Scientific American Media Bias

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Why COVID's XBB.1.5 'Kraken' Variant Is So Contagious

A new, rapidly spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, means a rise in new infections could be around the corner. And while it likely won’t skirt immunity completely, the variant could dodge some of our defenses thanks to a mutational boost.
Scientific American     Jan 11, 2023

Are Quantum Computers about to Break Online Privacy?

The technique worked in a small-scale demonstration, the researchers report, but other specialists are sceptical that the procedure could be scaled up to beat ordinary computers at the task. Still, they warn that the paper, posted late last month on the arXiv repository, is a reminder of the vulnerability of online privacy.
Scientific American     Jan 11, 2023

Here's What We Know about Stuttering

What comes to mind when you think of someone who stutters? Is that person male or female? Are they weak and nervous, or powerful and heroic? If you have a choice, would you like to marry them, introduce them to your friends or recommend them for a job?
Scientific American     Jan 11, 2023

'Breakthrough' Obesity Drugs Are Effective but Raise Questions

The hotel ballroom was packed to near capacity with scientists when Susan Yanovski arrived. Despite being 10 minutes early, she had to manoeuvre her way to one of the few empty seats near the back. The audience at the ObesityWeek conference in San Diego, California, in November 2022, was waiting to hear the results of a hotly anticipated drug trial.
Scientific American     Jan 11, 2023

Hilaree Nelson Was One of the Greatest Adventurers Ever

A very sad piece of news in 2022 was the death of Hilaree Nelson at age 49. A premier ski mountaineer, Hilaree held numerous firsts, including the first ski descent from the summit of Lhotse (next door to Mount Everest), the first ski descent of Papsura in India (and known as the “peak of evil” because of its exceptional danger), and the first person to ski the Five Holy Peaks of Mongolia.
Scientific American     Jan 10, 2023

Flavor-Enhancing Spoons and Chopsticks Could Make Food Taste Better

Foods high in sugar and salt can be unhealthy, but these additives are too delicious for many of us to give up or reduce in a big way. What if we could somehow enjoy their taste without actually eating them? A student team has now designed a spoon with a structure that stimulates taste buds to produce a sensation of sweetness—without adding calories or chemicals. The project follows previous work involving flavor-enhancing cutlery, such as chopsticks that amplify saltiness with a mild electric current.
Scientific American     Jan 10, 2023

Half of All Mountain Glaciers Are Expected to Disappear by 2100

Keeping global temperatures within 1.5 C of their preindustrial levels is the most aggressive target under the Paris climate agreement. Yet that threshold is swiftly approaching, and the world could overshoot it within a decade or so. Climate pledges currently in place would result in global warming of more than 2 C.
Scientific American     Jan 10, 2023

Science News Briefs from around the World: January 2023

Narwhals seem to be migrating later every year as ice-coverage patterns change in Arctic waters. The unicornlike whales were thought to be particularly vulnerable to climate change because of their 100-year life spans and slow evolution, so this behavioral shift bodes well for their adaptability.
Scientific American     Jan 08, 2023

The U.S. Could Help Solve Its Poverty Problem with a Universal Basic Income

politics

When the child tax credit, first established in 1997, was expanded for a year in 2021, it was a major political and social win for the country. At a time when the pandemic had worsened many families’ financial distress, the Biden administration’s decision not only added to the amount of the tax credit and converted the payment from a year-end lump sum to monthly payments; it also abandoned the work requirement for parents. This immediately affected one third of all children in the U.S., including 52 percent of Black children and 41 percent of Hispanic children, whose families were formerly excluded because the parents earned too little to qualify for the tax credit.
Scientific American     Jan 08, 2023

Aging Is Linked to More Activity in Short Genes Than in Long Genes

Our DNA is made up of genes that vary drastically in size. In humans, genes can be as short as a few hundred molecules known as bases or as long as two million bases. These genes carry instructions for constructing proteins and other information crucial to keeping the body running. Now a new study suggests that longer genes become less active than shorter genes as we grow older. And understanding this phenomenon could reveal new ways of countering the aging process.
Scientific American     Jan 08, 2023

A New Map Tracks the World's Largest Glaciers

science

Scientists recently created the first systematic ranking of Earth’s largest glaciers. They started by comparing inconsistent databases to select the forms that best fit the definition of a glacier—a long-lasting, flowing mass of ice. Determining the borders of individual glaciers, however, is challenging. Ice caps, for example, move in multiple directions, so more than one glacier may be part of a single source. “Flow divides can be difficult to calculate,” says co-author Bruce Raup of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Scientific American     Jan 08, 2023

Damar Hamlin's Collapse Highlights the Violence Black Men Experience in Football

sports

Millions of people watched as Damar Hamlin, a 24-year-old player in the National Football League (NFL), executed a seemingly routine tackle during a highly anticipated Monday Night Football game. Immediately after, Hamlin rose to his feet and then collapsed. Players from his team, the Buffalo Bills, and the opposing team, the Cincinnati Bengals, created a tight huddle around him on the field as medical personnel tried to revive him. We learned the next day that Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest; his heart had suddenly stopped working.
Scientific American     Jan 08, 2023