Jul 3, 2024 | Salon.com
In the ongoing waves of bird flu outbreaks, with the virus spreading to more than 141 herds in 12 states, the risk of another full-blown pandemic like COVID-19 is becoming a distinct possibility. In preparation for just such a disaster, the U.S. government will pay pharmaceutical company Moderna $176 million to develop a vaccine that protects against the H5N1 virus....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jul 2, 2024 | Salon.com
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the top hurricane forecasting body in the United States, published a report forecasting the most active hurricane season yet. Now that the season has begun, Hurricane Beryl — the first named hurricane from 2024 — arrived last week, and is already breaking records for its early intensity....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jul 2, 2024 | Salon.com
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced in a paper on Monday that they have developed nanorobots which kill cancer cells using a specialized trigger. The technology, first tested in mice, holds promise to one day provide treatment in humans.
Nanorobots are microscopic machines used to perform tasks too minute or delicate for larger devices and can be more precise and effective than certain drugs or other cancer therapies....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jul 1, 2024 | Salon.com
Diabetes has been a well-known condition since ancient times, described 1500 years before Christ was born, in the Egyptian medical text the Ebers papyrus. Modern doctors thought they knew how it manifested: when the pancreas struggles to process insulin and therefore your blood glucose (or blood sugar) becomes too high....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 30, 2024 | Salon.com
President Joe Biden is running against a man with 34 felony convictions, two impeachments and a historically bungled attempt to manage a pandemic. Even worse, former President Donald Trump is the only president to ever refuse to accept the results of an election if he lost, a petulant and politically perilous practice in which Trump has indulged since before he became president....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 30, 2024 | Salon.com
Extinction is a natural byproduct of life and evolution, but an alarming number of species have entered the dustbin of history thanks to human activity — which is anything but natural.
In a 2023 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists learned humans caused so many extinctions over the last 500 years that if our species had never existed, it would have taken 18,000 years for that same number of genera to have naturally vanished....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 28, 2024 | Salon.com
The Supreme Court voted along party lines in a historic decision on Friday, ruling against the government in a pair of cases — Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce. The conservative judges sided against the liberals, setting a precedent gutting the power of regulatory agencies to protect the environment and consumers....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 28, 2024 | Salon.com
Making music is strictly a human trait, at least with the complexity of jazz musicians and classical pianists. But of course some animals make their own songs, including frogs, birds and cicadas. Some primates also make a sort of musical calls and studying this can teach us a lot about why humans evolved singing and music-making capabilities in the first place....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 28, 2024 | Salon.com
When the Supreme Court ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday, June 27, it incurred the ire of many analysts. At issue in the case of Ohio v. EPA was whether the agency can implement a plan to limit cross-state air pollution via the Clear Air Act while affected states challenge its legality....
Originally posted on salon.com
Jun 27, 2024 | Salon.com
Like a magnifying glass on an anthill, excessive emissions from burning fossil fuels is melting the Antarctic ice sheet. The faster it liquefies, the more we’re faced with the dire prospect of extreme sea level rise. Scientists have debated whether a “tipping point” exists for this ice sheet, or a moment when the effects of this melting would be suddenly both irreversible and catastrophic....
Originally posted on salon.com