Taiwan said Tuesday that this year was the hottest since records began 127 years ago, echoing unprecedented temperature highs felt around the world.
Climate change sparked a trail of extreme weather and record heat globally in 2024, fueling natural disasters that caused billions of dollars worth of damage.
As of Sunday, the annual average temperature in Taiwan stood at 24.97 degrees Celsius (76.95 degrees Fahrenheit), exceeding the previous record of 24.91C in 2020 and setting a new high, the Central Weather Administration said.
"The average temperature in Taiwan in 2024 will be the highest recorded since 1897," the state forecaster said in a statement.
But, it warned that the next two months would bring "relatively lower average temperatures, with a chance of extreme cold spells", despite the global warming trend.
Taiwan said Monday it had increased its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade to as high as 30 percent from 2005 levels.
AFP Graphic showing the number of extra days of dangerous heat (likely to increase mortality) compared with a world not warmed by human activity, according to a report by World Weather Attribution
Its previous goal was a reduction of up to 25 percent.
"With the development of offshore wind power and renewable energy in 2025, we are confident we can achieve this goal," Environment Minister Peng Chi-ming told reporters.
The United Nations said Monday that the outgoing year was set to be the warmest ever recorded, capping a decade of unprecedented heat.
Global warming, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels, is not just about rising temperatures, but the knock-on effect of all the extra heat in the atmosphere and seas.
Warmer air can hold more water vapor, and warmer oceans mean greater evaporation, resulting in more intense downpours and storms.
Impacts are wide-ranging, deadly and increasingly costly, damaging property and destroying crops.
AFP In Taiwan, one of the biggest typhoons to hit the island in decades uprooted trees, and triggered floods and landslides in October
This year saw deadly flooding in Spain and Kenya, multiple violent storms in the United States and the Philippines, and severe drought and wildfires across South America.
In Taiwan, one of the biggest typhoons to hit the island in decades uprooted trees, and triggered floods and landslides in October.
Taiwan is accustomed to frequent tropical storms from July to October, but the island's weather agency said it was unusual for such a powerful typhoon to hit that late in the year.
Natural disasters around the world caused $310 billion in economic losses in 2024, Zurich-based insurance giant Swiss Re has said.
Since ancient times, the sun has been known as a giver of light and heat, a source of life. Plants are coaxed from the Earth by its rays, bringing spring, followed by bountiful harvests.
American astrophysicist George Ellery Hale gained fame by building the largest telescope in the world in the mid-20th century. Hale started his career studying the sun, and using polarized light, he showed that certain areas of the sun were highly magnetic, with fields thousands of times stronger than Earth’s. This magnetism was strongest in dark regions called sunspots.
A close-up of a sunspot captured in March 2014. (NASA Goddard)
In the 17th century, Galileo used the newly developed telescope to reveal that the sun was blemished with spots. He observed many of their properties, including that they showed the sun to rotate each month, and that their size changed over time. Although Galileo conducted some experiments with magnets in the form of lodestones used as crude compasses, he certainly did not make a connection to sunspots.
Observed changes
Sunspots captured astronomers’ interest, and with the expanding availability and quality of telescopes, were closely tracked until 1645. Despite huge interest in them, astronomers could find no sunspots for a 70-year period known as the Maunder minimum.
Then, in 1715, they mysteriously started to appear again. In the period since, sunspots have come and gone on a cycle that appears to be about 11 years long, referred to as the solar cycle, with the number of sunspots varying between zero and hundreds. Until 1859, attempts to explain solar cycles by linking them with other cyclical phenomena would have been classed as astrological, envisaging a connection between the heavens and Earth that is not real.
In 1859, Richard Carrington, a wealthy brewery owner and amateur astronomer, was sketching sunspots when, to his amazement, one turned abruptly from darkness to light.
This explosive “solar flare” lasted only a few minutes, but within two days was followed by a huge auroral and magnetic storm referred to as the Carrington Event. Auroras, normally restricted to near-polar latitudes, were seen worldwide. The technology of the day was affected, with telegraph systems running without their batteries or bursting into flames.
It is debated what the effects of a similar event would be on our modern technology, since there haven’t been any of that magnitude since. However, it was not immediately clear in 1859 that the sun and Earth really could be linked, and many thought that the solar flare and later storm were only coincidentally related.
George Ellery Hale developed imaging allowing him to see vortex flow in the sun that reminded him of the magnetic field of a bar magnet. (G. E. Hale)
Effects of solar magnetism
Hale’s discovery of solar magnetism about 50 years after the Carrington event, along with records showing that auroras had an 11-year cycle similar to that of the sun, formed the basis of our modern understanding of the “solar-terrestrial relationship.”
