Month: October 2021

Nearly a year after the first COVID vaccines became available for adults in the U.S., the moment millions of parents have been waiting for has arrived: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccine against COVID for use in children ages 5–11. An FDA advisory committee voted nearly unanimously Tuesday to […]

House Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney said yesterday that she intends to subpoena four major oil companies and two trade organizations for documents and communications as part of her committee’s investigation into climate misinformation. The subpoenas, expected to be formally issued in the coming days, would be a major step, extending the reach of […]

Paediatricians and families in the United States are eagerly waiting to see whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will authorize a COVID-19 vaccine for the nation’s roughly 28 million 5- to 11-year-olds. Yesterday, an FDA advisory committee reviewed data from a clinical trial testing a low-dose version of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech on […]

More adults are getting ADHD meds prescribed “off label” for non-ADHD conditions. However, the stimulants can raise an adult’s risk for serious heart problems. Source link

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Glasgow sits proudly on the banks of the river Clyde, once the heart of Scotland’s industrial glory and now a launchpad for its green energy transition. It’s a fitting host for the United Nations’ climate conference, COP26, where world […]

Five to 11-year-olds are a step closer to being eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the vaccine on October 29. That authorization had passed its first hurdle a few days ago when an FDA advisory panel gave their thumbs-up to […]

Firefighting, one of the nation’s most tradition-bound professions, is poised for an influx of eccentric assistants. They range from contraptions the size of a toy wagon to two-ton beasts that resemble military tanks and can blast out 2,500 gallons of water per minute. Some move on rubber tires, some on steel tracks, and some fly. […]

The past two decades have seen some of the most extreme dry periods in U.S. history Credit: Cédric Scherer and Georgios Karamanis Advertisement For more than 20 years the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) has been monitoring dozens of indices of drought around the country, including satellite measurements of evaporation and color in vegetation, soil-moisture […]

This weekend, children armed with pillowcases and plastic pumpkins will haul in millions of pounds of Halloween candy wafting familiar scents like chocolate, peanut butter and the luxurious, uniquely enticing aroma of caramel. Until recently, scientists did not know precisely how humans process this rich, buttery smell. But now a new study in the Journal […]

The shift from hunting and gathering to farming altered human evolution—and that of our closest companions, dogs. Coprolites, or fossilized poop, are a “phenomenal” source of information on how diet influenced such changes, says University of Oxford archaeologist Greger Larson. “They’re snapshots of somebody’s gut.” A recent analysis of 13 Bronze Age canine coprolites reveals […]

I witnessed Hurricane Sandy up close and personal. In Morris County, N.J., we were without power for 10 days following the superstorm’s main blast on Oct. 29, 2012. Other areas had it even worse, with the final cost to my home state reaching nearly $30 billion. Sandy still casts a long shadow in the eyes […]

The Tibetan Plateau and surrounding mountains are nicknamed the “Third Pole” or the “Water Tower of Asia” because of the immense volumes of ice stored in the area’s snowpack, glaciers and permafrost. Annual spring thaws send meltwater into the tributaries of many of Asia’s largest rivers, such as the Yangtze, Indus and Mekong. Together, streams […]

Jupiter, king of the gods in Roman mythology, shrouded himself in clouds to hide his true nature. But his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer past this veil and reveal his mischievous behavior.  It is fitting, then, that the NASA spacecraft now circling Jupiter the planet is named after Juno. The gas giant […]

After months of negotiation and debate, the U.S. House of Representatives could be poised to pass a two-part legislative package aimed at overhauling the country’s notoriously aging infrastructure. But House Democrats (who hold a majority in the chamber) have yet to reach an agreement on one part: a bill that focuses on social programs and […]