Early 20th-century France faced an existential threat: Its citizens weren’t having enough babies. In 1900, the average French woman gave birth to three children throughout her lifetime while over the border in Germany women were averaging five. For decades, France’s population had hovered stubbornly at around 40 million while that of its European rivals grew … Read more
In the new study’s first phase, each subject had their moment in front of the GoPros and microphone. Previous studies have established that tickling is mood-dependent—anxiety and unfamiliarity suppress it like a wet blanket. Since participants would have to take turns tickling each other, Brecht’s team made sure each pair knew each other beforehand and … Read more
Dornbusch thinks this strategy will spare patients from serious side effects and “off-target” edits—unintentional cuts elsewhere in the genome that could cause problems such as cancer. The regions targeted by the company’s Crispr therapy are also in a part of the genome that tends to stay the same even when HIV evolves. That’s important because … Read more
There’s an international element to the debate, too, as the FCC’s rule could apply to some satellite operators beyond the US. “The FCC is trying to design this so that it’s not only applicable to US license-seekers, but anybody who wants to access the US market. They’re trying to flex their muscles in a way … Read more
How can we feed the world sustainably? Right now, 325 million people are acutely hungry. 35 million Americans don’t know where their next meal will come from. The world’s food systems are uneven, fragile, and only becoming more fragile with the climate crisis. “When we talk about from farm-to-fork, we need to transform the food … Read more
The unborn baby was in trouble. Its mother’s doctors, at a UK hospital, knew there was something wrong with the fetus’s blood, so they decided to perform an emergency C-section many weeks before the baby was due. But despite this, and subsequent blood transfusions, the baby suffered a brain hemorrhage with devastating consequences. It sadly … Read more
It’s also worth noting that the Mediterranean Sea is one of the most microplastic-polluted water bodies in the world: In 2020, scientists reported finding 2 million particles in a single square meter of sediment that was only 5 centimeters thick. Whether aragonite crystals are forming around microplastics floating in the water column, Bialik doesn’t know. … Read more
Some try to drive systemic change from the ground up. Peter Mui founded the Fixit Clinic, which trains people to repair their own devices. That’s good for the climate because it reduces waste and demand for new products and raw materials. But many devices can’t be fixed, due to things like packaging, design choices, or … Read more
Comparing those genomes to those of people without schizophrenia has allowed investigators to uncover multiple genes that have a profound impact on a person’s risk of developing it. By being able to sequence more genomes faster and more cheaply, Gabriel says they’ll be able to find additional genes that have a more subtle effect on … Read more
And tree waste isn’t the only unwanted product that can be used to make this compost. Cities could also nourish their trees with a little assistance from their human residents: by recycling their poop. A growing number of wastewater treatment plants are devising ways to produce safe soil amendments based on recycled biosolids—the feces and … Read more