That relationship is fundamentally based on magnetism. Sunspots themselves store magnetic energy; its pressure allows sunspots to be cooler than the adjacent areas of the sun’s light-emitting surface or photosphere, and thus darker.
Under the right conditions, the magnetic energy can be released in various forms. White light flares like Carrington saw are very rare — more often the magnetic energy is converted to X-rays.
Gravity near the solar surface is about 30 times stronger than that on Earth, so any motion generated by flares rarely escapes from there. Instead, regions above the sunspots can succeed in shooting huge clouds of gas into space called “coronal mass ejections.” If, by chance, one is shot in the direction of our planet, it may cause auroral storms.
The last solar cycle (24) was weak but this one (25, prediction in red) is coming on much stronger than anticipated. Purple lines are averages, spiky black lines are counts. Current count is almost twice the prediction. The 11-year cycle is obvious; in 2020, for example, virtually no sunspots were seen. (Space Weather Prediction Center, NOAA)
If the magnetism of the active region around the sunspot creates a gas cloud that reaches Earth with a magnetic direction opposite to that discovered by Gilbert in 1600, energy can pour into the near-Earth region. This energy is stored on the nightside, not on the side facing the sun that it came from, and causes auroras.
If the magnetic direction does not align, there may be some compression due to the hot, fast gas cloud, but little else. Right now, we are at or near an unexpectedly large peak in the sunspot number and chances are we will continue to get large magnetic storms like that of May 2024 for possibly as much as a couple of years.
Beauty and danger combine in these events, but they are sure to fascinate.
At the bottom of the oceans and seas lie more than 8,500 shipwrecks from
two world wars. These wrecks have been estimated to contain as much as 6 billion gallons of oil, as well as munitions, toxic heavy metals and even chemical weapons.
For decades, these wrecks have largely lain out of sight and out of mind. But
all this time, their structures have been degrading, inexorably increasing the chances of sudden releases of toxic substances into the marine environment.
In parts of the globe, climate change is exacerbating this risk. Rising ocean
temperatures, acidification and increasing storminess accelerate the breakdown of
these wrecks.
Of course, wrecks from the world wars are far from the only ones to be found at the bottom of the sea, with many others adding to the problem. The cost of addressing this global issue has been estimated at US$340 billion (£261 billion).
How many of these wrecks pose a threat to people’s safety, to coastal communities and to the environment? What can be done – and why haven’t we done it sooner?
Mapping the problem
The raw figures in dollars and the numbers of wrecks on the map rightly cause concern. Work by researchers such as Paul Heersink have drawn together different datasets to help visualize the scale of the challenge. Yet these figures, and the position of dots on maps, may also give a false sense of certainty.
It remains the case that the world’s oceans and seas are not as well mapped as we
would like, with about 23% having been described and mapped in detail. Even that level of detail often falls short of what we need to positively identify a wreck, let alone determine the risk it might pose.
There is an ongoing global push to improve our mapping of ocean space under the
auspices of the Seabed 2030 project, which is looking to reach a universal resolution of 100x100m. That means one “pixel” of information would be equivalent to about two football pitches. This will be transformative for our understanding of the ocean floor, but will not reveal the detail of all those things that you could hide within those two football pitches (which includes quite a few wrecks).
Many of the wrecks that may pose the greatest problems are found in shallower coastal waters, where government mapping initiatives and work by industry provide much higher resolutions, yet still the challenge of identification remains.
What about archival records? Historical records, such as those held by Lloyd’s Register Foundation in London, are fundamental to bringing greater certainty to the scale and nature of the challenge. They contain the details of ship structures, cargos carried and last known positions prior to loss.
The accuracy of those positions, however, is variable, meaning that knowing exactly
where on the seabed a wreck might be, and so how to survey it and assess its risk, is not straightforward. This is placed in stark relief by the work of British maritime archaeologist Innes McCartney and oceanographer Mike Roberts, whose detailed geophysical and archival investigations in the Irish Sea demonstrated that historic wrecks have been frequently misattributed and mislocated. This means that the dots on the map are often in the wrong places, and up to 60% can be sitting in unknown locations on the sea floor.
Most of the wrecks causing greatest concern are of metal, or metal and wood
construction. The steel in these wrecks is slowly degrading, increasing the chance of cargos being spilt, and components breaking down. However, this is only part of the risk.
The sea is becoming an ever busier place, as we carry out more intensive
fishing and ramp up the construction of offshore wind farms and other
energy installations to meet net zero commitments. These all affect the seabed and can physically disturb or change the dynamics of wreck sites.
