Managing cattle manure can prevent antibiotic-resistant bacteria from contaminating crops, new study finds

Unmanaged cow manure can cause antibiotic-resistant bacteria
to proliferate. (Adobe Stock photo)

Manure and antibiotic management on cattle ranches can help prevent the growth of more antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a new study finds.

Researchers have uncovered substantial evidence that unmanaged livestock manure poses a global health risk by transmitting antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) when spread in fields or used to water crops.

When antibiotics are used to treat livestock, resistant bacteria and their resistance genes "can build up in cattle guts, which is then excreted into manure," reports Pragathi Ravi for Offrange. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their genes "reduce the effectiveness of critical medicines on humans." 

Giving farm animals antibiotics only when they are ill -- not as a way to promote growth -- is one way to prevent antibiotic-resistant bacteria and genes from multiplying, according to the World Health Organization. 

One problem with antibiotic-resistant bacteria or genes is that once they have sickened a human, there is no viable treatment. Ravi adds, "In 2021, a study published in The Lancet estimated that 4.71 million deaths were associated with antimicrobial resistance between 1990 and 2021."

Humans can become ill from contact with untreated manure or from ingesting food fertilized or watered with unprocessed manure that contains bacteria. Ravi explains, "Salmonella can grow inside a tomato, which means washing it externally is not going to help when the tomato is consumed raw."

Study researcher and professor Xun Qian told Ravi: "Livestock manure carries antibiotic resistance genes that can defeat every major class of antibiotics used in human medicine — including those considered ‘last resort.'" 

Implementing programs that support proper manure composting before it is applied to farmland can help prevent ARGs from spreading.

Measles made its way back into the U.S., but new ways to prevent the disease may be on the horizon.

Illustration of infectious diseases under a microscope
(Adobe Stock)

Once thought to be eliminated in the U.S., measles has returned, leaving its unpleasant symptoms and tell-tale itchy rash in its wake. With more people contracting and spreading the disease, ways to avoid or treat it have revived. "As vaccination rates fall and infections rise, scientists are racing to develop drugs they say could prevent or treat the disease in vulnerable and unvaccinated people," reports Dominique Mosbergen of The Wall Street Journal.

A little over 20 years ago, looking for ways to treat measles wasn't a consideration, but now some biotech companies and universities are working on measles prevention without the typical MMR vaccination. Mosbergen writes, "The drugs are still a ways from becoming available to patients but could offer alternatives to people who are immunocompromised, don’t respond to the measles vaccine or are vaccine skeptics."

Not all medical professionals see new measles treatments as a positive development because they could "further drive the drop in vaccination. Nationally, 92.5% of kindergartners received the measles, mumps and rubella . . . shot in the 2024-25 school year," the Journal reports. "In 2019-20, the vaccination rate was over 95%, which is the rate encouraged by health authorities to prevent community transmission of measles."

Invivyd, one of the companies working on a new measles treatment, uses measles "antibodies that are lab-made versions that can be delivered intravenously or as an injection and boost immunity immediately," Mosbergen explains. "They could benefit newborns and immunocompromised people who can’t be vaccinated, as well as the minority of people who don’t respond to the vaccine or whose immunity has waned."

Scientists haven't studied the measles virus as much as other communicable diseases because the vaccine was so effective, but to develop new treatments, researchers have "been forced to better understand measles," Mosbergen reports. "The body’s immune response to measles, for instance, hadn’t been well understood."

Farm updates: Eradicating screwworms; air detecting for bird flu; John Deere suit continues; Farm Dog of the Year!

Tusk-like mandibles can rasp the flesh of living warm-
blooded animals. (USDA photo via Successful Farming)

Despite its eradication from the U.S. in 1966, the New World Screwworm has returned to Mexico, which means the aggressive, flesh-eating flies could re-enter the U.S. 

While the NWS could prey on any warm-blooded animal, its return would be devastating for the U.S. cattle industry. Angie Stump Denton reports for Farm Journal, "The larvae can kill an animal in just four to seven days if not quickly detected and treated."

Experts believe Texas would be the most likely place for NWS to enter the U.S. from Mexico. In late April, after Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins threatened to suspend cattle imports from Mexico to the U.S. as she did in November 2024, the two countries were able to agree on a strategy to control the NWS. Listen to more details on the NWS and USDA approaches for "complete eradication" here.

New bird flu detection sensors are fast. By testing air from exhaust vents, the systems monitor for
 bird flu 24/7. (ASC Publications graphic)

Bird flu remains a significant concern for egg and poultry industries as well as backyard and small chicken or turkey farms. The virus presents numerous difficulties, one of which is a lack of "any 'early warning' system," reports Alfred Poor for Offrange. "Testing requires a lab and can take days to deliver results. … A new detection technology can produce results in minutes and is designed to be installed on-site, right in the flock housing buildings, to provide continuous monitoring. … The system samples air from the exhaust vents from the animals’ housing. The researchers have described their results in a paper in ACS Sensors."

