Mexico’s government has created a marine park the size of Illinois in the Pacific, the largest ocean reserve in North America for the conservation of

giant rays, whales and turtles, including dozens of species

endemic to the area.

Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto designated on Friday

the Revillagigedo Archipelago, located some 390 km (242 miles)

southeast of the Baja California peninsula, as a national park.

The four volcanic islands that make up the Revillagigedo

Archipelago and the surrounding waters are home to hundreds of

species of animals and plants, including rays, humpback whales,

sea turtles, lizards and migratory birds.

The archipelago is sometimes known as the Galapagos of North

America, in reference to the volcanic Ecuadorean islands whose

abundance of endemic species inspired biologist Charles Darwin.

All fishing prohibited

The 148,000 square kilometers (57,143 square miles) area is

a breeding ground for commercially fished species such as tuna

and sierra. Now all fishing activities will be prohibited, as well as

the construction of hotel infrastructure on the islands.

The Environment Ministry and Navy “will carry out

surveillance, equipment and training activities that will

include remote monitoring in real time, environmental education

directed at fishermen and sanctions against offenders,” said

Pena Nieto.

The creation of the marine park is expected to help recover

fish populations hit hard by commercial fishing and was praised

by the World Wildlife Fund and British billionaire Richard

Branson.

 
…

The equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute, equal to 8 million tons a year. New research suggests that 90 percent of that waste gets into the oceans through 10 major river systems.

“It seems that larger rivers preferentially transport plastic and these are rivers with a large population. You could reduce river plastic loads tremendously by focusing on these 10 rivers,” lead researcher Christian Schmidt of Germany’s Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research, told VOA.

Two of the rivers are in Africa – the Nile and the Niger – while the remaining eight are in Asia – the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Haihe, Pearl, Mekong and Amur.

Researchers analyzed studies that examined the plastic pollution load in rivers, and compared the figures to the quantity of waste that is not disposed of properly in each river catchment or watershed.

The results suggest reducing waste in those rivers would go a long way to tackling ocean plastic pollution.

“Actually, it’s very simple. You have to improve waste management, particularly in developing countries with rapid economic growth. So, this is a waste management problem there. But globally, ((it’s)) not exclusively developing countries. Littering is the other source of river plastics, countries like Germany,” says Schmidt.

The ecological consequences of oceanic plastic pollution are difficult to foresee, but scientists are clear that it is already deeply affecting marine life. So-called microplastics – found in cosmetics – are often mistaken for food. One recent study by the University of Ghent in Belgium calculated that humans eat up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year.

“The microbeads, they might be more harmful for aquatic life, but the larger pieces, over time they are brittle and form a secondary source of microplastics,” according to Schmidt.

It is estimated that 5 percent of plastic is recycled effectively. Total global plastic production was 322 million tons in 2015, a figure that is expected to quadruple by 2050.

Schmidt and his colleagues hope their research offers a potential focus for cleanup programs.
…

The equivalent of one garbage truck full of waste plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute – or 8 million metric tons a year. New research suggests that the vast majority of that waste is transported to the oceans by just a handful of major river systems – and tackling the pollution at source would go a long way to cleaning up our seas. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

The U.S. state of California is experiencing its largest person-to-person outbreak of hepatitis A in the United States since a vaccine to prevent the liver disease became available in 1996. More than 600 cases have been reported in the state and 21 people have died. According to the California Department of Public Health, most of those infected are homeless or use drugs.  Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles.
…

Scientists in Hungary have measured brain activity in dogs, which they say shows the animals learn while they sleep. The study is part of broader research to understand how dogs’ cognitive ability and memory change with age.  As we hear from VOA’s Deborah Block, the research may have implications for humans, too.
…

This weekend, TV viewers across America will again be watching advertisements sponsored by major tobacco companies, but quite different from the ones pulled from the airwaves nearly 50 years ago. Instead of attractive people enjoying a smoke, these ads will lay out in plain text and narration the dangers of using tobacco. VOA’s George Putic reports.
…

Goodbye, Moon. We don’t need you anymore.

The Earth’s night skies are getting brighter. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, finds the Earth’s artificially lit outdoor areas grew by 2.2 percent per year from 2012 to 2016.

Light pollution is actually worse than that, according to the German-led team of researchers.

The measurements used in the study come from an imaging sensor on a polar-orbiting weather satellite that can’t detect the color blue generated by the new and increasingly popular LED lights, which means some light is missed by the sensor.