There is increasing global recognition of the need to address this problem. It has remained unresolved to date because of the complex international and interdisciplinary challenge it poses.
Many of the wrecks lie in waters off countries that have nothing to do with the original owner of the ship. How then, do we determine who is responsible? And who pays for the clean-up – especially when the original owner benefits from the legal loophole of sovereign immunity? Under this concept, the flag State (the country where the ship is registered) cannot be held responsible under international law and therefore is not legally obliged to pay up.
Beyond these fundamental questions of responsibility, there are technical
challenges. It’s difficult to know exactly how many wrecks of concern there are, and how to locate them. So how do we assess their condition and determine if intervention is needed? And if so, how do we intervene?
Each of these questions is a complex challenge, and solving them requires the
contributions of historians, archaeologists, engineers, biologists, geophysicists,
geochemists, hydrographic surveyors, geospatial data analysts and engineers.
This has already been happening, with regional projects making critical headway
and demonstrating what can be achieved. However, the immense scale of the
problem outweighs the amount of work done to date.
New technologies are clearly critical, as are new attitudes. At the heart of the
problem is an issue of knowledge and certainty – is this the wreck we think it is, does it pose a problem and if so, over what time scale?
Advances in subsea drones known as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which are fitted with an array of sensors to measure the seabed and detect pollutants, could help enhance our knowledge about the locations of wrecks, what they’re carrying and their state of deterioration. AUVs can provide relatively cheap, high resolution data that produces fewer emissions than a comparable survey campaign conducted from a large research vessel.
But we also need to share that information, and compare it with data from archives to help generate knowledge and higher levels of certainty. Too often, underwater surveys and investigations occur in silos, with data held by individual agencies or companies, preventing a rapid and cumulative increase in understanding.
The severity of the environmental and safety risk posed by wrecks on the ocean floor, and how it changes over time, is not fully known. But this is a problem we can solve.
Action is needed now, driven by a robust regulatory and funding framework, and
technical standards for remediation. A global partnership – codenamed Project Tangaroa – has been convened to stimulate that framework – but political will and financing is required to make it a reality.
Through targeted archival and survey work, and by sharing data and ideas, we can chart a course to a future where the sea is not a place where we ignore things today that will threaten us tomorrow.
On this day three years ago, we witnessed the nail-biting launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful telescope humans have ever sent into space.
It took 30 years to build, but in three short years of operation, JWST has already revolutionised our view of the cosmos.
It’s explored our own Solar System, studied the atmospheres of distant planets in search of signs of life and probed the farthest depths to find the very first stars and galaxies formed in the universe.
Here’s what JWST has taught us about the early universe since its launch – and the new mysteries it has uncovered.
Eerie blue monsters
JWST has pushed the boundary of how far we can look into the universe to find the first stars and galaxies. With Earth’s atmosphere out of the way, its location in space makes for perfect conditions to peer into the depths of the cosmos with infrared light.
The current record for the most distant galaxy confirmed by JWST dates back to a time when the universe was only about 300 million years old. Surprisingly, within this short time window, this galaxy managed to form about 400 million times the mass of our Sun.
This indicates star formation in the early universe was extremely efficient. And this galaxy is not the only one.
When galaxies grow, their stars explode, creating dust. The bigger the galaxy, the more dust it has. This dust makes galaxies appear red because it absorbs the blue light. But here’s the catch: JWST has shown these first galaxies to be shockingly bright, massive and very blue, with no sign of any dust. That’s a real puzzle.
There are many theories to explain the weird nature of these first galaxies. Do they have huge stars that just collapse due to gravity without undergoing massive supernova explosions?
Or do they have such large explosions that all dust is pushed away far from the galaxy, exposing a blue, dust-free core? Perhaps the dust is destroyed due to the intense radiation from these early exotic stars – we just don’t know yet.
Artist’s impression of what a blue galaxy in the early universe would look like. ESO/M. Kornmesser.
Unusual chemistry in early galaxies
The early stars were the key building blocks of what eventually became life. The universe began with only hydrogen, helium and a small amount of lithium. All other elements, from the calcium in our bones to the oxygen in the air we breathe, were forged in the cores of these stars.
They contain a significant amount of nitrogen, far more than what we observe in our Sun, while most other metals are present in lower quantities. This suggests there were processes at play in the early universe we don’t yet fully understand.
JWST has shown our models of how stars drive the chemical evolution of galaxies are still incomplete, meaning we still don’t fully understand the conditions that led to our existence.
Using massive clusters of galaxies as gigantic magnifying glasses, JWST’s sensitive cameras can also peer deep into the cosmos to find the faintest galaxies.
