The World Health Organization’s cancer agency has deemed the sweetener aspartame — found in diet soda and countless other foods — as a possible cause of cancer, while a separate expert group looking at the same evidence said it still considers the sugar substitute safe in limited quantities.

The differing results of the coordinated reviews were released early Friday in Europe. One came from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a special branch of the WHO. The other report was from an expert panel selected by WHO and another U.N. group, the Food and Agriculture Organization, based in Rome.

The Lyon, France-based cancer agency periodically reviews potential cancer hazards but doesn’t determine how likely they are to cause cancer in their evaluations, which range from possibly carcinogenic to probably to cancer-causing.

Aspartame joins a category with more than 300 other possible cancer-causing agents, including things like aloe vera extract, Asian-style pickled vegetables and carpentry work.

The guidance on use of the sweetener, though, isn’t changing.

“We’re not advising consumers to stop consuming [aspartame] altogether,” said WHO’s nutrition director, Dr. Francesco Branca. “We’re just advising a bit of moderation.”

Here’s a look at the announcement:

What is aspartame?

Aspartame is a low-calorie artificial sweetener that is about 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is a white, odorless powder and the world’s most widely used artificial sweetener.

Aspartame is authorized as a food additive in Europe and the U.S. and is used in numerous foods, drinks such as Diet Coke, desserts, chewing gum, medications including cough drops, and foods intended to help with weight loss. It’s in tabletop sweeteners sold as Equal, Sugar Twin and NutraSweet.

Aspartame was approved in 1974 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with an acceptable daily intake of 50 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. According to the FDA, a person weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds) would need to consume about 75 aspartame packets to reach that level.

U.N. experts evaluated the safety of aspartame in 1981 and set the safe daily limit slightly lower, at 40 milligrams of aspartame per kilogram.

David Spiegelhalter, an emeritus statistics professor at Cambridge University, said the guidance means that “average people are safe to drink up to 14 cans of diet drink a day … and even this ‘acceptable daily limit’ has a large built-in safety factor.”

What did the two groups say?

WHO’s cancer agency, the IARC, convened its expert group in June to assess the potential of aspartame to cause cancer. It based its conclusion that aspartame is “possibly carcinogenic” on studies in humans and animals that found limited evidence that the compound may be linked to liver cancer.

In a separate evaluation, experts assembled by WHO and the food agency updated their risk assessment, including reviewing the acceptable daily intake. They concluded there was “no convincing evidence” at the currently consumed levels that aspartame is dangerous; their guidelines regarding acceptable levels of consumption were unchanged.

The announcements came weeks after the WHO said that non-sugar sweeteners don’t help with weight loss and could lead to increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and early death in adults.

Should I be concerned about getting too much?

No, as long as you don’t exceed the guidelines. The FDA said scientific evidence continues to support the agency’s conclusion that aspartame is “safe for the general population,” when used within limits.

Almost any substance can be dangerous in excessive amounts, said David Klurfeld, a nutrition expert at the Indiana University School of Public Health in Bloomington.

“The dose makes the poison,” said Klurfeld, who previously served on an IARC panel. “Even essential nutrients like vitamin A, iron and water will kill you within hours if too much is consumed.”

What should consumers do?

WHO’s Branca said it was acceptable for people to consume a “pretty large” amount of aspartame without suffering any ill effects. “High consumers” might want to cut back, he said.

Dr. Peter Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which previously nominated aspartame for IARC review, said there’s an easy choice for consumers.

“At least when it comes to beverages, our message is your best choice is to drink water or an unsweetened beverage,” he said.

The IARC has previously classified processed meat like hot dogs and bacon as cancer-causing, noting in particular its link to colon cancer. That move surprised others in the scientific community — the U.K.’s biggest cancer charity reassured Britons that eating a bacon sandwich every so often wouldn’t do them much harm.

What does this mean for the food and beverage industry?

Food and beverage producers say there’s no reason to avoid products with aspartame.

“There is a broad consensus in the scientific and regulatory community that aspartame is safe,” the American Beverage Association said in a statement.

WHO’s Branca said the agency advises food manufacturers in general to “use ingredients that do not require the addition of too much sugar.” After the latest assessments of aspartame, Branca said that using sweeteners “is probably not the way forward.”
…

HIV/AIDS can end as a public health threat by 2030 if nations can muster the political will and critical financial support to completely defeat it, a new report published Thursday says. The deadly disease has killed 40.4 million people since the start of the epidemic in 1981.

