On a freezing January night, Bailey Henke, 18, of Grand Forks, N.D. died in yet another tragic case of opioid overdose in America. Authorities later traced the pill he swallowed to a fentanyl factory in China – one the world’s top sources of the illegal drug. VOA traveled to America’s Heartland to see how Henke’s family, friends and the community are grappling with the deadly fallout from the Chinese drug supply chain.
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The pursuit of happiness is among the unalienable rights listed in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and so it is no wonder that the study of that elusive treasure makes for one of the most popular classes in the country. A record 1,200 students are attending a class that teaches students how to be happier at prestigious Yale University in the U.S. state of Connecticut. As VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports, many more are enrolled in the Yale happiness course online.
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It’s a double cosmic conundrum: Lots of stuff that was already invisible has gone missing.
Astronomers have found a distant galaxy where there is no dark matter.
Dark matter is called “dark” because it can’t be seen. It is the mysterious and invisible skeleton of the universe that scientists figure makes up about 27 percent of the cosmos. Scientists only know dark matter exists because they can observe how it pushes and pulls things they can see, like stars.
It’s supposed to be everywhere.
What you see is what you get
But Yale University astronomer Pieter van Dokkum and colleagues spied a vast, old galaxy with relatively few stars where what you see truly is what you get. The galaxy’s stars are speeding around with no apparent influence from dark matter, according to a study published in Wednesday’s journal Nature.
Instead of shaking the very foundations of physics, scientists say this absence of dark matter may help prove the existence of, wait for it, dark matter.
“Not sure what to make of it, but it is definitely intriguing,” wrote Case Western Reserve astronomer Stacy McGaugh, who was not part of the study, in an email. “This is a weird galaxy.”
Van Dokkum studies diffuse galaxies, ones that cover enormous areas but have relatively few stars. To look for them he and colleagues built their own makeshift telescope out of 48 telephoto lenses that he first tested by using a toy flashlight to shine a light on a paper clip. The bug-eyed telescope, called Dragonfly, peers into the sky from New Mexico.
Using Dragonfly, van Dokkum and colleagues found a large, sparse galaxy called NGC1052-DF2 in the northern constellation Cetus, also known as the whale. It’s as big as the Milky Way but with only 1 percent of its stars. Then they used larger telescopes on Hawaii and eventually the Hubble Space Telescope to study the galaxy.
Slow-moving stars
Even though the galaxy is mostly empty, they found clusters of densely grouped stars. With measurements from the telescopes, van Dokkum and colleagues calculated how fast those clusters moved. If there were a normal amount of dark matter those clusters would be speeding around at 67,000 mph (108,000 kilometers per hour). Instead, the clusters were moving at 18,000 mph (28,000 kilometers per hour). That’s about how fast they would move if there were no dark matter at all, van Dokkum said.
The team also calculated the total mass of the galaxy and found the stars account for everything, with little or no room left for dark matter.
“I find this unlikely in all possible contexts,” said McGaugh, who is a proponent of a “modified gravity” theory that excludes the existence of dark matter altogether. “That doesn’t make it wrong, just really weird.”
How could this absence of dark matter help prove that it exists? By potentially disproving modified gravity theories that suggest gravity acts in a way that the cosmos makes sense without dark matter. But those alternative theories require stars in this galaxy to zip at least twice as fast as they were seen moving in this study.
More dark matter, not none
Other outside scientists said the initial look at the calculations appear to be correct, though the results are confounding. A galaxy with so few stars should have more dark matter than others, not none.
“These are very strong scientists and so I take the results very seriously,” said Marc Kamionkowski, a physicist at Johns Hopkins University.
One outsider suggested that perhaps the “galaxy” van Dokkum studied is so diffuse that it may not really be a galaxy. Another suggested that the dark matter might just be outside of the area that van Dokkum measured.
A true surprise
Van Dokkum dismissed both possibilities.
“It’s sort of non-negotiable. There’s nothing else, just the stars,” he said. The only way this can be explained is if dark matter exists in the universe, just not in that galaxy, he said.
There’s no good explanation for why and how this galaxy has no dark matter, van Dokkum said. He proposed four different possibilities, all unproven. His favorite: That the galaxy formed in the very early universe in a way astronomers have never seen or understood.
“It’s not so often you get a true surprise,” van Dokkum said.
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Italian surgeon Marco Dolfin suffered a major setback in 2011 – one that completely changed his life. That was the year he was involved in a serious motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. But Dr. Dolfin never gave up. And he never lost hope that one day he would practice medicine again. As Iacopo Luzi reports, new technology has made his dream possible.
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The search for life’s sweetest but most elusive treasure — happiness — brings nearly 1,200 Yale University undergraduates twice a week into an
enormous hall on the Connecticut school’s campus for its most popular class ever.
