2/1: NASA video shows polar vortex shifting to spread frigid air across the U.S. The purple and blue colors in the animation represent the coldest temperatures, which range from minus 40 F to minus 10 F, as measured about two to three miles above Earth's surface.
The mass of cold air moves like a chubby finger that pushes aside regions of higher temperature, which are represented in the animation by the colors green, yellow and red. The polar vortex is a low-pressure mass of cold air that swirls perpetually above Earth's polar regions. There's one in the Northern Hemisphere — the one responsible for the recent cold spell across the U.S. — and another in the Southern Hemisphere. It's normal for the Arctic polar vortex to expand in winter, bringing colder air to lower latitudes. But sometimes the polar vortex weakens, and the fast-moving current of air known as the jet stream shifts, allowing the vortex to drift southward to cause unusually cold temperatures in those areas. 2/1: Meteorite hits Cuba. Venezuelan opposition leader and U.S.
-backed interim president Juan Guaidó called for large-scale rallies of his supporters across the country Saturday in continued protest of embattled President Nicolas Maduro. Guaidó is pushing Maduro to call a snap election, and several European nations have indicated they will follow Washington in recognizing Guaidó as president of Venezuela if Maduro does not comply by Sunday.
25-year-old Kenyan invents gloves that convert sign language into audio speech - Pulse Kenya. More than 30 million people around the globe have speech impairments and must rely on sign language.
Roy Allela’s six-year-old niece was born deaf and found it extremely difficult to communicate with her family, none of whom knew sign language. They say necessity is the mother of invention and the need to communicate and connect with her niece pushed 25-year-old Roy to invent the smart gloves. More than 30 million people around the globe have speech impairments and must rely on sign language, which poses a language barrier when seeking to communicate with non-sign language users. 4/10: Event Horizon Telescope's landmark black hole image. 4/22/19: Oldest known Wisconsin tree is 1,300 year old cedar growing from a cliff. This tree before me is not the oldest tree in Wisconsin.
Not even close. It’s a scrubby little birch growing almost horizontally out of the side of a cliff of Cambrian sandstone, its trunk barely larger than the barrel of a baseball bat. This tree is not notable. It’s barely even noticeable. But this tree, unimpressive as it is, is no younger than 80 years old and might be more like 150. 6/27: People of color live with 66% more air pollution, US study finds. People of color in the American north-east and mid-Atlantic are living with 66% more air pollution from vehicles than white residents are, according to a new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
On average, African Americans are exposed to 61% more of the tiny pollution particles that come from burning gasoline. Asian Americans breathe 73% more and Latinos 75% more. 6/25: “It’s just become daily news”: 6 Florida newsrooms are teaming up to cover climate change. In Florida, climate change is a local news story.
The state’s 21 million residents are already feeling the effects of a heating planet, including not just higher temperatures but more and stronger hurricanes, toxic algae, sunny-day flooding, and sea level rise. And climate change will cost Florida more than any other state — an estimated $76 billion by 2040. “The environment is ever-present here,” said Tom Hudson, vice president of news at WLRN Public Media, the main public radio station for South Florida and the Keys. “It’s not a science story for us here in South Florida. It’s not some kind of theoretical exploration. Now six Florida news organizations — The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Tampa Bay Times, Palm Beach Post, Orlando Sentinel, and WLRN — are forming a partnership to cover climate change stories together.
7/30: FDA Approves Nasal Glucagon Baqsimi – A Radical Improvement for Severe Hypoglycemia. Lilly’s Baqsimi is a needle-free, simple treatment for severe hypoglycemia – bringing long-needed innovation to use of glucagon in emergency settings.
Expected in pharmacies within one month The FDA has approved Baqsimi, a nasally administered glucagon, for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia in people with diabetes four years and older. Baqsimi is administered like a nasal spray and comes in a single-use dispenser that requires just 3 steps to use: (i) remove the device from tube; (ii) insert tip of device into one nostril; (iii) push plunger all the way in to administer dose. Notably, it does not require inhalation, meaning that it can be successfully administered by another person if the receiver is unconscious. Baqsimi is the first FDA approved glucagon of its kind – it is needle-free and comes ready-to-use, requiring no mixing or preparation. 7/8/19: Finland startup creates edible protein from captured CO2. 6/11/20: Scientists detect widespread structures near Earth's core. University of Maryland geophysicists analyzed thousands of recordings of seismic waves, sound waves traveling through the Earth, to identify echoes from the boundary between Earth's molten core and the solid mantle layer above it.
The echoes revealed more widespread, heterogenous structures—areas of unusually dense, hot rock—at the core-mantle boundary than previously known. Scientists are unsure of the composition of these structures, and previous studies have provided only a limited view of them. Better understanding their shape and extent can help reveal the geologic processes happening deep inside Earth. This knowledge may provide clues to the workings of plate tectonics and the evolution of our planet. The new research provides the first comprehensive view of the core-mantle boundary over a wide area with such detailed resolution.