“The data in this report show that the path that ends AIDS is not a mystery, but it is a choice. It is a political and a financial choice,” said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS.

“The report shows that HIV responses can succeed when they are anchored in strong political leadership,” she said.

The report released by UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS program, finds that in 2022, 39 million people worldwide were living with HIV, 1.3 million became newly infected and 630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses. 

While new infections have been declining globally over the past 10 to 12 years, rates remain high in several regions. Data show that two-thirds of all people living with HIV are found in sub-Saharan Africa, the hardest-hit region in the world. Other heavily infected regions include Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The report says women and girls are still disproportionately affected, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

“Every single week, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women were newly infected with HIV globally; 3,100 of those are from sub-Saharan Africa. It is a sub-Saharan crisis,”  Byanyima said.

At the same time, she noted that eastern and southern Africa, the region with the highest burden of HIV, is also where resources have been well-deployed and have achieved positive results.

“We see that since 2010 to now, new infections have been reduced by 57 percent. It is the region with the sharpest decline in new infections,” she said.

She said that since 2000, millions of lives have been saved through antiretroviral therapy. The number of people receiving this life-saving treatment worldwide “has risen four times since 2010 from 7.7 million to 29.8 million last year,” Byanyima said.

Another notable success has been in nearly doubling the number of pregnant and breast-feeding women living with HIV who were accessing antiretroviral treatment in 2022. Byanyima said that number has risen from 46% in 2010 to 82% last year.

“This has led to a reduction of 58 percent in new infections among children over the past 12 years,” she said.

Still, Byanyima noted that significant issues remain to be resolved before the prospect of ending AIDS can be realized. She said it is critical for governments to reach out to society’s most vulnerable, marginalized groups, including men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender women, drug users and prisoners.

“Tackling inequalities is key to making progress,” she said, noting that several countries, including Antigua and Barbuda, the Cook Islands, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Singapore, have decriminalized same-sex relations.

“Unfortunately, Uganda, my country, took the opposite direction, and that is not positive,” she said, referring to the country’s new anti-LGBTQ law that includes the death penalty.  

She added that stigmatizing people serves to drive the infection underground where it can blossom and grow.

The report highlights several countries as diverse as Botswana and Cambodia, as well as Eswatini, Rwanda and Tanzania, that have made considerable progress toward ending HIV/AIDS.

Sheila Tiou, Botswana’s former health minister and co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, said the countries have succeeded in doing this “by scaling up proven interventions, addressing inequalities, enabling communities, and investing in resources.” 

“We have already heard about countries that have succeeded, but countries like Cameroon, Nepal, Zimbabwe have achieved major reductions in new HIV infections thanks to focused and scaled-up comprehensive prevention programs,” she said.

But she underscored that inequalities and inequities are blocking quicker and wider access in protecting people against HIV.

“Doing the right things will drastically improve the health and well-being of societies, it will reduce HIV vulnerabilities, and indeed, it will avert new HIV infections,” she said.

Tiou said AIDS can be ended if world leaders are courageous, tackle stigma and discrimination, empower and work with communities, and invest in what is needed.

“The data is clear. The evidence is all there,” she said.

Byanyima echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the opportunity for successfully ending the epidemic is dependent upon action.

“The facts and figures shared in this report do not show that as a world, we are already on the path.”

However, she said they show that the world can get on the right path “to save millions of lives and protect the health of everyone by putting a stop to the world’s deadliest pandemic.”
…

U.S. officials have approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, which will let American women and girls buy contraceptive medication from the same aisle as aspirin and eyedrops.

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo’s once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter. The company won’t start shipping the pill until early next year, and there will be no age restrictions on sales.

Hormone-based pills have long been the most common form of birth control in the U.S., used by tens of millions of women since the 1960s. Until now, all of them required a prescription.

Medical societies and women’s health groups have pushed for wider access, noting that an estimated 45% of the 6 million annual pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended. Teens and girls, women of color and those with low incomes report greater hurdles in getting prescriptions and picking them up.

Some of the challenges can include paying for a doctor’s visit, getting time off from work and finding child care.

“This is really a transformation in access to contraceptive care,” said Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, a non-profit group that supported the approval. “Hopefully this will help people overcome those barriers that exist now.”

Ireland-based Perrigo did not announce a price. Over-the-counter medicines are generally much cheaper than prescriptions, but they aren’t covered by insurance.

