Overnight News Digest, Saturday Science – Food Waste, Sundown Towns, Bone Cancer, Batteries

Welcome to Overnight News Digest- Saturday Science

Since 2007, the OND has been a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of science stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research, or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.

Topics included today:

• How to turn the tables on food waste (11 minutes) with strategies to avoid food waste
• Sustainable transportation
• Is your city a “Sundown Town”?
• Plutonium levels near Los Alamos similar to those detected at Chernobyl in Ukraine
• Toxic glass helps kill bone cancer cells without harming healthy tissue
• Puberty hasn’t changed since the ice age
• Finding your way out of the woods when you’re lost
• Electric batteries could last 20 years
• Discovering the cause of static electricity
• Math for English Majors
• Brain test by Johns Hopkins University

TED Talk

by Dana Gunders

How to turn the tables on food waste

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

Get There Green! September 22-29, 2024 (in New York City)

Sustainable Transportation

Get There Green! is a week to promote and celebrate more sustainable modes of transportation. During this week, everyone is encouraged to join in a week of climate-action by using a more sustainable mode of transportation for as many trips as they can. These include:

• walking;
• biking;
• taking public transit;
• carpooling;
• driving an electric vehicle; or
• anything else that isn’t driving alone in a fossil fuel powered vehicle.

Black Enterprise Daily

by Mitti Hicks

Is your city a Sundown Town?

An interactive map from Tougaloo College gives insight into cities and communities in the United States and whether they’re considered sundown towns.

According to Britannica, sundown in U.S. history is a town that excluded nonwhite people, most frequently African Americans, when the sun set. How people enforced these “rules” ranged anywhere from collective violence, such as public lynchings, discriminatory laws, and open housing discrimination.

The Cooldown

by Kristen Lawrence

New study makes harrowing discovery in soil near birthplace of atomic bomb

A new study has made a troubling discovery about the health of ecosystems near Los Alamos, New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was born.

Scientists measured plutonium levels in recreational areas near the nuclear site and found they were similar to those detected at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site in Ukraine.

What’s happening?

According to the Guardian, a Northern Arizona University research team discovered “extreme concentrations” of plutonium in the soil, plants, and water near Los Alamos.

Michael Ketterer, a NAU scientist and the study’s lead researcher, told the outlet that plutonium concentrations near New Mexico’s Acid Canyon — a popular hiking and recreational spot — were some of the highest he’d ever encountered in public spaces in the U.S. throughout his career.

NEW ATLAS

by Michael Irving

Toxic glass kills 99% of bone cancer without harming healthy cells

Scientists have demonstrated a new potential treatment for bone cancer. A bioactive glass laced with a toxic metal was able to kill up to 99% of the cancer without harming healthy cells, and could even help regrow healthy bone after.

Osteosarcoma is the most common form of bone cancer, and treatment normally involves surgery to remove the tumor, followed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill off any remaining cancer cells. Even so, it often recurs at the same site, and when it does the prognosis is usually grim.

NAUTILUS

by Katherine Gammon

Puberty Hasn’t Changed Since the Ice Age

Biological anthropologist April Nowell had been studying the skeletons of Ice Age children for two decades when she began to see her own kids in a new light. They had just hit puberty and her house was suddenly filled with gangly teenagers, who ate voraciously and had to be dragged out of bed most mornings. It made her want to know more about the fascinating changes we undergo between childhood and adulthood—only in her study subjects, most of whom lived thousands or even millions of years ago.

So Nowell conducted one of the first studies of puberty in a population from the Paleolithic period. Often referred to as the Ice Age, the Paleolithic period took place during the early phase of the Stone Age, when humans made tools and weapons of stone. Nowell analyzed the teeth and bones of 13 Paleolithic individuals who died in adolescence around 25,000 years ago, and estimated that for the majority, puberty had begun by 13.5 years of age—only slightly later than most humans today. There was some variability, however, with a few individuals taking several years longer than their peers. Nowell and her colleagues also examined details of the children’s burials and trace DNA. The research was published in the Journal of Human Evolution last week.

Outdoor Guide

by Laura Zbinden

The Genius Technique That’ll Help You Find Your Way Out Of The Woods If You’re Lost

If you spend time adventuring out in the backcountry, then you’ve probably thought about how scary it would be to lose your bearings in the woods and end up lost. In fact, getting lost is one of the most common causes of death in the wilderness alongside negative encounters with wildlife and altitude sickness. While getting lost in the woods is deeply frightening and it can be easy to panic, the most important thing to do in this situation is keep yourself calm and stop moving as soon as you realize you’ve lost your way. This is essential because continuing to walk without a plan can make you more lost and bring you further away from rescuers. Instead, first stop, calm down, and then use the find-me cross method.

Electrec

by Fred Lambert

Your electric car will fall apart before its battery pack does, study finds

A new study of 10,000 electric cars shows that their battery packs should outlast the vehicles themselves.

Geotab, an automotive telematics company, is using its in-depth access to EV data to track battery health.

We reported on its last study in 2019, which showed 2.3% EV battery degradation per year.

