A Walk in the Park

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/opinion/prison-coronavirus.html
This is a link to a Sunday Review (NYT) article from a former prisoner in Ohio, who has since been released. He remarks on the prison's overcrowding, poor sanitation arrangements (8 showers for 160 inmates), proximity of bunks, among other complaints. Parole hearings were delayed and law libraries closed due to health concerns, at least this was the reason offered. Mealtimes were staggered to have fewer inmates dining than regular practice, which required dinners to be offered to some as late as 8PM. Masks were offered to prisoners but some corrections officers refused to wear them. I saw a broadcast in which one state's governor, when confronted by the concerning statistics about prison infections, reassured the public that the prison is a "closed system", which it is not by any means. Prisoners in the state the governor was from were kept in solitary upon diagnosis. And, how would the threat of solitary confinement encourage reporting of symptoms? Reduce the prison population: it is too severe a penalty to die of Covid-19 as punishment for a parole violation, non-violent crime or first offense. Some of the prisoners I saw at Southwoods were elderly and in wheel chairs.  The correctional system's system's chaotic and ill-thought out response makes as little sense as the public health philosophy guiding the nation's response to the virus.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6497/1317/tab-pdf
This is a link to a Science mag article about the gender gap in STEM fields. The research was done at Dept of Applied Statistics, Social Sciences and Humanities at NYU. Male to female ratios in US college majors in Bio, Chem, Math and other STEM fields as 1:1, while Physics, Engineering and Technology ratios are 4:1. But they take it further to show that low achieving males (high school) major in the latter fields  (PECS)  at a higher rate than the same-achieving females.  Prior research has shown that females have less confidence in their math abilities, value societal goals and a work-life balance more than salary, take different high school STEM classes and have different career aspirations.  Their model took into account both high achieving and low achieving students and comes up with analyses. Interestingly, of students not intending to major in PECS in high school, males are more likely to major in PECS than females. They conclude that, interventions such as coding camps, role models and peer networks to encourage PECS majoring in college, may work for only a select group of high-achieving women and that "to raise the quality of students in PECS, it must be recognized that the gender imbalance varies through the achievement distribution and is  perpetuated by male-favoring cultures that disproportionately attract low achieving men to the fields."
 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/new-swine-flu-with-pandemic-potential-identified-by-china-researchers
This is a Guardian article about a new swine flu that has been detected in China that has "pandemic potential", meaning it is auditioning for the next Covid-19. As published in PNAS, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.  Quoting from the report, this strain, called G4 "was observed to be highly infectious, replicating in human cells and causing more serious symptoms in ferrets than other viruses do. Tests also showed that any immunity humans gain from exposure to seasonal flu does not provide protection from G4." Science has shown that this strain can pass from pigs to humans but has not shown a human to human transmission.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/climate/trump-epa-perchlorate.html
An article in the NYT about a Trump administration decision not to limit perchorate in drinking water. Perchlorate is a toxic chemical in rocket fuel linked to fetal brain damage.  The EPA also overturned the scientific finding (how do you overturn a scientific finding?) that declared perchlorate a serious health risk for 5-16 million people in the US. The reason offered was that the "one size fits all" standard is less effective (federal control) versus state and local control. The National Resources Defense Council opposed the decision saying that this reversal threatens the health of pregnant moms and young children. Perchlorate can cause loss of IQ.

The House That Covid-19 Built

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/climate/airborne-plastic-pollution.html
This is a report of a study done at Utah State University on microplastics in places like national parks and wilderness areas. The PI in the investigation suspected that the calculations, which reported microplastics in 98% of the samples and 4% of the dust particles that were tested, were incorrect, but upon retesting, the results were confirmed. In fact, the smaller particles that were detected, were surmised to have been carried  extremely long distances on air currents as part of the cycles of global dust transport.  Although previous papers have reported on microplastics in atmospheric deposition, this paper was the first to ask  "why and how is this happening."  Fine plastic particles in the air means that we are breathing them in, which may have health effects.









https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/arts/music/bats-field-works-ultrasonic.html
This is a NYT article about bats, Stuart Hyatt's neighborhood bats. The composer and producer of the album "Ultrasonic" records bats, whose songs are so high in frequency that humans cannot hear them, makes them audible and sends them to composers. He has also made "field recordings" of  Scientology ceremonies and the Indiana State Fair and began to consider animals as his source material in 2018 on a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains State Park, where he recorded bats and translated their sounds to audible electronic signals. Then he actually found bats roosting 40 minutes from his home along wetlands near the Indianapolis airport. The tracks of "Ultrasonic" include "A Place Both Wonderful and Strange." His next library of sound will include poems from Arabic and English about cedar trees, read and sung over hypnotic instruments and accompanied by a comic book. And, yes, I ordered "Ultrasonic."

