Science
Here’s how the U.S. could release a COVID-19 vaccine before the election—and why that scares some
Trump … pledged that the push by his administration’s Operation Warp Speed to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine would succeed “before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner.”
That promise concerns many vaccine veterans. They worry that political forces—the U.S. presidential election on 3 November, nationalistic pride to “win” a race, the need to resuscitate economies—could lead to premature and dangerous approvals under mechanisms such as the emergency use authorization (EUA), a pathway used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow rapid access to diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines… Paul Offit, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who is a member of a group that advises FDA about its vaccine decisions, suspects the Trump administration might seek a COVID-19 vaccine EUA before the elections and say: “We Warp Speeded our way to a vaccine.”
China and Russia already have approved limited use of COVID-19 vaccines outside of clinical trials, offering baffling—and sharply criticized—rationales. In the United States, Operation Warp Speed, as its name implies, hopes to move vaccine candidates forward more quickly than ever before. It has invested more than $10 billion in developing eight different COVID-19 vaccines, with much of that money pre-purchasing hundreds of millions of doses so they will be at the ready if an FDA approval comes through. Three of the Warp Speed-backed vaccines have entered efficacy trials, and one manufacturer has pledged to start delivering the first of 300 million doses as early as October—though one person close to Operation Warp Speed says, “There won’t be enough vaccine in October to create anything other than a news story.”
FDA officials have insisted they have “unwavering regulatory safeguards” and will not cut any corners.
Growing underwater heat blob speeds demise of Arctic sea ice
In March, soon after arriving aboard the Polarstern, a German icebreaker frozen into Arctic sea ice, Jennifer Hutchings watched as ice broke up around the ship, weeks earlier than expected. Even as scientists on the research cruise scrambled to keep field instruments from plunging into the ocean, Hutchings, who studies ice deformation at Oregon State University, Corvallis, couldn’t suppress a thrill at seeing the crack up, as if she had spotted a rare bird. “I got to observe firsthand what I studied,” she says.
Arctic sea ice is itself an endangered species. Next month its extent will reach its annual minimum, which is poised to be among the lowest on record. The trend is clear: Summer ice covers half the area it did in the 1980s, and because it is thinner, its volume is down 75%. With the Arctic warming three times faster than the global average, most scientists grimly acknowledge the inevitability of ice-free summers, perhaps as soon as 2035. “It’s definitely a when, not an if,” says Alek Petty, a polar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Now, he and others are learning that a warming atmosphere is far from the only factor speeding up the ice loss. Strengthening currents and waves are pulverizing the ice. And a study published last week suggests deep heat in the Arctic Ocean has risen and is now melting the ice from below.
United States establishes a dozen AI and quantum information science research centers
The United States aims to invest $765 million over the next 5 years in a dozen scientific centers dedicated to the study of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS), such as quantum computing, the White House announced today. Numerous private tech companies such as IBM, Google, and Intel will also contribute to the twin pushes, which call for a total of more than $1 billion in research investment.
“[T]hese institutes are a manifestation of the uniquely American free-market approach to technological advancement,” write Michael Kratsios, the White House’s chief technology officer, and Chris Liddell, the White House’s deputy chief of staff for policy coordination in the announcement. “Each institute brings together the federal government, industry, and academia, positioning us to leverage the full power and expertise of the United States’ innovation ecosystem.”
Nature
The coronavirus is most deadly if you are older and male — new data reveal the risks
For every 1,000 people infected with the coronavirus who are under the age of 50, almost none will die. For people in their fifties and early sixties, about five will die — more men than women. The risk then climbs steeply as the years accrue. For every 1,000 people in their mid-seventies or older who are infected, around 116 will die. These are the stark statistics obtained by some of the first detailed studies into the mortality risk for COVID-19.
Trends in coronavirus deaths by age have been clear since early in the pandemic. Research teams looking at the presence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in people in the general population — in Spain, England, Italy and Geneva in Switzerland — have now quantified that risk, says Marm Kilpatrick, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
“It gives us a much sharper tool when asking what the impact might be on a certain population that has a certain demographic,” says Kilpatrick.
The mosquito strategy that could eliminate dengue
Epidemiologists typically speak in qualified and caveated language. But newly released results from a trial of a biological technology that aims to stop the spread of mosquito-borne diseases have them using terms such as “staggering” and “epochal”. The study, conducted in an Indonesia city, showed that releasing mosquitoes modified to carry a bacterium called Wolbachia, which stops the insects from transmitting some viruses, led to a steep drop in cases of dengue fever. The findings provide the strongest evidence yet that the technique, in development since the 1990s, could rid the world of some of these deadly diseases, researchers say.
