This Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which took away the constitutional right to an abortion. Nurse practitioner and researcher Heidi Fantasia from UMass Lowell explains the profound implications for reproductive health now playing out from this momentous legal case.

Overturning Roe v. Wade has created a patchwork of state-level rules around abortion that is resulting in fewer professionals trained to perform this and other procedures, unequal access to reproductive care and general confusion – all of which directly affect women’s health. “Now that the constitutional right to abortion has been eliminated, more women will inevitably die or become seriously ill due to lack of safe access to abortion services,” Fantasia writes.

People who live in hurricane-prone areas most likely already know that heat from oceans provides fuel for the formation of tropical storms. But a new study shows that hurricanes themselves can actually add heat back below the ocean’s warm surface layer. Ocean scientists Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela from University of California, San Diego, and Sally Warner from Brandeis University describe their two-month-long experiment in the Philippine Sea which found “that underwater waves transport heat roughly four times deeper into the ocean than direct mixing during [a] hurricane.” This redistributed heat can have far-reaching effects, such as stress on coral reefs far from the location of the storm, or remain stored in the ocean for decades.

More than three years after the emergence of the novel coronavirus, a survey of blood samples found that 94.5% of Americans have antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, either from catching COVID-19 or from vaccination. And as heat waves pummel portions of the Southern U.S., researchers this week released a report explaining how cities can reduce the health risks of extreme heat.

Also in this week’s science news:

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The range of reproductive health care available to women depends significantly on the state they live in. fizkes/iStock via Getty Images Plus

One year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, abortion care has become a patchwork of confusing state laws that deepen existing inequalities

Heidi Fantasia, UMass Lowell

Abortion bans and restrictions have numerous downstream effects on health care. For instance, medical students in states where those laws exist will not receive training for some standard procedures.
Satellite data illustrates the heat signature of Hurricane Maria above warm surface water in 2017. NASA

Hurricanes push heat deeper into the ocean than scientists realized, boosting long-term ocean warming, new research shows

Noel Gutiérrez Brizuela, University of California, San Diego; Sally Warner, Brandeis University

Currents can carry that deep ocean heat hundreds of miles to surface again at distant shores.
Neighborhood groups in Staten Island, N.Y., encouraged buyouts after Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

When homes flood, who retreats and to where? We mapped thousands of FEMA buyouts and found distance and race play a role

James R. Elliott, Rice University; Zheye (Jay) Wang, Rice University

FEMA runs the largest managed retreat program in the country, Two disaster response experts looked at the demographics of who gets those buyouts and where they go.

Ocean heat is off the charts – here’s what that means for humans and ecosystems around the world

Annalisa Bracco, Georgia Institute of Technology

Drought in Europe, dwindling Arctic sea ice, a slow start to the Indian monsoon – unusually hot ocean temperatures can disrupt climate patterns around the world, as an ocean scientist explains.

Can we train our taste buds for health? A neuroscientist explains how genes and diet shape taste

Monica Dus, University of Michigan

Research is clear that what we eat can drive our test preferences as early as 2 years of age.

The US will send depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine – a health physicist explains their military, health and environmental effects

Kathryn Higley, Oregon State University

Depleted uranium munitions are bad news for enemy tanks, but are not nuclear weapons, and studies have shown that they pose low risks of radiation or chemical exposure.

96.4% of Americans had COVID-19 antibodies in their blood by fall 2022

Matt Hitchings, University of Florida; Derek Cummings, University of Florida

There’s pretty much no one left in the US who hasn’t been exposed to the coronavirus, whether by vaccination, infection or both.

AI could shore up democracy – here’s one way

Bruce Schneier, Harvard Kennedy School; Nathan Sanders, Harvard University

Public comment could soon swamp government officials and representatives, thanks to AI, but AI could also help spot compelling stories from constituents.

American Indians forced to attend boarding schools as children are more likely to be in poor health as adults

Ursula Running Bear, University of North Dakota

Native Americans sent to government-funded schools now experience significantly higher rates of mental and physical health problems than those who did not.