John Pardue, Louisiana State University
Hurricane Laura plowed through the heart of Louisiana’s oil and chemical industries as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving a chlorine plant on fire and the potential for more hazardous damage in its wake.
National Institutes of Health
A clinical trial at four pediatric diabetes centers in the United States has found that a new artificial pancreas system — which automatically monitors and regulates blood glucose levels — is safe and effective at managing blood glucose levels in children as young as age six with type 1 diabetes. The trial was funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. Results from the trial were published August 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine(link is external).
How deadly is SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? And what are the risks of death for people of different ages and demographics? These have been hard numbers to calculate during this pandemic.
Alexander (Sasha) Poltorak, Tufts University
Most people are aware that testing for antibodies in a person’s blood can show if someone has had a specific disease, such as COVID-19. Those antibodies provide protection from getting the disease again.
Ian Myles, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Here’s a shorthand way to think of my research: Using bugs as drugs may one day bring hope to soaps.
Patients with atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema, suffer from dry, itchy skin and rashes, and have a higher risk of developing hay fever, asthma and food allergies. The cause of eczema is still unknown, but studies completed by my team and others continue to suggest that manipulating the skin microbiome – the community of all the bacteria and other microorganisms living on the surface of the skin – may offer therapeutic benefits to patients.
Ailsa Welch, University of East Anglia and Richard Hayhoe, University of East Anglia
As we get older, our skeletal muscle mass, strength and power to move gradually decline, which may lead to a condition called sarcopenia. Sarcopenia affects more than 50 million people over the age of 50 years worldwide, and contributes to type 2 diabetes, frailty, physical disability, loss of independence and poor quality of life. So it’s an important condition to prevent during ageing to minimise both personal and societal costs.
William Atchison, Michigan State University
The German government has announced that toxicology tests proved that the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, the same nerve agent used to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter two years ago. Novichok, or “newcomer” in Russian, refers not to a single chemical but rather a group of related molecules designed for only one purpose: to kill.
JPL.NASA.GOV
To make better predictions about the future impacts of sea level rise, new techniques are being developed to fill gaps in the historic record of sea level measurements. We know the factors that play a role in sea level rise: Melting glaciers and ice sheets add water to the seas, and warmer temperatures cause water to expand. Other factors are known to slow the rise, such as dams impounding water on the land, slowing its flow into the sea.
David Duffy, University of Florida and Catherine Eastman, University of Florida
Plastic pollution has been found in practically every environment on the planet, with especially severe effects on ocean life. Plastic waste harms marine life in many ways – most notably, when animals become entangled in it or consume it.