Many common medications have made the switch to non-prescription status in recent decades, including drugs for pain, heartburn and allergies.

Perrigo submitted years of research to FDA to show that women could understand and follow instructions for using the pill. Thursday’s approval came despite some concerns by FDA scientists about the company’s results, including whether women with certain underlying medical conditions would understand they shouldn’t take the drug.

FDA’s action only applies to Opill. It’s in an older class of contraceptives, sometimes called minipills, that contain a single synthetic hormone and generally carry fewer side effects than more popular combination hormone pills.

But women’s health advocates hope the decision will pave the way for more over-the-counter birth control options and, eventually, for abortion pills to do the same.

That said, FDA’s decision has no relation to the ongoing court battles over the abortion pill mifepristone. The studies in Perrigo’s FDA application began years before the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, which has upended abortion access across the U.S.

With some states curtailing women’s reproductive rights, the FDA has faced pressure from Democratic politicians, health advocates and medical professionals to ease access to birth control. The American Medical Association and the leading professional society for obstetricians and gynecologists backed Opill’s application for over-the-counter status.

An outside panel of FDA advisers unanimously voted in favor of the switch at a hearing in May where dozens of public speakers called for Opill’s approval.

Dyvia Huitron was among those who presented, explaining how she has been unable to get prescription birth control more than three years after becoming sexually active. The 19-year-old University of Alabama student said she still isn’t comfortable getting a prescription because the school’s health system reports medical exams and medications to parents.

“My parents did not let me go on the pill,” Huitron said in a recent interview. “There was just a lot of cultural stigma around being sexually active before you’re married.”

While she uses other forms of contraception, “I would have much preferred to have birth control and use these additional methods to ensure that I was being as safe as possible.”

Huitron spoke on behalf of Advocates for Youth, one of the dozens of groups that have pushed to make prescription contraceptives more accessible.

The groups helped fund some of the studies submitted for Opill and they encouraged HRA Pharma, later acquired by Perrigo, to file its application with the FDA.

Advocates were particularly interested in Opill because it raised fewer safety concerns. The pill was first approved in the U.S. five decades ago but hasn’t been marketed here since 2005.

“It’s been around a long time and we have a large amount of data supporting that this pill is safe and effective for over-the-counter use,” said Blanchard, of Ibsis Reproductive Health.

Newer birth control pills typically combine two hormones, estrogen and progestin, which can help make periods lighter and more regular. But their use carries a heightened risk of blood clots and they shouldn’t be used by women at risk for heart problems, such as those who smoke and are over 35.

Opill has only progestin, which prevents pregnancy by blocking sperm from reaching the cervix. It must be taken around the same time daily to be most effective.

In its internal review published in May, the FDA noted that some women in Perrigo’s study had trouble understanding the drug’s labeling information. In particular, the instructions warn that women with a history of breast cancer should not take the pill because it could spur tumor growth. And women who have unusual vaginal bleeding are instructed to talk to a doctor first, because it could indicate a medical problem.

Perrigo executives said the company will spend the rest of the year manufacturing the pill and its packaging so it can be available in stores nationwide and online by early next year.
…

It is possible to end AIDS by 2030 if countries demonstrate the political will to invest in prevention and treatment and adopt non-discriminatory laws, the United Nations said on Thursday.

In 2022, an estimated 39 million people around the world were living with HIV, according to UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS program. HIV can progress to AIDS if left untreated.

“We have a solution if we follow the leadership of countries that have forged strong political commitment to put people first and invest in evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment programs,” UNAIDS said in a report published on Thursday.

It said an effective response to HIV also meant adopting non-discriminatory laws and empowering community networks, among other initiatives. People living with HIV or AIDS in many countries face stigma, discrimination and violence.

“Progress has been strongest in the countries and regions that have the most financial investments, such as in eastern and southern Africa, where new HIV infections have been reduced by 57% since 2010,” the report said.

It added, however, that there has been a steep increase in new infections in eastern Europe and central Asia, as well as in the Middle East and North Africa.

“These trends are due primarily to a lack of HIV prevention services for marginalized and key populations and the barriers posed by punitive laws and social discrimination,” it said.

Last year, 1.3 million people became newly infected with HIV and 630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses, according to UNAIDS.
…

Warmer, drier weather because of an earlier-than-usual El Nino is expected to hamper rice production across Asia, hitting global food security in a world still reeling from the impacts of the war in Ukraine. 