We pushed further to find the point at which galaxies become so faint, they stop forming stars altogether. This helps us understand the conditions under which galaxy formation comes to an end.
JWST is yet to find this limit. However, it has uncovered many faint galaxies, far more than anticipated, emitting over four times the energetic photons (light particles) we expected.
The discovery suggests these small galaxies may have played a crucial role in ending the cosmic “dark ages” not long after the Big Bang.
Rectangles highlight the apertures of JWST’s near infrared spectrograph array, through which light was captured and analysed to unravel the mysteries of the galaxies’ chemical compositions. Atek et al., 2024, Nature
The mysterious case of the little red dots
The very first images of JWST resulted in another dramatic, unexpected discovery. The early universe is inhabited by an abundance of “little red dots”: extremely compact red colour sources of unknown origin.
Bright hydrogen gas is emitting light at enormous speeds, thousands of kilometres per second, characteristic of gas swirling around a supermassive black hole.
This phenomenon, called an active galactic nucleus, usually indicates a feeding frenzy where a supermassive black hole is gobbling up all the gas around it, growing rapidly.
But these are not your garden variety active galactic nuclei. For starters: they don’t emit any detectable X-rays, as is normally expected. Even more intriguingly, they seem to have the features of star populations.
Could these galaxies be both stars and active galactic nuclei at the same time? Or some evolutionary stage in between? Whatever they are, the little red dots are probably going to teach us something about the birth of both supermassive black holes and stars in galaxies.
In the background, the JWST image of the Pandora Cluster (Abell 2744) is displayed, with a little red dot highlighted in a blue inset. The foreground inset on the left showcases a montage of several little red dots discovered by JWST. Adapted from Furtak et al., and Matthee et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 2023-2024; JWST-GLASS and UNCOVER Teams
The impossibly early galaxies
As well as extremely lively early galaxies, JWST has also found extremely dead corpses: galaxies in the early universe that are relics of intense star formation at cosmic dawn.
These corpses had been found by Hubble and ground-based telescopes, but only JWST had the power to dissect their light to reveal how long they’ve been dead.
It has uncovered some extremely massive galaxies (as massive as our Milky Way today and more) that formed in the first 700 million years of cosmic history. Our current galaxy formation models can’t explain these objects – they are too big and formed too early.
Cosmologists are still debating whether the models can be bent to fit (for example, maybe early star formation was extremely efficient) or whether we have to reconsider the nature of dark matter and how it gives rise to early collapsing objects.
JWST will turn up many more of these objects in the next year and study the existing ones in greater detail. Either way, we will know soon.
What’s next for JWST?
Just within its first steps, the telescope has revealed many shortcomings of our current models of the universe. While we are refining our models to account for the updates JWST has brought us, we are most excited about the unknown unknowns.
The mysterious red dots were hiding from our view. What else is lingering in the depths of cosmos? JWST will soon tell us.
A new report from Amy Maxmen of KFF Health News highlights the potential danger of bird flu turning into a full-blown pandemic in the United States.
In particular, Maxmen, an award-winning journalist in New York City who covers public health, science policy, and inequality, spoke with several experts who said the United States has been behind the ball when it comes to keeping a handle on the pandemic and they point to the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture has only recently started testing milk nationwide for bird flu contamination.
"It's disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis reemerge," explained Tom Bollyky, the director of the Council on Foreign Relations' Global Health Program, according to the article by Maxmen, which was redistributed by PBS.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, expressed a similar dismay at the American government's slow response to bird flu so far.
“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” she said, according to the report. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”
Tom Peacock, a bird flu researcher at the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom, said that the real danger could come if the bird flu virus mutates in a way that makes it easily transmissible between humans.
“Even if there’s only a 5 percent chance of a bird flu pandemic happening, we’re talking about a pandemic that probably looks like 2020 or worse,” he told KFF Health News' Maxmen. “The U.S. knows the risk but hasn’t done anything to slow this down."
Macros seem to come up often in the corners of the internet and social media devoted to people trying to lose weight, improve their health, look better and feel better about themselves. But what the heck is a macro?
With more information than ever available at your fingertips, and more diets out there than you have fingers and toes to count on, it’s no wonder you might be confused. As an exercise science specialist interested in physical health and nutrition, I’ve got you covered.
“Macros” is just a shorthand term for macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fats. They’re the nutritional building blocks that all foods are made up of in various ratios.
If you look at a nutrition label, you’ll see that macros are measured in grams. But it’s important to understand that the calories per gram for each macro aren’t the same. Protein and carbohydrates each have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram. In other words, fat provides more than twice the amount of energy per gram compared with protein and carbohydrates.
