Western Drought Has Lasted Longer than the Dust Bowl
It has lasted longer than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It’s dropped water levels perilously low at two of the nation’s largest reservoirs, forced ranchers to sell off herds and helped propel scorching wildfires. And worst of all, the drought blanketing the western United States is not going away. A group of experts featuring…
There Are Few Good COVID Antivirals, but That Could Be Changing
COVID caseloads have plummeted in many areas with high vaccination rates. But as the number of people being infected daily worldwide still exceeds 400,000 and the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus spreads rapidly, treatment options are limited. Two of the current best available treatments, monoclonal antibodies and the drug remdesivir, are given by…
Thawing Permafrost Is Artificially Chilled to Stabilize Alaska Oil Pipeline
Thawing permafrost threatens to undermine the supports holding up an elevated section of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, jeopardizing the structural integrity of one of the world’s largest oil pipelines and raising the potential of an oil spill in a delicate and remote landscape where it would be extremely difficult to clean up. The slope of permafrost…
Just 7 percent of our DNA is unique to modern humans, study shows
What makes humans unique? Scientists have taken another step toward solving an enduring mystery with a new tool that may allow for more precise comparisons between the DNA of modern humans and that of our extinct ancestors.Just 7 percent of our genome is uniquely shared with other humans, and not shared by other early ancestors,…
Western Heat Wave ‘Virtually Impossible’ without Climate Change
The blistering heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest last month would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of climate change, scientists say. In fact, it was nearly impossible even with it. That’s according to a new study from World Weather Attribution, a climate research initiative that investigates the influence of climate change on…
Black Holes Swallow Neutron Stars in a Single Bite, New Results Suggest
For the first time, scientists have without a doubt observed not one but two collisions between black holes and neutron stars. These two separate mergers occurred 10 days apart in January 2020 and were seen by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo facilities, which detect invisible gravitational waves. The achievement marks the long-awaited…
Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change
A blistering heat wave obliterated high temperature records in Oregon and Washington over the weekend, ratcheting up risks for deaths and fires, and underscoring the dangers of climate change. Portland, Oregon’s biggest city, hit a sweltering all-time high of 112 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday at its international airport, the National Weather Service said. That broke a…
Deleted Coronavirus Genome Sequences Trigger Scientific Intrigue
Efforts to study the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic have received help from a surprising source. A biologist in the United States has ‘excavated’ partial SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences from the beginnings of the pandemic’s probable epicentre in Wuhan, China, that were deposited — but later removed — from a US government database. The partial…
A Glitch Has Knocked the Hubble Space Telescope Offline–for Now
It turns out it’s tricky to troubleshoot a 1980s computer that’s dashing around Earth hundreds of miles over our heads. NASA has spent more than a week evaluating a computer issue that put the venerable Hubble Space Telescope out of commission on June 13 and that may force the spacecraft to turn to its backup computer. Now, ongoing tests…
Artificial Proteins Never Seen in the Natural World Are Becoming New COVID Vaccines and Medicines
Late on a Friday night in April 2020, Lexi Walls was alone in her laboratory at the University of Washington, waiting nervously for the results of the most important experiment of her life. Walls, a young structural biologist with expertise in coronaviruses, had spent the past three months working day and night to develop a…
Giant Ice Shelf Crumbling Faster than Expected
Antarctica’s monster Pine Island Glacier—one of the fastest melting glaciers on the continent—is giving climate scientists new reasons to worry. The trouble has to do with its ice shelf, a frozen ledge at the edge of the Pine Island Glacier. The ice shelf helps stabilize and contain the vast flow of ice behind it. But…
Why We Don’t Know the Animal Origins of the Coronavirus
Over the past century, many notable viruses have emerged from animals to cause widespread illness and death in people. The list includes the pathogens behind pandemic influenza, Ebola, Zika, West Nile fever, SARS and now COVID, brought on by the virus SARS-CoV-2. For all of these microbes, the animal species that served as the original source…
New Radioactivity Measurement Could Boost Precision of Dark Matter Experiments
A concentration of one part per billion is like a pinch of salt in 10 tons of potato chips—and scientists can now find radioactive particles at concentrations millions of times smaller. In the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, researchers describe successfully detecting radioactive uranium and thorium hiding among something like a million billion other atoms.…
New Technique Grows Realistic Bone in a Dish
It’s one of the most challenging organs to re-create Credit: Thomas Fuchs Laboratory-grown organoids—tiny cellular structures that mimic an organ’s anatomy and functions—are becoming increasingly useful in medical research. Such micro-models of the brain, lungs and other organs have been around for years, but creating them for bone tissue has proved uniquely difficult. Bone stands…
Hurricanes Threaten 32 Million U.S. Homes
More than 32 million homes on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of sustaining hurricane wind damage, according to a report released yesterday that provides the first measurement of wind risk in an era of climate change. The at-risk properties have a combined value of $8.5 trillion, the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic…
US could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day: Fauci
Source: MedicalXpress A top US health expert warned Congress on Tuesday that new coronavirus cases could more than double to 100,000 per day if authorities...
Study shows vulnerable populations with less education more likely to believe, share misinformation
Source: Phys.org As the COVID-19 pandemic threatens public health around the world, misinformation regarding its treatment, causes and cures has abounded. A University of Kansas...