The new detection technology doesn't require any technical training to run and it's accurate. Poor adds, "According to the team’s own published results, the system’s results showed a 90% correlation with the standard PCR lab results."

Even though U.S. farmers can now legally repair their tractors, a lawsuit addressing John Deere's past repair policies and tactics with farmers will still make its way through the court system. "The Agriculture equipment giant must face a lawsuit by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission accusing the company of forcing farmers to use its authorized dealer network and driving up their costs for parts and repairs," reports Mike Scarcella of Reuters. "U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston in the federal court in Rockford, Illinois, ruled for now to reject Deere’s effort to end the lawsuit."

Deere countered the suit saying that "it does not compete in the market for repair services," Scarella reports. "The company also challenged the lawfulness of the structure of the FTC. … Deere alleged that restrictions against removing FTC commissioners illegally bar the president from exercising lawful oversight."

We don't know how we missed it, but it's our pleasure to introduce "Sirius," the amazing and lovable 2025 Farm Bureau Dog of the Year. "Livestock guardian dog Sirius is a 'hero behind the heroes' – a herd of miniature therapy horses that bring comfort to those who have experienced traumatic events," the American Farm Bureau Federation reports. 

The mini-horses that Sirius and his fellow Maremma sheep dogs help protect from behind the scenes have given people joy during some of their worst experiences. They visited families after the Sandy Hook school shooting and comforted victim families and first responders after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. They make people smile and laugh in children and veteran hospitals wherever they go. 

While Sirius and his fellow canine guardians stay home at the farm, they help owners Jorge and Debbie Garcia-Bengochea know the horses are safe. Jorge told FB, "The Maremma breed is intended to bond with the herd. When these dogs are on alert and watching the herd, I feel like it's a  24/7 security system."

Farmers are encouraged to enter their tremendous farm dog here for the 2026 award.

Green 'hackers' rescue, repost environmental research data tools for public use

A screenshot of a rescued EPA data mapping tool.  
(PEDA website image via SEJ Toolbox)

Green geeks deploy their techy-search-and-rescue powers to help environmental science research get back online.

"As environmental data goes missing, these are times when hackers can be heroes to journalists. Meet Public Environmental Data Partners," writes Joseph A. Davis of SEJ Toolbox. "It’s a loose coalition of programmers and developers who are reversing the Trump administration’s removal of politically inconvenient data from the internet. . . . Once the data is rescued, they put it into usable form — searchable, visible, map-formatted and downloadable."

Where did the data come from? The content was originally on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website, but a few months ago, it disappeared. That helpful EJScreen data tool? Gone. "Well, gone from the website of the but not from the web," Davis adds. "A group called the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, better known as EDGI, preserved the data before it vanished, and Public Environmental Data Partners set up the interface for using it. Toolbox applauds."

Public Environmental Data Partners has worked on several data rescue missions. Their growing list is here. Davis writes, "The list includes lots of Energy Department data: the Energy Justice Dashboard, the Wind Energy Community Benefits Database, etc. It includes pipeline data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. . . . And more. Not all are gone yet and not all are back online yet, but they are working on it."

Groups contributing to the Public Environmental Data Partners include:
The CAFE Research Coordinating Center at Harvard and Boston University
The Catalyst Cooperative
Earth Hacks
The End of Term Web Archive
Environmental Policy Innovation Center
Fulton Ring
Internet Archive (Wayback Machine)
Open Environmental Data Project
Rooted Futures Lab

"A lot of things containing the word climate are disappearing," Davis writes. "But they do not sleep silently with the fishes. Data wants to be free."

Flora & Fauna: Joyrides for rats; feral pigs forage through Hawaii; serviceberry tree history; a unique "comeback" bird

Rats learned to love driving and would opt to take longer routes to get to their destination.
(Photo by Kelly Lambert, CC BY-ND)

People aren't the only ones who love to go for a drive. Rats do, too. "I’m a neuroscientist who taught rats to drive − their joy suggests how anticipating fun can enrich human life," writes Kelly Lambert for The Conversation. "My colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat. . . . Unexpectedly, we found that the rats had an intense motivation for their driving training, often jumping into the car and revving the 'lever engine' before their vehicle hit the road. Why was that?" Read the research here.

In the lowlands of Hawaii, things are going to pigs. Feral pigs have invaded six of the state's islands with shocking efficiency and left a path of overwhelmed ecosystems in their wake. "Their impact is profound on Kaua‘i. Its mountains are home to 255 unique native plant species and 208 native birds, including 11 found nowhere else on Earth," reports Brendan Borrell of Hakai magazine. "Their wallows breed mosquitoes that spread avian malaria, contributing to 10 of Kaua‘i’s 16 native honeycreepers [birds] going extinct. . . . Despite the damage that feral pigs are causing, you can’t just shoot them on sight . . ."

