FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A married couple and their son convicted of first-degree premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of a security guard who demanded the woman’s daughter wear a mask while shopping were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole. Larry Teague, wife Sharmel Teague, and Sharmel Teague’s son, Ramonyea Bishop, were sentenced […]
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These 11 People Still Haven’t Had COVID. They Share Their Secrets.
Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of Americans have had COVID at least once, with the new immune-evasive XBB.1.5 subvariant driving up the numbers of new cases and reinfections. Even the lucky few who still haven’t gotten the novel coronavirus may have actually had it before; in many cases, “never COVIDers” (or “Novids,” […]
FDA Lays Out New COVID Vaccine Plan Similar To Flu Shot Strategy
The Food and Drug Administration proposed a major change on Monday in the country’s approach to COVID-19 vaccines that, if implemented, would mirror the strategy behind annual flu shots. The new plan, outlined in documents the FDA released ahead of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee meeting on Thursday, would empower the FDA to decide in […]
House GOP Stacks COVID Response Panel With Top COVID Conspiracy Theorists
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) unveiled his picks on Tuesday for the new Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic: Republicans who have spread dangerous misinformation about COVID-19, compared wearing face masks to the Holocaust, and suggested that the omicron variant of the deadly virus was a Democratic hoax. “The 118th Congress marks a new beginning […]
If Future Humans Terraformed a New Earth, Could They Get It Right?
Fiction Future Imperfect What kind of world would humanity build with another chance to do it right? The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz Tor Books, 2023 ($28.99) Great stories often start from a tantalizing “what if?”—the more irresistibly original the premise, the better. In The Terraformers, the new novel from i09 founder and former Gizmodo editor […]
Flavor-Enhancing Spoons and Chopsticks Could Make Food Taste Better
Foods high in sugar and salt can be unhealthy, but these additives are too delicious for many of us to give up or reduce in a big way. What if we could somehow enjoy their taste without actually eating them? A student team has now designed a spoon with a structure that stimulates taste buds […]
How Star Collisions Forge the Universe’s Heaviest Elements
Bits of the stars are all around us, and in us, too. About half of the abundance of elements heavier than iron originates in some of the most violent explosions in the cosmos. As the universe churns and new stars and planets form out of old gas and dust, these elements eventually make their way […]
Here’s What We Know about Stuttering
The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. What comes to mind when you think of someone who stutters? Is that person male or female? Are they weak and nervous, or powerful and heroic? If you have a choice, would you like to marry them, introduce […]
‘Breakthrough’ Obesity Drugs Are Effective but Raise Questions
The hotel ballroom was packed to near capacity with scientists when Susan Yanovski arrived. Despite being 10 minutes early, she had to manoeuvre her way to one of the few empty seats near the back. The audience at the ObesityWeek conference in San Diego, California, in November 2022, was waiting to hear the results of […]
Why COVID’s XBB.1.5 ‘Kraken’ Variant Is So Contagious
A new, rapidly spreading variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, means a rise in new infections could be around the corner. And while it likely won’t skirt immunity completely, the variant could dodge some of our defenses thanks to a mutational boost. XBB.1.5—unofficially nicknamed “Kraken” by some scientists online—is an Omicron subvariant that […]