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Articles by Vicky Stein
Wishes for the future of Samaritan House
In my vision of a perfect future in San Mateo, Samaritan House is out of business. Sounds harsh, right? Well, I wrote this essay originally for a time capsule, to be opened at some unknown future date. By the time these words are pulled out of some time-proof container, my hope is that every person who lives in San Mateo County (every person who lives, period) has food, safety, medical care, clothing and housing.
Van Life: guida essenziale per la tua vita on the road
Vivere in una casa mobile, spartana ed essenziale - ma senza mai rinunciare alle proprie comodità: è questa è la Van Life. LEGGI ANCHE: Quando esce il van della Dacia?
Dreaming of Van Life? Here’s Your Step-by-Step Guide to Preparing for Life on the Road
Imagine yourself at home on the open road: There’s nothing tying you down, and a world of adventures is ahead of you. Now imagine that you can make that life not just feasible but comfortable, with everything you need to work and play right at your fingertips. This is van life. In late 2018, my fiancé and I began planning our foray into elective nomadism, leaving behind offices and apartments for work, play, and life on the road.
A look at NASA’s new images of Io, Jupiter’s ‘tortured moon’
New research is revealing the secrets of Io, the mysterious volcanic moon of Jupiter. Four centuries after Galileo discovered Io in 1610, NASA sent a spacecraft called Juno on a five-year mission to Jupiter and its moons. Last week, NASA released animated artists’ conceptions of Io based on data Juno collected during two flybys. John Yang reports. Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Conservationists track surge in great white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod
Environmental efforts to protect sharks in recent years have resulted in a huge increase in the great white shark population off the New England coast. It’s a conservation success story, with potentially unnerving implications for beachgoers. Rhode Island PBS Weekly’s David Wright reports. Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Why sunscreen in the United States is behind the rest of the world
John Yang: The Skin Cancer Foundation says that to lower the risk of skin cancer everybody older than six months should use sunscreen every day, not just when lying on a beach or jogging in the midday sun. But Ali Rogin is back to tell us that today's sunblock in America is full of ingredients that are decades old and increasingly obsolete.
Collective voice of disability community captured by new song, ‘Spaces’
Judy Woodruff: And now to the story of a song called "Spaces." It's one made by and for the disabled community. While the song highlights a disease known as spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, it also celebrates the talent of the much broader disability community. It's part of our arts and culture series, Canvas. James Ian, Singer & Songwriter, "Spaces": I have spinal muscular atrophy Type 3. It pretty much affects all of the physical aspects of my life.
Florida has a dengue problem. The solution may be more mosquitoes
By — Miles O'Brien Miles O'Brien Miles O’Brien is veteran, independent journalist who focuses on science, technology and aerospace. @milesobrien
How to Get Started in Van Life
Imagine yourself at home on the open road: There’s nothing tying you down, and a world of adventures is ahead of you. Now imagine that you can make that life not just feasible but comfortable, with everything you need to work and play right at your fingertips. This is van life. In late 2018, my fiancé and I began planning our foray into elective nomadism, leaving behind offices and apartments for work, play, and life on the road.
E-Cigarettes, as Consumer Products, Do Not Help People Quit Smoking, Study Finds
E-cigarette use has risen steeply and mostly without regulation over the past decade. The devices have diversified into a dizzying array of vape pens, tank systems, “mods,” and more, mass-marketed and sold to the public. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the midst of considering whether to approve thousands of pre-market applications for the sale of e-cigarettes as consumer products.
Lyme Disease Ticks Produce Antibiotic That Protects Them From Human Skin Bacteria
Ticks live dangerous lives, spending most of their time questing for a host across wildly different habitats and seasons. Once they encounter a reptile, bird, or a mammal like us, they become intimately connected with it – and all of its bacteria and viruses – for days on end. Though ticks are notorious for transmitting pathogens such as the Lyme disease bacterium, how does their immune system keep them safe from contracting pathogens themselves? In a study published in Cell on Dec.