Overall, 79 countries, mostly in Asia, South America and Africa, experienced a growth in nighttime brightness. Sixteen countries, including areas of conflict such as Syria and Yemen, witnessed a decrease, and 39 countries, including the U.S., stayed the same.

“Artificial light is an environmental pollutant that threatens nocturnal animals and affects plants and microorganisms,” the study said.

Light pollution has been known to have adverse effects on all living creatures. People’s sleep can be marred, in turn affecting their health. The migration and reproduction of birds, fish, amphibians, insects and bats can be disrupted, and plants can have abnormally extended growing periods.

Co-author of the study, Franz Holker of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, said things are at the critical point.

“Many people are using light at night without really thinking about the cost,” Holker said. Not just the economic cost, “but also the cost that you have to pay from an ecological, environmental perspective.”
…

Babies are much more likely to die in their first few weeks of life if their mothers live close to the site of an oil spill, according to new research. Scientists studied data on infant mortality and oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region – and describe their results as ‘shocking’.

It’s estimated that 240,000 barrels of crude oil are spilled into the Niger Delta every year. The environmental effects are clear to see – waterways running thick with the choking, black liquid; suffocated wildlife; dying mangroves. The effect on the people living in the delta is slowly coming to light.

The study by scientists at Switzerland’s University of Saint Gallen is shocking: babies born in the delta are twice as likely to die in the first month of life if their mothers were living close to an oil spill before they became pregnant. Roland Hodler is lead researcher.

“We looked at the birth histories of more than 2,500 Nigerian mothers,” Holder said. “And we compared siblings, some conceived before and some conceived after a nearby oil spill.”

The researchers compared geographical data on 6,600 recent oil spills, with results from the 2013 national demographic and health survey.

Their results show that even spills that happened five years before conception doubled the chances of babies dying after birth. However, spills that happened during pregnancy appeared to have little effect.

“We think the main reason is that some of the negative health effects are just building up over time,” Holder said. “So, if you think about these negative health effects, these are due to skin contact with crude oil, or to drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated fish or crops. And also inhaling smoke from fires.”

It’s  thought unborn and newborn infants are more vulnerable as they haven’t built up natural defenses. The study suggests the effects of oil spills will be felt long into the future.

In 2015 the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell agreed to share the costs of the clean-up – an operation that the United Nations says will likely take 30 years. Critics say only a fraction of the money has been paid. Shell blames oil thieves for causing many of the spills.

The Nigerian government did not respond to requests for comment.
…

Sue Brogan’s street is barely above sea level on a good day.

During autumn’s “king tides,” when the sun and moon align to create the highest tides of the year, Biscayne Bay backs up through storm drains and flows into Brogan’s street, in Miami’s low-lying Shorecrest neighborhood.

Roads flood. The salt water rusts cars and kills greenery. For now, it’s mostly a nuisance several days a year. But Brogan knows it’s only going to get worse.

“It’s more of a warning situation. Where is it going to go from this?” she asks.

Climate change is expected to raise sea levels a minimum of three-quarters of a meter by the end of the century, according to the estimates that regional planners use. That puts most of Shorecrest underwater year-round, along with other low-lying waterfront neighborhoods. And higher seas mean increased risk of tidal flooding and storm surges across this hurricane-prone city.

The planners’ high-end estimate is two meters of sea level rise. That would submerge most of the glitzy city of Miami Beach, across the bay.

And scientists say three to three-and-a-half meters is extreme but plausible. In that scenario, Miami Beach is gone and Miami is an archipelago.

Planning for this future is difficult, expensive and often controversial. But the Miami region has little choice.

“Sea level rise is an existential threat,” said City of Miami Chief Resilience Officer Jane Gilbert. “But it is not an imminent existential threat … We have time to plan.”

Miami Beach leads way

As a barrier island with some of the most expensive real estate in the region, Miami Beach is quite literally on the front lines of climate change. The city has the motivation, and the resources, to take some of the most aggressive action in the region.

Residents are paying for roughly half a billion dollars’ worth of seawalls, raised streets, sewer pumps and more.

“Thankfully, our residents — the folks that are footing the bill for this work — realize that the cost of doing nothing is much greater,” said Public Works Director Eric Carpenter.

There have been some hiccups. Raising roads put adjacent properties below street level. At least one flood-damage insurance claim has been denied as a result, and residents and businesses are worried there will be more.

Miami Beach is working to resolve the dispute.

“I think there are inherent risks with being first,” Carpenter said.

But the city gets credit for moving forward despite the challenges.

“It’s not working perfectly. But they’re at least doing the experimentation,” said Zelalem Adefris with the advocacy group Catalyst Miami.

