Lead Exposure May Have Lowered The IQ of Half of Americans Since 1940

Childhood lead exposure in the United States is ubiquitous and much more concerning than previous estimates have suggested, according to a new study. When researchers analyzed leaded gas use from 1940 and combined it with data on blood-lead levels from the mid 1970s, they found more than 54 percent of Americans alive in 2015 had … Read more

Wormholes Could Help Solve an Infamous Black Hole Paradox, Says Fun New Paper

What happens to information after it has passed beyond the event horizon of a black hole? There have been suggestions that the geometry of wormholes might help us solve this vexing problem – but the math has been tricky, to say the least.   In a new paper, an international team of physicists has found … Read more

Controversial impact crater under Greenland’s ice is surprisingly ancient | Science

In 2018, an international team of scientists announced a startling discovery: Buried beneath the thick ice of the Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland is an impact crater 31 kilometers wide—not as big as the crater from the dinosaur-killing impact 66 million years ago, but perhaps still big enough to mess with the climate. Scientists were … Read more

Congress poised to boost U.S. science funding, launch new health agency | Science

U.S. research agencies would get budget boosts of roughly 5% this year under a final 2022 spending bill that congressional leaders unveiled early today and hope to pass in the next few days. But those amounts fall far short of aspirational funding levels for several science agencies that Congress is weighing under separate legislation now … Read more

In a first, state bill would require nearly perfect welfare record for research dog and cat suppliers | Science

A major supplier of dogs and other animals for academic and corporate research, which was cited last year for dozens of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations at its Virginia beagle-breeding facility, was targeted by the state’s lawmakers this week. On 7 and 8 March, both houses of the Virginia General Assembly unanimously passed a bill … Read more

“You can’t get back specimens”: Ukrainian scientists rush to save irreplaceable collections | Science

On the morning of 24 February, conservation biologist Anton Vlaschenko awoke to the sound of shelling outside his apartment in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The first thing he did was eat a big breakfast. Then, he headed straight to the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center; the bat rescue and research facility is the largest of its kind in … Read more

Pandemic signals from the sewer—what virus levels in wastewater tell us | Science

In March 2020, the Austrian ski town of Ischgl—known for 239 kilometers of uninterrupted runs and an exuberant après-ski scene—suddenly became infamous as the site of the one of the first COVID-19 superspreading events. Hundreds of infected skiers took the virus home and seeded outbreaks all around Europe. As the pandemic progressed, however, Ischgl was … Read more

Patient Who Received World’s First Pig Heart Transplant Has Passed Away

The first person to receive a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig has died two months after the medical milestone, the hospital that carried out the surgery said Wednesday.   The procedure raised hopes that advances in cross-species organ donation could one day solve the chronic shortage of human organs available for donation, and … Read more

A 6-metre-long crocodile relative lived in China during the Bronze Age

A large species of gharial, an animal closely related to crocodiles, roamed China 3000 years ago, but was probably driven extinct by humans Life 9 March 2022 By Michael Marshall Hanyusuchus sinensis fossils and a drawing of the gharial Illustration by Hikaru Amemiya An unknown crocodile-like animal probably lived in China until just a few … Read more

Covid-19 news: Deaths and new infections are declining, say WHO

By Michael Le Page, Clare Wilson, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, Jason Arunn Murugesu, Layal Liverpool, Carissa Wong, Alex Wilkins and Alexandra Thompson Students queuing up for covid-19 nucleic acid tests, Qingdao, Shandong province, China Wei Zhe/VCG via Getty Images Latest coronavirus news as of 12pm 9 March Covid deaths … Read more