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Simulation Predicts 50% Of Recurring El Niño Events Could Be Extreme In 25 Years

Simulation Predicts 50% Of Recurring El Niño Events Could Be Extreme In 25 Years

Sep 27 2024 | comment(s)

The recurring El Niño phenomenon was in full force from mid-2023 to mid-2024 and as predicted it brought higher temperatures. In this case, it brought the highest temperatures since accurate records have been kept, for 12 straight months.
Bacterial Genes Can Be Genetic Shapeshifters

Bacterial Genes Can Be Genetic Shapeshifters

Sep 27 2024 | comment(s)

Prokaryotes, single-cell organisms such as bacteria, undergo inversions which cause a physical flip of a segment of DNA and change an organism’s genetic identity the way you might change a wig. They can occur within a single gene, in defiance of the more common 'one gene codes for one protein' standard.
Lithium-Ion Batteries Need Help To Enter The 21st Century, Manganese May Be It

Lithium-Ion Batteries Need Help To Enter The 21st Century, Manganese May Be It

Sep 25 2024 | comment(s)

With a 4th generation nuclear plant finally getting built in the U.S., 30 years after the federal government blocked all advanced energy research, there are so few old environmentalists still in power that alternative energy wishful thinking can make way for science. They aren't going without a fight, though. Solar and wind haven't improved in 50 years but have still gotten $4 trillion in subsidies - all to change conventional energy share by 0.1%.
Wuhan Seafood Market: Evidence Of COVID-19 Origins Revealed

Wuhan Seafood Market: Evidence Of COVID-19 Origins Revealed

Sep 19 2024 | comment(s)

When COVID-19 broke out, it was a US election year and that meant a lot of common sense gave way to politics. Democrats charged that then-President Trump was putting lives at risk by telling FDA to fast-track a vaccine, after insisting that closing airports to China was racist and xenophobic because the World Health Organisation had not declared a pandemic. Government insiders spread the word to debunk concerns about a nearby wet market in Wuhan and the safety of its two labs even though an employee had been convicted of selling lab animals in that wet market. China scrubbed its coronavirus database out of existence to outsiders. 
Does Air Quality Cause Postpartum Depression?

Does Air Quality Cause Postpartum Depression?

Sep 18 2024 | comment(s)

New mothers are under a lot of pressure. They are told they have to breastfeed and if they don't, the formula they use may cause their child to have worse grades in school. And if the government shuts down formula factories for no coherent reason and imports aren't allowed because the identical product in Europe hasn't spent a billion dollars and 10 years to get FDA approval, that is a worry.
Standard Model Stands? New Measurement Of The W Mass At The LHC

Standard Model Stands? New Measurement Of The W Mass At The LHC

Sep 17 2024 | comment(s)

Theories in physics come and go, some are popular yet entirely speculative and fade away quickly, like String Theory, and Superdeterminism, while others continue to provide hope for a framework that can unify gravity at the very large and very small levels.
A New Gamma Ray Observatory In Northern Chile

A New Gamma Ray Observatory In Northern Chile

Sep 15 2024 | comment(s)

The SWGO Collaboration (SWGO stands for Southern Wide-Field Gamma Observatory) met this week in Heidelberg, hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (MPIK) to discuss progress in the many activities that its members are carrying forward to prepare for the finalization of the design of the observatory and the following construction phase. 
As a member of the collaboration I could learn of many new developments in detail, but I cannot discuss them here as they are work in progress by my colleagues. What I can do here, however, is to describe the observatory as we would like to build it, and a few other things that have been decided and are now public. 
Laughter Exercise Could Be Treatment For Dry Eye Disease

Laughter Exercise Could Be Treatment For Dry Eye Disease

Sep 12 2024 | comment(s)

Dry eye disease is a chronic condition estimated to affect around 360 million people. Common symptoms include uncomfortable, red, scratchy or irritated eyes.

Anecdotal claims are that laughter therapy alleviates depression, anxiety, stress, and chronic pain, while strengthening immune function but if you have clinical depression, please don't limit yourself to people saying you need to smile more and get scientific help. Laughter therapy for dry eye disease is a much less risky proposition.
Normal Sleep Duration 50% Less Common After A Stroke

Normal Sleep Duration 50% Less Common After A Stroke

Sep 12 2024 | comment(s)

Getting enough sleep is correlated to brain and heart health and after a stroke that is even more important.

A new survey finds that is when people who need it are least likely to get it. 

A cohort of 39,559 people were asked every two years how much sleep they usually get at night on weekdays or workdays. Sleep duration was divided into three categories: short, less than six hours; normal, six to eight hours; and long, eight or more hours of sleep. The group included 1,572 people who had a stroke.


Image: Storyblocks
Mpox Vaccine Effective In Preventing Infection

Mpox Vaccine Effective In Preventing Infection

Sep 12 2024 | comment(s)

A health data simulation has concluded that a single dose of the Modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) was 58% effective in protecting again mpox infection, a disease caused by infection with the Monkeypox virus, which is most likely in men who have sex with men and which causes a rash, along with other symptoms. 
USDA Implicated In Tribal Food Shortages

USDA Implicated In Tribal Food Shortages

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

The Biden-Harris administration is under fire from Native-American and agriculture groups for repeating a food shortage fiasco that also occurred during the Obama-Biden administration.