An El Nino is a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific that shifts global weather patterns, and climate change is making them stronger. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this one in June, a month or two earlier than it usually does. This gives it time to grow. Scientists say there’s a one in four chance it will expand to supersized levels. 

That’s bad news for rice farmers, particularly in Asia where 90% of the world’s rice is grown and eaten, since a strong El Nino typically means less rainfall for the thirsty crop. 

Past El Ninos have resulted in extreme weather, ranging from drought to floods. 

There are already “alarm bells,” said Abdullah Mamun, a research analyst at the International Food Policy Research Institute or IFPRI, pointing to rising rice prices due to shortfalls in production. The average price of 5% broken white rice in June in Thailand was about 16% higher than last year’s average. 

Global stocks have run low since last year, in part due to devastating floods in Pakistan, a major rice exporter. This year’s El Nino may amplify other woes for rice-producing countries, such as reduced availability of fertilizer due to the war and some countries’ export restrictions on rice. Myanmar, Cambodia and Nepal are particularly vulnerable, warned a recent report by research firm BMI. 

“There is uncertainty over the horizon,” Mamun said. 

Recently, global average temperatures have hit record highs. Monsoon rains over India were lighter than usual by the end of June. Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Monday asked his ministers to anticipate a long dry season. And in the Philippines, authorities are carefully managing water to protect vulnerable areas. 

Some countries are bracing for food shortages. Indonesia was among the worst hit by India’s decision to restrict rice exports last year after less rain fell than expected and a historic heat wave scorched wheat, raising worries that domestic food prices would surge. 

Last month, India said it would send more than 1 million metric tons (1.1 million U.S. tons) to Indonesia, Senegal and Gambia to help them meet “their food security needs.” 

Challenges finding fertilizer

Fertilizer is another crucial variable. Last year China, a major producer, restricted exports to keep domestic prices in check after fertilizers were among exports affected by sanctions on Russian ally Belarus for human rights violations. Sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine don’t target fertilizers but the war has disrupted shipments of the three main chemical fertilizers: potash, phosphorus, and nitrogen. 

Bangladesh found suppliers in Canada to make up for lost potash shipments from Belarus, but many countries are still scrambling to find new sources. 

Farmers such as Abu Bakar Siddique, who cultivates 1.2 hectares (3 acres) in northern Bangladesh, had enough fertilizer to keep his yields steady last year. But less rainfall meant he had to rely more on electric pumps for his winter harvest at a time of power shortages due to war-related shortfalls of diesel and coal. 

“This increased my costs,” he said. 

Attempting to adapt

Each El Nino is different, but historical trends suggest scarce rainfall in South and Southeast Asia will parch the soil, causing cascading effects in coming years, said Beau Damen, a natural resources officer with the Food and Agriculture Organization based in Bangkok, Thailand. Some countries, like Indonesia, may be more vulnerable in the early stages of the phenomenon, he said. 

Kusnan, a farmer in Indonesia’s East Java, said rice farmers there have tried to anticipate that by planting earlier so that when the El Nino hits, the rice might be ready for harvest and not need so much water. Kusnan, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said he hoped high yields last year would help offset any losses this year. 

Widodo, the Indonesian leader, stressed the need to manage water in coming weeks, warning that various factors — including export restrictions and fertilizer shortages — could combine with the El Nino to “make this a particularly damaging event.” 

Baldev Singh, a 52-year-old farmer in northern India’s Punjab state, is already worried. He typically sows rice from late June until mid-July, then needs the monsoon rains to flood the paddies. Less than a tenth of the usual rainfall had come by early this month, and then floods ravaged northern India, battering young crops that had just been planted. 

The government has encouraged Punjab farmers to grow rice along with their traditional wheat crops since the 1960s to improve India’s food security, even though farmers like Singh don’t typically eat rice and irrigation of rice fields has drained the area’s aquifers. But he keeps growing it, counting on the certainty of government purchases at fixed prices. 

With rain scarce, Singh may need to dig wells. Last year, he dug down 200 feet (60 meters) to find water. 

“Rice has been our ruin … I don’t know what will happen in the future,” he said. 

 
…

BEIJING — Employers across much of China were ordered Monday to limit outdoor work due to scorching temperatures, while the east and southwest were warned to prepare for torrential rain as the country struggled with heat, flooding and drought.

