What New Human Ancestor Has Been Discovered, and How a Virus Outbreak in China Could Reach the U.S.
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For American scientist‘s Science quickly, I am Rachel Feltman. Launch of the week with a quick overview of some of the latest scientists.
First of all, an update of public health of one of our colleagues at American scientistSenior editor Josh Fischman. He is here to update us on an ongoing epidemic of the Chikungunya virus in China.
Josh Fischman: So what happened here is that in June, China began to report a peak in the event of Chikungunya, and China has a quick climb epidemic in a place that has never had it before. These are centered on the southern province of Guangdong and his city of Foshan – it’s near Hong Kong. And in early August, there were up to 7,000 cases.
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In 2025, around 240,000 cases and 90 deaths were reported in 16 different countries and territories, and it was only until July.
The Chikungunya virus was identified for the first time in Africa in 1952. The name comes from a makonde word – UH, it is a language spoken in Tanzania – that means to look, and it refers to the most important symptoms, which are, really, really painful joints that deform your posture and get around you in uncomfortable positions.
In addition, this causes a fever and rashes, and these things are generally short -lived. They take a week or two to recover. Sometimes, however, they can continue for years. And sometimes chikungunya can cause heart damage.
The virus is transported by two species of mosquitoes, AEDES AEGYPTI And Aedes Albopictus. And people can fall sick within three to seven days of a bite.
And what worries me a little is that chikungunya moves very easily to that time of rapid world trips. There are already epidemics in France, Italy, and cases reported in the United States
Experts say people in the United States should be a little worried. However, there are limitive factors that should minimize anxiety: spray insecticides and light the mosquito areas. And in a temperate area, like most of the United States, the first killing gel will get rid of insects and which stops viral transmission.
However, if you are bitten and get sick, there are no good antiviral therapies. There is no specific treatment for chikungunya. And this is important if you travel to affected areas where there are large epidemics. There are two effective and food vaccines and drugs approved by the administration of drugs that bring the body to produce antibodies, and these reduce the risk of infection. Fortunately, insectors and protective clothing work fairly well.
Felt man: And now for some news on the climate. Last Tuesday, managers of Juneau, Alaska, confirmed a glacial explosion in the suicide basin, a lake about 10 miles from the city center attached to the Mendenhall glacier. A lighting flood of the ice lake, also known as the glof, is a rapid and unpredictable flood caused by the sudden drainage of a glacial lake.
While the glaciers melt – which occurs faster these days, thanks to climate change – part of their water forms glacial lakes. They are often unclear naturally by ice cream or rocks and soil left when the glacier melts. But as the cast iron water levels are increasing, they can overflow the natural dam or even go through. The suicide basin has been a regular lighting flood site since 2011, but the annual GLOF has won every year since 2023.
Last Wednesday morning, the Mendenhall river entered the major flood stadium. The flood waters fell the same evening but only after reaching a summit of 16.65 feet. It is more than half a foot more than the peak floods last year, which broke the previous records. Local officials said that a set of temporary obstacles placed along the river earlier this year, as well as close surveillance and early warnings to the public, were at least houses, schools and businesses. THE Alaska tag indicated that no rescue or emergency evacuation had been necessary and that the damage caused by the floods were limited to a bridge and to a little water infiltration in the houses and the sites. On the other hand, last year’s floods caused significant damage to 64 houses, and some residents had to swim safe or be rescued by boat.
In other scientists, a study published in Nature Last Wednesday describes the remains of an entirely new kind of human ancestor. The fossils, which go back to around 2.8 million to 2.6 million years, belong to a new member of the genre Australopithecus, This means that this species is a cousin of the famous Lucy. The species does not yet have a formal name, because the researchers hope to find more fossils first – the new study is based solely on a handful of teeth collected in Ethiopia. But even with only a few chompres, the researchers say that they are convinced that they have a new hominine in their hands. The news is particularly exciting because of something other than the researchers found on the same site: the teeth of a member of ours Homo gender. This means this new flavor of Australopithecus could have lived alongside close relatives of ours.
And speaking of human origin: in a study published last Friday in the review Scientific advances,, The researchers report the process of implantation of human embryos in three dimensions in real time. The researchers note that we already knew that the embryos had to sink into the uterine tissues in order to implement successfully, but that most of the studies have focused on the genetic and biochemical aspects of this design stage instead of examining the mechanical process.
Scientists from the Bio-Engineering Institute in Catalonia in Spain created experimental collagen platforms, designed to imitate the tissue of uterine lining. They have created systems to use with human cells and mouse cells. When they introduced mouse embryos to their artificial uterus, the embryos have exerted a force to hurry against the surface. Then, the uterus adapted by folding its cell matrix around the embryo to wrap it. Human embryos have acted differently, digging in the uterine fabric to penetrate it. Researchers have also seen signs that embryos could feel and react to the mechanical forces of their environment, as well as other embryos nearby. Previous research suggests that between a third party and half of all fertilized eggs fail to implant completely, so better understanding of the mechanical process could help approach certain cases of infertility.
Let’s fill things with a funny animal story. According to a study published last Tuesday in the journal Discover the animals,, Dolphins and whales hang out together without us. The researchers studied nearly 200 different video clips of whales and dolphins interacting with each other, extending over 20 years and 17 countries. They found that six types of whales and 13 species of dolphins seemed to interact socially. The humpback whales and the dolphins of the bottles were particularly likely to engage in interspecific thoughts, and the most common interaction implied that the dolphins were swimming alongside the muzzle of a whale. They can engage in a practice known as “bowing to the arc”, where dolphins use the pressure fronts created by ships or large whales to swim faster. Researchers believe that dolphins can look for whales for stimulation or game and that whales can sometimes go back in return.
This is all for this week’s news. We will be back Wednesday to talk about the surprising sexual diversity of the animal kingdom.
Science quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff Delviscio. This episode was published by Alex Sugiura. Emily Makowski, Shayna Possus and Aaron Shattuck check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to American scientist For new scientists up to date and in -depth.
For Scientific American, Here is Rachel Feltman. Spend a good week!