A great story
Vicky Stein Aug. 1, 2020 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now “Fish Out of Water” by Maya Kapoor, is a great (sad, beautiful, thoughtful) story. Vicky Stein, via Twitter Letter to the editor More from Letter to the editor Get Our Newsletter ↓ Featured stories High Country News Classifieds FSBO PROPERTY-SOUTHEAST ARIZONA Located in an area steeped in history, this gentleman's ranch sits at the entrance to the renowned Cave Creek Canyon. Enjoy picturesque views of the...
NASA shutting down space telescope, infrared eyes to cosmos
Jan 29, 2020 3:00 PM EST CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is pulling the plug on one of its great observatories — the Spitzer Space Telescope — after 16 years of scanning the universe with infrared eyes. The end comes Thursday when ground controllers put the aging spacecraft into permanent hibernation. For years, Spitzer peered through dusty clouds at untold stars and galaxies, uncovered a huge, nearly invisible ring around Saturn, and helped discover seven Earth-size planets around a nearby star.
The Plastic Problem
The Plastic Problem airs Wednesday, Nov. 27, at 10 p.m. ET. Watch on your local PBS station or in the video player above. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. It’s an environmental crisis that’s been in the making for nearly 70 years. Plastic pollution is now considered one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals globally.
How innovation and small steps can help us solve The Plastic Problem
On Wednesday night, PBS will air a one-hour special report, “The Plastic Problem,” that examines how our global dependence on plastic has created one of the biggest environmental threats to our planet. Amna Nawaz hosts the program, and she joins Judy Woodruff to discuss how we consume and discard plastic, where it is ending up and what corporations and consumers are doing to address the problem. Judy Woodruff: Tomorrow night, PBS will air an hour-long special report from our "NewsHour" team.
How big data became a silent colleague for artists and designers
PBS NewsHour Oct 24, 2019 6:30 PM EST Editor's note: This video initially included an incorrect version of the Time Warner logo. It has been replaced with the correct logo. PBS NewsHour regrets the error. Artificial intelligence and big data are transforming the global economy. Less well understood, however, are the changes they are driving in creative industries specifically.
What Middle America is saying about climate change and gun violence
Catastrophic damage from Hurricane Dorian is putting natural disasters, and their potential connection to climate change, front and center in the U.S., but gun safety and a flood of Republican congressional retirements are also occupying public attention. Chris Buskirk of American Greatness and Colleen Nelson of the Kansas City Star join Judy Woodruff to discuss the politics of the three topics. Judy Woodruff: The worst fears are coming true about the devastating nature of Hurricane Dorian.
As Brazilians struggle to breathe through Amazon’s smoke, Bolsonaro rejects foreign aid
Emma Murphy: They are the children of the Amazon and now young victims of its fires. Far from the flames, it is the smoke which is doing the harm, hundreds being treated for its effects. Baby Nicolas is a month-and-a-half old. His mother became so worried about his cough, she decided to risk further smoke inhalation to get him to hospital. "At night, he can't breathe at all," she tells me. "He coughs and struggles because of what's happening.
9 numbers you need to know to understand the Amazon fires
Thousands of fires burning across Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have captured international attention over the past week. The fires are mainly being set by ranchers and farmers seeking to clear land for cultivation. The expansion of slash-and-burn tactics is a result of pro-development government policies.
Scientists lost a shark tag. Months later, an 8-year-old found it.
Aug 23, 2019 6:38 PM EDT Cruising through the cool, dim waters off the coast of Northern California, Chippy the great white shark was in search of a meal — seals and sea lions. At some point, the 14-foot-long predator saw a dark form and a silhouette. Was it potential prey? The shark rose, revealed its rows of triangular teeth and took a bite. His “sea lion” was actually two layers of sturdy outdoor carpet, sandwiching a foam pad.
