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Today:
Should You Worry the New Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in China Could Reach the U.S.?
NEWS | 13 August 2025
The virus causes extremely severe joint pain and fever, both of which can be short-lived—but can sometimes continue for years. What is the chikungunya virus, and how do people get infected? China has reported an outbreak with about 7,000 cases, mostly in Guangdong and its city of Foshan. The most likely scenario, according to Lim, is that “a mosquito in China bites and infects someone. There are, however, two effective and Food and Drug Administration–approved vaccines that get the body to produce antibodies against chikungunya, Jones says, and these lower the risk of infection.

Top Stories:
Deep-Sea Desalination Pulls Fresh Water from the Depths
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Called subsea desalination, the idea is to remove the salt from water in the deep sea. This approach was later replaced by multistage flash distillation, in which temperature and pressure “flash” salt water to steam. Given the depths required, subsea desalination won’t work in just any seaside location. Long-term government contracts will most likely be needed for subsea desalination to really take off, and they may prove elusive. Hilal says he believes subsea desalination could go mainstream and supply water to entire cities.

World:
These Spiders Puke Up Toxic Digestive Fluid to Marinate Their Prey Alive
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Researchers have just confirmed the inner workings of a brutal food-prep technique some spiders use, wrapping their web-snagged prey tightly in silk strands, then puking up toxic digestive fluids to soak the entire package to marinate their meal alive. Uloboridae spiders were already known to wrap their prey in hundreds of meters of silk and then regurgitate on them, but researchers hadn’t fully pinned down the function of their dramatic vomit. Injecting these digestive fluids into fruit flies in the laboratory proved their high toxicity: just 230 nanograms—billionths of a gram—killed more than half the flies within an hour. The researchers theorize that these spiders do indeed marinate their prey to death this way. Strangely, some spiders from other families that kill with the usual venomous bites are also known to have toxins in their digestive fluids, Zancolli says.

Current Events:
A Male Birth Control Pill Moves to the Next Clinical Trial Stage
NEWS | 13 August 2025
A new hormone-free birth control pill that reversibly stops sperm production has passed its first safety trial in humans, offering hope for more reversible contraceptive options. What’s particularly exciting about this daily pill, which works by blocking a key step in sperm production, is that it’s hormone-free. Seo: Yeah, I was really fascinated to read about this trial because it’s the first nonhormonal male birth control pill. Feltman: Could you tell us more about the mechanism by which it prevents sperm production? At the moment there are several options in development, including this pill, which is a nonhormonal birth control pill taken daily.

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Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 13 August 2025
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

News Flash:
Reckoning with Our Mistakes
NEWS | 13 August 2025
A reader in 2020 who discovers such a socially progressive question in the archives of Scientific American anticipates a discussion of sex discrimination. For much of its history, Scientific American carved out a niche between journalism and peer-reviewed journals. Imagine if back in the 19th century, Scientific American editors dispatched correspondents to write open-minded reports on Indigenous peoples' resource management and foodways. Scientific American contributed to the programming that “normal” and “sane” for some means oppression and death for others. If Scientific American is to help shape a more just and hopeful future, we must learn from the arrogance and exclusions of our past.

Latest:
Science Jigsaws
NEWS | 13 August 2025


Breaking:
Wordology
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Filter by GameExplore the terms of science past with Wordology!

Trending:
Bird Flu Volume 2, Issue 1
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Influenza viruses like bird flu can mix and match their genomes, and this has played a role in at least three of the last four flu pandemics

This Just In:
Bird Flu, Salmonella and Other Health Risks from Raw Eggs Explained
NEWS | 13 August 2025
To minimize Salmonella risk, commercial eggs in the U.S. are washed to remove bacteria and then kept refrigerated until they are sold. In the U.S. all commercial egg products—such as liquid egg yolks and egg whites—are required to be pasteurized, however. Backyard poultry pose a potential risk because they may have contact with wild birds or contaminants, Persia notes. He recommends feeding backyard birds inside, even if they have outdoor access, to avoid attracting wild birds. The Louisiana patient had had contact with both wild birds and backyard poultry.

Today:
How to Protect Pets and Backyard Chickens from Bird Flu
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Eating raw food amplifies a pet’s risk, Sykes says, because that can expose them to meat that is contaminated with bird flu or other pathogens. Like commercially farmed poultry, backyard chickens are also vulnerable to bird flu. If the lab confirms the chicken died of bird flu, the rest of the flock will need to be culled. A cat with respiratory symptoms is more likely to be ill with something other than bird flu, Sykes says. And getting a flu shot will help reduce the chance of seasonal influenzas mingling with H5N1 if you are exposed to bird flu.

Top Stories:
How Influenza Reassortment May Make Bird Flu More Dangerous
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Influenza viruses like bird flu can mix and match their genomes, and this has played a role in at least three of the last four flu pandemicsInfluenza viruses are shifty entities. Called reassortment, this exchange happens when a person or animal is infected with two types of flu virus at the same time. Reassortment is much less common than small mutations that change the flu year to year, but it’s important: at least three of the last four human flu pandemics have involved reassortment. Flu viruses are categorized by two types of proteins on their surfaces, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). The Great Influenza that swept the globe during World War I was an H1N1 flu that likely emerged in Kansas.

World:
Could Bird Flu Spread between Humans? Here’s What It Would Take
NEWS | 13 August 2025
The receptor-binding domain is a crucial but delicate fragment of the flu virus that allows it to dock onto and enter specific cells in the body. Or it might be quick: another worry is reassortment, the ability of a flu virus to snag genetic material from another flu virus more adept at infecting people. A person who happened to be infected with both avian flu and seasonal flu could be ground zero for this kind of change. Finally, an adapted avian flu would need to evade our innate immune system, the body’s nonspecific defenses against new invaders. The 2009 H1N1 pandemic, known as the “swine flu” pandemic, was caused by a new H1N1 flu strain that had emerged from a mix of several pig flus, a human flu and an avian flu.

Sponsored:
SmartSync Data Sync App
SPONSORED | 13 August 2025
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Current Events:
Bird Flu Is Killing Wildlife, and Experts Fear the Ecological Toll
NEWS | 13 August 2025
Bird flu fears have focused on the poultry and dairy industries and human health. She lived that reality firsthand in early 2022, soon after the killer strain of bird flu arrived in North America. Other species—Merlins, Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks—may be equally vulnerable bird flu but have never come as close to extinction. Officials were so concerned that they took the unprecedented step of vaccinating condors against bird flu, but the damage was already done. Among the most recently reported infections of bird flu in U.S. wildlife: a round-tailed ground squirrel and a desert cottontail in Arizona.