The trial in Yogyakarta released Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes into randomly designated portions of the metropolis. Rates of dengue in these places were 77% lower, over several years, compared with areas that did not receive the mosquitoes. The results were reported in press releases on 26 August, but the full data underlying the figures are yet to be published.
The Guardian
Africa declared free of wild polio after decades of work
Africa has been declared free from wild polio, after decades of work by a coalition of international health bodies, national and local governments, community volunteers and survivors.
Four years after the last recorded cases of wild polio in northern Nigeria, the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) on Tuesday certified that the continent is now free of the virus, which can cause irreversible paralysis and in some cases death.
The achievement is the result of a campaign to vaccinate and monitor children in Borno State, the final front of polio eradication efforts on the continent, and the heart of the jihadist insurgency in Nigeria.
“It’s been a momentous, massive undertaking, with amazing persistence and perseverance, coming in the face of moments when we thought we were just about there, then we’d have a reversal,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa, said.
Up to half of world's water supply stolen annually, study finds
Between 30% and 50% of the world’s water supply is stolen each year, mainly by agricultural interests and farmers, yet the crime itself is not well understood, a new international study led by the University of Adelaide says.
The lead author, Dr Adam Loch, from the university’s Centre for Global Food and Resources, said there was a lack of data around water theft partly because those stealing the resource were often poor, vulnerable and at-risk in developing countries.
“But theft also occurs in the developed world, especially in agricultural settings,” he said.
Science Daily
Meteorite study suggests Earth may have been wet since it formed
A new study finds that Earth's water may have come from materials that were present in the inner solar system at the time the planet formed -- instead of far-reaching comets or asteroids delivering such water. The findings published Aug. 28 in Science suggest that Earth may have always been wet.
Researchers from the Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG, CNRS/Universite de Lorraine) in Nancy, France, including one who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis, determined that a type of meteorite called an enstatite chondrite contains sufficient hydrogen to deliver at least three times the amount of water contained in the Earth's oceans, and probably much more.
The 'gold' in breast milk
Breast milk strengthens a child's immune system, supporting the intestinal flora. These facts are common knowledge. But how does this work? What are the molecular mechanisms behind this phenomenon? And why is this not possible the same way with bottle feeding? The reasons were unknown until a team from the RESIST Cluster of Excellence at Hannover Medical School (MHH) recently discovered how alarmins are that mechanism in a project involving the University of Bonn. The results have been pre-published online in the medical journal Gastroenterology.
"Alarmins are the 'gold' in breast milk. These proteins prevent dangerous intestinal colonization disorders that can lead to blood poisoning and intestinal inflammation," relates Team Leader Prof. Dr. Dorothee Viemann of the Hannover Medical School (MHH) Clinic for Pediatric Pneumology, Allergology and Neonatology.
Phys.org
What did the katydids do when picking up bat sounds?
Ecosystems can be incredibly complex, with many interacting species. In many habitats, predators shape they behavior of prey and prey shape the behavior of predators. This paper provides a detailed look at the predator-prey relationship between bats and katydids, a group of insects related to crickets and grasshoppers.
Some species of bats hunt katydids by eavesdropping on their mating calls. However, katydids aren't defenseless. Many species of katydids have ears that can hear the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats. In some habitats, katydids stop calling when they hear the echolocation calls of bats. We studied katydids in Neotropical forests and predicted that they would stop calling when they heard the echolocation calls of approaching bats. What we found was a surprise—most of the katydid species continued calling even when hearing the echolocation calls of predatory eavesdropping bats.
How Neanderthals adjusted to climate change
Climate change occurring shortly before their disappearance triggered a complex change in the behavior of late Neanderthals in Europe: they developed more complex tools. This is the conclusion reached by a group of researchers from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Università degli Studi die Ferrara (UNIFE) on the basis of finds in the Sesselfelsgrotte cave in Lower Bavaria.
Neanderthals lived approximately 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in large areas of Europe and the Middle East, even as far as the outer edges of Siberia. They produced tools using wood and glass-like rock material, which they also sometimes combined, for example to make a spear with a sharp and hard point made of stone.
Gizmodo
Wolverines Return to Mount Rainier After 100-Year Absence
Conservationists at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State have spotted a wolverine mother and her two offspring, known as kits. A reproductive female hasn’t been seen in this national park for over a century, which suggests ecological conditions in the area are improving.
