This article lists a number of significant events in science that have occurred in the second quarter of 2020.
Events April
1 April A scientific review finds that substantial recovery for most components of marine ecosystems within two to three decades can be achieved if climate change is addressed adequately and efficient interventions are deployed at large scale. It documents the recovery of marine populations, habitats and ecosystems following past conservation interventions, identifies nine components integral to conservation and recovery and recommend actions along with opportunities, benefits, possible roadblocks and remedial actions. The researchers caution about a narrow window of opportunity in which decisions can choose between "a legacy of a resilient and vibrant ocean or an irreversibly disrupted ocean". They assess the goal 14 of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations to be a "doable Grand Challenge for humanity, an ethical obligation and a smart economic objective to achieve a sustainable future". Researchers report to have discovered and analysed fossil roots embedded in a mudstone matrix containing diverse pollen and spores which indicate that rainforests existed near the South Pole ca. 90 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. Their findings suggest that the climate was exceptionally warm at the time and that the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were substantially higher than expected during the mid-Cretaceous period, 115-80 million years ago. Researchers report that stretching cells alone can activate genes without intermediates, enzymes or signaling molecules in the cell being necessary. They applied cyclic forces of frequencies which cells experience due to common activities such as breathing, exercising or vocalizing and found that the induced transcription up-regulation does not follow the weak power law with force frequency. They also describe why some genes can be activated by mechanical force and some cannot. Scientists report that for the first time they have retrieved genetic information from the fossils of H. antecessor as old as 772,000–949,000 years and Homo erectus as old as 1.77 million years via dental enamel proteomes . They show that H. antecessor is a closely related sister-lineage to subsequent Middle and Late Pleistocene hominins, including modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans. 2 April Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine report the creation of a promising possible COVID-19 vaccine, named PittCoVacc, against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and are hoping for a fast approval track, lasting less than the usual year of testing, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Researchers at the University of British Columbia report the discovery of a trial drug that can substantially block early stages of COVID-19 in engineered human tissues. Scientists report the discovery of the oldest known fossils, dated to as old as 2.04 million years old, of Homo erectus in the palaeocave Drimolen in South Africa, which may have overlapped, in the same area and time, as other hominins, such as Australopithecus and Paranthropus. Scientists report finding large communities of microbes living under the seafloor in solid rocks determined to be up to 104 million years old. According to the study the results may have implications for the possibility of life on Mars and other planetary bodies due to potentially similar conditions and rocks or minerals. Astronomers report further evidence of the possible fragmentation of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. A follow-up study, reported on 6 April 2020, observed only a single object, and noted that the fragment component had now disappeared. 6 April Astronomers announce, on "The Astronomer's Telegram", the possible disintegration of Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). Scientists report the discovery of metabolic genes in the genomes of 501 widespread Nucleocytoviricota even though viruses don't have metabolism. Some of their findings suggest that these large viruses can reprogram fundamental aspects of their host's carbon metabolism and that they are drivers of evolutionary innovation in metabolic genes. Scientists using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite report a "mini-hole" in the ozone layer over the Arctic, likely caused by unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere. Researchers report that they have discovered and filmed one the longest organisms known so far with the SuBastian underwater robot in the Ningaloo Canyons off the coast of Western Australia: a siphonophore of the genus Apolemia with an estimated length of almost 50 meters which coiled itself into a spiral form. Specimens of lion's mane jellyfish are known to be larger. They also discovered up to 30 new underwater species and collected DNA samples and specimens of various deep sea creatures. 