Redesigning Shorecrest

Across the bay, she added, the City of Miami has been slower to act. But there are signs of progress.

Just this November, city voters approved a $400 million “Miami Forever” bond issue, half of which is earmarked for sea-level rise adaptation.

Shorecrest will likely see some of that money to upgrade sewers and raise roads.

More controversial proposals are on the table, too, like buying up some of the most flood-prone homes and turning the land into a flood-absorbing park. Residents could move to higher-density housing to be built on higher ground.

Brogan’s building would be demolished. But she doesn’t mind.

“With climate change, with rising water, we’re going to have to abandon certain property,” she admitted.

But like many in the mixed-income neighborhood, Brogan rents her apartment. Others are skeptical of the idea.

“I don’t think the homeowners are going to be very happy about that,” said Daisy Torres, president of the Shorecrest homeowners’ association.

Objections come not only from residents whose houses would be torn down. Some people living near the areas where the city proposes building that higher-density housing don’t like the idea, either, she added.

Jane Gilbert stresses that there are no immediate plans to rearrange Shorecrest. “They have a good amount of time to still be in that area,” she said. “It’s really much more long-term.”

“We feel the more we are having those conversations now, the easier it is for everyone to adapt over time,” she added.

High and (not) dry in Highland Village

Meanwhile, in another flood-prone low-lying community just a short drive north, those conversations are further behind.

Frank Burrola lives in a trailer in Highland Village, a mostly low-income neighborhood of homes and trailers on small plots in the city of North Miami Beach. Fall high-tide flooding is a virtual certainty on his street. And a storm several years ago left his yard with knee-high water.

“Right now, we’ve got a real serious problem,” Burrola said. “I don’t know if we’re still going to be around in five years if this keeps up.”

While the cities of Miami and Miami Beach are beginning to prepare, “there are other areas that really don’t have the funding, and they’re the ones that are really suffering,” said climate analyst Keren Bolter with the South Florida Regional Planning Council.

North Miami Beach is considering putting homes on stilts, and replacing trailers that flood with “tiny” homes that meet building codes, according to community development director Richard Lorber. But he doesn’t know where the funding will come from.

“My little city can’t stop king tide,” Lorber said, using the term for the fall high tides.

North Miami Beach officials say Miami-Dade County will have to take the lead. The county says the city is in charge. Neither has immediate plans for Highland Village.

It may take a disaster before major changes happen.

“It’s ironic, but in our way of doing emergency management, it’s tough to get the money before the storm. And after the storm there’s a lot of money,” said Miami-Dade County Chief Resilience Officer Jim Murley.

Barring a disaster, Murley said, “it’s easier to find the money” if a community comes to a collective decision on what it wants to do.

However, “most of the time, you just sort-of continue getting by,” he added. “And people make a decision on their own accord if they want to stay or leave.”

Engineering or retreat?

In the long run, the fate of Miami and many of the world’s coastal cities depend largely on how much, and how fast, the oceans rise. Scientists still have a lot to learn before they can make accurate predictions. But, they warn, the pace of sea level rise is increasing.

For many, retreat from the coast is inevitable.

“We’re going to have to leave sooner or later,” said Caroline Lewis, founder of the climate advocacy group the CLEO Institute. “But if we can have a planned retreat, and we could implement some of our ideas about keeping people as safe as possible for as long as possible, then we would have accomplished a great deal that the whole world could learn from.”

But in a city that carved itself out of a swampy wilderness, optimists abound.

“There’s an engineering solution to every problem,” Carpenter said. “It just comes down to, is there the political will to go through whatever pain may be associated with that solution, and the will to try and fund it.”
…

Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, which lies in the center of the country, is home to hundreds of species of fish that provide the Southeast Asian nation with up to 60 percent of its protein. But the lake’s rich fishery is at risk because of overfishing, pollution and hydroelectric dams. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
…

The European Union’s top court Monday ordered Poland to stop logging in the ancient Bialowieza Forest, or pay an $118,000 daily fine.

“Poland must immediately cease its active forest management operations in the Bialowieza Forest, except in exceptional cases where they are strictly necessary to ensure public safety,” the European Court of Justice wrote.

The forest is home to rare plants, birds and mammals and is one of Europe’s last remaining primeval habitats. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The court first warned Poland against logging in July.

Poland says the trees are weak and damaged by a beetle outbreak. It says cutting them down is necessary to prevent people foraging for mushrooms from getting hurt if the trees fall.

The logging argument is another in a series of a war of words between the European Union and the right-wing Polish government, which accuses the EU of infringing on its sovereignty.