People rarely eat proteins, carbohydrates or fats in isolation. For example, while chicken is widely considered a source of protein, it also contains fat. Almost every food contains more than one macronutrient.
What macros do and where to find them
Beyond its job building muscle, protein also plays other critical roles in the body: as a component of enzymes, transporting nutrients and producing hormones. Sources of protein include animal meats, eggs, fish and seafood, and dairy. While animal sources have the highest protein content, plant food sources, such as whole grains, legumes such as beans, and nuts and seeds also contain protein. You don’t need to consume animal products to get adequate protein in your diet.
The 2020-2025 federal dietary guidelines for Americans recommend at least 46 grams of protein for adult females and at least 56 grams for adult males, although this may be too low for older adults, pregnant and lactating women, and people with high levels of physical activity.
Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred energy source. They’re found in bread, rice, pasta, fruits, dairy products, legumes and starchy vegetables. Simple sugars also fit into the carbohydrate category, and those are the ones to limit.
As for fats, there are different types: polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated and trans fat. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated have the greatest health benefits and are found in things such as nuts and seeds and fish. Omega-3s are essential fatty acids that can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and are found in fatty fish such as salmon and nuts such as walnuts.
Artificial trans fats are created by an industrial process. You’ll see them listed as partially hydrogenated oils on nutrition labels for fried and baked goods. They increase the risk of heart disease and death.
In a word, yes, calories matter. But calories from different sources do affect the body differently.
For example, 2,000 calories of junk food and soda are not going to help with appetite control the same way that 2,000 calories of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats and lean proteins will. Fiber, for example, is found in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and has been found to be a potent appetite regulator.
The good news is that the most important thing for weight management is caloric balance and consistency. In fact, evidence suggests that there is no “optimal” diet that can be applied to everyone, and that various weight loss strategies – different macronutrient distributions, intermittent fasting and so on – all balance out over the long run.
From tiny and impoverished Mayotte to oil-rich behemoth Saudi Arabia, prosperous European cities to overcrowded slums in Africa, nowhere was spared the devastating impact of supercharged climate disasters in 2024.
This year is the hottest in history, with record-breaking temperatures in the atmosphere and oceans acting like fuel for extreme weather around the world.
World Weather Attribution, experts on how global warming influences extreme events, said nearly every disaster they analyzed over the past 12 months was intensified by climate change.
"The impacts of fossil fuel warming have never been clearer or more devastating than in 2024. We are living in a dangerous new era," said climate scientist Friederike Otto, who leads the WWA network.
- Heat -
That was tragically evident in June when more than 1,300 people died during the Muslim hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia where temperatures hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit).
Extreme heat -- sometimes dubbed the 'silent killer' -- also proved deadly in Thailand, India, and United States.
Conditions were so intense in Mexico that howler monkeys dropped dead from the trees, while Pakistan kept millions of children at home as the mercury inched above 50C.
Greece recorded its earliest ever heatwave, forcing the closure of its famed Acropolis and fanning terrible wildfires, at the outset of Europe's hottest summer yet.
- Floods -
Climate change isn't just sizzling temperatures -- warmer oceans mean higher evaporation, and warmer air absorbs more moisture, a volatile recipe for heavy rainfall.
In April, the United Arab Emirates received two years worth of rain in a single day, turning parts of the desert-state into a sea, and hobbling Dubai's international airport.
Kenya was barely out of a once-in-a-generation drought when the worst floods in decades delivered back-to-back disasters for the East African nation.
Four million people needed aid after historic flooding killed more than 1,500 people across West and Central Africa. Europe -- most notably Spain -- also suffered tremendous downpours that caused deadly flash flooding.
Afghanistan, Russia, Brazil, China, Nepal, Uganda, India, Somalia, Pakistan, Burundi and the United States were among other countries that witnessed flooding in 2024.
- Cyclones -
Warmer ocean surfaces feed energy into tropical cyclones as they barrel toward land, whipping up fierce winds and their destructive potential.
Major hurricanes pummeled the United States and Caribbean, most notably Milton, Beryl and Helene, in a 2024 season of above-average storm activity.
The Philippines endured six major storms in November alone, just two months after suffering Typhoon Yagi as it tore through Southeast Asia.
In December, scientists said global warming had helped intensify Cyclone Chino to a Category 4 storm as it collided head-on with Mayotte, devastating France's poorest overseas territory.
- Droughts and wildfires -
Some regions may be wetter as climate change shifts rainfall patterns, but others are becoming drier and more vulnerable to drought.
The Americas suffered severe drought in 2024 and wildfires torched millions of hectares in the western United States, Canada, and the Amazon basin -- usually one of Earth's wettest places.
