Of the many mysteries that remain about the Zika virus and its attack on the Americas, perhaps the most puzzling one relates to the bizarre distribution of babies born with Zika-induced microcephaly. After so many such births were recorded in Northeastern Brazil in the last quarter of 2015, the country — and other places where the virus fanned out to from Brazil — braced themselves for a similar tsunami in 2016....
Kickstarter wasn’t intended to be a platform for elaborate, participatory jokes. It’s a Web site where entrepreneurs seek funding help from the public. You watch a video or read a pitch about a project, and then, if compelled, you donate a few bucks—not because you’re investing (you’re not) but just to show your support, maybe to feel like a part of someone’s quest. In July, Ohio resident Zack Brown started what may have been the silliest Kickstarter project ever....
Climate skeptics are rallying from a recent defeat by promoting another candidate who has questioned humans’ role in climate change for a top White House environment job. Donald van der Vaart, the top environmental regulator under former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), has earned the backing of some critics of mainstream climate science to lead the Council on Environmental Quality. The momentum building for van der Vaart comes days after his allies witnessed former Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Kathleen Hartnett White’s nomination collapse, largely under the weight of her past comments questioning prevailing climate science (Climatewire, Feb....
An interview with Virginia Tech’s Linsey Marr, “one of the few academics in the field of aerosol science who is also an expert in viral transmission,” appeared 7/20/20 at New York magazine’s The Cut. The interview, conducted by Anna Silman, starts with Marr explaining why she still goes to her CrossFit gym (sounds like a lot of fresh air circulates) and that she doesn’t wear a mask while bicycling to work....
3-D printing is radically transforming fields ranging from jewelry-making to jet engine fabrication. Now innovators are moving beyond the production of solid, static objects to create materials that can be transformed and manipulated at will. Using a 3-D printer, engineers have fabricated a new soft material with a modifiable surface texture. The researchers who designed this material have suggested a wide array of applications for such surfaces but the original inspiration for their shape-shifting creation was the cuttlefish....
As marchers in the United States and around the world filled the streets this past week to protest against police brutality and racial injustice, Black scientists grieved openly on social media, calling for action on racism in society and in science. Many stated ways in which institutions and colleagues, from collaborators to meeting organizers, could support Black scientists. Some pushed universities and scientific societies to release statements against racism. And several tweeted that the weight of the current events made it even harder for them to do their jobs in a profession that already marginalizes women and people of colour—and Black scientists in particular....
In February 2016 Dutee Chand became the best woman sprinter in India. The record she set on an indoor track in Qatar during a qualifying heat stands as the fastest time an Indian woman has ever achieved in the 60-meter race, and she soon became the first Indian woman in decades to race the 100 meters at the Olympics. Just a year earlier, however, Chand had faced the possibility of never again running competitively....
In the summer of 1856 Florence Nightingale sailed home from war furious. As the nursing administrator of a sprawling British Army hospital network, she had witnessed thousands of sick soldiers endure agony in filthy wards. An entire fighting force had been effectively lost to disease and infection. The “horrors of war,” Nightingale realized, were inflicted by more than enemy bullets. Nightingale had earned the moniker “Lady with the Lamp” by making night rounds on patients, illuminated by a paper lantern....
Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee have reached agreement on the distribution of hundreds of billions of dollars in allowances that would be used for compliance with a new U.S. climate policy, according to a summary of their proposal. Reps. Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts circulated the proposed allowance allocations last night to committee Democrats ahead of next week’s planned markup of the climate and energy bill....
SPAIN Scientists analyzed groupings of juvenile Megalodon teeth, found in quarries in Tarragona province, which suggest an ancient nursery. Bone remains indicate the enormous prehistoric sharks did not reach maturity until age 25, so such sites may have been essential to their survival. NORWAY A melting mountainside ice patch revealed more than 60 arrow shafts, along with arrowheads and other artifacts, dating from 4100 B.C. to A.D. 1300. Scientists also found that almost 300 shards of reindeer antler or bone had accumulated there, suggesting the location was a prime hunting area....