Temperatures as high as 40 C (104 F) were reported in cities including Shijiazhuang, southwest of Beijing, the capital. Highs of 35 C (95 F) to 38 C (100 F) were reported in Beijing, Guangzhou in the south, Chongqing in the southwest and Shenyang in the northeast.

The weather agency issued an orange alert, its second-highest warning, for heat across southern China and much of the north and northeast. That requires employers to limit outdoor work, though delivery workers for restaurants and online retailers were still working.

The agriculture ministry warned Sunday that persistent hot weather could damage rice harvests and told local authorities to ensure adequate water supplies to prevent the crop from ripening prematurely.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water Resources warned the provinces of Shandong on the east coast and Sichuan in the southwest to prepare for heavy rain from Tuesday to Friday, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. It said multiple rivers were likely to rise above safe levels.

In the central city of Yichang, in Hubei province, heavy rain triggered a landslide Saturday that buried a highway construction site and killed one person. Authorities were searching Monday for seven missing construction workers, Xinhua reported.

Business and schools in Heilongjiang province in the northeast were ordered Monday to close and shut down outdoor electrical equipment after 84 millimeters (3.3 inches) of rain fell in one hour, according to state TV. It said traffic police were ordered to close dangerous road sections.

Tens of thousands of people who were driven out of their homes by earlier flooding moved to shelters in northern, central and southeastern China.

Residents of some cities have moved into underground air raid shelters to escape the heat.

Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high last Thursday, the third such milestone in the hottest week on record.
…

The Webb Space Telescope is marking one year of cosmic photographs with one of its best yet: the dramatic close-up of dozens of stars at the moment of birth. 

NASA unveiled the latest snapshot Wednesday, revealing 50 baby stars in a cloud complex 390 light-years away. The region is relatively small and quiet yet full of illuminated gases, jets of hydrogen and even dense cocoons of dust with the delicate beginnings of even more stars. 

“Prepare to be awestruck!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted, noting that the image “presents star birth as an impressionistic masterpiece.” 

All of the young stars appear to be no bigger than our sun. Scientists said the breathtaking shot provides the best clarity yet of this brief phase of a star’s life. 

“It’s like a glimpse of what our own system would have looked like billions of years ago when it was forming,” NASA program scientist Eric Smith told The Associated Press. 

“I like to remind people that when this light left, it was roughly 1633. … People were putting Galileo on trial for believing that the Earth goes around the sun, and here we are seeing separate suns and planets forming today,” Smith said. 

This cloud complex, known as Rho Ophiuchi, is the closest star-forming region to Earth and is found in the sky near the border of the constellations Ophiuchus and Scorpius, the serpent-bearer and scorpion. With no stars in the foreground of the photo, NASA noted, the details stand out all the more. Some of the stars display shadows indicating possible planets in the making, according to NASA. 

Webb — the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever launched into space — has been churning out cosmic beauty shots for the past year. The first pictures from the $10 billion infrared telescope were unveiled last July, six months after its liftoff from French Guiana. 

It’s considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting Earth for 33 years. A joint NASA-European Space Agency effort, Webb scans the universe from a more distant perch, 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away.

Still ahead for Webb: Astronomers hope to behold the earliest stars and galaxies of the universe while scouring the cosmos for any hints of life.

“We’ve already been using Webb to look at planets around other stars to see if we can analyze their atmospheres to see if they would be capable of hosting life,” Smith said. “We haven’t found one of them yet, but we’re still only one year into the mission.” 
…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday it has extended its probe into Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drugs Ozempic and weight-loss treatment Saxenda, following two reports of suicidal thoughts, to include other drugs in the same class.

The agency began its review on July 3 after Iceland’s health regulator flagged the reports of patients thinking about suicide and one case of thoughts of self-harm after use of Novo Nordisk’s drugs.

There have been issues of suicidal thoughts linked to another class of weight-loss drugs, which have hobbled previous attempts by the drug industry to develop lucrative weight-loss drugs.

Sanofi’s weight-loss drug Acomplia, which never won U.S. approval, was withdrawn in Europe in 2008 after being linked to suicidal thoughts.

The EMA said on Tuesday it will investigate the class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which trigger a feeling of fullness after eating. The review is expected to be completed in November, according to the agency.

Drugmaker Eli Lilly’s shares closed down 3.1%. Its diabetes drug Trulicity also belongs to the same class.

Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy, which contains the active ingredient semaglutide, is also part of the review.