This young researcher studies wild animals. Science’s bias against disability won’t stop her
Aug 21, 2019 12:52 PM EDT As a field biologist, Charlotte Devitz traverses the University of Michigan campus scooping up squirrels, trying to understand what causes some to boldly steal pizza from people’s hands while others hide at the drop of a hat. She weighs, measures and tags them, and then drops them into a custom-made box that allows her to watch their behavior. Then she sets them free to scale another tree or gnaw on another nut.
New 3D maps of the Milky Way confirm our galaxy is warped
Aug 1, 2019 2:39 PM EDT We live on a small rocky planet that orbits a yellow dwarf star located about halfway down a minor arm of the Milky Way galaxy — a mass of hundreds of millions of stars that forms a spiral that measures more than 200,000 light-years across. On a dark clear night on our planet, we can look up and see some of those stars, brightening the sky like a glass of milk spilled out across the universe.
Apollo 11 celebration launches from National Mall...with a monumental display
Science Jul 19, 2019 10:27 AM EDT There’s a 363-foot rocket ready to launch in the middle of Washington, D.C. The life-sized animation of NASA’s Saturn V will loom above the National Mall every night this week, projected onto the Washington Monument. The after-dark light show is a gigantic tribute from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum to honor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that put two astronauts on the moon.
Butterflies are disappearing in Ohio. Here’s what that means for insects everywhere
Jul 9, 2019 5:49 PM EDT For my 11th birthday, I received a perfect, weird, road-trip amusement: a book filled with pictures and descriptions to help kids decode the splatters of insects that smacked into the front of a moving vehicle. Whether that sounds like macabre fun or makes you grumble about keeping the windshield clean, a steep decline in reported bug splatters in recent years should make us worried, entomologists and ecologists say.
How these ingredients make your sunscreen work
With summer in full swing, when you hit the beach or the pool, or even just go for a walk, sun protection is vital. Not only does it prevent sunburns and premature aging, dermatologists will tell you it also combats skin cancer, which kills nearly 20 people in the U.S. each day. But sunscreens come in many brands, SPFs and formulas — all of which can be confusing.
Why you should embrace your foot calluses
Jun 26, 2019 6:05 PM EDT For most of our 200,000 years of existence as a species, humans have walked the planet barefoot. It’s only in the last 40,000 years that shoes have come into style. We evolved to feel the ground under our feet and to develop thickened skin, known as calluses, that protected us from heat, cold and abrasion. Now, many of us walk on cushioned soles that take the place of calluses.
Why U.S. pedestrian deaths are at their highest level in almost 30 years
U.S. pedestrian deaths are at their highest level since 1990. Possible explanations include wider roads, sprawling cities, heavier traffic in residential areas due to navigation apps and increasing distractions from digital devices. And according to victims’ families and safety advocates, the problem is a crisis state and local governments have been slow to address. Arren Kimbel-Sannit reports. Judy Woodruff: Pedestrian deaths are the highest they have been since 1990.
Canada wants to ban single-use plastics. Would it make a difference?
Jun 13, 2019 5:05 PM EDT From Vancouver to Halifax, plastic plates, plastic bags and plastic straws may be on their way out. But a possible country-wide prohibition on certain single-use plastic products may not address the spread of the most insidious plastic litter, some scientists say. According to Canadian officials, the potential bans — which could go into effect as early as 2021 — would not only curb litter but also cut nearly 2 million tons of carbon pollution.
At Smithsonian’s renovated Hall of Fossils, dinosaurs are just the beginning
The dinosaur bones at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History now boast new luxury accommodations. After a four-year, $125 million renovation, the Hall of Fossils now features state-of-the-art technology and new exhibits housing more than 700 specimens. As William Brangham reports, it also offers lessons about connecting the present to the past. Amna Nawaz: Well, they haven't been around for millions of years, but they still inspire wonder.
Dinosaurs return to the Smithsonian with a climate change warning
May 31, 2019 4:25 PM EDT One hundred and eight years is just a blink of an eye for ancient bones and rocks. Yet since the Hall of Fossils first opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1911, humans have fought two world wars, developed a global economy and entered the digital age. We’ve also forced changes to the planet at a speed previously only witnessed through “Deep Time,” the millions and billions of years that define how Earth evolved.