The EU has said it is worried about the decline of democratic values in Poland.
…

A small fly that thrives at an inhospitable California lake east of Yosemite National Park long has perplexed observers who watch as it crawls into the severely salty and alkaline water, snacks on some algae or lays some eggs, then emerges dry as a desert.

Research published on Monday finally explains the secrets of this scuba-diving insect.

These quarter-inch-long (6-mm) alkali flies possess specialized traits that let them conquer Mono Lake, scientists found. They are covered in a large quantity of fine hairs coated with special waxes that let them encapsulate themselves in a body-hugging bubble that protects them from water that would doom an ordinary insect.

“The flies have found a great gig — all the food they want with few predators. They just had to solve this one tricky problem,” said California Institute of Technology biologist Michael Dickinson, co-author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

All insects are hairy and water repellant to some degree.

 

These alkali flies, whose scientific name is Ephydra hians, have magnified both traits to overcome the extreme conditions of Mono Lake, considered among the “wettest” water on Earth with a slippery, nearly oily feel. The water tends to attach to any surface due to exorbitant amounts of sodium carbonate, a chemical used in laundry detergent.

“The study provides a clear example of evolution in action,” added co-author Floris van Breugel, a former Caltech postdoctoral scholar now at the University of Washington.

“The flies have evolved to crawl under water so they can feed on the abundant food, alga, that grows there. The lake has no fish because the fish cannot live in the harsh chemicals of the lake. Thus, the flies have no major predators in the lake. Fish are why most insects would be crazy to crawl under water.”

American author Mark Twain was among those who remarked about these flies at the 12-mile-wide (19-km) Mono Lake, which is three times saltier than the Pacific Ocean. They also live at Oregon’s Lake Abert and Utah’s Great Salt Lake, also salty and alkaline.

The flies use sharp foot claws to crawl into the water from rocky outcroppings. Their hairy bodies trap a layer of air that envelops them in a protective bubble, except for the eyes to permit good underwater vision. After eating or laying eggs, they let go and float to the surface, where the bubble pops, leaving them safe and dry.
…

Businessman Kyle Graves shot himself in the ankle so emergency room doctors would feed his opioid habit.

Ex-trucker Jeff McCoy threatened to blow his brains out if his mother didn’t hand over his fentanyl patches.

 

Bianca Knight resorted to street pills when her opioids ran out, envisioning her law career dreams crumble.

 

These are three Americans who started using powerful painkillers legitimately but, like millions of others, got caught in the country’s worst drug epidemic.

Now they’re fighting the same recovery battle, on anti-addiction medicine similar to pills that nearly did them in. Their doctor, Dan Lonergan, a Vanderbilt University pain and addiction physician, sometimes recommends the same drugs to pain patients that brought his addiction patients to the brink.

 

He’s heard criticism about doctors “who get ’em hooked on drugs and then turn around and treat ’em for addiction.” And he’s seen the finger-pointing from those who think faith and willpower are the only answer.

“Doctors have contributed to this problem. In the past three decades we have gotten a lot of patients on medications that can be very dangerous,” he said. “The pharmaceutical industry has contributed significantly to this problem. This is a problem that we all need to own.”

 

This is a snapshot from Nashville of America’s addiction crisis. More than 2 million people are hooked on opioids. Overdoses kill, on average, 120 Americans every day. Even for survivors, success can be precarious.

An unsure future

At 53 and on disability, Kyle Graves still feels stabbing pains that a daily handful of pills used to ease.

His troubles began more than a decade ago when he sought relief for excruciating arthritis. He was prescribed oxycodone, opioid pills that can help short-term pain but can become addictive when used long-term.

 

When he lost his finance manager job, they helped with that pain, too. When his sixth child, a baby boy, died from spinal meningitis, Graves sunk deep into addiction.

He’d use up a month’s supply in days, followed by terrible withdrawals — vomiting, shaking uncontrollably, intense pain.  

 

After a doctor refused more refills, Graves grabbed a pistol from his nightstand, pulled the trigger, then called an ambulance.

 

At the hospital, two shots of morphine for the ankle wound “did the trick.”

 

Graves thinks only his wife suspected the ruse; she left with the kids.

 

“It just devastated and ruined my life,” he said.

Graves went to rehab, treated with hard work and prayer. It worked for a time, but after relapsing Graves sought help three years ago from Lonergan, who prescribed recovery medicine containing buprenorphine, an opioid that reduces cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

 

He hasn’t relapsed for two years, but tries not to dwell on the future.

 

“Anything could happen,” Graves said.  