Other GLP-1 drugs include Sanofi’s Suliqua and AstraZeneca’s Bydureon. Both are approved in Europe for treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Sanofi said it has not identified any safety concerns related to “suicidal ideation” from use of its GLP-1 receptor agonist. However, the company has started an investigation and will share all relevant information with the European health regulator.

Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The European health regulator is also investigating GLP-1 drugs for possible risk of thyroid cancer.

 
…

Australian scientists say they have developed a special glue that can be used to repair parts of the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology believe the biodegradable putty has the potential to help the coral recover after it’s been damaged by cyclones, hit by boats or suffered bleaching.

The Great Barrier Reef is arguably Australia’s most valuable natural treasure. It is the world’s largest coral system and faces an array of threats, including climate change, pollution, over-fishing and coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

When reefs are damaged by cyclones, or struck by boats, patches of rubble are often left behind.

These can be shifted by waves and currents, preventing the formation of a stable seabed that coral needs to grow. Coral bleaching can also cause reefs to disintegrate. When ocean temperatures are too warm – a consequence of climate change – the coral responds to the heat by expelling the algae that give them their brilliant colors and most of their energy. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead, but it becomes far more fragile.

In a bid to reverse some of that degradation, a team at the Queensland University of Technology has made a reef-binding glue that eventually dissolves away.

Leonie Barner is a professor of chemistry at the Queensland University of Technology. She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the glue should be a sustainable way to help reefs recover.

“One component that we are using is actually a plant extract. It’s coming from a natural resource, and the other one is a bio-compatible polymer. So, it has no harmful effects on the marine environment. We have tested that in the lab,” said Barner.

However, applying the adhesive putty to large areas is a major challenge. The Great Barrier Reef runs 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast and spans an area about the size of Japan.

Researchers in Queensland hope that underwater robots could eventually be used to help stick broken pieces of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and other reefs back together.

In the past, researchers tried dropping metal structures and mesh into the ocean to stabilize coral rubble but their use can permanently alter the reef.

Sea trials of the reef-bonding glue are scheduled to start later this month.
…

Humanity has etched its way into Earth’s geology, atmosphere and biology with such strength and permanence that a team of scientists figures we have shifted into a new geologic epoch — one of our own creation. It’s called the Anthropocene.

A geologic task force recommends marking this new epoch’s start in the deep, pristine Crawford Lake outside Toronto, Canada, with a “golden spike.” The start of the human epoch is sometime around 1950 to 1954. The specific date will be determined soon, probably by levels of plutonium in new measurements from the bottom of the lake.

“It’s quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact,” said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters, who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group, which is making the recommendation. “It’s no longer just influencing Earth’s sphere, it’s actually controlling.”

The burning of coal, oil and gas that’s changing Earth’s climate and atmosphere, nuclear bomb detonations spotted in soil around the globe, plastics and nitrogen from fertilizers added on land, and dramatic changes to species that make up the rest of the Earth characterize the new epoch, scientists said.

The idea of the Anthropocene was proposed at a science conference more than 20 years ago by the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen. Teams of scientists have debated the issue for decades.

A special committee was set up to examine whether the designation was needed, when it would start and where a golden spike would be placed to commemorate the start. Such spikes commemorate new geologic time periods across the Earth.

Distinct and multiple signals starting around 1950 in Crawford Lake show that “the effects of humans overwhelm the Earth system,” said Francine McCarthy, a committee member who specializes in that site as an Earth sciences professor at Brock University in Canada.

Because Crawford Lake is 24 meters (79 feet) deep but just under 2,400 square meters (25,800 square feet) in area, the layers on the lake bottom are pristine, showing what’s in the air and on Earth each year, scientists said.

“The remarkably preserved annual record of deposition in Crawford Lake is truly amazing,” said U.S. National Academies of Sciences President Marcia McNutt, who is not part of the committee. “It is just as important to the beginning of an era dominated by one category of Earth species as it is to mark the end.”

The Anthropocene — derived from the Greek terms for “human” and “new” — shows the power and the hubris of humankind, several scientists told The Associated Press.

“The hubris is in imagining that we are in control,” former U.S. White House science adviser John Holdren, who was not part of the working group of scientists and disagrees with its proposed start date, suggesting it should be much earlier. “The reality is that our power to transform the environment has far exceeded our understanding of the consequences and our capacity to change course.”

Jurgen Renn, who directs the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and was not part of the study group, said humans also “need that power, our knowledge, our technologies, but also our capacities of making better societies” to lessen and adapt to the worst consequences of our actions.

