A new paper has implicated a physiologic mechanism in vegetation as a cause for Arctic warming.

The "greenhouse effect" is well-known by now, water vapor that plants emit during photosynthesis serves to lower land surface temperature, similar watering the yard on a hot day, but it can lead to a rise in air temperature.

The new paper finds that the Arctic temperature rises when the moisture released by plants is reduced due to the increase of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) in the atmosphere. The increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration closes the pores (stomata) of plants in high-latitude areas and reduces their transpiration, which they find ultimately accelerates Arctic warming. 

When states and nations began to implement forced lockdowns to combat COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that has now killed 20,000 more people than the flu did two years ago, there was relatively little mention of mental health. For those who wanted to stay home and learn to bake bread, it was a paid vacation, but for those more susceptible to psychological stress it is a risky time.

Anxiety-prone people can blame serotonin cleanup proteins gone awry in their amygdala, according to research in marmosets recently published in JNeurosci. Targeting the amygdala with anti-anxiety medication could provide quicker relief.

The same event or set of life circumstances could send one person into the depths of anxiety or despair while leaving another unaffected. This distinction, called trait anxiety, arises from the proteins involved in serotonin signaling, a neurotransmitter implicated in anxiety and depression.

In 2000, vaccines led to the measles virus being declared eliminated from the United States yet in 2019 there were 1,282 confirmed cases in 31 states - the greatest number reported since 1992.

Unsurprisingly, nearly three-fourths originated from New York which, along with the west coast, has long been a hotbed for vaccine denial. And the cases occurred in people not vaccinated against measles. 

The last group most of the world wants to hear from right now is a lab in Wuhan, but if their microwave air plasma thruster is more real than their claims of having a certified BSL-2 lab studying coronavirus, there could be a great deal of interest in the future. 

Like solids, gases, and liquids, plasma is fourth state of matter found naturally in places like the sun's surface and Earth's lightning. The Institute of Technological Sciences at Wuhan University
say they have created a plasma jet by compressing air into high pressures and using a microwave to ionize the pressurized air stream.

Though slavery is still invoked in the United States of America, it is ironically because it was relatively rare compared to the rest of the continent. Only 4 percent of African slaves brought by Europeans and other Africans were brought to what is now the U.S, and importation was banned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1808. The remaining 96 percent went to Latin America and there is no benefit to invoking slavery when so many have not only slaves as ancestors, but also the colonizers who brought them.

Bringing in a huge population of slaves left behind a science story, and that story is filled out a little by three individuals found within a mass burial site from the 16th century at San José de los Naturales Royal Hospital in Mexico City.