Between January and September, more than 400,000 fires were recorded across South America, shrouding the continent in choking smoke.
The World Food Programme in December said 26 million people across southern Africa were at risk of hunger as a months-long drought parched the impoverished region.
- Economic toll -
Extreme weather cost thousands of lives in 2024 and left countless more in desperate poverty. The lasting toll of such disasters is impossible to quantify.
In terms of economic losses, Zurich-based reinsurance giant Swiss Re estimated the global damage bill at $310 billion, a statement issued early December.
Flooding in Europe -- particularly in the Spanish province of Valencia, where over 200 people died in October -- and hurricanes Helene and Milton drove up the cost, the company said.
As of November 1, the United States had suffered 24 weather disasters in 2024 with losses exceeding $1 billion each, government figures showed.
Drought in Brazil cost its farming sector $2.7 billion between June and August, while "climatic challenges" drove global wine production to its lowest level since 1961, an industry body said.
Donald Trump's inner circle is set up for an internal fight over how best to tackle America's obesity epidemic, as previous reports have made clear — and tech billionaire Elon Musk just lobbed a new salvo in the fight, putting him further at odds with Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., The Daily Beast reported.
Specifically, the two sharply disagree over the promotion of Ozempic and related GLP-1 agonist drugs, widely considered to be the most effective weight loss medications ever devised.
Kennedy, an avowed conspiracy theorist on things issues like vaccines and water fluoridation who cultivates a muscular, bodybuilding personal image, has a set idea of how to push people toward what he sees as a "natural" and "healthy" lifestyle, and considers weight loss medication to be contrary to this idea. When he was running for president, noted The Beast, he promised to “restore America as the global example of health & well-being. Not through pills or syringes, but through character and self-discipline.” He has stated in interviews, “The first line of response should be lifestyle” — although he may not be entirely clear that GLP-1 drugs work primarily by encouraging people to eat less, making lifestyle change easier.
Musk, for his part, embraces the new medical technology — and this week, posted a picture of himself having visibly lost weight in a Santa outfit, with the caption, "Ozempic Santa."
The promotion of these new weight loss drugs has so far not been an issue that divides along party lines; the outgoing Biden administration, too has advocated expanding medical coverage for them, which experts believe could dramatically improve health across the board by reducing a number of illnesses for every organ system in the body that are related to obesity.
Stephen Moore, an economic adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, argued that a $419,470 cocaine study on rats was what was contributing "so much" to the U.S. national debt.
In a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Moore reacted to Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) annual "Festivus" list that complained about spending programs he opposed.
Moore pointed to the $419,470 study on rats and $12 million to fund a pickleball complex in Las Vegas as prime offenders for creating national debt.
"I mean, pickleball, I love playing pickleball, but I don't think the federal government should be subsidizing it, or football stadiums, or there's another one where they're giving rats cocaine to see what happens when the rats take cocaine," Moore opined. "Gee, I wonder what happens under those circumstances. I mean, it just goes on and on and on."
"And this is what is contributing so much to our $35.5 trillion national debt," he added. "And frankly, those are the things that should just be eliminated. We don't have the money to do it."
NASA's pioneering Parker Solar Probe is poised to make its closest-ever approach of the Sun on Christmas Eve, a record-setting 3.8 million miles (6.2 million kilometers) from the surface.
Launched in August 2018, the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect life on Earth.
Its closest approach to date will happen on Tuesday, December 24, at 6:53 am (11:53 GMT).
If the distance between Earth and the Sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, the spacecraft would be about four yards (meters) from the end zone at that point.
"This is one example of NASA's bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer longstanding questions about our universe," said Arik Posner, Parker Solar Probe program scientist, in a statement.
"We can't wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks."
During this closest approach -- known as perihelion -- mission teams will lose direct contact with Parker, relying on a "beacon tone" this Friday to confirm the spacecraft's status.
Although the heat shield will endure scorching temperatures of about 1,600 to 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (870 to 930 degrees Celsius), the probe's internal instruments will remain near room temperature -- around 85F (29C) -- as it explores the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona.
Not only will the temperatures be extreme, but Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), fast enough to fly from the US capital Washington to Tokyo in under a minute.
"No human-made object has ever passed this close to a star, so Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory," said Nick Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.
"We're excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun."
By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has been helping scientists tackle some of the Sun's biggest mysteries: how the solar wind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface below, and how coronal mass ejections -- massive clouds of plasma that hurl through space -- are formed.
This Christmas Eve flyby is the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two -- on March 22, 2025, and June 19, 2025 -- both expected to bring Parker Solar Probe back to a similarly close distance from the Sun.