“Psychology and the Good Life” is such a hit that one in four undergraduate students at the Ivy League university is enrolled in the spring semester course, said Laurie Santos, the psychology professor who teaches the class. It is the largest class enrollment size in the history of Yale, founded in 1701.
What is the draw? Santos says it is the hope that science can help students find blissful relief from the misery that has reached at all-time high at colleges.
“Students report being more depressed than they have ever been in history at college, more anxious,” she said.
Social science has generated many new insights into what makes people happy and how they can achieve that, Santos said. “They really want to learn those insights in an empirical, science-driven way,” she said, referring to students enrolled in the course.
The third-oldest university in the United States, Yale boasts many famous alumni, including presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and actors Paul Newman and Meryl Streep.
Socialization, exercise, sleep
Santos said feelings of happiness are fostered through socialization, exercise, meditation and plenty of sleep. Money and possessions are often seen as goals in the game of life, but the route to happiness heads in a different direction, she said.
“Very happy people spend time with others, they prioritize time with their friends, time with their family, they even take time to talk to the barista,” Santos said.
She points to the psychological phenomenon of “mis-wanting,” which leads people to pursue the wrong goals in life.
“We work really hard to get a great salary or to buy this huge house,” she said. “Those things are not going to make us as happy as we think.”
Homework assignments for the class, also known as Psyc 157, include showing more gratitude, performing acts of kindness and bumping up social connections.
Because of overwhelming demand, the course is now being offered free to the public, through Coursera.org.
On campus, the class is already paying off for Yale senior Rebekah Siliezar, who described her previous mindset.
“What’s most pressing on our minds is grades, it’s the next job, it’s a potential salary after graduation,” said Siliezar, whose family lives in suburban Chicago. Now, she said, “I really try to focus on the present moment and the people around me.”
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Paro the furry seal cries softly while an elderly woman pets it. Pepper, a humanoid, waves while leading a group of senior citizens in exercises. The upright Tree guides a disabled man taking shaky steps, saying in a gentle feminine voice, “right, left, well done!”
Robots have the run of Tokyo’s Shin-tomi nursing home, which uses 20 different models to care for its residents. The Japanese government hopes it will be a model for harnessing the country’s robotics expertise to help cope with a swelling elderly population and dwindling workforce.
Allowing robots to help care for the elderly — a job typically seen as requiring a human touch — may be a jarring idea in the West. But many Japanese see them positively, largely because they are depicted in popular media as friendly and
helpful.
“These robots are wonderful,” said 84-year-old Kazuko Yamada after the exercise session with SoftBank Robotics Corp.’s Pepper, which can carry on scripted dialogues. “More people live alone these days, and a robot can be a conversation partner for them. It will make life more fun.”
Plenty of obstacles may hinder a rapid proliferation of elder care robots: high costs, safety issues and doubts about how useful — and user-friendly — they will be.
The Japanese government has been funding development of elder care robots to help fill a projected shortfall of 380,000 specialised workers by 2025.
Despite steps by Japan to allow foreign workers in for elder care, obstacles to employment in the sector, including exams in Japanese, remain. As of the end of 2017, only 18 foreigners held nursing care visas, a new category created in 2016.
But authorities and companies here are also eyeing a larger prize: a potentially lucrative export industry supplying robots to places such as Germany, China and Italy, which face similar demographic challenges now or in the near future.
“It’s an opportunity for us,” said Atsushi Yasuda, director of the robotic policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or METI. “Other countries will follow the same trend.”
More than 100 foreign groups have visited Shin-tomi the past year from countries including China, South Korea and the Netherlands.
A few products are trickling out as exports: Panasonic Corp has started shipping its robotic bed, which transforms into a wheelchair, to Taiwan. Paro is used as a “therapy animal” in about 400 Danish senior homes.
Still tiny
The global market for nursing care and disabled aid robots, made up of mostly Japanese manufacturers, is still tiny: just $19.2 million in 2016, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
But METI estimates the domestic industry alone will grow to 400 billion yen ($3.8 billion) by 2035, when a third of Japan’s population will be 65 or older.
“It’s potentially a huge market,” said George Leeson, director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. “Everyone is waking up to their ageing populations. Clearly robotics is part of that package to address those needs.”
To nurture the industry, the government is using a two-pronged approach. METI is promoting development, providing 4.7 billion yen ($45 million) in subsidies since 2015.
The Labor Ministry is spearheading the spread of robots, and spent 5.2 billion yen ($50 million) to introduce them into 5,000 facilities nationwide in the year that ended last March.
There is no government data about how many care facilities use robots.
Government officials stress that robots will not replace human caregivers.