Serviceberry trees are smaller trees native to North
America. (The Spruce graphic)

Like humans, a tree species has a history. The serviceberry tree was once common in the United States, particularly in colonial New England, where its bloom cycle indicated when the soil was soft enough to begin digging graves for the many settlers who didn't make it through the winter. "Preachers then went from settlement to settlement to perform funeral services," writes Jessica Damiano of The Associated Press. "Because it’s one of the earliest spring bloomers, the serviceberry is an important food source for bees, butterflies and other pollinators. Later, its berries sustain dozens of bird species and mammals. . . .There are more than 20 species of the North American native tree, which is sadly underused." Here are four favorites.

Whether it's that hefty frozen turkey, a delectable ham or ground lamb ready to be transformed into meatballs, the holidays can be a special time to be thankful for the meat on our tables. As an act of gratefulness for farm animals, a donation to an animal charity that works to make the lives of factory animals better may be in order. "Animal Charity Evaluators, a California-based nonprofit, puts out an annual guide for recommended animal charities," report Sigal Samuel and Kenny Torrella of Vox. "ACE researches and promotes the most high-impact, effective ways to help animals." Find this year's list here.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers nest in family units.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Americans love a comeback, especially when the returning member is cute, social and unique. "The red-cockaded woodpecker, an iconic bird in southeastern forests, has recovered enough of its population to be downlisted from an endangered species to a threatened one," reports Christina Larson of The Associated Press. Will Harlan of the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, told Larson, "It’s an amazing bird that has an unusual communal nesting structure. All nests usually cluster in the same tree, and the birds stick together as a family unit.”

Hazelnut trees are poised to flourish where they once died by the thousands. "Bullied by blight, the filbert has long failed to find a home on farms in the eastern U.S.," reports Ben Seal of Ambrook Research. "All across the eastern United States, hazelnuts had been cut down by Eastern filbert blight, or EFB, an endemic disease that chokes life from a tree. . . .But now, after nearly three decades of developing a way for farmers to overcome EFB. . . . A collection of four cultivars, [was] released in 2020, that can withstand even the intense pressure on [a] New Jersey research farm, where numerous strains of the blight are present."

AI is helping wolf trackers without using radio collars.
(Photo by ML, Unsplash)

New AI tracking technology is making it easier for wolves and ranchers near Yellowstone Park to coexist. "After 30 years of using traditional boots-on-the-ground observations, researchers are collecting wolf calls in hopes of honing population estimates, tracking wolves without using radio collars, and reducing conflict between the animals and ranchers," reports Devin Farmiloe of The Washington Post. "Learning more about how wolves communicate from a young age can shed light on pack dynamics that wildlife managers can use to better track and protect the species."

All creatures big, small, tiny and 'ugly' are needed on this planet: Here's how journalists can cover them.

An orange fungus grows out of leaf debris in a Maine forest.
(Photo by Alyssa Mattei, National Park Service via SEJ)

It's small and somewhat weird, but let's protect it. Say what? If day-to-day environmental journalism is difficult, reporting on barely-known species, which often look like sci-fi inventions, can be more challenging. But it's worth noting that while some species lack the glamour or beauty of creatures "situated toward the apex of the food chain," [apex animals] are nothing without every lesser-loved organism below them," report Bethany Brookshire and Douglas Main for the Society of Environmental Journalists.

What's the best way to describe "seemingly unlovable species and ecosystems to life and get our audiences invested in their stories?. . . Often, the most compelling way to report on the non-human world is to talk about people — about how we are like those creatures or why we need those plants or ecosystems," Brookshire and Main explain. "That might seem a little self-centered. But looking closer, it becomes clear that what this kind of coverage cultivates is not self-obsession. It’s empathy."

Another option is "finding the larger stories that odd species are embedded within," SEJ reports. A National Geographic feature "[looked at] ice worms, tiny invertebrates that live on glaciers and climate change. . . . A slight tweak in the protein that makes ATP, the cellular currency of energy, helps these creatures stay active at very low temperatures. People might not care about ice worms. But they care about the effects of climate change on biodiversity, and they care about potential human benefits from other species’ quirks."

Benji Jones, an environmental correspondent, "believes that another way to get people to care about obscure organisms is to make them characters in a story — as he recently did when writing about Appalachian salamanders," SEJ reports. "That often means emphasizing that these organisms — whether plants or animals or yeast — are really not as different from us as they seem, Jones says. They, too, have wants and needs and challenges. . . . A tree or salamander can’t speak for itself, but the people who care about these species can."

Write with imagination. "It’s harder to get audiences to care about the small, the spineless, the aesthetically unappealing. But seeing ourselves in other creatures sparks curiosity. And from curiosity, it’s only a short step to caring," Brookshire and Main add. "Journalists might have to dig a little deeper to find the common ground humans share with other species. But it’s there if you dig deep enough. Making those connections can open the door to understanding and compassion."

