uvečaj veličinu pisma
Photo: Vivian Grisogono
But there are alternatives....
When a small Swedish town discovered their drinking water contained extremely high levels of Pfas, they had no idea what it would mean for their health and their children’s future
If Agneta Bruno closes her eyes, the soapy smell takes her back to childhood. Cycling home to the barracks where she lived with her father, an air force major, she would whiz through patches of snowy-white foam near the entrance of the base. The foam resembled the bubbles you get in the bathtub, just thicker. “I had to lift my feet up to avoid getting wet,” Bruno told me.
Aqueous film-forming foam (Afff) is a miracle of firefighting: it’s highly effective in putting out flammable liquid fires, such as those caused by jet fuel spills. Chemicals in the foam create a stable blanket over liquid fuel, trapping the flammable vapours and extinguishing the fire. At the air force base in Bruno’s home town of Kallinge in Sweden, firefighters were trained to douse flames using the foam. New recruits came every few weeks, so the training sessions were pretty constant. Afterwards, the foam would soak away into the sandy soil and disappear.
Continue reading...
More than 120 years after billions of the trees were wiped out, blight-proof seeds are being planted
It was in New York City that a mysterious fungus was first spotted on an American chestnut, a blight that was to rapidly sweep across the eastern US, wiping out billions of the cherished trees. Now, 120 years later, there is fresh hope of a comeback for chestnuts, spurred not only by scientists but also eager New Yorkers planting blight-proof seeds in their back yards and local parks.
The American chestnut was once found in vast numbers from Maine to Mississippi and known as the redwoods of the east due to its prodigious size. But 4bn trees were killed off in the first half of last century by a blight introduced from Asia to which it had little defense, spread by spores carried by the wind, rain and animals.
Continue reading...
Environmental group says adding levies to airline tickets would help ease financial burden on poor countries
Adding a levy to airline tickets could raise more than €100bn a year to pay for the damage done by climate breakdown, research has found.
Flying is the most carbon-intensive means of travel, but is artificially cheap as airline fuel is often not taxed, and the environmental impacts are not paid for.
Continue reading...
Government issued permit to shoot young female who entered Vilnius, despite only small number left in Baltic country
A young female bear caused a stir after wandering out of the forest and into the leafy suburbs of the Lithuanian capital.
For two days, the brown bear ambled through the neighbourhoods of Vilnius, trotted across highways and explored backyards – all while being chased by onlookers with smartphones and, eventually, drones.
Continue reading...
Breaching threshold would ramp up catastrophic weather events, further increasing human suffering
The planet’s remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen.
Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years.
Continue reading...
Volatile weather patterns may be altering taste of juniper berries – a key botanical in the spirit – scientists say
The flavour of a gin and tonic may be impacted by climate change, scientists have found.
Volatile weather patterns, made more likely by climate breakdown, could change the taste of juniper berries, which are the key botanical that give gin its distinctive taste.
Continue reading...
Garments thrown out by consumers from Next, George, M&S and others found in or near conservation areas
Clothes discarded by UK consumers and shipped to Ghana have been found in a huge rubbish dump in protected wetlands, an investigation has found.
Reporters for Unearthed working with Greenpeace Africa found garments from Next in the dump and other sites, and items from George at Asda and Marks & Spencer washed up nearby.
Continue reading...
Conservationists hoping to improve Australia’s container deposit schemes point to Europe, where return rates are up to 98% and refunds range from 17 to 43c
It’s a block of text almost ubiquitous on every bottle or can of drink that Australians buy: “10c refund at collection depots in participating state/territory of purchase.”
More than 7bn bottles and cans were returned under the schemes last year, but conservationists and the recycling industry have told Guardian Australia that on an individual level, the schemes are underperforming. Some blame the 10c refund rate, and argue it should be doubled.
Continue reading...
In a world of stress and social media, birding offers something completely different. And it is now easier than ever to get to know your chaffinch from your chiffchaff
I’m assured this is a big deal: on the far side of a field in Thetford, separated from me by a gate, there is a stone-curlew.
Jon Carter, from the British Trust for Ornithology, patiently directs my binoculars up, down and past patches of grass until my gaze lands on an austere-looking, long-legged brown bird. “Quite a rare bird,” Carter says, pleased. “Very much a bird of the Breckland.”
Continue reading...