Wolverines, despite their popularity in the public’s imagination, are super rare. An estimated 300 to 1,000 individuals are thought to exist in the Lower 48, according to the National Park Service (NPS). Population density estimates for these solitary animals range from 6.2 individuals for every 600 square miles (1,554 square kilometers) of high-quality habitat, and just 0.3 individuals for the same area of land in less suitable areas.
Researchers Give Mice Super Calorie-Burning Fat Cells Using CRISPR
Researchers say they may have found a way to create more useful fat cells using the gene-editing technique CRISPR. In a new study out Wednesday, they found evidence—in mice—that these engineered cells can possibly help the body burn calories quicker, as well as prevent obesity and other metabolic problems, compared to the fat cells most commonly found in the human body. But the findings are still a long way from being applicable to people.
Yu-Hua Tseng, a diabetes researcher at Harvard Medical School, and her lab have been studying the intricacies of fat cells for years, focusing on the difference between so-called white and brown fat cells (the brown color comes from the higher amounts of mitochondria they have, which contain lots of iron). The primary purpose of white fat cells is to store energy from food, while brown fat cells are thought primarily to be used as a way to keep our body temperature stable, particularly in the cold.
The Atlantic
What Bread Tasted Like 4,000 Years Ago
Around 2000 B.C., a baker in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes captured yeast from the air and kneaded it into a triangle of dough. Once baked, the bread was buried in a dedication ceremony beneath the temple of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II on the west bank of the Nile.
There the yeast slept like a microbial mummy for four millennia, until 2019. That’s when Seamus Blackley—a physicist and game designer best known for creating the Xbox—suctioned it up with a syringe and revived it in a sourdough starter.
Blackley, an amateur Egyptologist, often thinks about this ancient baker as he attempts to re-create the bread of 2000 B.C. “I’m trying to learn from you, my friend,” he tweeted, as if speaking across time to the baker. “Your voice will never be silent … May you have life, forever.”
Democrats Are Trying to Save Climate Policy From the Senate
Why has the United States done so little politically to combat climate change?
Blame the Senate. For the past quarter century, the world’s greatest deliberative body has killed virtually any bill that would ensure the continued habitability of the world. Through its slow process, excessive use of the filibuster, and scheme of allotting votes without regard to a state’s population, the Senate has smothered even the meekest climate policies that arrive on its floor. […]
Yet the upper chamber can’t be avoided. The most powerful way to tackle climate change in the U.S. is to pass new legislation, which means piecing together a bill that can earn 60—or maybe 51—votes in the upper chamber.
Today, Senate Democrats unveiled their plan to get there. In a 255-page report, the caucus says that it will pursue a broad approach to fighting climate change, imposing new standards and spending billions of dollars to reduce U.S. carbon pollution to net-zero by 2050. The document, which emerged from a year of hearings and private meetings with Democratic allies, is not a draft bill, but a menu of potential policies that have wide support in the party and that could be combined in future legislation.
Scientific American
Republican Convention Ignored Climate Threat, But Americans’ Attitudes Are Shifting
In four days of speeches lasting more than eight hours at the Republican National Convention, climate change was never mentioned as a threat to the country.
That silence stands apart from the climate alarm bells that have been sounding since Donald Trump accepted his first nomination for president four years ago.
Thousands of Americans have been killed in natural disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires during Trump’s first term in office. Each of those four years has been among the world’s hottest on record. Leaders of other nations have taken action as the United States ignores the issue. […]
Those sentiments play well with Trump’s core supporters, but they’re askew from what most voters believe, including younger Republicans, according to polls. They don’t reflect the events that many Americans are either experiencing or seeing online: uncontrolled wildfires in California and the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana in 160 years.
Live Science
Seussian beast survived the Triassic by taking lots of naps
Some 250 million years ago, a Seussian-looking beast with clawed digits, a turtle-like beak and two tusks may have survived Antarctica's chilly winters not by fruitlessly foraging for food, but by curling up into a sleep-like state, meaning it may be the oldest animal on record to hibernate, a new study finds.
Analysis of this Triassic vertebrate's ever-growing tusks revealed that it may have spent part of the year hibernating, a strategy that is still used by modern animals to tough out long winters. Like hibernators alive today, these ancient animals, who belong to the extinct genus Lystrosaurus, slowed down their metabolism and underwent periods of minimal activity when conditions got rough.
What are locusts and why do they swarm?