NASA offers environmental and science journalists a 'cool tool' and free graphics with its 'Worldview' database

NASA's Worldview offers seemingly endless data and free graphics. (NASA Worldview photo)

Part of NASA began with Caltech students blowing up part of their dorm room while experimenting with rockets. From those extraordinary-sounding beginnings, the space agency has combined its data-gathering satellites with analysis powerhouses and offers "unimaginably huge" troves of data, some of which is open to the public and journalists, reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists.

While the sheer vastness of information may seem daunting, don't worry, "there is a system (or a system of systems) for handling it," Davis explains. "It goes by the acronym EOSDIS, for Earth Observing System Data and Information System. . . . . Meanwhile, NASA’s query site, called 'Worldview,' translates some of the most meaningful data into graphic form. You can access the Worldview landing page, which is also the query engine, here."

The Worldview database is a "cool tool" for environmental journalists and their production teams to use. Davis adds, "It’s not simply data; it’s free graphics." That's a huge upside. The downside to Worldview is that it's not easy to use. "Some important parts of it just don’t work. . . . . On the other hand, the number of choices you have about what to look at is very large."

The options are virtually endless and the data and graphics are "right in the strike zone of stories environmental journalists often cover," Davis writes. "You can request many different time spans, you can compare views from one time period against another, and you can choose particular places, zooming in and out almost at will. You can find out about wildfires, floods, dust storms, smoke plumes, drought, vegetation cover, human built-up areas and settlement areas, and even dams. And more."

Worldview also covers climate. Davis explains, "It tells you many details about albedo, sea-ice cover, surface temperature, etc."

American Heart Association offers travel stipends for journalists and freelance writers to attend scientific meetings

The American Heart Association is offering travel stipends for journalists and freelance writers who would benefit from attending eligible American Heart Association scientific meetings.

Each stipend will be $2,500 for travel-related expenses such as airfare, ground transportation/parking, on-site meals and hotel accommodations.

Criteria:

• Open to U.S. resident freelance writers who qualify for embargoed access to the American Heart Association’s news material.
• Applicants must provide three (3) original bylined news articles/clip links published by an accredited national or top 25 Nielsen market media outlet within the prior six (6) months covering health/science/medical topics.
• Applicants may not have attended an American Heart Association scientific conference in person (or via video conference) in the past two years.
• Priority will be given to applicants who have been journalists for five (5) years or less, and/or those who self-identify as members of traditionally under-resourced communities/racial/ethnic minority groups, and/or groups that are professionally underrepresented in the sciences.
• Journalists are welcome to apply to attend multiple association conferences but are only eligible to receive one stipend each year.

To learn more, click here. To apply, click here.

New England stone walls are a man-made wonder deserving their own branch of science

Instagram photo via The Conversation

Walls of rock with novel plant and animal life wind through New England, and it's time to give them their own place in science, writes Robert M. Thorson for The Conversation, a journalism platform for academics."The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as iconic to the region as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils. Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but only in New England are they nearly ubiquitous. That's due to a regionally unique combination of hard crystalline bedrock, glacial soils and farms with patchworks of small land parcels."

European settlers working with draft horses built nearly all of the walls. "The mass of stone that farmers moved in that century staggers the mind – an estimated 240,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide," Thorson notes. "That's long enough to wrap our planet 10 times at the equator, or to reach the Moon on its closest approach to Earth."

"Natural scientists have been working to quantify this phenomenon, which is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza combined," Thorson writes. "This work began in 1870 and generated the U.S. government's 1872 Census of Fences. Today, scientists are using a technique called LiDAR, or light detection and ranging, to measure and map stone walls across New England.

A stoat scurries along a rock wall in search of mice.
(Instagram photo via The Conversation)

"These archaeological artifacts are so ubiquitous that they have become a geological landform that in turn creates a novel ecological habitat," Thorson adds. "But despite their importance, never have the stone walls of New England been technically defined, classified and given a common terminology in a peer-reviewed journal. They fell, it seems, through disciplinary cracks."

The region's rock walls are in "some ways analogous to the region's wetlands, which also are landforms that farmers created or significantly modified as they settled the land in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, since the 1990s, wetlands have earned a robust science, a solid legal framework and excellent management protocols," Thorson writes. "In my view, the time has come to do the same for New England's stone walls."

To read how Thorson and his students and colleagues are working to develop a formal interdisciplinary science of stone walls, click here.

Researchers share how climate change is altering Yellowstone; they hope education and science can help

Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks attract millions of visitors from across the globe each year.
(Photo by Althea Dotzour, University of Wisconsin)

Iconic and awe-inspiring, Yellowstone and Grand Teton are a part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which draws thousands of visitors each year. But climate change is gradually altering the parks' beloved expanses. To help people understand these changes, University of Wisconsin professor and ecologist Monica Turner and her team are finding ways to illustrate what global warming could look like in Yellowstone's future, reports Elise Mahon for UW News. "The shifts that result from a changing climate are often too subtle for any individual to see, and it can be difficult to fully understand. . . . Greater Yellowstone is just one ecosystem; however, studying how it responds as the climate heats up can help us understand what may happen in places around the world. . . . And since so many people love Yellowstone, it’s a great place to help the public appreciate the magnitude and tempo of climate change."