5 years later, the company now has a lot more data, and it just released a new study that shows the average degradation per year is actually 1.8%. The company believes that it could translate to EV batteries lasting 20 years:

IFL Science

by Laura Simmons

Thousands Of Years After Discovering Static Electricity We Finally Know How It Works

We have known about the phenomenon of static electricity since at least the time of Aristotle. Aristotle credits fellow philosopher Thales of Miletus, who lived between 640 and 546 BCE, with the discovery that amber picks up pieces of dried grass after it has been rubbed with a cloth.

For a very long time, no real progress was made in finding out what it is, or how it works. Benjamin Franklin made a little headway in the area by rubbing wax and wool together, defining positive charge as the charge acquired by the rubbing wool and negative charge the charge associated with the wax that got rubbed.

While the world certainly appreciates all of Franklin’s rubbing, his understanding of the topic involved the exchange of fluids, which is not what’s really going on to produce the positive and negative charge. But now, thanks to a team modeling static charge at the nano scale, we finally know what’s going on, and why rubbing produces more static electricity than contact or rolling.

ArsTechnica

by Jennifer Ouellette

A handy guide to the universal language for the mathematically perplexed

Galileo once famously described the universe as a great book “written in mathematical language and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures.” Unfortunately, it’s a language that many people outside of math and science simply do not speak, largely because they are flummoxed and/or intimidated by the sheer density of all that strange symbolic notation.

Math teacher extraordinaire Ben Orlin is here to help with his latest book: Math for English Majors: A Human Take on the Universal Language. And just like Orlin’s previous outings, it’s filled with the author’s trademark bad drawings. Bonus: Orlin created a fun personality quiz, which you can take here to find out your mathematical style.

Daily Mail

by Maiya Focht

Brain test by John’s Hopkins University challenges YOU to spot the ‘T’ within 10 seconds

Researchers from Johns Hopkins have come up with a way to test your ability to focus that should take less than 10 seconds.

It doesn’t rely on how fast you can add sums in your head or recite history from memory.

Instead, asks you to call on skills you might’ve developed during Where’s Waldo.

This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the science news of the day. Please share your articles and stories in the comments.

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. Sustainable Development Goal: Zero Hunger

• Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
• Indicator 12.3.1: Food loss index

2. Sustainable Development Goal: Sustainable Cities and Communities

• Target 11.2: By 2030, provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons.
• Indicator 11.2.1: Proportion of population that has convenient access to public transport, by sex, age and persons with disabilities

3. Sustainable Development Goal: Good Health and Well-being

• Target 3.4: By 2030, reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being.
• Indicator 3.4.1: Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease

4. Sustainable Development Goal: Quality Education

• Target 4.4: By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
• Indicator 4.4.1: Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill

5. Sustainable Development Goal: Gender Equality

• Target 5.5: Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.
• Indicator 5.5.1: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and local governments

6. Sustainable Development Goal: Clean Water and Sanitation

• Target 6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.
• Indicator 6.3.2: Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality

7. Sustainable Development Goal: Affordable and Clean Energy

• Target 7.2: By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix.
• Indicator 7.2.1: Renewable energy share in the total final energy consumption

8. Sustainable Development Goal: Decent Work and Economic Growth

• Target 8.5: By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.
• Indicator 8.5.1: Average hourly earnings of female and male employees, by occupation, age and persons with disabilities

9. Sustainable Development Goal: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

• Target 9.5: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending.
• Indicator 9.5.1: Research and development expenditure as a proportion of GDP

10. Sustainable Development Goal: Reduced Inequalities

• Target 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.
• Indicator 10.2.1: Proportion of people living below 50 percent of median income, by age, sex and persons with disabilities

11. Sustainable Development Goal: Sustainable Cities and Communities

• Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.
• Indicator 11.6.1: Proportion of urban solid waste regularly collected and with adequate final discharge out of total urban solid waste generated, by cities

12. Sustainable Development Goal: Responsible Consumption and Production

• Target 12.3: By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
• Indicator 12.3.1: Food loss index

13. Sustainable Development Goal: Climate Action

• Target 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
• Indicator 13.3.1: Number of countries that have integrated mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning into primary, secondary and tertiary curricula

14. Sustainable Development Goal: Life Below Water

• Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.
• Indicator 14.1.1: Index of coastal eutrophication and floating plastic debris density

15. Sustainable Development Goal: Life on Land

• Target 15.1: By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements.
• Indicator 15.1.1: Forest area as a proportion of total land area

16. Sustainable Development Goal: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

• Target 16.7: Ensure responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels.
• Indicator 16.7.1: Proportions of positions (by sex, age, persons with disabilities and population groups) in public institutions (national and local legislatures, public service and judiciary) compared to national distributions

17. Sustainable Development Goal: Partnerships for the Goals

• Target 17.16: Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries.
• Indicator 17.16.1: Number of countries reporting progress in multi-stakeholder development effectiveness monitoring frameworks that support the achievement of the sustainable development goals

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Source: dailykos.com