Tag Archives: Science

Memories & History, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing

Monarch butterflies are beloved—and declining for this sad reason | Popular Science

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Scientists trawled thousands of volunteer surveys over 25 years to understand what imperils the insects.

By Kate Baggaley | Updated Jul 21, 2021 12:00 PM

From article…

For the past three decades, monarch butterflies have been dwindling.

The iconic bugs face a number of threats in North America, from weed killers to climate change, but it hasn’t been clear which one has been the most damaging. A new study, however, indicates that the butterflies are especially sensitive to weather conditions in their spring and summer breeding grounds.

Scientists analyzed data from more than 18,000 monarch counts from across the United States, Mexico, and Canada spanning 25 years. They found that over the past 15 years, climate had an influence on the eastern monarch population that was nearly seven times that of other variables such as herbicide use.

Source: Monarch butterflies are beloved—and declining for this sad reason | Popular Science

Science & Health

The Pandemic Led To The Biggest Drop In U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII, Study Finds : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

June 23, 20216:32 PM ET Heard on Morning Edition, By Allison Aubrey Twitter

A COVID-19 vaccination clinic last month in Auburn, Maine. A drop in life expectancy in the U.S. stems largely from the coronavirus pandemic, a new study says.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP

A new study estimates that life expectancy in the U.S. decreased by nearly two years between 2018 and 2020, largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And the declines were most pronounced among minority groups, including Black and Hispanic people. In 2018, average life expectancy in the U.S. was about 79 years (78.7). It declined to about 77 years (76.9) by the end of 2020, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

“We have not seen a decrease like this since World War II. It’s a horrific decrease in life expectancy,” said Steven Woolf of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and an author of the study released on Wednesday.

(The study is based on data from the National Center for Health Statistics and includes simulated estimates for 2020.)

Source: The Pandemic Led To The Biggest Drop In U.S. Life Expectancy Since WWII, Study Finds : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Libraries

Updated Railroads and Ship Registers Guides | Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business | library of congress

May 24, 2021 by Ellen Terrell

Unloading bananas, New Orleans, Louisiana. Detroit Publishing Co.
//www.loc.gov/item/2016807544/

The two guides featured in today’s post have something in common – transportation.

You might not think of either as a “business” topic but they are, because both are their own industries and because logistics – the commercial activity of transporting goods to customers – are core parts of the U.S. economy and world trade.

See our web page for a listing of all of our guides.

Source: Updated Railroads and Ship Registers Guides | Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

Science & Health

Why Ecologists Are Haunted by the Rapid Growth of Ghost Forests | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

A study in North Carolina of dying trees may represent a foreboding preview of what
may come to coastal ecosystems worldwide

By Jim Morrison, smithsonianmag.com, May 17, 2021

Google Earth image of a healthy forest on the lower right and a ghost forest full of dead trees on the left. (Emily Ury)

For years, Emily Ury traversed North Carolina’s coastal roads, studying patches of skeletal trees slain by rising seas that scientists call “ghost forests.”

Killed by intruding saltwater along the Atlantic Coast, they are previews of the dire fate other forests face worldwide.

Related Content Haunting ‘Ghost Forest’ Resurrected in New York City

Ury knew that ghost forests were expanding in the region, but only when she began looking down from above using Google Earth did she realize how extensive they were.

“I found so many dead forests,” says Ury, an ecologist at Duke University and co-author of a paper on the rapid deforestation of the North Carolina coast published last month in the journal Ecological Applications. “They were everywhere.”

Source: Why Ecologists Are Haunted by the Rapid Growth of Ghost Forests | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

Science & Health

These Materials Could Make Science Fiction a Reality

Metamaterials, which could improve smartphones and change how we use other technology, allow scientists to control light waves in new ways.

By John Markoff, April 27, 2021

James Yang

Imagine operating a computer by moving your hands in the air as Tony Stark does in “Iron Man.”

Or using a smartphone to magnify an object as does the device that Harrison Ford’s character uses in “Blade Runner.”

Or a next-generation video meeting where augmented reality glasses make it possible to view 3D avatars. Or a generation of autonomous vehicles capable of driving safely in city traffic.

These advances and a host of others on the horizon could happen because of metamaterials, making it possible to control beams of light with the same ease that computer chips control electricity.

Source: These Materials Could Make Science Fiction a Reality