Turner and her team are "finding ways to help reveal tomorrow's Yellowstone in pictures based on the data. Using simulated images, they hope to show people landscapes that don't yet exist but might if the climate of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem continues to get warmer and drier," Mahon writes. 

Lodgepole pines have cones that release seeds during
a fire. (Photo by Althea Dotzour, UW)

Fire is the primary element propelling regional changes. "Fire has long been a natural part of the ecosystem. Lodgepole pines are one of the most common tree species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and they’re well adapted to the historical cadence of fires in the area. . . . Once the trees are old enough, they produce cones designed to open in fire, helping the trees establish new stands," Mahon explains. "But a warmer, drier climate is increasing the frequency of fires and disrupting the forests’ ability to recover as trees can no longer effectively disperse their seeds. . . . [There will be] fewer of the trees visitors are used to seeing in these iconic landscapes. . . .That’s concerning because forests are the backbone of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

"Studying the landscape and including more perspectives on sustaining them is vital to ensuring people from all backgrounds can visit, learn, connect with the place. . ." Mahon reports. "While tomorrow’s Yellowstone will look different than today’s, the magnitude of that difference depends on the actions of all of us."

To read more about student researchers' unique lives and be inspired, click here.
To find out more about Turner's research, click here.

Tips for reporting on 'forever chemical' can make a tricky job easier

PFAS are present in 45% of U.S. tap water.
(Photo by Jacet Dylag, Unsplash)

Given the enduring presence of "forever chemicals," or PFAS, in the nation's soil and water, journalists will be covering and uncovering them for years to come. Because reporting on PFAS can be tricky, Rachel Layne of Editor & Publisher interviewed a panel of experts and condensed tips to make reporting on the topic more doable.

Here are her experts: Kelly Smalling, a research chemist at the U.S. Geological Survey; Linda Birnbaum, the former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program; E.A. Crunden, a chemicals and waste reporter for Politico's E&E News who covers PFAS and its regulation closely; Barbara Moran, a climate and environment correspondent at WBUR in Boston who has reported extensively on PFAS; Rebecca Fuoco, the director of science communications at Green Science Policy Institute; and Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University who follows PFAS closely.

Start with the basics. Journalists also should know and note why PFAS are nicknamed "forever chemicals." Manmade PFAS compounds don't degrade under typical conditions in the environment or the body. . . In recent decades, certain kinds of PFAS chemicals have been linked to serious health issues, including potentially higher risk for some cancers, autoimmune diseases, thyroid issues, liver disease, fetal complications, vaccine resistance and high cholesterol, among other concerns."

Note PFAS regulation on a national and local level. In March, the Environmental Protection Agency took a major step by proposing limits on six kinds of PFAS in drinking water under the national Safe Water Drinking Act. If enacted, the rule would cover the first new contaminant be the first new national standards under the act since the 1990s.

Study up, learn the terminology and how to use it. "Reporters should not buy into saying 12,000+ chemicals 'cause cancer'; that simply has not been proven yet, and research is limited," Crunden explains. "But good PFAS journalism should see you comfortably empowered to say at least two chemicals are strongly linked to cancer, and that there are concerns about the broader family, which also pose a number of other health issues." Note that toxins are the correct term for naturally occurring poisonous substances, Crunden explained. PFAS are manmade, which makes them toxicants, not toxins. "Toxic chemicals" would also be an accurate way to describe PFAS.

Keep your accuracy radar on high and double-check what sources say. You can find tips on how to characterize research findings accurately in this tip sheet from "The Journalist's Resource." Even scientists can make mistakes, especially those not steeped in PFAS research, says Jamie DeWitt.

Befriend a toxicologist. Find a public health, public works or university toxicologist familiar with PFAS and ask to sit down with them, DeWitt, Crunden and Moran recommend — especially one who specializes in drinking water.

Monitor academic research, keeping in mind that much of it never makes it into the news media. A good practice is to create alerts on services like PubMed and Eureka Alert! Many scientific studies are published behind a firewall. But journalists often can get access to scientific papers for free – if they know how to ask. This piece from The Journalist's Resource outlines how to set up free accounts with several top academic journal publishers.

Go to a public water board or local government meeting where PFAS is being discussed, or attend state hearings. As with any topic, some of the best story ideas come from meeting people you wouldn't normally encounter just working the phones or doing online research, Moran says. The National Conference of State Legislatures has state-by-state information on PFAS and drinking water. The map and key issue page from the advocacy group Environmental Working Group are also good places to start.

