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Some pundits say that this election has turned everything we thought we knew about U.S. politics on its head. I tend to agree more with those who note that divisiveness and bombastic attacks have always been a part of presidential races. Consider the election of 1800, when the campaigns of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson traded accusations that one had a “hideous hermaphroditical character” and the other was “the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father....

If all goes according to plan, the annual flu shot protects about 60 percent of vaccinated people. This year’s inoculation, of course, fell far short of such expectations, safeguarding only one in four vaccinated people who encountered the dominant H3N2 strain. This shortfall injected further momentum into the push to create a universal vaccine that protects against many flu types over time. Last month Bill Gates announced his foundation will be earmarking up to $12 million to advance such work....

Government declarations of war on drugs or disease often end in losing battles. That is why some neuroscientists have greeted the Obama administration’s goal of preventing or treating Alzheimer’s by 2025 with skepticism. “Setting target dates for any research program always carries the danger of falsely raising expectations,” says Kenneth S. Kosik, a professor of neuro­science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Research does not function like an assembly line in which we can project outcomes....

In the debate over how to respond to the perils posed by the earth’s changing climate, the ground has been rapidly shifting in recent years: as the Trump administration has retreated from efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and engage in climate diplomacy and public demand for action has grown—particularly among younger generations—cities and states have stepped into the breach. Last Friday 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg led the largest of her global climate strikes in advance of today’s United Nations Climate Action Summit, an attempt to spur countries and businesses to step up their efforts at reducing carbon emissions....

Key Concepts Physics Speed Lift Potential energy Kinetic energy Engineering design Introduction Here’s a challenge: Try throwing a paper airplane by moving just your wrist (don’t move your elbow or shoulder). It’s hard, isn’t it? How could you get a paper airplane to fly far if you can use only a short distance to launch it? Try this activity to find out! Background In order to take off, an airplane has to generate enough lift (upward force due to air pushing on the plane) to overcome its weight (downward force due to gravity)....

Editor’s note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. The accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986 had a devastating impact on the local population and forced 116,000 people to permanently leave their homes. But now researchers have discovered that, while the people may not have returned, the contaminated area of Belarus is teeming with wild animals, including elk, wild boar, deer and wolves....

Dear EarthTalk: The oil industry is planning what some call a dangerous strategy of drilling for oil on the outer continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean. What’s going on?—Vera Bailey, New Hope, Pa. In November 2011 the Obama administration began lifting the moratorium on off-shore drilling that had been imposed in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a five year plan including 15 leases for oil development on Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf and in the Gulf of Mexico....

Treatment: Technosphere Insulin System Maker: MannKind Stage: Phase III, hopes to apply for Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by the end of 2008. Why It Matters Insulin therapy for diabetes usually involves several injections a day. People dislike injecting themselves, so many fail to stick to their treatment regimens. How It Works MannKind’s inhalant system delivers inhalable spongy microparticles coated with insulin. Whereas regular human insulin and the kind used for shots tend to form into clusters of six insulin molecules, MannKind uses individualized insulin molecules....

Key concepts Magnetism Tools Earth’s poles From National Science Education Standards: Ability to distinguish between natural and human-made objects Introduction Have you ever wondered how a compass works? Traditional compasses (not the digital kind found in smart phones and other devices) are tools that take advantage of a natural feature of Earth: the planet’s magnetic poles. With a compass, you can find out which way a magnetic pole is—and from that, you can approximate other directions such as where south, east and west are as well....

Fluid-structure interaction analysis of a heart valve. Courtesy of COMSOL, Inc. As the world becomes ever more reliant on technology, there’s an increasing need for simulations on the path towards innovation. In a race to bring products to market faster and more efficiently, engineers designing everything from safer cars to life-saving medical devices and space exploration vehicles are relying on simulations to anticipate obstacles and explore new concepts swiftly and accurately....

Last week, three different sites along the underwater Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured and began leaking gas. The circumstances at Nord Stream may be unusual, but subsea pipeline damage is not.* Corrosion from salt water can cause leaks, and again and again, accidents occur as a result of commercial shipping. Nord Stream’s pipes also lie under some of the world’s busiest shipping routes. That’s why pipelines have sophisticated protection measures and repair techniques; plans for dealing with leaks and accidents are formulated as soon as the pipelines are built....

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A year-long audit of the program overseeing U.S. labs that handle lethal pathogens such as Ebola and anthrax found overworked safety inspectors, an absence of independent review and weak biosafety protections that could expose lab workers and the public to harm, a government report will say on Tuesday. The report by the Government Accountability Office to Congress followed a series of mishaps in which dangerous pathogens were inadvertently released....

For months, the world of physics has been abuzz with rumors about a potential new subatomic particle that could revolutionize our entire view of physics. But new results presented today by physicists from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) today have, for now, quashed the revolution. The first hints of a new particle appeared in December 2015, when two independent experiments at the LHC, ATLAS and CMS, each announced the same tantalizing quirk in their data....

The standard way to make induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for medical research is to scrape skin cells and mix up their internal clocks, coaxing them back into pluripotency over a matter of weeks. But now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have turned their attention to another cell type in abundant supply: fat cells. The team of cardiologists and plastic surgeons found adipose fat cells to be much more efficient than skin cells at turning back into stem cells....

Top oil-producing nations, including the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Angola, as well as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and other companies say they will stop flaring natural gas by 2030 as part of a landmark agreement with the World Bank. The deal was unveiled this morning during the World Bank’s Spring Meetings, where leaders said the voluntary agreement will curb 40 percent of the global gas flaring that results in 300 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually....

For many years we’ve been hearing about a so-called War on Christmas. And for centuries we’ve heard that the meek shall inherit the earth. But what we haven’t heard a lot about is that for decades Christmas has been waging a war on the meek. I’m talking, of course, about decorative lights and insects. Outdoor lighting in general poses a deadly threat to insects. That’s according to a study published online in November 2019 in the journal Biological Conservation, entitled “Light Pollution Is a Driver of Insect Declines....

Key Concepts Mathematics Addition Counting Puzzles Introduction Do you ever use math as a tool to solve interesting problems? In the 1970s math was often taught with simple worksheets. One teacher was looking for a way to help his students have more fun with math and logic. So he developed what is now known as the perimeter magic triangle puzzles. Try them out—and have some fun as you start thinking about counting in a whole new way!...

One of the most coveted and contested astronomical sites on the planet—the summit of Hawaii’s massive mountain Maunakea—will soon be governed by a new group of stewards comprising Native Hawaiians, cultural practitioners, and representatives of the state and other institutions. On July 7 Governor David Ige signed into law HB2024—a bill mandating that control over the mountain’s summit be transferred from the University of Hawaii, which has held the master lease to those lands since 1968, to an 11-member “Mauna Kea stewardship and oversight authority....

Edited by Daisy Yuhas How different are men and women really? About 30 years ago, if dating guides are any indication, some people assumed vast differences in personality, with Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus relationship advice. Today, in contrast, certain communities are pushing back against the idea of binary gender, which presents men and women as separate categories. (A quick reminder: gender—described in terms such as “man,” “woman” and “nonbinary person”—has strong cultural and social components....

Editor’s Note: On August 2, the Trump administration formally proposed freezing fuel economy targets and revoking California’s waiver to set more stringent standards. EPA is expected to take steps today toward killing California’s landmark program designed to get more clean cars on the road. The action might slow, but not stop, the global push toward electric vehicles, car experts said. California’s zero-emissions vehicle mandate forces carmakers that sell in the state to offer a rising number of clean cars....