Locusts are large grasshoppers that live on almost every continent of the world and are known for their propensity to gather in large, destructive swarms. However, locusts often live for several generations, spanning decades, in the solitary, sedentary style that's characteristic of other species of grasshoppers. It's when locusts come together that their behavior changes.
Locusts are able to sense when their population density begins to increase, said Hojun Song, an entomologist at Texas A&M University. And in response, "they become gregarious, attracted to each other. They eat more [and] develop faster," he said.
Mongabay
481 and counting: Norway’s whaling catch hits four-year high
Four hundred and eighty-one. That’s how many minke whales Norway has killed so far this year, according to new data released by the country’s Fishermen’s Sales Organization, or Råfisklaget. That’s 52 more than all of last year, and 76 more than the two years before that. What’s more, this year’s whaling season has yet to end, so additional whales may still be slaughtered. Overall, this whaling season is the “deadliest in years,” according to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), a Washington, D.C.-based NGO.
“The current increase in numbers shows how desperately Norway is clinging to its whaling activities,” Fabienne McLellan, co-director of international relations at Swiss NGO OceanCare, told Mongabay in an email. “It’s just cynical to classify the whaling industry, which is artificially kept alive through subsidies, to be of systemic importance during the COVID19 crisis.”
ProPublica
They Know How to Prevent Megafires. Why Won’t Anybody Listen?
What a week. Rough for all Californians. Exhausting for the firefighters on the front lines. Heart-shattering for those who lost homes and loved ones. But a special “Truman Show” kind of hell for the cadre of men and women who’ve not just watched California burn, fire ax in hand, for the past two or three or five decades, but who’ve also fully understood the fire policy that created the landscape that is now up in flames. […]
The pattern is a form of insanity: We keep doing overzealous fire suppression across California landscapes where the fire poses little risk to people and structures. As a result, wildland fuels keep building up. At the same time, the climate grows hotter and drier. Then, boom: the inevitable. The wind blows down a power line, or lightning strikes dry grass, and an inferno ensues. This week we’ve seen both the second- and third-largest fires in California history. […]
Academics believe that between 4.4 million and 11.8 million acres burned each year in prehistoric California. Between 1982 and 1998, California’s agency land managers burned, on average, about 30,000 acres a year. Between 1999 and 2017, that number dropped to an annual 13,000 acres. The state passed a few new laws in 2018 designed to facilitate more intentional burning. But few are optimistic this, alone, will lead to significant change. We live with a deathly backlog. In February 2020, Nature Sustainability published this terrifying conclusion: California would need to burn 20 million acres — an area about the size of Maine — to restabilize in terms of fire. […]
A six-word California fire ecology primer: The state is in the hole.
Ars Technica
New map shows vulnerability of Antarctic ice to self-fracking
In 2016, a study found that adding a couple new processes to a model of the Antarctic ice sheets made them much more vulnerable to melt, greatly increasing global sea level rise—both this century and in the centuries to come. It was an alarming result, to be sure, but also a bit conjectural. The researchers didn’t have a way to assess how realistically the new processes were modeled, so they viewed their paper as raising a question deserving attention rather than providing an answer.
The new processes were the collapse of ice cliffs above a certain height (a theoretical constraint, but not something we’ve watched happen) and hydrofracturing. The latter is a propagation of a surface fracture in the ice clean through to the bottom of the ice sheet as the crack fills with water. Hydrofracturing is a known commodity—it was probably the dominant process in the sudden collapse of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. The question here, instead, is how vulnerable is the rest of Antarctica to this process?
A new study led by Ching-Yao Lai at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has tried to answer that question by mapping fractures and calculating where hydrofracturing should be possible.
White House installed OAN reporter as FDA spokesperson. She lasted 11 days
The Food and Drug Administration has ousted its controversial chief spokesperson, Emily Miller, following botched communications about using blood plasma as a potential COVID-19 treatment, according to multiple media reports.
Miller, who held the position for just 11 days, aggressively defended FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn this week after he grossly misstated benefits of the treatment during a press briefing last Sunday. In the briefing, … Trump announced that the FDA had authorized emergency use of the treatment, despite reports that experts at the National Institutes of Health objected, saying the evidence was too weak to justify use. Though Hahn apologized for his misstatements, controversy over the authorization continued, raising questions about the credibility of the FDA and the independence of Hahn.
But even without that fiasco, Miller’s presence at the agency was controversial, drawing further concern that the traditionally apolitical agency has been politicized by the Trump Administration.