Purdue professor explains why the world is getting hotter and what that means for wildfires, rain and air quality

Dr. Daniel Cziczo

Is it hotter than it used to be? The short answer is yes. Why? A video explanation from Daniel Cziczo, a professor and head of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, has been loaded for viewing by members of The Associated Press, AP reports. "He goes over why higher temperatures have become more common and what that means for wildfires, rain and air quality." The video can be found here.

"Cziczo says that as man-made greenhouse gases are released into the environment, heat becomes trapped and raises temperatures. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane act like a blanket over Earth, keeping the sun’s heat from escaping the atmosphere," Purdue reports. "Thanks to this rise in temperature, forest-fire season starts earlier, ends later, and happens in areas where wildfires didn’t used to occur. Hot and dry weather can also lead to a decrease in precipitation and a drop in air quality."

If you'd like more in-depth look at Cziczo's research, he presents his area of expertise, particle and cloud research, as key to a human response to climate change in his July 2022 MEERTalk. He points out that humans are are heating up the atmosphere mostly through mixed greenhouse gases, but we are also cooling the planet with particle matter. Clouds form around tiny airborne particles called aerosols. Understanding how cloud formation influences our atmosphere is key to understanding and mitigating climate change from the stratosphere.

Holiday hits: From the gloomy octopus to the most gleeful holiday poem, let wonder guide your reading; and more ...

Illustration by Edward Koren, The New Yorker

By Heather Close

It's Friday! Take a moment to celebrate the uniqueness of our glorious planet and the joy of being alive. 

One little girl knows that there are rules for everything. So, when she decided to adopt a unicorn, she asked Animal Control for permission. And got it.

La Junta, Colorado, celebrates an unlikely friend, Aphonopelma hentzi, commonly known as the Oklahoma or Texas brown tarantula, which ranges as far east as Louisiana. This small town aims to become "Tarantula Capital of the World."

"Don't stand so close to me" was a popular song by the Police. It's also the mantra of the Gloomy Octopus--it doesn't sing. It throws things.

Need a lift out of winter melancholy? Reading about positive changes for birds and humans will make you smile.

Today, the hip Three Kings would bring gold, frankincense, myrrh and SPAM figgy pudding.

Heated, compressed and hopefully headed in the right direction, an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal explains fusion and what all the fuss is about.

Mermaids in Montana and mooncake makers in Philly's Chinatown are just two of the discoveries made by Boston Globe reporters who traveled across the nation and made some momentous stops.

Whether it's “Christmas Wrapping” by the Waitresses, or music to cook and bake to, get those holiday play lists ready.

Still don't have a tree? There's still time. Pick a good one!

There are still so many good times to be had. A 'super-surge' holiday poem from The New Yorker will leave you feeling warm and hopeful.

The purple tomato will be one of the most visible products of genetic modification, still a touchy subject for many

Purple tomatoes could be in U.S. stores in
2023. (Photo by JIC Photography, flickr)

A purple tomato? Is that a thing? “For the last 14 years, Cathie Martin and Eugenio Butelli from the John Innes Centre in Norfolk, England, and their team have been working on developing the purple tomato,” writes Yan Yue, a Ph.D. candidate at the Quadram Institute, for The Conversation, a platform for journalistic writing by academics. “Their aim was to engineer a tomato that contained higher levels of anthocyanins, which can be used alongside unmodified tomatoes to study the benefits of anthocyanins. The team chose to modify a tomato because the fruits are delicious and widely consumed.”

The U.S. created the "Flavr Savr" tomato in 1994, which was the first genetically modified food. GM technology moved into corn, cotton and even pink pineapple. GM foods have battled a bad reputation with the public, but science bears out the benefits for plants, animals and people, Yue writes: “Many breeds of genetically modified foods have made them more resistant to disease. It’s also possible to modify foods to make them more nutritious. Take, for example, golden rice. This grain was engineered to have higher levels of vitamin A, in order to tackle deficiencies of this nutrient in impoverished countries.”

As the purple tomato was developed, the benefits of anthocyanins became evident. “Higher levels of anthocyanins in purple tomatoes actually work to double their shelf life compared to red tomatoes,” Yue writes. “Another benefit of high levels of anthocyanins is that they attract pollinators and animals to disperse seeds, which increases reproductive success of the plants and their yield. Anthocyanins also protect plants from UV damage and protect them from pathogens, which maximizes their survival.” The list of benefits goes on.

Despite the positives, GM foods still have to overcome the "continued ignorance of the general public alongside the reluctance of government policymakers,” Yue writes. "This is why the regulatory approval of purple tomatoes in the U.S. this September is so exciting. . . . It’s expected that purple tomatoes will be available for sale in the U.S. as soon as 2023."

