Happy Monday, listeners! Let’s kick off the week by catching up on the latest science news. For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman.
Last week, NASA’s Perseverance rover started a slow but steady slog. The bot landed in Jezero Crater when it first arrived on Mars back in February 2021. Now it’s busting out—but very slowly and cautiously. NASA says it will take Perseverance months to ascend the rough terrain of the crater’s western rim. The hope is that Perseverance will persevere (sorry) long enough to study a couple sites at the top of the crater.
Speaking of Mars, the Red Planet has really been popping off lately. Earlier this month, a study suggested that Mars might be hiding an ocean’s worth of water deep below its surface. Data from NASA’s late Insight lander revealed seismic signals of liquid water some six to 12 miles beneath the planet’s crust. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, a study showed that rock samples taken by Perseverance contained sulfates. That indicates they probably used to sit in salty water. And back in May, NASA’s tried-and-true Curiosity rover drove over and cracked open a rock that turned out to be packed with pure sulfur. Scientists can’t actually explain how sulfur would have formed in that area, which means there must be something about its past that they don’t know yet.
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Now, let’s get into some health news. Last Monday, a study in Nature Medicine described an implant that acts like a pacemaker for the brain. The device builds on the idea of using deep-brain stimulation to treat Parkinson’s, and that generally works by delivering a constant electrical current. Instead this new treatment uses algorithms to track symptoms, and it delivers brain stimulation only as needed. In a study of four people with Parkinson’s, the researchers said that the tech reduced each person’s most bothersome motor symptom by half when compared with conventional deep-brain stimulation.
Now onto weight-loss drugs. Now, most of the headlines about weight-loss drugs hype a growing number of proposed benefits, but a study out last week argues that doctors should be on the lookout for a troubling side effect. Researchers say that a statistical analysis flagged that people taking semaglutide, which is sold under the brand name Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight loss, have a higher chance of reporting suicidal thoughts than folks taking other kinds of medication. This was especially true for people who were also taking antidepressants. Now, this is, of course, a preliminary finding that doesn’t prove causation. But some experts say it’s smart to be cautious—especially if you start experiencing new feelings of depression after starting this medication. And honestly, that's true for any medication and any new signs of depression.
And these findings, while preliminary, are a great reminder that these medications are serious medications. As a recent article on Scientific American's website explained, it's actually possible to overdose on these kinds of drugs. And that's something that doctors are getting more concerned about now that a lot of folks are getting them through compounding pharmacies that they're accessing via telehealth websites.
So, you know, if you feel like these medications might be for you, maybe talk to a doctor you trust about them and really weigh the pros and cons instead of just getting swayed by like a subway ad telling you that you can lose weight quick, you know?
In Gaza, fears over a polio outbreak have gained new urgency. After detecting the virus in wastewater samples earlier this summer, the United Nations now reports that an actual case of polio has been confirmed. Now, some outlets have cited the 90 percent vaccination rate against polio in Gaza as a sign of success, but that’s infuriating and misleading. That actually represents such a sharp drop in prewar vaccination rates—which were at a solid 99 percent in 2022—that it puts the population at risk for an outbreak caused by a rare complication of the oral polio vaccine, which is still used in Gaza: this type of polio vaccine contains a live, weakened form of the virus, and it's safe and effective if you have a vaccination rate as high as Gaza once did. But if it's allowed to circulate in an under-vaccinated population, which yes, 90 percent is under-vaccinated in this context, it can revert to a form that causes illness.
One aid group estimates that 50,000 infants born since October remain unvaccinated, and humanitarian organizations are mobilizing to vaccinate more than half a million children as quickly as possible. In a recent statement, the World Health Organization and UNICEF called for a humanitarian pause to enable these efforts. For more details on why this situation is so gravely concerning, you can circle back to our July 29 episode.
Now let’s check in briefly on mpox, which the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on August 14. An ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread to at least 13 other African countries, including previously unaffected nations like Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Compared with the first seven months of 2023, cases throughout the continent are up 160 percent, and deaths are up by 19 percent.
Now, this global health emergency announcement might sound familiar, because a similar announcement was made in 2022. It was followed by a U.S. public health emergency that led to a swift vaccination campaign. But this outbreak is different and it’s more concerning. See, there are two strains of mpox virus, called clade I and clade II. The 2022 outbreak was caused by the one called clade II, which is considered endemic to West Africa and has a relatively comfy 99.9 percent survival rate. Not something you want to circulate still, but pretty good odds.
The current outbreak features clade I, which is endemic to Central Africa and is considered both more contagious and more dangerous. Scientists estimate a fatality rate as high as 10 percent. And the strain involved in the current outbreak, which is being called clade Ib, seems to be particularly intense. While the U.S. still does have some circulating cases of mpox, they’re all clade II so far. That being said, we are starting to see some cases of clade 1 outside of Africa. Officials in Thailand confirmed one last week. They say that the 66-year-old European individual had been sent to the hospital with mpox symptoms after getting off a plane in Bangkok and that they had just returned from travel in an affected African country.
Unfortunately, testing did confirm that their case is clade 1b. Back on August 15, Swedish officials confirmed that a patient in Stockholm had clade 1 as well. Still, WHO officials have emphasized that mpox is not “the new COVID” because we know how to prevent it—we just need to coordinate a swift and thorough vaccination campaign, which the WHO says could begin in African countries in the coming days.
Loyal listeners know I always try to end us on a light note, and there are few things lighter or fluffier than a baby bird. A zoo in South West England recently announced that, for the first time, one of its same-sex Chilean flamingo couples had found themselves an egg to incubate and hatch. Now, male-male bird pairings have been known to adopt abandoned or otherwise unspoken for eggs before, so that’s what zookeepers are assuming has happened. Curtis and Arthur’s as-yet-unnamed chick is about a month old and seems to be doing great. While same-sex pairings are more common in captive birds, they’re also a totally natural phenomenon in the wild. If you want to learn more about that, you should definitely check out my book Been There, Done That: A Rousing History of Sex and you can get it wherever books are sold. Also, I narrated the audio book, so it's like a really long episode of this podcast that's all about weird historical sex stuff. You'll love it.
And hey, here's a little bit of positive health news, too: Last Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved two updated COVID-19 vaccines to help slow the current summer surge. The shots may already be available at your local pharmacy by the time you listen to this episode—and if not, they should be there soon. So get on out there and grab that jab. Wow, CDC–call me.
Don’t forget to get your flu shot sometime next month, too. Basically, you don't want to get your flu shot too, too early because you want protection to be really strong in the winter when flu tends to surge. So that's why experts say that September or October is the perfect time to get vaccinated. But when it comes to COVID 19, this summer surge is pretty bad, so there's not really any reason to wait for that one. But with all this ideal timing stuff being said, getting vaccinated is always better than not getting vaccinated.
Take it from me, your favorite long COVID gal about town. You don't want this. So you should definitely get a vaccine to prevent severe illness and lingering symptoms.
That’s all for this week’s news roundup. We’ll be back in your feed on Wednesday and Friday.
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Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!