“They can assist with power, mobility and monitoring. They can’t replace humans, but they can save time and labor,” said METI’s Yasuda. “If workers have more time, they can do other tasks.”
That’s a robot?
Most of the devices look nothing like the popular image of a robot. By the government’s definition, each has three components — sensors, a processor and a motor or apparatus.
Panasonic used government aid to develop Resyone, a bed that splits in two, with one half transforming into a wheelchair.
Cyberdyne Inc’s HAL — short for Hybrid Assistive Limb — lumbar type is a powered back support that helps caregivers lift people.
Those needing walking rehabilitation can grab hold of Tree, made by unlisted Reif Co, which crawls along the ground, showing where to place the next step and offering balance support.
SoftBank’s Pepper is used in about 500 Japanese elder care homes for games, exercise routines and rudimentary conversations.
But some workers find Pepper difficult to set up, said Shohei Fujiwara, a manager at SoftBank Robotics, a unit of Internet conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. They’d like Pepper to respond to voice commands and move around independently – functions that SoftBank hopes to introduce this year, he said.
A costly solution
Cute, furry and responsive, Paro reacts to touch, speech and light by moving its head, blinking its eyes and playing recordings of Canadian harp seal cries.
“When I first petted it, it moved in such a cute way. It really seemed like it was alive,” giggled 79-year-old Saki Sakamoto, a Shin-tomi resident. “Once I touched it, I couldn’t let go.”
Paro took more than 10 years to develop and received about $20 million in government support, said its inventor, Takanori Shibata, chief research scientist at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. About 5,000 are in use globally, including 3,000 in Japan.
But Paro, like most robots, is expensive: 400,000 yen ($3,800) in Japan and about 5,000 euros in Europe. Panasonic’s Resyone bed costs 900,000 yen ($8,600) and Cyberdyne’s HAL lumbar exoskeleton costs 100,000 yen ($950) a month to rent.
Most facilities using them, including Shin-tomi, have relied on local and central government subsidies to help cover the costs. Individuals can also use nursing care insurance to help cover approved products, but those numbers are tiny.
And so far, the robots have not reduced Shin-tomi’s personnel costs or working hours.
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” said Kimiya Ishikawa, president and CEO of Silverwing Social Welfare Corp, which runs Shin-tomi. “We brought them in mostly to improve the working environment, keep staffers from getting back injuries and make things safer.”
What they have done, he said, is boost the morale of both staff and residents.
“That’s brought a peace of mind among the staff and the residents feel supported,” he said.
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A nearly decade-long makeover of King Tut’s tomb aimed at preserving one of Egypt’s most important archaeological sites and also one of its most popular tourist attractions is close to complete, the Getty Conservation Institute of Los Angeles said Tuesday.
The project has added a filtration system to keep out dust, humidity and carbon dioxide and a barrier to keep visitors from continuing to damage the tomb’s elaborate wall paintings. Other amenities include walkways and a viewing platform.
New lights are also scheduled to be installed in the fall in the tomb of Tutankhamun, the legendary boy king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago. His mummified body remains on display in an oxygen-free case.
The project was launched in 2009 by the Los Angeles institute, known worldwide for its conservation work, in collaboration with Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities.
“This project greatly expanded our understanding of one of the best known and significant sites from antiquity, and the methodology used can serve as a model for similar sites,” Tim Whalen, the John E. and Louise Bryson director of the institute, said in a statement.
Tutankhamun, just a child when he assumed the throne, was about 19 when he died.
His tomb, discovered in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter, was hidden for millennia by flood debris that preserved it intact and protected it from tomb raiders.
Over the years humidity and dust carried in by visitors have caused damage, as have some visitors who scratched the wall paintings.
“Humidity promotes microbiological growth and may also physically stress the wall paintings, while carbon dioxide creates an uncomfortable atmosphere for visitors themselves,” said Neville Agnew, the institute’s senior principal project specialist.
He added: “But perhaps even more harmful has been the physical damage to the wall paintings. Careful examination showed an accumulation of scratches and abrasion in areas close to where visitors and film crews have access within the tomb’s tight space.”
Conservationists also studied mysterious brown spots on some of the paintings that have baffled experts for years. They concluded they were caused by microorganisms that have since died and are causing no further damage.
They decided to leave the spots there because they have penetrated into the paint layers and removing them would cause more damage.
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Scientists now have the dirt on the rubber ducky: Those cute yellow bath-time toys are — as some parents have long suspected — a haven for nasty bugs.
Swiss and American researchers counted the microbes swimming inside the toys and say the murky liquid released when ducks were squeezed contained “potentially pathogenic bacteria” in four out of the five toys studied.
The bacteria found included Legionella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that is “often implicated in hospital-acquired infections,” the authors said in a statement.