This puts the power of humans in a somewhat similar class with the meteorite that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago killing off dinosaurs, starting the Cenozoic Era and what is sometimes called the age of mammals. But that meteorite started a whole new era, and scientists are now proposing humans started a new epoch, which is a much smaller geologic time period.

Geologists measure time in eons, eras, periods, epochs and ages. They propose we have moved from the Holocene Epoch, which started about 11,700 years ago at the end of an ice age, to the Anthropocene Epoch.

It also starts a new age. It’s named Crawfordian, after the lake chosen as the starting point, and ends the Meghalayan Age that started 4,200 years ago, Waters said.

The proposal needs to be approved by three different groups of geologists and will ultimately need to be signed off at during a major conference next year.

The reason geologists didn’t make it a bigger time period change is that the current Quaternary Period is based on permanent ice on Earth’s poles, which still exists. But in a few hundred years, if climate change continues and those disappear, it may be time to change that, Waters said.

“If you know your Greek tragedies, you know power, hubris and tragedy go hand in hand,” said Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes, a working group member. “If we don’t address the harmful aspects of human activities, most obviously disruptive climate change, we are headed for tragedy.”
…

India will launch a mission to the moon later this week hoping to become the fourth country to land a craft on the lunar surface.    

So far only three countries — the United States, Russia and China — have achieved what is called a “soft landing” on the moon in which vehicles touch down without damage.  

The mission marks the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) second attempt to land a rover on the moon — a previous effort nearly four years ago failed.    

The spacecraft called Chandrayaan-3, which means moon vehicle in Sanskrit, is scheduled to be launched Friday afternoon (2:35 p.m. Indian time) It is equipped with a lander and a robotic rover that are expected to land on the moon on August 23 or August 24 to map the lunar surface for about two weeks. 

“The date is decided based on when the sunrise is on the moon; it will depend on the calculations, but if it gets delayed, then we will have to keep the landing for the next month in September,” ISRO director S. Somanath said.  

He said the main objective is to demonstrate “a safe and soft landing.”  

India aims to land its rover on the South Pole of the moon, a previously unexplored part that lies in near darkness. It will study the topography of this region.   

“There is expectation that the southern parts of the moon have a lot of mineral deposits and helium-3. There is also the possibility of water deposits there,” Ajey Lele, a space consultant with the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi told VOA.  

Through such studies of the moon’s topography, India’s upcoming space flight to the moon “has the potential to contribute to scientific understanding that will underpin a variety of future lunar missions, including those by other actors,” Tomas Hrozensky at the European Space Policy Institute told VOA in emailed comments.  

India’s moon mission in 2019 had successfully deployed a lunar orbiter, but the lander crashed during the final moments of its descent to the lunar surface — a setback to its main goal.   

Aiming for ‘soft’ landing

Lele says there is optimism about Chandrayaan-3 achieving a “soft” landing. “The glitches that led to the failure of the previous mission have been fixed. Basically, they have made the lander system more sturdy, so it can withstand any impact.” 

The latest space project is part of India’s ambitions to showcase its homegrown technological capabilities in space and be seen as a leading space-faring nation.   

“After a quantum rise in our space expertise, India can no longer wait to be left behind in the march to the moon,” India’s space minister, Jitendra Singh, said Sunday.  

India’s space program has notched several milestones. Its first mission to the moon in 2008 helped confirm the presence of water. In 2013, it put a satellite in orbit around Mars. Its space agency is also preparing for its most ambitious space mission yet — a human spaceflight next year.   

Delivering on “an ambitious and technologically challenging vision serves a profound benefit for perception of the government’s capability both within and outside of the country,” according to Hrozensky. 

US, India teaming up

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in exploring the moon as scientists seek to determine whether it will be possible to mine the moon for minerals and other resources that are shrinking on earth.  

Outer space is one of the areas in which India and the U.S. decided to deepen collaboration during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington last month. U.S. President Joe Biden said that the two countries are joining hands to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station next year.  

India has also signed on to the Artemis Accords, an American-led international partnership for space cooperation that, among other objectives, aims to send humans to the Moon by 2025 after a gap of five decades. 
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Astronomers have discovered the most distant black hole yet using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, but that record isn’t expected to last.

The black hole is at the center of a galaxy created a mere 570 million years after the Big Bang. That’s 100 million years closer to the beginning of the cosmos than a black hole identified in 2021 by a Chinese team using a telescope in Chile.