The United States Department of Agriculture met with tribal leaders earlier this year and said they were switching to a single warehouse and sole contractor. Native leaders, concerned about a repeat of 2014, protested but USDA went ahead and food shortages, canceled food deliveries, and deliveries of expired products occurred starting in April.


Stacy Dean, Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture for the Federal Nutrition Program 
C1QL1 - Multiple Sclerosis Research Tackles How The Brain Replaces Lost Myelin

C1QL1 - Multiple Sclerosis Research Tackles How The Brain Replaces Lost Myelin

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

The neurons in our brains are protected by an insulating layer called myelin. In diseases like multiple sclerosis, this protective layer is damaged and lost, leading to death of neurons and gradual disability.
Study: Fish With A Mirror Check Their Body Size Before Fights With Bigger Opponents

Study: Fish With A Mirror Check Their Body Size Before Fights With Bigger Opponents

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

Researchers in Scientific Reports are claiming the first non-human instance of an animal possessing some mental states (e.g., mental body image, standards, intentions, goals), which are elements of private self-awareness.

They show that Labroides dimidiatus (bluestreak cleaner wrasse) checked their body size in a mirror before choosing whether to attack fish that were slightly larger or smaller than themselves. 

The authors say the cleaner wrasse’s behavior of going to look in the mirror installed in a tank when necessary indicated the possibility that the fish were using the mirror to check their own body size against that of other fish and predict the outcome of fights.
Choosing Between Inquiry-Based Learning And Direct Learning

Choosing Between Inquiry-Based Learning And Direct Learning

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

Inquiry-based learning is at the heart of the controversial

Genetic Engineering Of Barley 100 Years Ago Made Beer And Whiskey Great

Genetic Engineering Of Barley 100 Years Ago Made Beer And Whiskey Great

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

In 1929, an experiment with 28 barley varieties showed why barley, one of the world’s most important cereal crops for at least 12,000 years, has been so adaptable, growing everywhere from Norway to the mountains of South America, and why that means the future remains bright for whiskey and beer.

In most cases, random changes to DNA allowed it to survive in each new location so scientists nearly 100 years ago set out to discover the genes that changed to predict which varieties will thrive in which places. Modern work is highlighting for media its implications in a world of future climate change but nothing happening now compares to the rain and drought booms and busts of the past.
FDA Gives Approval For Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Pediatric Treatment

FDA Gives Approval For Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Pediatric Treatment

Sep 11 2024 | comment(s)

Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. has received rare pediatric disease designation for NS-050/NCNP-03, being developed for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (Duchenne). The FDA's rare pediatric disease designation is for treatments of serious or life-threatening diseases in children where there are fewer than 200,000 patients in the United States.
Fit Fat: Exercise Helps Even If You Aren't Thin

Fit Fat: Exercise Helps Even If You Aren't Thin

Sep 10 2024 | comment(s)

Influences buoyed by epidemiological claims about gimmick diets can make fitness intimidating but ignore them. Even if you don't lose weight, if you exercise your belly fat is still going to be healthier than someone who does nothing.

It just takes some consistency. 
The Whiteness Of Boomer Environmentalism May Be Why Lakes In Minority Communities Get Little Attention

The Whiteness Of Boomer Environmentalism May Be Why Lakes In Minority Communities Get Little Attention

Sep 10 2024 | comment(s)

Prior to the takeover of environmentalism by Earth Day's overt communist malcontents (1) it was devoted to clean water and neighborhoods in cities, where the poorest lived.

To get attention and money from other wealthy elites, it pivoted to rural rivers and streams and minorities were marginalized in the rush to control government that would control conservation and "endangered" species(2) and clean water for people of colors stopped being important.
A New Theory of Everything That Sets Scalars Equal To Tensors Looks Like Nonsense.

A New Theory of Everything That Sets Scalars Equal To Tensors Looks Like Nonsense.

Sep 09 2024 | comment(s)

If your theory of everything has tensors set equal to scalars then it is wrong. Simply put, a scalar is a single number that is widely recognized. A vector consists of 3-4 numbers arranged in a specific sequence, typically representing coordinates and time. A tensor is an array of these numbers in a 3x3 or 4x4 matrix. There are nuanced details to this; for instance, in certain complex scenarios, a set of numbers can be defined where scalars are represented as pairs of numbers, like complex numbers in the form of a+bi. However, to maintain simplicity, we will not delve into those complexities. To summarize, the initial statement of this post can be rephrased to say that a 4x4 matrix of numbers is not equivalent to a single number.

Government Created High Insulin Costs, But Here Is How One State Got Around It

Government Created High Insulin Costs, But Here Is How One State Got Around It

Sep 09 2024 | comment(s)

American health care is expensive as are drugs. Both are due to government involvement. If a company is forced to spend 10 years and a billion extra dollars in clinical trials that don't improve safety, they are just placebos so government can say they held companies "accountable", that raises costs for everyone.

Other countries exploit America that way. They wait until the costs are incurred and approval is set in the US, and then tell the company they can only sell in that country for less. The company has to get its biggest profit in the country that made the success possible and Americans pay the cost so Canada can get cheaper drugs.