The study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, ETH Zurich and the University of Illinois was published Tuesday in the journal Biofilms and Microbiomes. It’s billed as one of the first in-depth scientific examinations of its kind.
They turned up a strikingly high volume — up to 75 million cells per square centimeter (0.15 square inch) — and variety of bacteria and fungus in the ducks.
Tap water doesn’t usually foster the growth of bacteria, the scientists said, but low-quality polymers in the plastic materials give them the nutrients they need. Bodily fluids — like urine and sweat — as well as contaminants and even soap in bathwater add microbes and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus and create balmy brine for bacteria.
“We’ve found very big differences between different bath animals,” said microbiologist and lead study author Lisa Neu, alluding to other types of bath toys — like rubber crocodiles — that also were examined. “One of the reasons was the material, because it releases carbon that can serve as food for the bacteria.”
While certain amounts of bacteria can help strengthen children’s immune systems, they can also lead to eye, ear and intestinal infections, the researchers said. Among the vulnerable users: Children “who may enjoy squirting water from bath toys into their faces,” a statement from the institute said.
The scientists, who received funding from the Swiss government as part of broader research into household objects, say using higher-quality polymers to make the ducks could prevent bacterial and fungal growth. The Swiss government isn’t making any recommendations at this stage.
Known for their squeaks and eulogized in a Sesame Street song on TV, rubber duckies have been a childhood bath-time staple for years. Online vendor Amazon.com lists one such offering — advertised as water-tight to prevent mildew — among the top 10 sellers in its Baby Bath Toys category.
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The death this month of 45-year-old Sudan, the last male northern white rhino on the planet, rings the alarm on the imminent extinction of other endangered animals. The news also gives a renewed urgency to Kate Brooks’ documentary “The Last Animals,” about the threat poaching poses to the dwindling populations of rhinos and elephants. The film was showcased at the environmental film festival in Washington. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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Kenya has agreed to accelerate a health agreement it signed with Cuba last year and bring 100 doctors from the country to fill gaps in Kenyan hospitals. Fifty Kenyan doctors will also be sent to Cuba for specialized training.
The Kenyan government says the deal to import Cuban doctors would help counter gaps in Kenya’s medical facilities.
Kenya Cabinet Secretary for Health Sicily Kariuki explains.
“The target is to bring 100 specialized doctors from Cuba. One is because of the HR resource gap that we have,” said Kariuki. “We are careful not to crowd the place with general doctors and therefore the aim of my ministry is to bring forward critical care physicians at that level – family physicians, physicists, oncologists and surgeons dealing with plastic reconstructive surgery, dealing with orthopedic surgery and dealing with neurosurgery.
Each Kenyan county is expected to get at least two of the specialist doctors.
But Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists, and Dentists Union chairman Samuel Oroko says the move will not address the systemic dysfunction in Kenya’s health system.
“There are no drugs, theaters are not functioning, laboratories are not functioning, so even if they come and the systems are not functioning, they are coming just to be idle and they may not get equipment to use to train our own,” said Oroko. “So we need to look at all angles of our health system, not just bringing them because of bringing, but to ensure the system is functional so that they can operate.”
The agreement will also see Kenya work with Cuba on collaborative research projects, training for healthcare workers, and collaborations in fields such as genetic engineering and biotech work.
Former Kenyan Minister of Medical Services, Professor Anyang Nyongo, visited Cuba and says Kenya will benefit from the agreement.
“As health minister I came here and we were trying to work things together and I actually proposed some things that we needed to do, for example malaria vector control, collaborating with teaching, engineering, and a biotechmology center, but unfortunately we did not get far,” said Nyongo. “What gives me satisfaction this time is that the president is determined we implement these long standing proposals of collaboration between us and Cuba.
Oroko says the medical union is not against any collaboration or partnership with other governments.
“Our appeal and advice is that as we consider bringing expertise from other countries, we need to exhaust what we have locally,” said Oroko. “And if we lack capacity locally we should focus on training our own so that they can be able to manage the patients in Kenya.”
The union says more than 1,200 Kenyan doctors have been unemployed since May 2017.
“Equally we do have a number of doctors who have qualified, both general practitioners and specialists, who have not been employed and they are Kenyans,” said Oroko.
Kariuki says there are plans to absorb the graduate doctors into the healthcare system, but she says Kenya would still not be able to meet the recommended doctor to patient ratio.
Oroko says about 4,300 doctors work in the public sector for Kenya’s 38.6 million people.
“There is the required number of doctors we are supposed to have per facility, and it is public knowledge, the WHO requires that we have one doctor per 1,000 patients in any given population, currently in Kenya we have one doctor per 24,000 patients,” said Oroko. “… Where are they going to get the money to employ the ones coming from Cuba?”
