In 2023, South Korea reported the lowest birth-rate in the world, a staggering rate of 0.78 babies per woman — meaning fewer than one child was born for every woman. This sharp decline highlights the demographic crisis that many industrialized countries are facing. In the US, birth rates have been plummeting since the Great Recession […]
Baby bust: Plummeting birth rates Read More »
The COVID pandemic touched almost every part of daily life. Cities became ghost towns. Schools and workplaces worldwide shut their doors. Millions of families now have an empty seat at their table. But while COVID took a sizable toll on society, it also served as a time of profound research and innovation. It enacted change
Necessity drives invention: How COVID-19 sparked unprecedented innovations Read More »
In the heart of Gotham City, a quiet crisis looms, echoing through the shadows. “I’m whatever Gotham needs me to be,” Batman once declared — a testament not only to his unwavering commitment to the city but also to the vital role played by its often-overlooked guardians: the bats. These remarkable creatures, nature’s unsung heroes
Opinion: Gotham’s lost guardians Read More »
With new COVID-19 cases continuing to occur, scientists are paying more attention to a variety of short and long-term health effects of the virus. As of now, there are around 30 mutations of the latest variant of COVID-19, and more research is needed to understand the effects of each form. Long COVID-19 has been a
COVID’s cardiac consequences Read More »
As the primary malaria vector of sub-Saharan Africa, the Anopheles gambiae mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world. In 2022, there were an estimated 249 million malaria cases worldwide. Global malaria cases have increased annually since 2015, with countries in Africa facing the majority of case increases. Recent progress has stalled, and many are
To be or not to be: The ethics of the deliberate extinction of Anopheles gambiae Read More »
Do you remember the blood-red skies over Australia in the wake of the 2019-2020 new year fires? The raging wildfires produced post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque skylines and looming columns of smoke, dubbing this period the “Black Summer.” These bushfires caused the formation of pyrocumulonimbus clouds (pyroCbs), coined “fire clouds.” This is a fire-atmosphere phenomenon caused by
Wildfire-spawned thunderclouds: How fire-induced clouds are creating their own weather Read More »
A hundred years ago, the idea of having standard operating procedures for transplanting someone’s blood, let alone someone else’s organs, seemed like something society would have achieved by the time there were flying cars. However, modern science and lab studies are moving fast and furiously, and one of the most surprising evidence of their progression
How far has modern science progressed? The world’s first whole-eye transplant Read More »
Picture this: you are about to enter your freshman year of college. Before you are enrolled, you must strip down to nothing so a faculty member can snap a nude photo of you to check your “posture.” Would you still want to enroll? College posture tests were commonplace in the early 20th century, beginning in
Time to make slouching stylish: A retrospective analysis of postural myths Read More »
“RED ALERT! As was promised – the keys to Heaven’s Gate are here again in Ti and Do (The UFO Two) as they were in Jesus and His Father 2000 yrs. Ago,” boldly exclaims the website of Heaven’s Gate, a Christian group specializing in ufology and millenarianism. Ufology is the study of unidentified flying objects
Are there UFOs in heaven?! Read More »