer to.

Most infectious diseases with severe symptoms will to some extent be accompanied by long-term effects. Most infectious diseases with mild symptoms will cause few short-term effects.

More and more studies are showing that this is probably also the case for Covid-19. It is vital that more high-quality studies are carried out to examine this problem.

Data from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health’s emergency preparedness register (BeredtC19) includes around two million Norwegians who have been tested for SARS-CoV-2. It shows a short-term and temporary rise in the number of contacts with general practitioners – GPs and emergency medical centres – after mild Covid-19.

The study suggests there has been no increase in use of the specialist health service when compared with those who have tested negative. The media have overdramatised studies which have not included suitable comparison groups.

The fact that the effects can exclusively be investigated and treated by GPs means that most effects are likely to be mild, even though they might seem unpleasant for the people concerned. This Norwegian data is supported by a major Danish register study, which found a low risk of serious complications after mild Covid-19.

The studies have a number of strengths, but of particular importance in this context is that they include one or more comparison groups... (MORE)
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