The union blocked attempts by the government to bring in doctors from Tanzania at the height of its three month strike last year. The agreement ending the strike called for pay increases and medical rick allowances.
About 20 years ago, scientists started finding genetically similar viruses in very different environments and different locations around the world. Now they know why. Faith Lapidus explains.
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About 20 years ago, scientists started finding genetically similar viruses in very different environments and different locations around the world. Now they know why. Faith Lapidus explains.
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Australian scientists say a powerful ground-based laser targeting space junk will be ready for use next year. They say there are hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris circling the Earth that have the potential to damage or destroy satellites.
Reducing the amount of space junk in orbit has been the focus of a meeting of scientists this week in Canberra organized by Australia’s Space Environment Research Center.
The meeting has heard that a laser using energy from light radiation to move discarded objects in space could be ready for use within a year. Researchers in Australia believe the technology would be able to change the path of orbital junk to prevent collisions with satellites. The aim is to eventually build more powerful laser beams that could push debris into the Earth’s atmosphere, where it would burn up.
Professor Craig Smith, head of EOS Space Systems, the Australian company that is developing the junk-busting devices, explained how it would work.
“We track objects and predict collisions to high accuracy and if we think a space debris object is going to have a collision with another space debris object then we can use our laser to change its orbits rather than crashing into a satellite or another space debris object causing more space debris. Again as we ramp up the power to bigger and bigger lasers then, yes, you can actually start moving it enough to what we call de-orbit the satellite by reducing its velocity enough that it starts to change orbit height and eventually hits the atmosphere and the atmosphere takes over and drags it,” Smith said.
The system, which would operate through a telescope near the Australian capital, Canberra, is expected to be finished early next year. It is estimated there are 7,500 tons of trash in space. This includes an estimated half-a-million marble-sized pieces of junk, while other items, such as discarded rockets and disused parts of space crafts, are much larger.
In 2012, the eight-ton Envisat Earth Observation satellite unexpectedly shut-down in orbit, where it remains. The size of a school bus, the satellite is one of the largest pieces of ‘junk’ in orbit and could become a catastrophic hazard if struck by other space debris and broken into fragments.
But space debris does not have to be big to cause damage. A floating fleck of paint is thought to have cracked a window on the International Space Station.
In Europe, large nets and harpoons are being developed to catch debris encircling our planet.
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Although cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide, colorectal cancer is one of the cancers that we can actually prevent, the World Health Organization says.
The colon is a long, muscular tube that’s also known as the large intestine. It is part of the digestive system. Colon cancer is linked to diet, genetic predisposition and age. In the U.S., 1 in 23 people will be told they have colon cancer.
WATCH: Colon Cancer Can be Prevented and Treated
Michele Alexander got her diagnosis at age 53.
“How much longer do I have? My daughter’s 24. You know, she’s still got a lot of life left. How much longer will I be with her? Those kind of thoughts go through your head,” Alexander said.
Largely preventable
Dr. Zihao Wu at the University of Missouri Health Care says this type of cancer is largely preventable.
“The majority of colon cancer develops from a benign polyp, and that takes about 10 to 15 years,” he said. “And if you find a polyp and remove it, you won’t have colon cancer, so it’s very important to have a screening to prevent cancer.”
As scary as her diagnosis was, Alexander’s passion for auto racing helped her get through her ordeal. Her favorite driver is Carl Edwards, and she had tickets to a race in which he was competing. When someone shared her story with him, he called her.
“I said, ‘I know there’s an auction where I can bid to ride in the truck with you for driver intros, and it is my goal to win that auction,’” she said. … He said, ‘Don’t bid. You get here, you’re riding with me.’”
Six weeks after surgery to remove the cancer in her colon, Alexander got her ride.
“Oh, it was just joy. In a race for my life, and I crossed the finish line a winner,” she said.
Healthy lifestyle helps
Wu said Alexander’s attitude helped.
“She wanted to get better. She had a strong will to get better, and I think that’s very important,” he said.
Doctors say you can help prevent colon cancer if you eat plenty of greens, whole grains and vegetables and legumes, which are high in fiber. Regular exercise also helps, and if you smoke, stop.
Most importantly, get a regular screening starting at age 50 or sooner if you have a family history.
If colon cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, the World Health Organization says 90 percent of patients survive at least five years, compared with no more than percent of those diagnosed at an advanced stage.
Two years after her surgery, Alexander is still cancer free and still a racecar enthusiast.
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Earth is losing plants, animals and clean water at a dramatic rate, according to four new U.N. scientific reports that provide the most comprehensive and localized look at the state of biodiversity.
Scientists meeting in Colombia issued four regional reports Friday on how well animals and plants are doing in the Americas; Europe and Central Asia; Africa; and the Asia-Pacific area.