DNA study offers insight into the shameful story of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It's one of the largest studies of its kind, thanks in part to the massive database of 23andMe customers that researchers were able to recruit consenting participants from.
The authors compiled genetic data from more than 50,000 people from the Americas, Western Europe and Atlantic Africa, and compared it against the historical records of where enslaved people were taken from and where they were enslaved. Together, the data and records tell a story about the complicated roots of the African diaspora in the Americas. Trump attempts to discredit Dr. Fauci –July 2020. Covid-19: Microdroplets. Florida's scientist was fired for refusing to 'manipulate' COVID-19 data. EDITORS NOTE: We chose to make this story broadly accessible because of the importance of its content.
But quality, fact-checked reporting isn’t free. Collecting and verifying news is a costly and time-consuming endeavor and perhaps has never mattered more than it does now. Please show your support for quality reporting like this by subscribing to FLORIDA TODAY. Covid-19: Data tracking / Projection. 4/3/20: What Dr. Fauci wants you to know about face masks & staying home as virus spreads. Anthony Fauci: You're absolutely correct. Thank you for asking that question. As I have said all the time, you can put into place a program where you would project that, after a certain number of weeks, you start to see the bending and the turning of the curve, but the virus determines the timetable, not you or me in a predetermined timetable. Getting to Know You: Ann Wolbert Burgess. Pyrithione Zinc. 5/12/19: Green New Deal -LWTonight w/ John Oliver. 5G Electromagnetic Energy. G4. Covid-19 / SARS-CoV-2 / the new Coronavirus. 8/21/17: Science is not self-correcting. Science is broken.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Earth - Why there could be many identical copies of you. This story is nominated for a Webby Award for Best Film & Video. Vote here. BBC Earth is also nominated for a Webby, for Best Science Website. Vote here. 1/24/17: Trump appears to be muzzling scientists just like Canada did. A North American nation elected a leader known for hostility to science and affection for the domestic oil industry. After the new administration took power, government scientists stopped speaking freely to the press. Questions had to be sent by email and routed through central approval. Scientists were told not to talk about hot-button issues including climate, oil, forestry, and other environmental concerns.
Sweden - COVID19 - Field Reports. CoVid-19: Vaccine / Vaccine Development. Can pets catch/carry CoVid-19? 2/14/19: Scientist who resisted censorship of climate report loses her job. 12/12: Right Whales Arrive Early In Cape Cod Bay! 11/30: Major Damage after Magnitude-7 Earthquake in Alaska. The magnitude-7 quake occurred at 8:29 a.m., local time, the epicenter just north of Anchorage, which is home to more than 294,000 people. Moments later, the National Weather Service issued a tsunami warning for Cook Inlet and the southern Kenai Peninsula. The warning was canceled shortly after 10 a.m. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Local and state officials said they were assessing the impact, which the police department said included "major infrastructure damage across Anchorage. " 10/11: Rural Wi-Fi Project Improves Wildfire Monitoring in Southern California.
In this installment of the Innovation of the Month series, we explore the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) based in San Diego County. While initially an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research and education project with the University of California San Diego (UCSD), HPWREN has since been used to monitor and respond to several recent wildfires in San Diego County. MetroLab’s Executive Director Ben Levine spoke with Frank Vernon, research geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UCSD, and Jerald Coleman, technology manager at the San Diego County Fire Authority, to discuss. 10/19: Trump Administration Cancels FDA Contract w/Advanced Bioscience Resources to Conduct Human Fetal Tissue Tests in Mice.
10/19: Ships wrecked in 1899 unearthed by Hurricane Michael. 10/16: Mysterious polio-like illness affecting US children confirmed in 22 states says CDC. Federal health officials are worried about an increase in a mysterious and rare condition that mostly affects children and can paralyze arms and legs, with 127 confirmed or suspected cases reported as of Tuesday. Of those, 62 cases of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, have been confirmed in 22 states, according to Nancy Messonnier, a top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 90 percent of the confirmed cases have been in children 18 and younger, with the average age being 4 years old. The surge in cases has baffled health officials, who on Tuesday took the unusual step of announcing a change in the way the agency will count cases in the future. They also wanted to raise awareness about the frightening condition so parents can seek medical care if their child develops symptoms, and so reports of the illness can be quickly relayed back to the CDC. 10/11: How robots and redesign can assist services with ageing populations. This opinion piece was written by Janne Viskari, the Director General at Finland’s Population Register Centre. 10/8: Pilot program will give breakfast before standardized test. 8/3/16: Sprinkling of neural dust opens door to electroceuticals. 7/26: Remains of 9/11 victim identified with advanced DNA testing. 7/6: Hawaii Bans Sunscreens That Hurt Coral Reefs — Safer Sunscreen.
6/7: Billions in U.S. solar projects shelved after Trump panel tariff. Environment. Power & Control. Glaucoma. Superantigen.