SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, caught the world off-guard when it crossed into humans late last year. It even surprised many of the experts most likely to understand it best. To Siddappa Byrareddy, a virologist at the University of Nebraska and expert on viral epidemiology, the most surprising […]
A soldier tries to beat the heat. Image source: Daily Mail Although the U.S. military typically refrains from making public comment on politically sensitive topics, a report made public last August, published by the Army War College and written jointly by the Army, the Defense Intelligence Agency and NASA, makes […]
Election confusion: more powerful than cyberattacks. Source: Meritalk On November 5th, 2019, New York City residents will find ranked choice voting as Question 1 on their city election ballots. For many New Yorkers, this will come as a surprise. Despite signs posted in subways and at bus stops, the question […]
An Aedes albopictus female mosquito feeds on a human blood meal. Photo by James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Image source: Science News A mosquito may not attack you with the same ferocity of a bear, but the mosquito attack is far more likely to occur. Further drawing […]
Two Araguaian botos swimming together. Photo credit: Gabriel Melo Alves dos Santos Seven years ago, Gabriel Melo Alves dos Santos happened upon a remarkable sight: a rare and highly reclusive Amazonian river dolphin, the Araguaian river dolphin, gathering in numbers at a marketplace along the Tocantins River in the Amazonian […]
Photo credit: https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/should-you-take-that-mosquito-bite-personally/ Beginning in 2016, Dr. Gerardo Ulibarri, a researcher with the Laurentian University in Canada, began placing a special kind of mosquito trap around the town of Troncones, on the Pacific coast of Mexico’s Guerrero state. These traps, called ovillantas, have proven successful in dramatically reducing the population […]
Rural towns that need to incorporate climate science into city plans often lack the budgets to do so. Image: Shutterstock In September of 2015, President Obama chartered the creation of a committee dedicated to translating the findings of the periodic National Climate Assessment into to practical advice so that towns, […]
Image: A Pf bacteriophage invades a mammalian cell. Credit: Dr.Paul L. Bollyky, et al. For the first time ever, a bacteria has been found to weaponize its own virus to attack humans. A common bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces a virus that makes the bacteria itself significantly more pathogenic. The virus […]
Man’s deadliest enemy. Photo: Joel Sartore, National Geographic After the floods, famines and forced migrations that global warming is predicted to bring about, the spread of mosquitoes may seem like adding insult to injury. Mosquitoes, however, remain our deadliest animal adversary, killing an estimated 100 million humans worldwide. But it […]
Sir Freddie. Photo credit: Walker family Potential fathers who truly struggle with their decision to start a family can now delay that decision by decades. Biologists in Sydney, Australia, recently thawed out sheep semen samples taken in 1968 and used it to impregnate Merino ewes. Out of 56 ewes inseminated, […]