Their conclusion after three years of study : Nowhere is doing well.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem was about more than just critters, said study team chairman Robert Watson. It is about keeping Earth livable for humans, because we rely on biodiversity for food, clean water and public health, the prominent British and U.S. scientist said.
“This is undermining well-being across the planet, threatening us long term on food and water,” Watson said in an interview.
Scientists pointed to this week’s death of the last male northern white rhino in Africa and severe declines in the numbers of elephants, tigers and pangolins, but said those are only the most visible and charismatic of species that are in trouble.
What’s happening is a side effect of the world getting wealthier and more crowded with people, Watson said. Humans need more food, more clean water, more energy and more land. And the way society has tried to achieve that has cut down on biodiversity, he said.
Crucial habitat has been cut apart; alien species have invaded places; chemicals have hurt plants and animals; wetlands and mangroves that clean up pollution are disappearing; and the world’s waters are overfished, he said.
Man-made climate change is getting worse, and global warming will soon hurt biodiversity as much as all the other problems combined, Watson said.
“We keep making choices to borrow from the future to live well today,” said Jake Rice, Canada’s chief government scientist for fisheries and oceans, who co-chaired the Americas report.
Duke University conservationist Stuart Pimm, who wasn’t part of the study team, said the reports make sense and are based on well-established scientific data: “Are things pretty dire? Yes.”
Among the regional findings:
The Americas
If current trends continue, by the year 2050 the Americas will have 15 percent fewer plants and animals than now. That means there will be 40 percent fewer plants and animals in the Americas than in the early 1700s.
Nearly a quarter of the species that were fully measured are now threatened, Rice said.
And when all of “nature’s contributions” are taken into account, nearly two-thirds are declining and more than one-fifth are “decreasing strongly,” Rice said.
Asia-Pacific
If trends continue, there will be no “exploitable fish stocks” for commercial fishing by 2048. Around that same, the region will lose 45 percent of its biodiversity and about 90 percent of its crucial corals, if nothing changes, said Asia co-chair Sonali Seneratna Sellamuttu, a senior researcher at the International Water Management Institute.
“All major ecosystems are threatened in the region,” she said.
Europe and Central Asia
Even though it is the region that Watson said may be doing the best, 28 percent of the species that live only in Europe are now threatened. In the last decade, 42 percent of the land plant and animal species have declined, said Europe co-chair Mark Rounsevell of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.
Wetlands have been cut in half since 1970.
Africa
Africa could lose half of some bird and mammal species by 2100. And more than 60 percent of the continent’s people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, said report co-chair Luthando Dziba of South African National Parks.
Already more than 20 percent of Africa’s species are threatened, endangered or extinct.
While scientists said government and society needs to change its ways, individuals can use less energy, less water and eat less red meat, Watson said.
“A balanced diet can really help,” he said. There are “lots of individual things you can do.”
The outlook is bleak if society doesn’t change, but it still can, Watson said.
“Some species are threatened with extinctions. Others, just pure numbers will go down,” Watson said. “It will be a lonelier place relative to our natural world. It’s a moral issue. Do we humans have right to make them go extinct?”
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Australian rescuers were racing against time to save 15 short-finned pilot whales Friday after more than 150 of the migrating mammals beached on the country’s west coast.
Most of the whales had died, said Jeremy Chick, incident controller at Western Australia’s conservation department, after becoming stranded on dry land overnight.
Authorities and trained volunteers were trying to save 15 in shallow waters.
The whales beached at Hamelin Bay, 315 km (198 miles) south of the state’s capital, Perth.
While whales regularly get stranded on the coastal strip migrating between Antarctic feeding grounds in the south and warmer northern waters where they raise their young, the large number this time is unusual.
Melissa Lay, manager at the Hamelin Bay Holiday Park, told Reuters by phone that it was the second mass stranding she had witnessed during her 15 years in the area.
“There are some that are still alive but barely,” Lay said. “The last time it happened, none survived.”
Locals and tourists were being warned to stay out of the water because of a likely increase in sharks attracted by the dead whales.
People there for the peak salmon fishing season were also advised to stay out of the shallows.
“It is possible the dead and dying animals will act as an attractant, which could lead to sharks coming close into shore along this stretch of coast,” the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development said in a statement.
The largest mass stranding of whales in the state occurred in 1996 when 320 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves just north of Hamelin Bay.
Short-finned pilot whales are dark-colored with pinkish-grey undersides, travel in large numbers and often get stranded en masse, the department said.
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Researchers in the US are testing fluorescent dyes that can illuminate cancer cells during surgery. One specialist says using the new techniques and fluorescent dyes could change the way we treat cancer forever. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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The world’s largest collection of ocean garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Hawaii and California, is now bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined.