Story on ills of Brood X cicadas is a reminder that science writing can be fun — and possibly bring more readers

Brood X cicada in 2004; photo by Gene Kritsky, professor at Cincinnati's
Mount St. Joseph University, via the Evansville Courier and Press

A recent article about a fungal infection suffered by some cicadas serves as a reminder that science writing can be fun as well as informative. The writing is a delight:

"This month, as billions of Brood X cicadas emerge from the dirt in Indiana and more than a dozen other states for the first time in 17 years, some of the bugs will suffer a horrific, science-fiction-like fate. There’s no delicate way to do this, so here’s the gist all at once," Jon Webb reports for the Evansville Courier & Press in Indiana. "A fungus laced with the same chemical as psychedelic mushrooms will invade their bodies and eat away their insides until their abdomens crack, fall off and get replaced with a ball of white spores. Because they’re either bombed on psilocybin or under the control of the fungus in some other way, the cicadas won’t even notice. With missing butts and full hearts, they’ll forge ahead with their only reason for existing: finding a mate and reproducing."

Webb continues in this vein for the rest of the story, aided by vibrant quotes from cicada expert John Lill such as one calling the infection a "gender-bending, death-zombie fungus."

The story isn't exactly viral (cough), but an extremely unscientific survey of Facebook found dozens of shares of the story, possibly more than other stories from the Courier & Press. It's a good reminder that well-written content can bring in more readers—certainly a boon for newsrooms any time.

Applications open for science, health, and/or environmental reporting fellowships; deadline is May 10

Applications are now being accepted for a new fellowship pilot program for early-career journalists who want more training in science, health, and/or environmental reporting.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing, and the Society of Environmental Journalists have collaborated to create the year-long National Science-Health-Environment Reporting Fellowships program, aimed at staff and freelance journalists with between two and 10 years of professional reporting experience. The program is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The 12 selected fellows can maintain their regular jobs while attending training opportunities across the nation and online, including niche workshops, a reporting boot camp, customized webinars, registration to national conferences, access to unique resources, and individual professional mentors to assist with career development. The curriculum includes basic science, interpreting medical studies, analyzing data, explaining evidence-based decisions, understanding climate science and more.

The application deadline is May 10. Click here for more information or to apply. 

Thursday, Nov. 19, National Institutes of Health seminar to explore rural health challenges during pandemic

On Nov. 19 the National Institutes of Health will host a virtual seminar from 1 to 5 p.m. ET dedicated to exploring rural health and challenges in the pandemic era.

The event is co-sponsored by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and will feature speakers from other federal agencies and academic institutions. 

Seminar sessions include "Rural Population Impact and Response in the Time of Covid-19" and "Researchers and Community Partners respond to the Challenges of Covid-19."

The seminar is free but registration is required. Click here for more information or to register.

Fact check: Trump makes false claims about vaccine

President Trump has made several false claims about a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer Inc., Hope Yen, Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson report for The Associated Press. Here's a summary:

Trump falsely tried to take full credit for Pfizer's announcement that its vaccine might be 90 percent effective. In a tweet Tuesday, Trump quoted Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo to imply he should get credit for the vaccine. However, his suggestion "that he stood alone in saying a covid-19 vaccine was possible by year’s end is incorrect," AP reports. "Actually, top health experts said they considered that possible, though far from certain, and were more skeptical of Trump’s claim that a coronavirus vaccine would become available before the Nov. 3 election. The vaccine isn’t expected to become widely available to the general public before 2021."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious-diseases expert and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had previously said he was "cautiously optimistic" that a vaccine would be ready by late 2020 or early 2021. On Monday, he lauded Pfizer's news, but cautioned that it didn't mean an immediate cure-all for the coronavirus, AP notes.

Pfizer says it will apply to the Food and Drug Administration for "emergency use authorization" to allow limited distribution later this month, then seek approval for wider use, and neither request is guaranteed to be granted, AP reports. Fauci told CNN that there are still questions about the vaccine's effectiveness and durability; it requires two doses, 21 days apart, and must be kept at 94 below zero.

In several tweets, Trump also claimed that Pfizer and the FDA withheld vaccine information until after the election, implying that it was done to harm him politically. That's false, the AP reports: "The company itself learned of the interim results on Sunday, and the FDA was not involved in Pfizer’s decision to announce its early results."

All vaccine studies such as the one Pfizer is conducting are overseen by independent data and safety monitoring boards. DSMBs "include scientists and statisticians who have no ties to the vaccine makers," AP reports. "Before a study is complete, only the DSMB has the power to unlock the code of who got a real vaccine and who got a placebo, and to recommend if the shots are working well enough to stop testing early. Those boards take sneak peeks at predetermined times agreed to by the manufacturer and the FDA. It provided the first interim analysis for Pfizer on Sunday." Several Pfizer officials, including CEO Albert Bourla, have asserted that the announcement's timing had nothing to do with the election.