Southern right whales have lifespans that reach well past 100 years, and 10% may live past 130 years, according to our new research published in the journal Science Advances. Some of these whales may live to 150. This lifespan is almost double the 70-80 years they are conventionally believed to live.
These two species are very closely related – only 25 years ago they were considered to be one species – so we’d expect them to have similarly long lifespans. We attribute the stark difference in longevity in North Atlantic right whales to human-caused mortality, mostly from entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes.
Survivorship curves show female right whales can live to very old ages, but humans are causing North Atlantic right whales to die well short of their potential. Plotted for comparison is the U.S. survivorship curve for women as estimated by the Social Security Adminstration. Greg Breed
We made these new age estimates using photo identification of individual female whales over several decades. Individual whales can be recognized year after year from photographs. When they die, they stop being photographically “resighted” and disappear. Using these photos, we developed what scientists call “survivorship curves” by estimating the probability whales would disappear from the photographic record as they aged. From these survivorship curves, we could estimate maximum potential lifespans.
Twenty-five years ago, scientists working with Indigenous whale hunters in the Arctic showed that bowhead whales could live up to and even over 200 years. Their evidence included finding stone harpoon points that hadn’t been used since the mid-1800s embedded in the blubber of whales recently killed by traditional whalers. Analysis of proteins from the eyes of hunted whales provided further evidence of their long lifespan. Like right whales, before that analysis, researchers thought bowhead whales lived to about 80 years, and that humans were the mammals that lived the longest.
In the years following that report, scientists tried to figure out what was unique about bowhead whales that allowed them to live so long. But our new analysis of the longevity of two close relatives of bowheads shows that other whale species also have potentially extremely long lives.
Why it matters
Understanding how long wild animals live has major implications for how to best protect them. Animals that have very long lifespans usually reproduce extremely slowly and can go many years between births. Baleen whales’ life history – particularly the age when females start breeding and the interval between calves – is strongly influenced by their potential lifespan. Conservation and management strategies that do not plan accordingly will have a higher chance of failure. This is especially important given the expected impacts of climate disruption.
What still isn’t known
There are many other large whales, including blue, fin, sei, humpback, gray and sperm whales. Like bowhead and right whales, these were also almost wiped out by whaling. Scientists currently assume they live about 80 or 90 years, but that’s what we believed about bowhead and right whales until data proved they can live much longer.
How long can these other whale species live? Industrial whaling, which ended only in the 1960s, removed old whales from the world’s whale populations. Though many whale populations are recovering in number, there hasn’t been enough time for whales born after the end of industrial whaling to become old.
It’s possible, even likely, that many other whale species will also prove to have long lifespans.
Other research finds the loss of older individuals from populations is a phenomenon occurring across most large animal species. It diminishes the reproductive potential of many species. Researchers also argue this represents a real loss of culture and wisdom in animals that degrades their potential for survival in the face of changing conditions.
What’s next
We want to better understand how whaling affected the number of old individuals in current whale populations and predict when the number of old individuals will recover to prewhaling levels. Preliminary results suggest it may be another 100 years before whale populations truly recover, even for species whose populations now number as many as there were before whaling.
For North Atlantic right whales, our research shows that even when the population was increasing, the management actions taken were insufficient to prevent these whales from dying far too young.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
As a kid, it was tough for me to grasp the massive time scale of Earth’s history. Now, with nearly two decades of experience as a geologist, I think one of the best ways to understand our planet’s history and evolution is by condensing the entire timeline into a single calendar year.
So, how do we go about this? If we consider Earth’s age as 4.54 billion years and divide it by 365 days, each day of the Gregorian calendar represents about 12.438 million years.
Let’s say we want to calculate what “day” the Paleozoic started in our new Earth calendar. We just need to subtract 541 million years from the age of the planet and divide it by 12.438 million years. Simple, right?
As I ran these equations, I noticed something amusing. Some of the most significant events in Earth’s history coincide with major holidays in the Western world. By this reckoning, the dinosaurs went extinct on Christmas Day.
The more we learn about cats, the more we realize they are complex individuals with unique personalities and preferences, capable of learning.
From understanding your cat’s language to keeping them safe and healthy – here are science-backed tips to improve the lives of your feline flatmates.
Anyone who truly understands cats will readily tell you they can and do closely bond with their people. zhukovvvlad/Shutterstock
1. Pay attention to body language
Cats communicate with humans using body language and vocalization. However, while cats direct meows at humans, and the meows vary depending on the context, humans are not great at decoding them. But we can read cat body language.
