Editor's note

When immigrants move to a new country, they eat different foods and consume unfamiliar medicines. Computational biologists Pajau Vangay and Dan Knights discovered that soon after Asian immigrants settle in the U.S., the microbes that live in their digestive tracts are replaced by Western bacteria. These shifts in the microbial community – the microbiome – may explain the rise in chronic diseases, including obesity, in these new immigrants.

On Wednesday, Turkish prosecutors described how Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. To Arab media expert Sahar Mohamed Khamis of the University of Maryland, a significant part of the murder is that the media is finally paying attention to the dangers faced by Saudis, Egyptians and Syrians who call out oppressive regimes in the Middle East – many of whom remain vulnerable to kidnappings and murder.

According to a new study, the world’s oceans have absorbed more excess heat from climate change than experts previously thought. Colorado State University atmospheric scientist Scott Denning explains why he thinks the authors’ surprising results are credible and why drastic cuts in carbon emissions are urgently needed.

Bijal Trivedi

Science and Technology Editor

Top stories

S'gaw Karen girls of Khun Yuam District, Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand. Takeaway

Immigration to US Westernizes Asian guts

Pajau Vangay, University of Minnesota; Dan Knights, University of Minnesota

When immigrants come to the US, it isn't just the people who assimilate. The microbes in their gut also become Westernized after living here. This may predispose them to diseases like obesity.

Candles, lit by activists, protesting the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, are placed outside Saudi Arabia’s consulate, in Istanbul. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

Jamal Khashoggi’s murder finally brings media attention to plight of Arab world’s exiled critics

Sahar Khamis, University of Maryland

Will it embolden or neuter the Arab world's autocratic regimes?

The ocean absorbs about 90 percent of the excess heat produced as climate change warms the earth. Image Catalog

New findings on ocean warming: 5 questions answered

Scott Denning, Colorado State University

According to a new study, the oceans have absorbed more heat from climate change than previously thought. This could mean the Earth will warm even faster in the future than scientists have predicted.

Science + Technology

Politics + Society

  • How safe is your place of worship?

    Christopher P. Scheitle, West Virginia University; Jeffery T. Ulmer, Pennsylvania State University

    A national survey of over 1,300 congregations found that religious leaders struggle to balance security concerns with carrying out a mission to be open to the communities they serve.

  • Campaign spending isn’t the problem – where the money comes from is

    Richard Briffault, Columbia University

    Congressional midterm election spending will likely hit a record $5 billion. But the spending masks the main problem with US campaign financing: who gives the money and what they may get in return.

Environment + Energy

  • One way to reduce food waste: Use it to make soil healthier

    Matthew Wallenstein, Colorado State University; Cynthia Kallenbach, McGill University; Peter Olayemi, Colorado State University

    Leftover lactose from cheese production shows early promise as a treatment that can help soils retain water and nutrients, making them more resistant to drought.

Economy + Business

Education

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