Vice President Mike Pence and Congressman-elect Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), Trump's former White House physician, sent tweets crediting the president for the vaccine; Trump retweeted them. However, Trump and Pence "are wrongly seeking full credit for forging the partnership that made the potential breakthrough possible. Pfizer notably did not accept government money to develop, test or expand manufacturing capacity under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed initiative to quickly find a vaccine and treatments for the disease sweeping the country," AP notes. "In fact, Pfizer partnered with the vaccine’s original developer, Germany’s BioNTech, in March," before Warp Speed was announced.

Though Pfizer hasn't accepted Warp Speed funding, it must follow the same vaccine-development requirements as competitors that did take government money. "The company says it has risked $2 billion of its own money on vaccine development and won’t get anything from Washington unless the effort is successful," the AP reports. But Pfizer signed an agreement with the U.S. government in July to supply 100 million doses for $1.95 billion if the vaccine works and gains FDA approval.

Fact-checking the presidential campaigns in the final stretch

With less than a week before Election Day, both presidential campaigns are scrambling to win over undecided voters—sometimes with less-than-truthful claims. Here's our weekly fact-check round-up:

President Trump has made repeated false and misleading claims about the coronavirus pandemic. He has also responded with denials and attacks when journalists fact-checked his claims on-camera, and has told crowds at rallies that media coverage of the pandemic is meant to damage him politically and should violate election laws, Salvador Rizzo reports for The Washington Post's Fact Checker. 

Though cases are spiking across the nation, especially in rural areas, Trump insists "We're rounding the corner." He also says numbers are rising because we do more testing than other nations, but health experts say it's because the U.S. has not controlled the spread of the disease as much as most other countries, Rizzo reports. Trump has claimed that Republican-governed states such as Arizona, Florida and Texas are weathering the virus successfully, while Democrat-governed states are faring worse, partly because of more stringent shut-down orders. That's false; read the article for more details.

At an Oct. 27 rally in Omaha, Trump insinuated that the news media began reporting that coronavirus immunity only lasts four months, not for a lifetime, only after he became infected. That's false, Rizzo reports. Public-health experts are still learning how long post-infection immunity lasts. 

In Oct. 27 in remarks to reporters, Trump said counting ballots for weeks after Election Day "is totally inappropriate, and I don't believe that's by our laws." He is wrong. "Time after Election Day to count absentee ballots, overseas military ballots, and provisional ballots is enshrined in both federal and state law,"  Louis Jacobson reports for Politifact. "In fact, federal law allows states until more than a month after the election to finalize their results before the casting of electoral votes."

Democratic challenger Joe Biden misspoke twice in the past week about his plan to pay for free community college through the corporate minimum tax. The plan is iffy in the first place: several independent tax groups say the move would raise half of what the Biden campaign estimates, at most. "But on two occasions in the last week, Biden has muddied things even further by flubbing the campaign’s talking point on how much the tax would raise, and how much his higher education proposal would cost," Robert Farley reports for FactCheck.org.

In a "60 Minutes" interview on CBS Oct. 25, Biden "grossly underestimated" how much it would cost to provide free community college; his campaign later said Biden misspoke. And at an Oct. 24 rally, Biden muddled the numbers again, this time mistakenly saying that a 15% corporate minimum tax would raise $40 billion. The plan on Biden's website estimates that the move would raise $400 billion.

Trump made repeated false and misleading claims at three Oct. 26 rallies about ballots and voting fraud, including a claim that the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania is responsible for counting mail-in ballots. Under state law, county election boards investigate possible fraud, count ballots, and certify the results. The governor has no such authority, FactCheck.org reports. 

Politifact also has an excellent roundup of various social media memes and rumors. Click here.

Scientists suggest converting methane to CO2 as short-term way to reduce effect of greenhouse gases

Capturing atmospheric methane, which comes mainly from agriculture, could have an outsized and more immediate impact on mitigating climate change, argues a newly published paper.

In the short term, methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. "Its warming effect doesn’t last nearly as long, but molecule-for-molecule it traps 84 times more heat during the first two decades, James Temple notes in MIT Technology Review.

The paper argues that if we could capture methane and converting it to carbon dioxide, we would "reduce short-term warming much more than we would by removing far more carbon dioxide." Lead author Rob Jackson, a professor of earth system science at Stanford University, writes, "Methane removal would buy us considerable time to address the problem of carbon-dioxide emissions."

Livestock and other agricultural elements are the largest source of human-caused methane emissions,  Efforts to cut methane emissions in agriculture haven't progressed much beyond the experimental level, and Temple notes that oil and gas producers, another significant source of atmospheric methane through pipeline leaks and flaring, have resisted efforts to tighten regulations.

The idea of converting methane (CH4) into CO2 has been floated before, Temple notes, but the paper takes a closer look at using "zeolites, a class of minerals with very tiny pores, which are commonly used as industrial catalysts. . . . While it would likely be necessary to remove hundreds of billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide to return to preindustrial levels, you’d only need to eliminate 3.2 billion tons of methane to get back to earlier levels of that gas. Doing so would reverse one-sixth of the total warming effect of all greenhouses gases in the atmosphere, the study found."