Problem for a lifetime

 

 Jeff McCoy has been a drummer, a Harley rider and long-haul trucker. These days he prefers baking cookies and doting on his wife, Joanne. Recovery from opioid painkillers prompted the turnaround.

 

It started nearly 17 years ago, after surgery for a back injury — maybe from too much time on the road, he’s not really sure, but it forced him to quit trucking. His doctor prescribed Vicodin — painkillers that contain the opioid hydrocodone. Soon he was hooked.

 

“I just went full bore,” McCoy says. “I was popping pills like crazy.”

 

When those stopped working, he was prescribed powerful fentanyl skin patches that deliver medicine gradually. McCoy found that chewing them worked faster.

 

McCoy needed ever more to avoid withdrawals.

 

His wife would lock the patches in a safe, but when he found the key, his mother stored them at her house nearby.

“Got to the point where I got on the phone with mom, ‘You better bring me that patch right now else I’m splattering my brains all over this living room.’”

When his wife threatened to leave, he checked in to a detox center, in 2009, enduring two hellish weeks of withdrawal.

 

Now he calls his wife his addiction and figures he’ll be on anti-craving medicine for life.

“I finally wanted to stop,” McCoy said. “If I can survive with no life, come on, it’s worth it, but you gotta want to.”

Do I have problem?

 

After law school graduation, Bianca Knight had a nagging question: “How do I know if I have a problem?”

 

After injuring her back carrying law books, Knight had spent the past two years medicated, on hydrocodone pills from a different doctor.

They eased the pain, but “also gave me a euphoric feeling and helped me get through my long day in law school,” she said.

 

Knight is nearly blind from a rare optic nerve condition. A state program paid for a reader to help with school work.

A doctor warned vaguely about addiction risks but Knight thought she’d be immune. Soon she was taking far more than the prescribed amount.

 

“Toward the end, I resorted to buying off the street,” Knight said. That’s when she sought out Lonergan.

He explained that the average person doesn’t think about opioid pain pills 24/7.

 

Knight started buprenorphine treatment. Church and support group meetings also help, she says. Her baby girl, born this past summer, is extra incentive for her to stay clean.

 

Still, Knight said, “For anyone in recovery, it is a daily struggle and I’d be a fool not to think so.”

 

             
…

Cancer doctors struggling to work out the best way to use modern immunotherapy drugs now have further evidence of the benefits of adding them to chemotherapy, despite earlier skepticism.

News that Roche’s immune system-boosting drug Tecentriq delayed lung cancer progression when given alongside chemo and its older drug Avastin validates the approach for the first time in a large Phase III clinical trial.

It is a significant milestone for physicians, patients and investors, who are trying to assess the competitive landscape as drugmakers race to develop better ways to fight tumors in previously untreated lung cancer.

Lung cancer is by far the biggest oncology market and first-line treatment provides access to the most patients, opening up potential annual sales forecast by some analysts at $20 billion.

Roche and Merck & Co have led the way in pioneering so-called “chemo-combo” treatment, while AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers are betting primarily on mixing two immunotherapies. AstraZeneca notably failed to show a similar

benefit in a high-profile clinical trial in July.

Stefan Zimmermann, an oncologist at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland, said the Roche data would help scotch concerns that chemo might hamper the new class of immuno-oncology medicines.

“Many experts in the field will be relieved because there has been uncertainty … I think this will really encourage many of us to use this combination upfront,” he told Reuters. “For now, the only positive data that we have is for chemo combination.”

Merck, in fact, already has U.S. approval to add chemo to its immunotherapy drug Keytruda – but this was based on a small trial and the company withdrew a similar European application last month, knocking confidence in its strategy.

Since Keytruda, Bristol’s Opdivo, Roche’s Tecentriq and AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi are all rival inhibitors of biological switches known as PD-1 or PD-L1, the market is “largely a zero-sum game,” according to Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson.

“Roche’s good fortune means there is less to go around for other companies,” he said.

In the case of Merck, the U.S. drugmaker now faces a rival with a different and perhaps superior drug combination. Roche believes adding Avastin in addition to chemo can further help restore anti-cancer immunity.

For AstraZeneca and Bristol, the bar has just been raised for two other key clinical trials sponsored by the drugmakers that are expected to report results in 2018.

Roche itself will present full results on the ability of its new combination to delay the worsening of lung cancer at a European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Geneva on December 7. Data on whether it also helps patients live longer is expected in the first half of next year.

Overall survival is the gold standard in cancer care but proving a treatment extends the time before disease progresses is an important marker on the way.

