LONELINESS AND BONE DENSITY
A new study on loneliness is showing it may not only affect mental health, but it may also be bad for the bones. However, the study found it impacts one group in particular: men. Amid concerns about the rising epidemic of loneliness, researchers wanted to take a closer look at its effects.
Those working on the study exposed adult mice to social isolation and found that there were significant reductions in bone quality and mineral density, but only in the male mice, not the females. One doctor involved in this research did note that "future research is needed to understand how these findings translate to human populations."
HUMANS TILT EARTH
From 1993 to 2010, humans pumped over 2,000 gigatons of groundwater from reservoirs in the Earth's crust, and it changed the tilt of the earth's axis by 31 inches. According to the authors of a new study by the American Geophysical Union, the Earth's axis changes often, and the melting of the polar ice caps or rise in sea levels makes an impact on earth's rotation.
However, this shows that groundwater use also has an impact. By the way, if you've ever wondered how the planet came to be covered in H2O, a new theory published last week in the journal Nature suggests that 4.5 billion years ago, as Earth formed, it sucked up icy particles from space in a "vacuum effect."
Scientists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History joined Cheddar to discuss the possibility that the world is undergoing its sixth mass extinction event.
World leaders are promising to protect the world’s forests, cut methane emissions and help South Africa wean itself off coal at the U.N. climate summit.
President Joe Biden is taking a markedly more humble tone for a U.S. leader on climate change.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opened a global climate summit, saying the world is strapped to a “doomsday device.”
A new study found a cheap antidepressant reduced the need for hospitalization among high-risk adults with COVID-19.
A group of prominent academics and activists are calling on banks and insurers to avoid the kind of systemic collapse that crippled the world economy back in 2008.
SpaceX is resolving toilet spills in its capsules before it launches another crew for NASA. Liftoff is currently set for early Sunday from Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
U.S. health advisers have endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for younger children.
Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world's response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook found they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users' newsfeeds.
New York City's first immersive cannabis experience, The Stone Age, is seeking to change the narrative about cannabis, just in time for legalization.
