Earlier this month, more than 1,000 acres of land in central New York were returned to the Onondaga Nation, the original steward of the land. This decision stems from a 2018 settlement between the Natural Resource Trustees and Honeywell International, Inc., which previously owned the land and polluted it with dangerous toxins, such as mercury and heavy metals. Under this agreement, Honeywell will fund and implement 18 restoration projects, and the Onondaga Nation will lead the restoration and preservation of its land.
“It is with great joy that the Onondaga Nation welcomes the return of the first substantial acreage of its ancestral homelands. The Nation can now renew its stewardship obligations to restore these lands and waters and to preserve them for the future generations yet to come,” Onondaga Nation Chief Tadodaho Sid Hill said in a statement. “The Nation hopes that this cooperative, government-to-government effort will be another step in healing between themselves and all others who live in this region which has been the homeland of the Onondaga Nation since the dawn of time.”
Roxanne Khamsi, science writer based in Montreal, Canada, joins Ira to talk about this “landback victory,” which marks one of the largest returns of land to an Indigenous nation in U.S. history.
Roxanne and Ira also discuss other science news of the week, including why pulse oximeters aren’t inclusive of people with dark skin, how some mosquito-borne viruses trick their hosts into attracting more mosquitoes, the discovery of a one-of-a-kind carnivorous plant that hides its traps underground, why some flowers act as cesspools for bumblebees, and how relocating sea turtle eggs can lead to health issues for newborn turtles.
A New COVID Wave Is Here, Raising The Risk Of Reinfections
Coronavirus is surging again in the United States. The latest sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 are now dominant. Right now, things are feeling a little different: People who were recently sick are getting reinfected. And those who have so far evaded the virus are getting it for the first time.
A new booster based on the new omicron sub-variants is slated to roll out in the fall. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is pushing to allow people under 50 to get a second dose of the currently available booster.
Ira is joined by Katelyn Jetelina, adjunct professor at UTHealth School of Public Health and author of the newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist and Jessica Malaty Rivera, epidemiology fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and senior advisor at the Pandemic Prevention Institute to debunk the latest pandemic misinformation and update us on the current state of the virus.
Texas Heatwave Puts Strain on Electric Grid
Texans woke up Monday morning to a familiar fear, worried that the state’s electric grid may not provide enough energy to see them through the day. While the anxiety is understandable, a shortfall of energy reserves on the system does not automatically mean the grid operator will order rolling blackouts. If you, like millions of others, are wondering about the likelihood of blackouts, here’s a review of what happens if the state falls short of power.
Read the rest at sciencefriday.com.
Gene Editing Is Easy—And A Crime—In This New Techno Thriller Book
Logan Ramsay wakes up one morning and feels different. It’s not allergies, and it’s not the flu. If anything, he feels sharper: He needs less sleep, and can multitask and read at lightning speed. What’s going on with him? It turns out his genome has been hacked: tiny changes were made to his DNA to make him a bit of a superhuman. But at what cost?
This is the plot of Upgrade, Science Friday’s next book club pick, and a new science fiction novel that mixes real science concepts—notably CRISPR—with a fast-paced plot. It’s written by author Blake Crouch, who was inspired to write the book in part because of a Science Friday appearance in 2016. It’s also our current book club pick.
Blake joins Ira to discuss a future where gene editing is used to hack drugs, people, and animals, and how far off we are from the book’s climate disaster surveillance state.
Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
767: Challenging The Gender Gap In Sports Science
766: What Martian Geology Can Teach Us About Earth
765: How Louisiana Is Coping With Flooding In Cemeteries
764: Inside Iowa State’s Herbarium | Science-Inspired Art From ‘Universe of Art’ Listeners
763: Science From Iowa’s Prairies | Planning To Go See Cicadas? Here’s What To Know
762: Maybe Bonobos Aren't Gentler Than Chimps | Art Meets Ecology In A Mile-Long Poem
761: When Products Collect Data From Your Brain, Where Does It Go?
760: Visualizing A Black Hole’s Flares In 3D
759: The 4,000-Year History of Humans and Silk
758: Flint’s Water Crisis, 10 Years Later | Underwater Cables Could Help Detect Tsunamis
757: Fighting Banana Blight | Do Birds Sing In Their Dreams?
756: Why Is Solving The Plastic Problem So Hard?
755: What Worsening Floods Mean For Superfund Sites
754: The Global Mental Health Toll Of Climate Change | Capturing DNA From 800 Lakes In One Day
753: Clean Energy Transition Progress | Avian Flu In Cattle And Humans Has Scientists Concerned
752: A Cheer For The Physics Of Baseball
752: Carbon Cost Of Urban Gardens And Commercial Farms | Why There's No Superbloom This Year
751: Inside The Race To Save Honeybees From Parasitic Mites
750: The Brain’s Glial Cells Might Be As Important As Neurons
749: Limits On ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Drinking Water | An Important Winter Home For Bugs | Eclipse Drumroll
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