Mississippi governor declares state of emergency as end of Jackson water crisis is nowhere in sight
Residents of the capital city have long been plagued by water problems and recent flooding from the Pearl River caused this latest shortage, which will last for "an unknown period of time." #pearlriver #shortage #capitalcity #flooding #watercrisis (Source: Reuters: Health)
Source: Reuters: Health - August 30, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
Children could suffer from long-term eye problems due to too much screen time
A third of children are spending more than five hours a day on their screens over the summer holidays - which could cause long-term eye damage, experts have warned. A study of 1,500 parents found four in ten were completely unaware that extended periods using gadgets, such as tablets or phones, can be a leading cause for eye problems, like myopia - commonly known as short-sightedness. (Source: Daily Express - Health)
Source: Daily Express - Health - August 24, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news
The Guardian view on de-extinction: Jurassic Park may be becoming reality | Editorial
We should be keeping endangered species alive rather than bringing animals back from extinctionThe last official sighting of aTasmanian tiger in the wild occurred in 1930, when it wasshot by a farmer. The marsupials, formally known as thylacines, were hunted to extinction by European settlers who considered them a threat to their sheep and poultry. However, the 6ft-long creatures may reappear if a group of biotechnologists have their way.The company Colossal Biosciences, along with researchers from theUniversity of Melbourne, plans to “de-extinct” the thylacine by using gene-editing technology. Australia has the fastes...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 19, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Editorial Tags: Animals Wildlife Biotechnology industry Environment Genetics Science Jurassic Park Cloning Source Type: news
Why Scientists Want You to Kill Spotted Lanternflies
As invasive spotted lanternflies continue moving through the United States, local agricultural agencies have launched “If you see it, kill it” campaigns urging people to kill the bugs in order to prevent any further spread across the U.S.
In response to the proliferating insect, earlier this week Senator Chuck Schumer (D., NY) called for $22 million more in funding for a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that targets invasive species; these are species that aren’t native to an area and can quickly become overpopulated, wreaking havoc on their new environment. “We need to stomp out this bug bef...
Source: TIME: Science - August 19, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Simmone Shah Tags: Uncategorized animals healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
The threat of Covid isn ’t over – so why does Britain have a conspiracy of silence about it? | Philip Ball
Our government is pretending that the pandemic is ‘done’, ignoring both protective measures now and preparations for the futureRemember those days of looking at graphs and statistics of Covid infections and deaths and wondering if the end of the pandemic was in sight, or if it was safe to visit the parents, or if another tranche of restrictions was on the way? Thank goodness someone is still keeping track of those figures – namely the World Health Organization, whoselatest update brings the welcome news that global weekly Covid deaths have dropped by 9%. All the same, the overall picture is complicated: deaths are ri...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - August 15, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Philip Ball Tags: Coronavirus Infectious diseases Science World news UK news Source Type: news
Illumina Helped the World Fight COVID-19. Now, CEO Francis deSouza Has Monkeypox in His Sights
As chief executive of San Diego-based genomic sequencing company Illumina, Francis deSouza feels well-placed to witness the world’s next great scientific transformation.
“I really believe that just like the 20th century was the era of the bit and the digital revolution, the 21st century is likely to be remembered as the era of the genome,” he says. “We’re seeing that play out in terms of genomic-based screening and diagnostics emerging, like Illumina’s offerings, but we’re also seeing the emergence of genomic-based medicine.”
DeSouza’s excitement is understandable. Well...
Source: TIME: Health - August 14, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Simons Tags: Uncategorized biztech2030 The Leadership Brief Source Type: news
UN ’s Education Summit: An Opportunity to Create a Bottom-Up Global Governance
Credit: United NationsBy Simone GalimbertiKATHMANDU, Nepal, Aug 10 2022 (IPS) The upcoming summit on Education, part of the UN Secretary General’s ambitious agenda, can truly bring accountability and participation to the inevitably new ways education will be imparted in the future.
With scorching temperatures, uncontrolled flames and floods devastating our planet, millions of people are realizing that we are all going to pay a high price for climate inaction.
The current climate crisis is furthering compounding the other emergency that is still affecting all of us, a public health crisis fully exposed by the Covid pand...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - August 10, 2022 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Simone Galimberti Tags: Climate Change COVID-19 Education Environment Global Headlines Health IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse Poverty & SDGs Sustainability TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news
Scientists Learn More About the History of Stars in Latest Webb Telescope Images
The world was gobsmacked last month when the James Webb Space Telescope released its first clutch of images, showing nebulae, galactic clusters, binary stars, and more. Things have quieted down a bit since, as the telescope team begins to set about the 25 or so years of work the Webb is thought to have ahead of it. But, as Space.com reports, the telescope made news again this week, when astronomers announced that it had spotted the farthest individual star ever seen.
