The Sea’s Fever: Why July’s Ocean Temperature Record Matters More Than the Air’s
The number that best describes the state of the planet right now is not an air temperature but 20.96 degrees Celsius (69.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the average surface temperature of the world’s extra-polar oceans in July, as computed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service from its ERA5 reanalysis. It is the warmest July in the satellite […]
Fear Has Its Own Signature in a Dog’s Brain. Anger and Sadness Blur Together
A dog looking at a human face does not just register happy versus unhappy. According to a new brain-imaging study from the University of Vienna and collaborators, a dog’s brain treats fear as something distinct from anger and sadness, while anger and sadness produce patterns that are nearly indistinguishable from each other. The finding, published […]
The Pill That Could Reshape the Obesity Market: Inside the Aleniglipron Trial
The next front in the weight-loss drug wars may be a pill, not a syringe. Aleniglipron, an experimental oral medication from Structure Therapeutics, produced up to 12.1 percent mean weight loss over 36 weeks in a 230-patient phase 2b trial published June 5 in Nature Medicine. The result places the small-molecule drug in the race […]
The drone bomb at Leipzig: Europe’s hybrid war reaches the cargo hold
On August 5, police at Leipzig/Halle, one of Europe’s busiest air-cargo hubs, found a drone fitted with explosives in the cargo area and defused it. Germany’s interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, called it a new level of danger and said investigators were treating the incident as a professional hybrid threat scenario. Someone built a bomb, strapped […]
The Confounder in the Glass: Why a 340,000-Person Study Can’t Quite Prove Wine Is Healthier
A study of 340,924 British adults followed for an average of 13.4 years has found a sharp divide in how different alcoholic drinks relate to mortality: moderate wine drinking tracked a 21 percent lower risk of cardiovascular death, while even low-level consumption of beer, cider or spirits tracked a 9 percent higher risk. Heavy drinking, […]
The drones over Merewa: four years after Pretoria, Tigray edges toward war
On Monday, a drone strike hit Merewa, a town in southern Tigray, close to the line with the Amhara region, and the settlement that was meant to have ended the war four years ago lurched again toward collapse. Tigray’s rebel authorities say the strike was carried out by the federal government’s forces and that it […]