“If there is positive progression-free survival then I think it is very, very likely this will also translate into an overall survival benefit over time,” said Zimmermann.

Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Mark Potter.
…

Preparing for a century of steadily higher tides is a central challenge for city officials from Boston to Bangkok. The U.S. city of Miami, Florida, and its neighbors are home to nearly 3 million people and billions of dollars of real estate development. VOA’s Steve Baragona has a look at what rising seas mean for one of the most vulnerable cities in the United States.
…

Parasitic worms found in a North Korean soldier, critically injured during a desperate defection, highlight nutrition and hygiene problems that experts say have plagued the isolated country for decades.

At a briefing Wednesday, lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong displayed photos showing dozens of flesh-colored parasites, including one 27 cm (10.6 in) long, removed from the wounded soldier’s digestive tract during a series of surgeries to save his life.

“In my over 20 year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook,” Lee said.

The parasites, along with kernels of corn in his stomach, may confirm what many experts and previous defectors have described about the food and hygiene situation for many North Koreans.

“Although we do not have solid figures showing health conditions of North Korea, medical experts assume that parasite infection problems and serious health issues have been prevalent in the country,” said Choi Min-Ho, a professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine who specializes in parasites.

The soldier’s condition was “not surprising at all considering the North’s hygiene and parasite problems,” he said.

​Hail of bullets

The soldier was flown by helicopter to hospital Monday after his dramatic escape to South Korea in a hail of bullets fired by North Korean soldiers.

He is believed to be an army staff sergeant in his mid-20s who was stationed in the Joint Security Area in the United Nations truce village of Panmunjom, according to Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker of South Korea’s ruling party, briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

North Korea has not commented on the defection.

While the contents of the soldier’s stomach don’t necessarily reflect the population as a whole, his status as a soldier with an elite assignment would indicate he would at least be as well nourished as an average North Korean.

He was shot in his buttocks, armpit, back shoulder and knee among other wounds, according to the hospital where the soldier is being treated.

‘The best fertilizer’

Parasitic worms were also once common in South Korea 40 to 50 years ago, Lee noted during his briefing, but have all but disappeared as economic conditions greatly improved.

Other doctors have also described removing various types of worms and parasites from North Korean defectors.

Their continued prevalence north of the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas could be in part tied to the use of human excrement, often called “night soil.”

“Chemical fertilizer was supplied by the state until the 1970s, but from the early 1980s, production started to decrease,” said Lee Min-bok, a North Korean agriculture expert who defected to South Korea in 1995. “By the 1990s, the state could not supply it anymore, so farmers started to use a lot of night soil instead.”

In 2014, supreme leader Kim Jong Un personally urged farmers to use human waste, along with animal waste and organic compost, to fertilize their fields. A lack of livestock, however, made it difficult to find animal waste, said Lee, the agriculture expert.

Even harder to overcome, he said, is the view of night soil as the “best fertilizer in North Korea,” despite the risk of worms and parasites.

“Vegetables grown in it are considered more delicious than others,” Lee said.

​Limited diets

The medical briefing described the wounded soldier as being 170 cm (5 feet 5 inches) and 60 kg (132 pounds) with his stomach containing corn. It’s a staple grain that more North Koreans may be relying on in the wake of what the United Nations has called the worst drought since 2001.

Imported corn, which is less preferred but cheaper to obtain than rice, has tended to increase in years when North Koreans are more worried about their seasonal harvests.

Between January and September this year, China exported nearly 49,000 tons of corn to North Korea, compared with 3,125 tons in all of 2016, according to data released by Beijing.

Despite the drought and international sanctions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program, the cost of corn and rice has remained relatively stable, according to a Reuters analysis of market data collected by the defector-run Daily NK website.

Since the 1990s, when government rations failed to prevent a famine, North Koreans have gradually turned to markets and other private means to feed themselves.

The World Food Program says a quarter of North Korean children 6-59 months old, who attend nurseries that the organization assists, suffer from chronic malnutrition.

On average North Koreans are less nourished than their southern neighbors. The WFP says around 1 in 4 children have grown less tall than their South Korean counterparts. A study from 2009 said pre-school children in the North were up to 13 cm (5 inches) shorter and up to 7 kg (15 pounds) lighter than those brought up in the South.

“The main issue in DPRK is a monotonous diet — mainly rice/maize, kimchi and bean paste — lacking in essential fats and protein,” the WFP told Reuters in a statement last month.

 
…

Another wearable health monitor is poised to enter the market. As Faith Lapidus reports, this one is on permanent watch for any signs of illness.
…

Fotis Kafatos, a Greek molecular biologist who had a distinguished academic career in both the United States and Europe and became the founding president of the European Research Council, has died. He was 77.