Groundhog Day Redux

https://www.nj.com/news/2020/06/nj-schools-will-teach-climate-change-education-with-new-curriculum.html An article from the Star Ledger celebrating NJ's inclusion of climate change in the K-12 curriculum. The NJ student learning standards will require the teaching of climate education across 7 areas: 21st Century Life and Careers, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, and World Languages.  (Phys. Ed? how? - blogitorial comment). According to a 2019 poll, more than 80% of American parents and nearly 90% of American teachers believed that climate change should be taught in schools. (Conclusion: the inclusion of climate teaching comes a little late.) This will be implemented starting September 2021).

https://theconversation.com/a-few-superspreaders-transmit-the-majority-of-coronavirus-cases-139950
 Article from The Conversation about  transmission of the coronavirus by the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State. Recent studies contradict earlier ones that have shown that on average one infected person infects two to three other people. There is evidence of superspreader events in which one person infects about fourteen other people. In South Korea, around 40 people who attended a single church service were infected at the same time. A superspreader is probably a person whose immune system has trouble subduing the virus, according to the article. And, since over 50% of those harboring the virus, may be asymptomatic, these individuals will carry on with their daily activities, unaware that they may be infecting people. A person's behaviors also contribute to superspreading.  Researchers in Hong Kong examined a number of disease clusters by using contact tracing to track down everyone with whom individual COVID-19 patients had interacted. They identified multiple situations where a single person was responsible for as many as eight new infections-  highlighting the importance of rapidly isolating people when they test positive or show symptoms. Historical examples of superspreaders include Typhoid Mary, who in the early 20th century infected 51 people with typhoid through the food she prepared as a cook.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/04/opinion/coronavirus-health-race-inequality.html

This is a NYT opinion based on a recent UCLA study about health justice and Covid-19. The first graphic goes through 6 health conditions: COPD, Diabetes, Asthma, High Blood Pressure, Obesity and Kidney Disease and shows that the poorest were more likely to suffer from one or more chronic conditions that would make them more vulnerable to worse outcomes from the coronavirus than the richest Americans, using data from 40 American cities. The second graphic uses census tracts to show that the 6 chronic health conditions are all more prevalent in poorer Americans with a plot of income versus disease prevalence, concluding that decades of systemic racism have left their mark on health inequality. Quoted from the study, “When our politics starts to work better for those left behind, then their health will improve.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/science/ocean-biology-larvaceans-lasers.html
This NYT article describes a new type of laser that allows us to visualize some strange organisms, including some which live at extremely high pressure in complete darkness. The DeepPIV imaging system contains a laser that scans through the animals, sending data to a  computer which reconstructs the organisms. The Nature publication of this work describes a large larvacean that secrete balloon-like mucus  feeding structures three feet long. This is the first time scientists have seen these organisms. More than 99% of the biosphere resides in the oceans; compared to land, the global ocean is unknown.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/health/coronavirus-blood-type-genetics.html

This is a NYT article by Carl Zimmer reporting a study by European scientists in the Covid-19 Host Genetics Initiative showing links between severe Covid-19 and certain genetic variations, such as type A blood and a locus on chromosome 3, which has 6 genes on it, including one that encodes a protein known to interact with ACE2, the cellular receptor by which Covid-19 gains entry into the cell. This international effort includes a thousand researchers in 46 countries who are collecting DNA samples from people with the disease. Blood types may affect the disease, it is speculated, because the locus where the blood type gene is situated also contains a stretch of DNA that acts as an on-off switch for a gene producing a protein that ramps up the immune response.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/science/mass-extinctions-are-accelerating-scientists-report.html This is a NYT article describing research published by PNAS about the increase in the rate of human-caused mass extinctions. This loss in biodiversity, increasing at this rate, threatens vast ecosystems and the ecosystem services and substances they provide, including fresh water, pollination, and pest and disease control. The critical window, as the study reports, will close within 10 to 15 years, sooner than expected. 543 species were lost during the last 100, comparable losses normally take 10,000 years. Scientists used population data from for 29,400 terrestrial vertebrate species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and found that 1.7% of these are critically endangered and half of them have only 250 individuals. Losses of certain species will trigger a domino effect, ultimately threatening whole ecosystems.