In 2019, three free-ranging cheetahs in the Namib Desert died within 24 hours of each other. Scholars set out to determine why.

On October 5th 2019, the carcass of a GPS-collared cheetah in the Namib desert was found dead from the air. After they went in on foot to investigate, two other cheetahs were also found dead. The GPS data showed they had all died within a short period of each other so the team then identified a cluster of GPS locations approximately two kilometers away from the location where they were found dead.

For a pilot study, a team examined blood samples from 50 patients and 16 healthy subjects. Using atomic force microscopy technology, they analyzed the surface of around 1000 red blood cells per person without knowing anything about their state of health. 

They were able to detect the presence of suspicious proteins, beta-amyloid peptides and tau proteins associated with the neurodegenerative disease commonly called dementia. but also to determine their variable shape and form as well as their amounts.

The US military has quietly led to a lot of technological advancements that few know about. One recent example; before we had a serious COVID-19 infectious disease problem to worry about, the US National Institutes of Health tried to use Ebola in parts of Africa to ask Congress for $100 million in emergency funding to combat it. In the US. Where it did not exist.

Exercise is healthy. That is common knowledge. But just how rigorous should that exercise be in order to really impact a person’s fitness level? And, if you sit all day at a desk, but still manage to get out and exercise, does that negate your six, seven, or eight hours of sedentary behavior? 

These were the sort of questions Matthew Nayor and his team at Boston University School of Medicine set out to answer in the largest study to date aimed at understanding the relationship between regular physical activity and a person’s physical fitness. 

If a group of astrologers all write papers endorsing astrology and then another astrologer comes along and does a meta-analysis of those, they can conclude authoritatively that astrology works. As a smart reader, you know it's nonsense, but if you are selling astrology services, you either set out to deceive people or you want to believe so badly you lose your ability to reason. 

A new analysis finds that if there ever was a "Beepocalypse", it hasn't been during this century.

Using data since 1961, they found that the number of managed honey bee colonies has risen by 85%. Managed colonies are the only way to create reasonable estimates, that is how surveys of losses are done annually, but in the past activists trying to create a new fundraising target leveraged blips in averages to claim that a Colony Collapse Disorder was being caused by...farmers.

The rapid development of effective mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 has led some observers to suggest that mRNA will push other types of vaccines out of the market completely in the near future. But is that desirable? Is it even possible?

When you collide particles made up of quarks and gluons, such as the protons accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, you mostly expect particles made of quarks and gluons to emerge. That is because quarks and gluons most of the times interact by the strong interaction, which is itself mediated by the exchange of gluons; and the strong interaction knows nothing about all the other matter and interaction fields.
So how do you get energetic electrons, muons, photons, and weak bosons from a LHC collision? Well, the electroweak interaction which may produce these particles does play in, but its contribution is, er, weaker, by definition. 

Gimme all 'em leptons!

As we are hopefully exiting the third coronavirus pandemic of the last 17 years, it is time to consider that it might become an annual event, like the flu. Since it mutates, there could also be an annual vaccine, but if flu is any indication half of people won't take it.

What if there are more passive ways of preventing transmission? 

Fear and frustration hang over London, Ont., where many people are discussing four formal allegations of sexual violence reported to Western University and sharing unconfirmed rumours about wider sexual assaults. Members of the Western community say they feel unsafe, especially young women and other vulnerable groups.

In response to the situation, students organized a walkout rally on Sept. 17 to stand with survivors and demand change.