The homemade sunscreen you find on social media is a recipe for sunburn
May 20, 2019 6:04 PM EDT This may sound obvious, but a new study makes it clear: Don’t use recipes you find online to make homemade sunscreen. When researchers surveyed recipes for do-it-yourself sunscreens on the social network Pinterest, they found almost 70 percent of the recommended recipes offered insufficient sun protection. These concoctions put users at risk of sunburn and long-term skin damage that could lead to cancer, according to a study published Monday in Health Communication.
How a snail’s shell gets its twist
May 14, 2019 4:00 PM EDT Symmetry is a feature of many plants, animals and even some molecules — like water. But that’s not the case with snails and their coiled shells. They are chiral — asymmetrical such that they can’t be superimposed on mirror images of themselves. Golf clubs have chirality, as do scissors and shoes. There are clubs and scissors made for right-handed and left-handed people, and good luck walking with a left shoe on your right foot.
Why is your Uber or Lyft stuck in traffic? Most likely because of Uber and Lyft
May 8, 2019 5:49 PM EDT Stuck in traffic? You might blame the ride-hailing app on your phone. Tech companies like Uber and Lyft may be responsible for more than half of the increase in rush-hour congestion in San Francisco’s bustling downtown, according to a study published Wednesday in Science Advances.
Humans pushing 1 million species to brink of extinction, says UN report
A new UN report reveals the extent to which mankind is changing life on Earth. Written by an international panel of experts, it concludes that nearly a quarter of animal and plant groups are at risk of extinction, some within decades. William Brangham talks to one of the report’s authors, the National University of Mexico's Patricia Balvanera, about what’s driving the changes and how to stop them. William Brangham: Mother Nature is under threat from human activity as never before.
How biodegradable plastic bags don’t live up to their name
The average person uses a typical plastic bag for as short a time as 12 minutes before throwing it away, never thinking of where it may end up. Yet once consigned to a landfill, that standard grocery store tote takes hundreds or thousands of years to break down — much more than a human lifetime. Bags make up an alarming amount of the plastic found in whale stomachs or bird nests, and it’s no wonder — globally, we use between 1 and 5 trillion plastic bags each year.
Explore the haunting remains of an Antarctic whaling boomtown
Apr 24, 2019 5:49 PM EDT When boats approach the barren outer shore of an active volcano just off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, they must dodge icebergs and hidden rocks. Inhabited only by mosses, nesting seabirds and an enormous colony of chinstrap penguins, the island might seem from a distance to be an unlikely location for Antarctica’s only successful commercial outpost. But Deception Island, aptly named, hides its history.
How these water fleas could save your water quality - and your life
From a human perspective, the clear, calm waters of Michigan’s lakes — surrounded by trees, filled with fish, reflecting the sky — could hardly be more peaceful. For the tiny critters below the surface, it’s a life-or-death battlefield. “Water fleas” dart from place to place, collecting food, dodging predators and fighting diseases. University of Michigan ecologist Meghan Duffy is obsessed with water fleas, or Daphnia, as they’re also called.
This genetic test can predict your odds for obesity from the day you’re born
Apr 18, 2019 4:55 PM EDT Over the course of the last four decades, obesity worldwide has nearly tripled.
NASA
PBS NewsHour Logo: Home Nation Mar 13 WATCH: NASA administrator says new rocket won’t be ready for moon shot next year Bridenstine told lawmakers in his opening remarks that he is confident the U.S. will be able to continue being a leader in space. By Associated Press Nation Mar 03 WATCH: SpaceX’s new crew capsule aces space station docking SpaceX’s new crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, acing its second milestone in just over a day.