For example, slow blinking is likely to indicate a positive emotional state. Cats who are not happy (for example, don’t want to be touched) will freeze, move away, flatten their ears, hiss, or – if they feel they have no other option – scratch or bite.
It is better to allow cats to approach you on their terms, rather than pushing for social interaction. A cat approaching you with their tail up is giving a friendly signal, while a tail swishing from side to side signals annoyance.
Cats should always have the option to opt out of any interaction, like being touched. If you aren’t sure, just “ask”: stop patting them. If they walk away, they’re not keen. If they rub their head against you, they want to continue the interaction.
Cat body language goes a long way to show whether they are enjoying the interaction or not. moncrub/Shutterstock
A safe space so that cats can retreat if frightened.
Multiple, separated key resources (food, water, toileting areas, scratching areas, play areas and resting or sleeping areas) so that cats can comfortably conduct their daily activities.
Opportunity for play and predatory behaviour, such as games with wand toys that simulate hunting.
Positive, consistent and predictable human-cat interactions, respecting a cat’s choice about whether and how they interact.
Respecting the importance of a cat’s senses by avoiding undesirable stimuli (strong smells and loud noises), and providing desirable sensory stimulation (for example, use of catnip or silver vine).
These pillars provide a useful checklist. If you read this and realise your cat’s food and water are right next to the litter tray, you can improve your cat’s environment (and their experiences of eating and toileting) by separating these resources right now.
Hero, the author’s cat, loves scratching cardboard produce boxes. Anne Quain
3. Clean the litter tray!
A litter tray may represent an unpleasant chore to you, but the importance of a spacious litter tray to your cat cannot be overstated. Cats prefer using a clean litter tray, even if they are the only cat in the household.
Poor litter hygiene is associated with a risk of urinary problems, which can be life-threatening.
A survey of over 12,000 Australian cat owners found that urinary problems were more common in households with a low number of litter trays per cat, less frequent removal of faeces from the trays, and the use of crystal-type cat litter.
If you switch the type of litter you provide, a slow transition is recommended to allow cats to get used to the change.
Maintaining a large, clean litter tray is vital for your indoor cat’s wellbeing and physical health. Oleg Opryshko/Shutterstock
4. Read the room
Do you have more than one cat? Tension between household cats is common but often overlooked, as it’s not always physical fighting. Signs of inter-cat tension can include prolonged staring, or even blocking the use of resources such as the litter tray or cat door, to prevent other cats from using them.
In their 2024 intercat-tension guidelines, the American Association of Feline Practitioners note this can case chronic fear, anxiety and stress-related illnesses in cats.
Learning to recognise and manage tension between household cats can improve the welfare of all parties.
When you love your cat, it is tempting to seek to amplify the joy by adopting another. But many cats prefer to be the only cat in the household, and don’t cope well with a feline flatmate. If they have positive interactions with familiar, trusted humans, they’re unlikely to be lonely.
Many cats, like Audrey (pictured) actually prefer to be the solo cat in the household. The Conversation
5. Keep cats and other animals safe
Historically, domesticated cats earned their keep protecting grain stores from rodents. But what constitutes responsible cat ownership has changed. Around 65% of Australia’s cat owners confine their cats indoors always, while 24% keep their cats confined at night.
A major driver for indoor-only housing of cats is their predation of wildlife. Another is concerns about roaming-associated risks to cats, including cat fights, infectious diseases (such as feline immunodeficiency virus or FIV), misadventure and motor vehicle trauma. But owners of cats kept entirely indoors were more likely to report “problem” behaviours.
Ideally, cats shouldn’t be allowed to free-roam unsupervised where they can harm wildlife, even within the bounds of the property where you live. More than a third of local councils in Australia now require cats to be contained overnight or 24 hours a day.
Outdoor access provides sensory stimulation, with different sights, sounds and smells. Alternatives to free roaming include providing access to a well-designed cat run, harness-training your cat, or supervising your cat.
Cats trained to walk on a leash with a harness can safely enjoy some supervised outdoor time. alexgo.photography/Shutterstock
Cats who don’t leave home unless they’re moving house or being taken to the vet, quickly learn to associate the cat carrier with a trip to an unfamiliar environment. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a vet visit is imminent when the carrier comes out.
But that negative association can be changed. Cats who were rewarded with treats when they approached, stepped inside or rested in the carrier for six weeks were much less stressed during veterinary visits.
Cats are intelligent, and contrary to popular opinion, can be trained. The process can be enriching for cats and humans alike. With patience and commitment, you can train your cat – from a simple “sit” to voluntarily stepping into the cat carrier.
In short, give cats choice, respect their “cat-ness”, pay attention to their needs and try to see our world from their point of view. Your cat will be happier for it.
