|
|
Physically acting out dreams, sometimes violently, is unsettling enough, but this activity can also be an early sign of neurological problems, including Parkinson’s disease. In one of our most-read science stories this week, University of Virginia neurologist Anelyssa D'Abreu provides an overview of REM sleep behavior disorder, a little-understood condition that affects millions of people, with symptoms most often first appearing in people in their 40s and 50s.
Although there are no approved therapies, she notes that medications such as melatonin and clonazepam may improve the symptoms.
Tomorrow is the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and this year’s forecast is complicated by the expected formation of El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean. Iowa State University atmospheric scientist Christina Patricola unpacks the various factors at play in this story, with numerous graphics to demonstrate the effects of sea temperatures and shifting global wind patterns during an El Niño. The good news is that the forecast calls
for a near-average hurricane season in the Atlantic and Caribbean, but she notes that “hinges on El Niño panning out.”
In another major environmental story over the past week, the Supreme Court greatly curtailed the definition of waters protected by the Clean Water Act, a decision “that could expose many wetlands across the U.S. to filling and development,” University of California, Davis, legal scholar Albert C. Lin writes. And in another popular story over the past week, University of Michigan anthropologist Raven Garvey considers an often-overlooked food source to argue that
both men and women – not
only men – hunted in prehistoric times.
Also in this week’s science news:
If there’s a subject you’d like our team of science editors to investigate, please reply to this email.
[Sign up here for our Understanding AI series – four emails delivered over the course of a week.]
|
|
Martin LaMonica
Director of Editorial Projects and Newsletters
|
|
Past age 50, men are much more likely to have REM sleep behavior disorder than women.
Jose Luis Pelaez/Stone via Getty Images
Anelyssa D'Abreu, University of Virginia
REM sleep behavior disorder is characterized by acting out dreams, which may include shouting, kicking and punching during sleep.
|
Hurricane Florence, seen from the International Space Station in 2018. Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
NASA
Christina Patricola, Iowa State University
Current forecasts suggest a warm tropical Pacific will be interfering with what could otherwise be a ferocious Atlantic hurricane season.
|
What if prehistoric men and women joined forces in hunting parties?
gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Raven Garvey, University of Michigan
If hunter-gatherers went beyond nose-to-tail eating to include the undigested plant matter in a prey animal’s stomach, assumptions about gendered division of labor start to fall apart.
|
|
Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University
Figuring out how to regulate AI is a difficult challenge, and that’s even before tackling the problem of the small number of big companies that control the technology.
| |
Laura Gibson, UMass Chan Medical School
Although testing for CMV during pregnancy isn’t routine and there isn’t universal screening for infants, there are steps pregnant people can take to protect themselves and their newborns.
|
Julia Minson, Harvard Kennedy School
Researchers have identified ways to have more productive conversations – even when you’re talking to someone who holds an opposite view.
| |
Kelsey Ellis, University of Tennessee; Nicholas Grondin, University of Tennessee
El Niño years put Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera on alert for destructive tropical storms and hurricanes.
|
Albert C. Lin, University of California, Davis
In Sackett v. EPA, a suit filed by two homeowners who filled in wetlands on their property, the Supreme Court has drastically narrowed the definition of which wetlands qualify for federal protection.
| |
Anirban Basu, University of Washington
Biased algorithms in health care can lead to inaccurate diagnoses and delayed treatment. Deciding which variables to include to achieve fair health outcomes depends on how you approach fairness.
|
|
|
|
-
Jeff Basara, University of Oklahoma; Jordan Christian, University of Oklahoma
If greenhouse gas emissions continue at a high rate, breadbaskets of Europe and North America will see a 50% chance of a flash drought each year by the end of this century.
-
John Michael Streicher, University of Arizona
Unlike opioid drugs like morphine and fentanyl that travel throughout the body, the opioids your body produces are released in small quantities to specific locations.
-
Robert Glennon, University of Arizona
Southwest states have bought time with an agreement between California, Arizona and Nevada to cut Colorado River water use by about 14%. Now comes the hard part.
-
Ana L. Santos, Rice University; Jacob Beckham, Rice University; James Tour, Rice University
Fungal infections can be among the hardest to treat, and since the pandemic began they’ve become only more common. To prevent future antifungal resistance, scientists have developed tiny molecular drills.
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|