By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Indian government has ordered a cut of nearly 20 percent in its 2014/15 healthcare budget due to fiscal strains, putting at risk key disease control initiatives in a country whose public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world. Two Health Ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday that more than 60 billion rupees, or $948 million, has been slashed from their budget allocation of around $5 billion for the financial year ending on March 31....
Researchers are stepping up efforts to develop a safe blood substitute amid a growing demand and dwindling supply of the real thing to treat trauma victims and blood disorders such as potentially deadly types of anemia. Their major hurdle: to come up with a replacement for hemoglobin (an iron-enriched protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body) that can be directly introduced into the human circulatory system....
Key concepts Chemistry Acids Bases Reactions Introduction You might enjoy cranberry sauce, but if you’ve ever tasted a real cranberry, you were probably surprised by the taste—definitely not as sweet as the sauce or sweetened dried berries! Pure cranberries and cranberry juice are very tart to eat, but they can be delicious when combined with other ingredients (such as orange zest and sugar). Cranberries are acidic, similar to lemons or limes....
A BRIFER HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen Hawking, with Leonard Mlodinow. Bantam Trade Paperback, 2008 “The title of this book,” the authors write, “differs by only two letters from that of a book first published in 1988.” That book was Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, a publishing phenomenon that sold more than 10 million copies. Despite its success, readers confessed to difficulty in grasping its more abstruse concepts. Hawking and Mlodinow (a physicist and writer) eliminated many of the technical explanations and clarified and expanded on the subjects of greatest interest—the creation of the universe, curved space, quantum gravity....
By Karen Brooks(Reuters) - West Virginia officials on Tuesday lifted a ban on drinking tap water from 35,000 customers who had been affected by a chemical spill that left the state’s water supply nearly unusable for hundreds of thousands since last week.Residents of the Southside and Southridge areas near state capital Charleston are now free to drink or wash with their tap water, according to a news release by West Virginia American Water....
Textbooks usually make the triumph of a scientific theory seem inevitable and uncontestable. But at the time that a theory is being forged, the reality is not nearly so tidy. An experimental result is only clear-cut if researchers agree on how to interpret it. Individuals may have conflicting hunches about what nature is up to, however, and a finding that is conclusive to one scientist may be unimpressive to another. In some cases the ideal experiment is not yet possible....
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. In an airplane hangar in Miami, engineers are recreating some of the most powerful hurricane winds to ever strike land. These Category 5 winds can shatter a test building in the blink of an eye. Yet they aren’t powerful enough to keep up with nature. When engineers built the Wall of Wind test facility 10 years ago at Florida International University, it was inspired by Hurricane Andrew, a monster of a storm that devastated South Florida in 1992....
Spending your life in human body is—among other things—a risky endeavor. So much can go wrong. Cells can misbehave and start growing into tumors. Arteries can narrow until blood can no longer flow through them. Brain cells can start to shrink and die. Immune cells can start to attack our own tissues. Reproductive organs can stubbornly refuse to do their jobs. If we could just figure out what factors lead to or contribute to these unfortunate developments, perhaps we could prevent them....
Dear EarthTalk: How is it that dams actually hurt rivers?—Missy Davenport, Boulder, Colo. Dams are a symbol of human ingenuity and engineering prowess—controlling the flow of a wild rushing river is no small feat. But in this day and age of environmental awareness, more and more people are questioning whether generating a little hydroelectric power is worth destroying riparian ecosystems from their headwaters in the mountains to their mouths at the ocean and beyond....
From the Paris Agreement to the accelerating clean energy revolution, 2015 was a big year for stories on energy and the environment, including its status as perhaps the last year in human history to see atmospheric concentrations of CO2 below 400 parts per million. Here are the leading stories published by Scientific American this year: (5) How the Deadly Nepal Earthquake Happened [Infographic] This terrible earthquake was the most recent outcome in an ongoing collision of giant pieces of our planet, a slow-moving disaster that started about 50 million years ago (4) 11 Natural Wonders to See Before They Are Gone [Slide Show] Global warming may transform these sites beyond recognition (3) Mass Deaths in the Americas Start New CO2 Epoch A new proposal pegs the start of the Anthropocene to the little ice age and the Columbian Exchange (2) The World Really Could Go Nuclear Nothing but fear and capital stand in the way of a nuclear-powered future (1) U....
