Global alcohol consumption has entered what appears to be a permanent decline, with total volume peaking at 25.4 billion liters in 2016 and falling approximately 13% since then, according to data from market research firm IWSR. Per-capita consumption has dropped dramatically from 5 liters of pure alcohol per adult annually Read more…
“Honeybee colonies are under siege across much of North America…” . Last winter beekeepers across America “began reporting massive beehive collapses. More than half of the roughly 2.8 million colonies collapsed, costing the industry about $600 million in economic losses…” America’s Department of Agriculture says “sublethal exposure” to pesticides remains Read more…
Discover magazine reports that a team of researchers have produced evidence that the ancient building blocks for water have been here on earth “since early in the planet’s history, according to a study published in the journal Icarus.” Pinpointing when and where Earth’s hydrogen [originated] is an essential key to Read more…
With more companies requiring workers to return to an office five days a week, anxiety is rising for some of the millions of people who identify as neurodivergent. They raise the possibility that “strict office mandates have the potential to deter neurodivergent people who may approach problems differently,” the article Read more…
For the first time, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a lone black hole, one with no star orbiting it. It’s “the only one so far,” says Kailash Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. In 2022, Sahu and his colleagues discovered the dark object coursing Read more…
There was excitement when biotech company Collosal announced genetically modified grey wolves (first hailed as a “de-extinction” of the Dire wolf species after several millennia). “But bioethicists and conservationists are expressing unease with the kind of scientific research,” writes the Chicago Tribune. “Unfortunately, as clever as this science is … Read more…
An October 2024 study by Software AG suggests that half of all employees are Shadow AI users, and most of them wouldn’t stop even if it was banned. The problem is the ease of access to AI tools, and a work environment that increasingly advocates the use of AI to Read more…