Science

Climate change threatens one of world’s biggest fish harvests | Science

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The Peruvian anchovy is a small fish with a big impact. Only about the size of an index finger, they make up the single largest fish catch in the world—sometimes up to 15% of the global haul. Nearly all the highly nutritious fish are ground up to feed salmon and other farm-raised species that are … Read more

Omicron leads to fresh wave of scientific meeting cancellations | Science

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In a near rerun of early 2020, when dozens of meetings were canceled on short notice because of the pandemic, a handful of scientific societies are once again canceling their in-person meetings as the ultracontagious Omicron variant sweeps across the globe. Although many societies were better prepared for the latest wave because they planned hybrid … Read more

Lyme-carrying ticks live longer—and could spread farther—thanks to warmer winters | Science

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PHOENIX—Fearing a case of potentially debilitating Lyme disease, countless hikers postpone their trips to the woods until winter, when the ticks that carry the disease have disappeared for the season. Or so many people had thought. Research reported here this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology has revealed … Read more

‘Don’t Look Up’ Illustrates 5 Myths that Fuel Rejection of Science

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The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Every disaster movie seems to open with a scientist being ignored. “Don’t Look Up” is no exception—in fact, people ignoring or flat out denying scientific evidence is the point. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play astronomers who make a literally … Read more

Swab Your Throat First? Rapid Tests May Need Saliva to Detect Omicron, Early Data Find

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Rapid COVID-19 tests that use nose swabs alone might not pick up Omicron in the early days of infection, a new study suggests – but experts don’t agree on whether you should also swab your throat.   A small study from a group of US researchers, published Tuesday, found that rapid tests with nasal swabs didn’t detect Omicron … Read more

Why is omicron more infectious but less severe? What the science says so far

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The omicron variant infects cells in a different way, is present in higher levels in saliva and seems more likely to cause asymptomatic infections – all findings that could help explain why omicron is spreading so rapidly but resulting in a lower proportion of hospitalisations and deaths Health 6 January 2022 By Michael Le Page … Read more

How Communication Around COVID Fuels a Mistrust of Science

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The highly contagious COVID Omicron variant is shattering new U.S. daily case records. With Omicron carrying a risk of breakthrough infection five times higher than that of the Delta variant, we are witnessing a significant impact on the American workforce in all sectors. The increase in cases among essential workers has sidelined many health care … Read more

New lava-like coating can stop fires in their tracks | Science

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It takes a lot of science to stop a fire. To prevent homes and workplaces from going up in smoke, manufacturers have added flame retardants to plastic, wood, and steel building materials for decades. But such additives can be toxic, expensive, and sometimes ineffective. Now, researchers in Australia and China have come up with a … Read more

Three doses of a cheap, common antibiotic batter—but don’t beat—yaws, a tropical skin disease | Science

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One year ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared yaws—a little-known, painful, and disfiguring tropical disease—a target for global eradication by 2030. Today, results from a clinical trial involving 56,000 people have shown just how challenging it will be to achieve that goal. The trial’s ambitious regimen—giving an entire population three doses of the inexpensive … Read more