https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-74234-2

The second Trump administration has launched a concerted attack on science produced inside and outside the government. It will take years to understand fully the implications of cancelling billions of dollars in research grants to the nation’s universities and undermining EPA’s expertise and destroying IRIS.

As the EtO rollback demonstrates, many of the Trump administration’s deregulatory activities will end up in the courts. District court and appellate judges could face a series of complex disputes over science, technology, and the law. If the lower courts reverse Trump 2 rollbacks, the conservative Supreme Court may intervene to reverse those decisions and reinstate deregulation with decisions that will have long-lasting implications for public health.

The good news in this scenario of woe is that California is refusing to accept these attacks on public health and has pledged to regulate on its own. As one of the largest economies in the world, this development is encouraging. Hopefully other states will follow.

It sounds like science fiction: collecting a person’s blood cells, engineering them so they eventually transform into immature sperm, and then incubating them in a tiny pouch grown on a mouse’s kidney.

Paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1934590926002298

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/scientificarticles/p/1253263/bumblebees-collect-up-to-7-times-more-toxic-metals-than-honeybees

Bumblebees collect up to seven times the amount of toxic heavy metals as honeybees even when foraging in the same environment, new research has discovered. Exposure to these metals can affect everything from their ability to forage for food to their ability to reproduce.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49103510

Up on the dam, almost everything that looks like a problem becomes an advantage.

The plant sits above the fog line, in thin, clear air that lets far more sunlight through.

The higher you go, the stronger and cleaner the sunlight becomes.

Cold actually helps, because solar panels work more efficiently when they are not baking in heat.

And then there is the snow, which acts like a giant mirror, bouncing extra light up onto the panels from below.

Scientists call it the albedo effect, and it can lift a mountain plant’s output well beyond anything possible in the valley.

A test site at a similar height recorded yearly output far above a typical Swiss plant.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49238353

“When losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

Called Freedom Fuel Network, the enterprise encompasses dozens of gas stations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, USA Today reported, although it isn’t exactly clear which locations are open for business. Plastered in American flag decals and “Freedom Fuel” branding, the gas stations seem to be selling unleaded gasoline for the fixed-price of $3.47 per gallon, about 32 cents cheaper than the current average price in the US.

According to GasBuddy, nearby prices range from $3.85 to as much as $4.49 — no doubt reflecting the slower drip of oil from the president’s costly war on Iran, which burst back into active fighting this week.

As head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy Patrick De Haan told the Philadelphia Inquirer, the current price of crude oil means there’s no way Freedom Fuel’s $3.47 price point can turn a profit.

“Stations selling at this price, it’s not sustainable,” De Haan explained. “Generally, when losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”

De Haan raises an obvious question: who is paying for it? If the stations are losing money on every gallon, somebody has to make up the difference somewhere — whether out of Trump’s pocket, that of a friendly donor, or the taxpayer’s. And if it’s a private company taking the hit, how long until they stop subsidizing Pennsylvania drivers?

Already, the stunt seems to be distorting local markets. As of Wednesday, a nearby Sam’s Club in Dresher dropped its price to match the $3.47 figure — surely good news for anybody buying gas in South Eastern Pennsylvania, but as always, the devil is in the details.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/goodnewseveryone/p/2147904/cervical-cancer-deaths-fall-to-zero-in-young-women-given-vaccine

This is the first cohort of folks that age who were offered the HPV vaccine when they were 12 or 13.

Expect even more dramatic results as that group enters their 30s & 40s.