7 April Scientists report the results of a survey of the Great Barrier Reef. For the first time, all its three regions experienced severe bleaching. On March 25 – day three of the nine-day survey – they reported its third mass bleaching event within five years. Astronomers publish a study which includes the first photograph of a relativistic jet from an ongoing galaxy merger. The young jet from one of the two galaxies active galactic nuclei with a direction pointed near Earth and proves that such merge events can trigger such jets. Astronomers publish a study which includes the highest resolution images of the Sun from NASA's FOXSI Sounding Rocket. The images show coronal loops – magnetic threads filled with million-degree hot plasma – of narrower widths than the ones previously seen. 8 April In two research papers scientists show that microbes can actively colonize high-pH environments of radioactive waste storage sites. Their findings have implications for the safety, design and operation of such sites and the knowledge about extremophile microbial life. Scientists publish a study which suggests that the Universe is no longer expanding at the same rate in all directions and that therefore the widely accepted isotropy hypothesis might be wrong. While previous studies already suggested this, the study is the first to examine galaxy clusters in X-rays and, according to Norbert Schartel, has a much greater significance. The study found a consistent and strong directional behavior of deviations – which have earlier been described to indicate a "crisis of cosmology" by others – of the normalization parameter A, or the Hubble constant H0. Beyond the potential cosmological implications, it shows that studies which assume perfect isotropy in the properties of galaxy clusters and their scaling relations can produce strongly biased results. 9 April Scientists report direct evidence of the use of fiber technology by Neanderthals in southeastern France, 50,000 years ago. Astronomers report the first direct measurement of winds on a brown dwarf (2MASS J10475385+2124234). In a preprint to be published by a journal online in April and in its issue in May 2020 scientists show the glycan structures which coat SARS-CoV-2's spike protein. With these coatings the virus disguises itself to enter human cells. Their study may have implications in viral pathobiology and vaccine design and shows that the protein's coating is relatively weak and that the spike protein may be relatively vulnerable to antibodies. Scientists report fossil evidence which suggests an extinct parapithecid rafted across the Atlantic in the Paleogene and at least briefly colonized South America next to the African-origin mammals New World monkeys and caviomorph rodents. The Ucayalipithecus perdita remains dating from the Early Oligocene of Amazonian Peru are deeply nested within the Parapithecidae, and have dental features markedly different from those of platyrrhines. Qatrania wingi of lower Oligocene Fayum deposits is considered the closest known relative of Ucayalipithecus. Models of winds and ocean currents indicate that such crossings would have taken only 11–15 days at the time. The absence of later finds from this group in South America indicates they were outcompeted by platyrrhines, which descend from a parallel anthropoid colonization of South America. Scientists report the discovery of six novel coronaviruses, and one known alphacoronavirus previously identified in other southeast Asian countries were detected for the first time in bats in Myanmar where ongoing land use change is a prominent driver of zoonotic disease emergence. Future studies have been said to evaluate the potential for transmission across species. The study was conducted as part of the United States' PREDICT program which was ended by March 2020 by the nation's Trump administration but extended on 1 April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Zachary Cohen, Trump administration shuttered pandemic monitoring program, then scrambled to extend it, CNN (April 10, 2020).Emily Baumgaertner & James Rainey, Trump administration ended coronavirus detection program, Los Angeles Times (April 2, 2020). 10 April Medical scientists report the possible reinfection of COVID-19 patients who have recovered from COVID-19. Experts note that false test results or "reactivation" of the virus could also have caused these results. In May 2020 the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that patients who tested positive a second time were not infectious, were immune to the disease, showed symptoms and likely test positive again due to dead fragments of the virus. Researchers show that a new type of X-ray detector, based on a thin film of the low-cost semiconductor mineral perovskite, is 100 times more sensitive than a conventional silicon-based device. The technology could reduce unhealthy radiation exposure and improve the resolution and applications of security scanners and research tools. Scientists report to have achieved wireless control of adrenal hormone secretion in genetically unmodified rats through the use of injectable, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and remotely applied alternating magnetic fields heats them up. Their findings may aid research of physiological and psychological impacts of stress and related treatments and present an alternative strategy for modulating peripheral organ function than problematic implantable devices.
13 April Astronomers suggest the first comprehensive possible natural way that ʻOumuamua, the first known interstellar object detected passing through the Solar System, may have been formed. It may have been produced through extensive tidal fragmentation and ejected during close encounters of their parent bodies with their host star or stars. Astronomers report to have recorded the most energetic supernova so far: SN 2016aps. The supernova also caused an unusually large amount of the energy to be released in the form of radiation, probably due to the interaction of the supernova ejecta and a previously lost gas shell. The scientists believe that the supernova could be an example of a pair-instability supernova or a pulsational pair-instability supernova, possibly formed from two massive stars that merged before the explosion. The event was discovered on 22 February 2016 by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Hawaii, with follow-up observations by the Hubble Space Telescope.