Since 1999, Armando López Pocol and his team of volunteers have bucked the trend for deforestation, regenerating the landscape of the highlands with their Chico Mendes project
Armando López Pocol is showing off some of the thousands of trees he has planted in Pachaj, his village in the highlands of western Guatemala, when he suddenly halts his white pickup truck. Alongside an American volunteer, Lyndon Hauge, he gazes out over a charred field. Clouds of smoke are still billowing from the ground.
As he walks through the ash-covered field, his optimistic speech turns to sadness and he pauses in silence to take in the barren landscape.
Continue reading...
Rak gušterače ima jednu od najnižih stopa preživljavanja i malo učinkovitih terapija. Iako je imunoterapija transformirala krajolik liječenja za nekoliko drugih vrsta raka, općenito nudi malu korist za rak gušterače. Međutim, nova studija ističe malu, ali važnu skupinu pacijenata koji su iskusili značajan i trajan odgovor na imunološki tretman bez kemoterapije.
Šest od deset osoba s dijabetesom tipa 2 imalo je masnu jetru u nedavno objavljenoj studiji. Od njih, samo mali postotak razvio je težu bolest jetre. Studija također pomaže potvrditi da oni koji imaju dijabetes tipa 2 u kombinaciji s pretilošću imaju veći rizik od masne jetre što dovodi do teže bolesti jetre.
Konzumacija kanabisa povezana je s udvostručenjem rizika od smrti od kardiovaskularnih bolesti, sa značajno povećanim rizikom od moždanog udara ili akutnog koronarnog sindroma - iznenadnog smanjenog ili blokiranog protoka krvi u srce - otkriva nova analiza.
Nova analiza gotovo 700.000 slučajeva raka dojke otkriva da statini mogu značajno poboljšati ishode pacijenata, dovodeći u pitanje ranija uvjerenja o njihovoj ograničenoj ulozi u liječenju raka.
Žene koje rade u noćnim smjenama imaju veću vjerojatnost da će patiti od umjerene ili teške astme u usporedbi sa ženama koje rade danju, ukazuju rezultati nove studije. Istraživanje, koje je obuhvatilo više od 270.000 ljudi, nije pronašlo takvu vezu između astme i rada u noćnim smjenama kod muškaraca.
Rezultati nove studije pokazali su da rastuće temperature povećavaju težinu opstruktivne sleep apneje (apneje u snu) te da se, prema najvjerojatnijim scenarijima klimatskih promjena, očekuje da će se društveni teret sleep apneje usljed globalnog zatopljena udvostručiti tijekom sljedećih 75 godina.
Izloženost mikotoksinima – širokoj skupini štetnih tvari koje proizvodi plijesan – tijekom trudnoće može utjecati na funkciju posteljice, posebice kod žena i dojenčadi s ABCG2 421A genotipom, što bi moglo rezultirati nižom porođajnom težinom kod dojenčeta, pokazuje nova studija.
Multipla skleroza (MS) pogađa otprilike 2,3 milijuna ljudi diljem svijeta. Otprilike 80% ljudi s MS-om ima upalu u malom mozgu, dijelu mozga koji pomaže u kontroli pokreta i ravnoteže, što potencijalno dovodi do tremora, loše koordinacije i problema s motoričkom kontrolom. Ovi problemi često traju i mogu se pogoršati s vremenom, jer mali mozak postupno gubi zdravo moždano tkivo.
Kombinirana terapija koja dodaje nedavno odobreni lijek revumenib trenutnoj standardoj skrbi za novodijagnosticiranu akutnu mijeloičnu leukemiju (AML), pokazala je visoke stope potpune remisije u kliničkom ispitivanju u ranoj fazi. Lijek revumenib je oralni inhibitor menina odobren za pacijente s relapsom AML-a s promjenom KMT2Ar.
Glavni uzročnik bolničkih infekcija, superbakterija meticilin-rezistentni Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), ne samo da pokazuje snažnu otpornost na postojeće antibiotike, već i formira gusti biofilm koji blokira učinke vanjskih tretmana. Kako bi se suočili s ovim izazovom, znanstvenici s KAIST-a, u suradnji s međunarodnim timom, uspješno su razvili platformu koja koristi mikromjehuriće za isporuku genski ciljanih nanočestica sposobnih za razgradnju biofilmova, nudeći inovativno rješenje za liječenje infekcija otpornih na konvencionalne antibiotike.