Webb already has spotted other black holes that appear to be even closer to the Big Bang nearly 14 billion years ago, but those findings are still under review, said University of Texas at Austin astronomer Steven Finkelstein, one of the lead researchers. The finding has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Because the signals from this particular black hole are weak, more observations are needed, according to the Texas-led team.

There are untold numbers of dormant black holes, some even more distant than this one. But without any glowing gas, they are invisible, Finkelstein said.

Detected in February, this particular one is active and actually puny as black holes go — equivalent to about 9 million times the mass of our sun. That’s close in size to the one in our own Milky Way galaxy, according to the team.

Using Webb, the team also spotted two other small black holes from the early universe, dating to around 1 billion years after the Big Bang. The observations suggest that these downsized versions may have been more common than previously thought as the cosmos took shape.

“There are probably many more hidden little monsters out there waiting to be found,” Colby College’s Dale Kocevski, who was part of the team, said in an email.

Launched in late 2021, Webb is the largest, most powerful telescope ever sent into space. Its first images and science results were released by NASA with much fanfare a year ago this week.
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Scientists say crushing temperatures that blanketed Europe last summer may have led to more than 61,000 heat-related deaths, highlighting the need for governments to address the health impacts of global warming.

In their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers examined official mortality figures from 35 European countries and found a marked increase in deaths between late May and early September last year compared with the average recorded over a 30-year period.

The increase in heat-related deaths was higher among older people, women and in Mediterranean countries, they found. But the data also indicated that measures taken in France since a deadly heat wave two decades ago may have helped prevent deaths there last year. 

“In the pattern of summer mean temperatures in Europe during the summer of 2022, we don’t see borders,” said co-author Joan Ballester of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. The highest temperatures were recorded across a swath of southwestern Europe, from Spain to France and Italy.

“But when we look at the heat-related mortality, we start to see borders,” Ballester told The Associated Press. While France had 73 heat-related deaths per million inhabitants last summer, Spain’s rate was 237 and Italy’s was 295, the study found.

“Possibly France drew lessons from the experience of 2003,” he said.

France’s warning system includes public announcements with advice on how to stay cool and encouraging people to drink water and avoid alcohol.

Not all of the heat-related deaths calculated across Europe last summer were linked to climate change. Some would have occurred even if summer temperatures had stayed in line with the long-term average. But there is no doubt that the intense heat in 2022 — which saw numerous European records tumble — led to higher mortality rates, as other studies on heat deaths have also shown.

The authors calculated that there were over 25,000 more heat-related deaths last summer than the average from 2015 to 2021.

Without appropriate prevention measures, “we would expect a heat-related mortality burden of 68,116 deaths on average every summer by the year 2030,” the authors said. They forecast that figure would rise to over 94,000 by 2040 and more than 120,000 by mid-century.

Governments in Spain and Germany recently announced new measures to address the effects of hot weather on their populations. In Switzerland, a group of seniors is citing the danger posed to older women by intense heat in a court case seeking to force the government to take tougher climate action.

One difficulty for researchers is that heat-related deaths are often happening in people with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, said Matthias an der Heiden of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, who was not involved in the study. 

In such cases, the heat is not the underlying cause of death and therefore not recorded in the cause of deaths statistics. This can cloak the significant impact that heat has on vulnerable people, with up to 30% more deaths in certain age groups during periods of hot weather.

“The problem is going to get more acute due to climate change and medical systems need to adjust to that,” he said.

An der Heiden also noted that the Nature study estimated almost double the number of heat deaths in Germany last year than his institute. While the discrepancy can be explained by the different threshold values for heat used, it indicates the need for a more detailed description of heat-related mortality that distinguishes between moderate and intensive heat, he said.

According to co-author Ballester, the impact of heat depends greatly on the overall health of the population, particularly with regard to heart and lung disease.

Other measures, already being implemented in countries such as France, include raising awareness about the dangers of high temperatures and identifying individuals who need special attention during heat waves, he said.

“These are cheap, cost-effective measures,” said Ballester.

He dismissed the suggestion that rising temperatures around the globe could, on balance, be beneficial due to fewer deaths during the winter months, noting the manifold risks posed to human civilization by rapid climatic change.

“In my opinion and the opinion of all the climate scientists, the less the climate is modified, the better,” said Ballester. “That’s why it’s so important that we start, as soon as possible, mitigating climate change and reducing vulnerability.” 
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