Named Earendel, after a character in Lord of the Rings, the star is located 12.9 billion light years from Earth, which means that Webb saw it as it looked 12....
Source: TIME: Science - August 4, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Jeffrey Kluger Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Space Source Type: news
First photos of cougars killing donkeys in Death Valley suggest big impacts for ecosystem
For humans and wildlife alike, feral donkeys can be a pain in the ass. Large and full of attitude, the scruffy vegetation-destroying equids steal resources from native sheep and tortoises, poop in precious spring water, and cost many a park manager a good night’s sleep.
They aren’t unstoppable, however. In Death Valley National Park, researchers have captured the first photographic evidence of donkeys falling prey to the claws of a native predator: the cougar. The relationship is shaping the area’s wetlands, the team argues, and has raised questions about the management of wild equids going forward.
“Th...
Source: ScienceNOW - August 2, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
The Virus Hunters Trying to Prevent the Next Pandemic
Nobody saw SARS-CoV-2 coming. In the early days of the pandemic, researchers were scrambling to collect samples from people who had mysteriously developed fevers, coughs, and breathing problems. Pretty soon, they realized that the disease-causing culprit was a new virus humans hadn’t seen before.
And the world, lacking a coordinated global response, was unprepared. Some countries acted quickly to develop tests for the novel coronavirus, while others with fewer resources were left behind. With a virus oblivious to national borders, and with travel between countries and continents more common than it had been in previo...
Source: TIME: Health - August 1, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Alice Park and Video by Andrew D. Johnson Tags: Uncategorized Disease Frontiers of Medicine 2022 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
Google ’s AI Lab, DeepMind, Offers ‘Gift to Humanity’ with Protein Structure Solution
Matt Higgins and his team of researchers at the University of Oxford had a problem.
For years, they had been studying the parasite that spreads malaria, a disease that still kills hundreds of thousands of people every year. They had identified an important protein on the surface of the parasite as a focal point for a potential future vaccine. They knew its underlying chemical code. But the protein’s all-important 3D structure was eluding them. That shape was the key to developing the right vaccine to slide in and block the parasite from infecting human cells.
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The team&rsqu...
Source: TIME: Science - July 28, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Billy Perrigo Tags: Uncategorized Artificial Intelligence biztech2030 Source Type: news
3 Reasons to Avoid Farmed Salmon
Not so long ago, Atlantic salmon was an abundant wild species. Born in the rivers of northeastern United States and Canada, after a couple years in freshwater they embarked on an epic migration, navigating 2,000 miles across the Atlantic to feed and mature off western Greenland. Millions of salmon travelled up to 60 miles a day, fending off predators and feeding on zooplankton and small fish. When the time came, instinct and the earth’s magnetic fields led these magnificent fish back to spawn in the precise rivers of their birth.
Today, wild salmon are an endangered species, gone from most rivers in the U.S. There ar...
Source: TIME: Health - July 21, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins Tags: Uncategorized freelance Sustainability Source Type: news
Liberia: GOAL Ends Month-Long Eye Training for Members
[New Republic] A month-long training for members of General Ophthalmic Association of Liberia (GOAL) has ended at the New Sight Eye Center (NSEC) in the 72nd Community, Paynesville, Montserrado County. (Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine)
Source: AllAfrica News: Health and Medicine - July 13, 2022 Category: African Health Source Type: news
Pentagon UFO study led by researcher who believes in the supernatural
When the U.S. government released
a much-anticipated report
on UFOs a year ago, many were perplexed that it couldn’t explain 143 of the 144 sightings it examined. (In the single closed case, the report concluded the mystery object was a large, deflating balloon.) "Where are the aliens?"
cracked
one headline.
The truth was still out there. So was any sense of who had conducted the analysis, because the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which released the study, provided no details about who had investigated the cases. Last week, however, a former Department of Defense (DOD) astrop...
Source: ScienceNOW - June 29, 2022 Category: Science Source Type: news
Go fish: Danish scientists work on fungi-based seafood substitute
Team call in Michelin-starred restaurant to help crack challenge of mimicking texture of seafoodFrom plant-based meat that “bleeds” to milk grown in a lab, fake meats and dairy have come a long way in recent years. But there is another alternative that scientists are training their sights on, one with the most challenging texture to recreate of all: seafood.Scientists in Copenhagen are fermenting seaweed on fungi to develop the closest substitute for seafood yet, working with Alchemist, a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, to meet demand from diners for sustainable plant-based alternatives that are as good as – or bett...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - June 24, 2022 Category: Science Authors: Rachel Hall Tags: Food science Seafood Denmark Restaurants Europe World news Source Type: news