Katie Bouman ‘hardly knew what a black hole was.’ Her algorithm helped us see one
Apr 11, 2019 6:15 PM EDT Imaging scientist Katie Bouman helped construct the first ever photo of a black hole, but she didn’t expect this kind of excitement — or attention. The Event Horizon Telescope released the image on Wednesday, and since then Bouman has been swamped with phone calls, text messages and emails.
How Scott Kelly’s year in space changed his poop
Apr 11, 2019 2:00 PM EDT In an ambitious attempt to explore what space travel does to the human body, NASA sent astronaut Scott Kelly to the International Space Station to live in orbit for a year. His identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, remained on Earth’s surface.
Antarctic penguins have existed for 60 million years. Can they survive climate change?
Ron Naveen used to be a lawyer for the EPA, but he left government in the 1980s to start Oceanites, a nonprofit that tracks the health of penguins that breed on the Antarctic Peninsula. Now, that 800-mile stretch of land is warming faster than almost anywhere else in the world, and the changing climate is affecting the "glorious creatures" Naveen studies. William Brangham reports from Antarctica. Judy Woodruff: Tonight, we have the first in a series about the remarkable continent of Antarctica.
How global warming is permanently reshaping the Great Barrier Reef
Most thriving cities boast complex architecture — tall towers looming over narrow alleyways and plenty of nooks and crannies packed with life. Coral reefs are the cities of the undersea world, gradually constructed by the soft-bodied animals that build hard skeletons around themselves.
How climate change will put billions more at risk of mosquito-borne diseases
Mar 28, 2019 1:57 PM EDT Climate change doesn’t just shift weather patterns. It can force the migration of plants, people, animals, bugs — and disease. By the end of this century almost all of the world’s population could be exposed to mosquito-borne diseases once limited to the tropics, according to a new study from PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
The human brain never stops growing neurons, a new study claims
For decades, scientists have debated whether the birth of new neurons—called neurogenesis—was possible in an area of the brain that is responsible for learning, memory and mood regulation.
Genetic research has a white bias, and it may be hurting everyone’s health
Mar 21, 2019 4:28 PM EDT Modern humans originated on the continent of Africa more than 300,000 years ago, and subsequent generations migrated across the land, with groups intermarrying or splitting apart. Sometime around 80,000 years ago, a small number of descendants left the continent and radiated around the globe, taking with them just a subset of the genes and genetic variation that their ancestors had developed.
This new ‘army’ of spiders is named after Star Wars stormtroopers
Mar 15, 2019 5:25 PM EDT They wouldn’t survive the dry deserts of Tatooine or the frigid temperatures of Hoth, but these newly described, tarantula-like spiders are named after the stormtroopers who marched through the “Star Wars” movies. Hailing from Colombia, each spider sports an armored exterior that is pretty much identical to every other — like an army of clones, one might say.
If this space study is right, humans have never left Earth’s atmosphere
Feb 28, 2019 6:06 PM EST The Earth’s atmosphere is described as a fragile coat wrapping around the planet, comparable in scale to an apple’s skin protecting the fruit. For more than half a century, even before the Apollo 16 mission captured the first ultraviolet images of Earth, researchers knew that the outermost atmospheric layer, the geocorona, extends far beyond the denser, surface-level air that we breathe.
How to teach a honeybee to do math
When most people picture math lessons, they imagine pencils, paper and desks, not sugar-water rewards and tiny mazes. But one group of cognitive scientists isn’t teaching arithmetic or calculus to high school students. They’re training bees to perform simple addition and subtraction. Despite their “miniature brains,” the insects harness both long-term rules and short-term working memory in order to solve math problems and find a sugar-water reward.
Why the northern and southern lights don’t always look identical
Jan 31, 2019 5:48 PM EST On a clear night, people near the poles of our planet might get to see a show: drapes of colorful light wafting across the sky. Now new research could explain why the show doesn’t look the same to everyone — and could also help protect important infrastructure. In the north, the phenomenon is called the aurora borealis or the northern lights. In the southern hemisphere, it’s the aurora australis, or southern lights.
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