The sprawling patch of detritus, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, contains nearly 80,000 tons of plastic, a study released Thursday found.
Winds and converging ocean currents funnel the garbage into a central location, said the study’s lead author, Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a nonprofit organization that spearheaded the research.
Lebreton said the trash in the patch, discovered in the early 1990s, comes from countries around the Pacific Rim, including nations in Asia as well as North and South America.
The patch is not a solid mass of plastic. It includes 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. The new figures are as much as 16 times higher than previous estimates.
While tiny fragments of plastic are the most numerous, nearly half of the weight of rubbish is composed of discarded fishing nets. Other items spotted in the stew of plastic include bottles, plates, buoys, ropes and even a toilet seat.
Caught by currents
Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean. Some of it drifts into large systems of circulating ocean currents, known as gyres. Once trapped in a gyre, the plastic will break down into microplastics, which may be ingested by sea life.
“I’ve been doing this research for a while, but it was depressing to see,” Lebreton said.
The message of the study is clear, Lebreton said: “It goes back to how we use plastic.”
“We’re not going to get away from plastic — in my opinion, it’s very useful, in medicine, transportation and construction. But I think we must divert the way we use plastic, particularly in terms of single-use plastic and those objects that have a very short service lifespan.”
The study was based on a three-year mapping effort conducted by an international team of scientists affiliated with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, six universities and an aerial sensor company.
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Daylight-powered microbe-killing masks and suits may someday help protect health workers from deadly germs like Ebola, according to new research.
Scientists have developed membranes that produce a tiny bit of disinfecting hydrogen peroxide when exposed to light. They could find their way into food packaging as well, the researchers say, helping cut down on foodborne diseases.
The research is published in the journal Science Advances.
Nearly 500 health workers died during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Front-line caregivers wear full-body protective suits when they come into contact with patients with virulent diseases, but the process of removing the gear is a prime opportunity for infection if the surface is contaminated.
“If there’s any live bacteria or virus on the surface, it’s still transmissible and could cause infection,” said University of California, Davis, researcher Gang Sun.
Sun and colleagues developed membranes that could line the outside of that protective gear. When exposed to daylight, molecules on the surface of these membranes react with oxygen in the air to produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide — less than what you’d use to remove laundry stains, but enough to kill germs, according to Sun.
“The approach is quite novel,” said University of Maryland food scientist Rohan Tikekar, who was not involved with this research. He says others have developed materials that produce disinfecting chemicals, but most only work under high-energy ultraviolet light.
The new membrane also works in the dark, for at least an hour or two, thanks to chemical properties that recharge its germ-killing powers.
“That is a really significant improvement,” Tikekar added.
In addition to coating protective gear for health workers, Sun says adding a layer of this material to fresh-produce packaging could reduce contamination and prolong storage life.
Some versions of the material use natural compounds. Sun says one of the next steps is to make it edible.
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An Israeli zoo says an endangered primate known as a golden lion tamarin has been born in captivity.
The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo says the monkey was born two weeks ago to mom Bilbi and dad Zohar. The yet unnamed monkey was seen Thursday clinging to its mother’s back.
Golden lion tamarins are among the rarest animals in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund. It is listed as endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Jerusalem zoo says the primate was under threat of extinction in the 1980s when less than 100 were found in its native Brazil. But a breeding program in zoos around the world halted its decline. Today, there are hundreds of golden lion tamarins in the wild and in zoos worldwide.
Al-Zaatari is one of hundreds of camps where people forced from their homelands by armed conflicts and civil wars go, hoping that one day they will go back home.
Opened in 2012, near Jordan’s border with Syria, the 5.2-square-kilometer settlement is now home to nearly 80,000 Syrian refugees.
Like many other refugee camps around the world, it ended up growing well beyond initial plans. Moving around the camp has become so challenging that the refugees wait for the water truck to pass by and then hop on it in order to get from one side of the camp to the other.
Life in the Camp
Today, there are more refugees and internally displaced people than at any point since the World War II – 65.6 million, according to the UN Commissioner for Refugees.
At the moment, says Brett Moore, Chief of the Shelter and Settlements Section at the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, it’s hard to define what a camp is.
“You might just have a collection of displaced families or a community that’s spontaneously self-settled,” he explains. “But at least those under some kind of formality – whether being designed and/or managed by UNHCR – is around 420 refugee camps globally, containing 3.2 million people.”
Living conditions vary greatly from one camp to another.
“I’ve just returned from Bangladesh and the shocking situation there for the Rohingya refugees that fled persecution in Myanmar,” Moore says. “In the largest camp, Kutapalong, there are around 700,000 people living in very dense, very poor conditions. You have other situations, for example say, in Chad, Nigeria, Cameroon, we have displaced population that have been there for 20 years or more and they are still living something akin to emergency conditions.”