His family announced his death in Heraklion, Crete, on Saturday “after a long illness.”

Born in Crete in 1940, Kafatos was known for his research on malaria and for sequencing the genome of the mosquito that transmits the disease.

He was a professor at Harvard University from 1969 to 1994, where he also served as chairman of the Cellular and Developmental Biology Department, and at Imperial College in London since 2005. He had been an adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health since 2007.

Kafatos was also a part-time professor at the University of Crete in his hometown since 1982. He also was the third director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, a life sciences research organization funded by multiple countries, from 1993 to 2005.

Kafatos considered the 2007 founding of the European Research Council under the auspices of the European Commission as his crowning achievement. The council funds and promotes projects driven by researchers. He stepped down as president in 2010.

He came to be disillusioned by the heavily bureaucratic rules that, in his mind, hampered research.

“We continuously had to spend energy, time and effort on busting bureaucracy roadblocks that kept appearing in our way,” Kafatos told scientific journal Nature soon after he left the post. But, he added, “We delivered to Europe what we promised.”
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The so-called ‘godfather of coral’ is part of a new research mission to unlock some of the secrets of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  Dr. Charlie Veron is part of a scientific team searching for the “super corals” that managed to survive consecutive years of bleaching on the world’s largest reef system.

 

Charlie Veron is one of the world’s leading experts on coral reefs.  Born in Sydney, he is known as the ‘godfather of coral’ because he has discovered so many different species.  He is part of the Great Barrier Reef Legacy mission, which is taking eight teams of scientists on a voyage to map and test the health of remote parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  

They are searching for so-called ‘super corals’ that managed to survive the past two years of devastating coral bleaching events.

Veron says the reef is in sharp decline.

“It is gut-wrenching and I have lived with this now for close on 20 years,” he said. “The predictions that scientists made well over a decade ago have all turned out to be spot on.  Well, this is a very important trip because we are actually seeing for ourselves what corals are vulnerable to mass bleaching and what corals are surviving mass bleaching.  So, once we know that we will be able to make smart decisions about coral, so the trip is really quite pivotal.”

In April, researchers discovered that for the first time mass bleaching had affected the Great Barrier Reef in consecutive years, damaging two-thirds of the World Heritage-listed area.  

When it bleaches, the coral is not dead, but it begins to starve and can eventually die.  The reefs, though, are resilient, but what concerns scientists is that more frequent bleaching, which is caused by rising water temperatures, makes it harder for the coral to recover. Bleaching occurs when corals under stress drive out the algae that give them color.  

Scientists believe that the main threat to the reef that stretches 2,300 kilometers down the Queensland coast in northern Australia is climate change.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is about the size of Italy or Japan and is so big it can be seen from outer space.  It is home to more than 3,000 types of mollusks and 30 species of whales and dolphins.

 

 
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A 2014 study by the World Health Organization concluded that there are 400 million people around the world living with diabetes. One of the many complications of diabetes is the prevalence of foot ulcers, which if untreated can lead to amputations, and in many cases death. But a simple scanner being developed in Britain can give some important warning for doctors who want to prevent the ulcers from happening. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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NASA captured 20 years of changing seasons in a striking new global map of the home planet.

The data visualization, released this week, shows Earth’s fluctuations as seen from space.

The polar ice caps and snow cover are shown ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The varying ocean shades of blue, green, red and purple depict the abundance — or lack — of undersea life.

“It’s like watching the Earth breathe. It’s really remarkable,” said NASA oceanographer Jeremy Werdell, who took part in the project.

Two decades — from September 1997 to this past September — are crunched into 2½ minutes of viewing.

Werdell finds the imagery mesmerizing. “It’s like all of my senses are being transported into space, and then you can compress time and rewind it, and just continually watch this kind of visualization,” he said Friday.

Werdell said the visualization shows spring coming earlier and autumn lasting longer in the Northern Hemisphere. Also noticeable to him is the receding of the Arctic ice caps over time — and, though less obvious, the Antarctic, too.

On the sea side, Werdell was struck by “this hugely productive bloom of biology” that exploded in the Pacific along the equator from 1997 to 1998 — when a water-warming El Nino merged into cooling La Nina. This algae bloom is evident by a line of bright green.

In considerably smaller Lake Erie, more and more contaminating algae blooms are apparent — appearing red and yellow.

All this data can provide resources for policymakers as well as commercial fishermen and many others, according to Werdell.

Programmer Alex Kekesi of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland said it took three months to complete the visualization, using satellite imagery.

Just like our Earth, the visualization will continually change, officials said, as computer systems improve, new remote-sensing satellites are launched and more observations are made.
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One million people across three Yemeni cities are at risk of a renewed cholera outbreak and other water-borne diseases following the closing of airports and sea ports by a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels, an international aid group said on Friday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that the cities of Hodeida, Saada and Taiz were not able to provide clean water in recent days due to a lack of fuel.

“Close to one million people are now deprived of clean water and sanitation in crowded urban environments in a country slowly emerging from the worst cholera outbreak in modern times,” said Alexander Faite, head of the Red Cross delegation in the war-ravaged nation.

The Red Cross said other major urban cities, including the capital Sanaa, will find themselves in the same situation in less than two weeks unless imports of essential goods resume immediately.

The U.S.-backed coalition imposed a land, sea and air blockade on November 6th after a missile attack by rebels targeted the Saudi capital Riyadh. Saudi Arabia said Monday the coalition would lift the blockade after widespread international criticism.

On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to Saudi Arabia’s U.N. ambassador saying the Gulf kingdom’s failure to reopen key Yemen airports and sea ports is reversing humanitarian efforts to tackle the crisis in the impoverished country.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres welcomed the reopening of the port in the city of Aden, however he said this “will not meet the needs of 28 million Yemenis.”

Suspected airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition killed at least 21 people on Friday in the country’s west and northwest, said Yemeni security officials and witnesses.

One airstrike hit a bus in el-Zaher district in the western province of Hodeida, killing six civilians, they said. At least 15 people were killed in another airstrike on a market in Yemen’s northwestern Hajja province, controlled by the Shiite rebels, the officials and witnesses added.

The officials and witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters or for fear of reprisals.

There was no immediate comment from the coalition.

Over the past two years, more than 10,000 people have been killed and 3 million displaced in the coalition’s air campaign. With the country in a stalemate war, cholera began to rear its ugly head in October 2016, but the epidemic escalated rapidly in April. The fighting has damaged infrastructure and caused shortages of medicine and pushed the Arab world’s poorest country to the brink of famine.

 
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Millions of Americans feed wild birds in their backyards, from cardinals and English sparrows to blue jays and doves. Making seeds available attracts more birds and gives bird watchers a chance to enjoy seeing and maybe counting them. But it also helps birds, whether they are native or just passing through, survive amid the growing urban sprawl. Faiza Elmasry has the story, Faith Lapidus narrates.
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A newly discovered object from another star system that’s passing through ours is shaped like a giant pink fire extinguisher.

 

That’s the word this week from astronomers who have been observing this first-ever confirmed interstellar visitor.

 

“I’m surprised by the elongated shape — nobody expected that,” said astronomer David Jewitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the observation team that reported on the characteristics.

 

Scientists are certain this asteroid or comet originated outside our solar system. First spotted last month by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, it will stick around for another few years before departing our sun’s neighborhood.

 

Jewitt and his international team observed the object for five nights in late October using the Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Islands and the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

 

At approximately 100 feet by 100 feet by 600 feet (30 meters buy 30 meters by 180 meters), the object has proportions roughly similar to a fire extinguisher — though not nearly as red, Jewitt said Thursday. The slightly red hue — specifically pale pink — and varying brightness are remarkably similar to asteroids in our own solar system, he noted.

 

Astronomer Jayadev Rajagopal said in an email that it was exciting to point the Arizona telescope at such a tiny object “which, for all we know, has been traveling through the vast emptiness of space for millions of years.”

 

“And then by luck passes close enough for me to be able to see it that night!”

 

The object is so faint and so fast  it’s zooming through the solar system at 40,000 mph (64,000 kph) — it’s unlikely amateur astronomers will see it.

 

In a paper to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the scientists report that our solar system could be packed with 10,000 such interstellar travelers at any given time. It takes 10 years to cross our solar system, providing plenty of future viewing opportunities, the scientists said.

 

Trillions of objects from other star systems could have passed our way over the eons, according to Jewitt.

 

It suggests our solar system ejected its own share of asteroids and comets as the large outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune — formed.

 

Why did it take so long to nail the first interstellar wanderer?

 

“Space is big and our eyes are weak,” Jewitt explained via email.

 

Anticipating more such discoveries, the International Astronomical Union already has approved a new designation for cosmic interlopers. They get an “I” for interstellar in their string of letters and numbers. The group also has approved a name for this object: Oumuamua (OH’-moo-ah-moo-ah) which in Hawaiian means a messenger from afar arriving first.
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