Problems inside Refugee Camps
Social architecture designer Sama El Saket is one of the urban planners who have recently taken an increased interest in re-imagining refugee camps. Coming up with better designs, she says, can improve living conditions for the people there. It can also facilitate delivery of humanitarian services inside the camp and make it a safer place.
From an architectural perspective, El Saket says these camps often don’t provide refugees with a comfortable or safe living environment.
“Because the camp is laid out in a temporary manner and you end up running into problems, into security problems,” she says. “Other problems include dealing with sewage because no proper piping is introduced, no proper system of dealing with flooding. The camp fails in protecting its inhabitants from severe weather conditions, in winter and summer, because of the insufficient insulation. There are issues of sharing bathrooms between a large number of shelters.”
Working for her doctorate in urban design at Harvard University, El Saket studied seven refugee camps in Africa and Asia, including Al-Zaatari.
She found they often face common challenges, like moving refugees from rural areas to urban environment or vice versa. That takes the people from the lifestyle they’re used to and makes it harder for them to find jobs.
“Another problem in the Zaatari camp, and in other refugee camps around the world as well, is the facilities and services tend to be placed around the periphery of the camp, making it hard for refugees who are living in the center of the camp to reach these services.”
Make it Permanent
In her study, El Saket suggests changes to benefit both the refugees and the host country. Her basic recommendation is to integrate the camp. When it becomes part of the neighboring city or rural area, the refugees have better access to services and live a more normal life. And, she points out, the government saves money.
“Economically, it’s not sustainable to keep spending money on keeping up a temporary city whereas if they spend the money setting up a more permanent city, then the refugee can stay in it and if they go back to their country, then the locals in that host country can end up moving into that city and it becomes a useful infrastructure.”
Locating the camp closer to cities or villages rather than the border gives the refugees an opportunity to connect to and boost the local economy.
Improving Existing Camps
To improve an existing refugee camp, El Saket recommends evaluating the location of the services, and moving the schools, hospitals and distribution centers to places in the camp that are more accessible to the refugees. It’s also necessary to provide a means of transportation inside the camp and public spaces like plazas and theaters and mosques or other religious spaces for refugees to gather or just promote a more normal life.
“The Zaatari as my focus study, refugees in it have managed to start a market,” El Saket observes. “Through the market they’re able to sell products. They’re able to cook food and sell it and connect their services to the largest economic network in Jordan.”
UNHCR’s Brett Moore says the agency is encouraging architects and other private sector experts to consider the humanitarian issues.
“I was really pleased with the work undertaken by Sama and a lot of other students looking at refugee housing issues, humanitarian issues. Even if we don’t have the ability or the budgets to put in the significant work in the beginning, at least the initial planning process helps us create the kind of settlement that if resources do become available, it can be upgraded over time.”
Re-imaging refugee camps can also raise awareness and the money needed to help refugees lead a more normal life during this challenging time.
Spring has arrived in the United States, and that means the start of the busy festival season. Large crowds are expected to gather at fairs, festivals and outdoor concerts around the country. Given the recent spate of mass shootings and acts of terror in crowded areas, first responders say they are busy preparing to make sure they are ready for almost any eventuality. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee reports from Austin, Texas, to look at how first responders there handle security.
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Guinea worm disease in South Sudan has been brought to a halt, says the country’s health minister.
Dr. Riek Gai Kok made the announcement Wednesday at the Carter Center headquarters in the southern U.S. state of Georgia, noting zero cases of Guinea worm disease have been reported in the country for the past 15 months.
“We don’t have the illusion that the job is finished,” Kok said. “We are not going to be complacent, we are going to redouble our efforts to step up our surveillance programs.”
Health workers began a campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in southern Sudan in 2005 after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and South Sudan.
South Sudan’s health minister says the accomplishment would not have been possible without the partnership between South Sudan’s health ministry and the Carter Center, named after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, which the minister credits with setting up infrastructures and programs to rid the country of the disease.
“And to us as South Sudanese, we feel we have contributed to the common cause of humanity, of our day today, that we have played our part of realizing that dream of eradicating and ridding the world of this debilitating disease called the Guinea worm,” Kok said.
Guinea worm disease is contracted when people drink contaminated water that has the Guinea worm larve, which then grows inside the host’s body. Eventually, the adult female erupts through the person’s skin, causing painful blisters.
Over 20,000 cases of Guinea worm were reported in southern Sudan in 2006. By 2016, the number of cases had fallen to six.
The Carter Center says community-based interventions, including educating people on the disease and promoting the use of filtered water, helped eradicate the disease in South Sudan.
Guinea worm disease is believed to be nearing complete eradication. Chad and Ethiopia were the only other countries that reported Guinea worm cases in 2017.
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