June 24, 2024: How to keep the mosquitoes off this summer, new research on the dangers of ultraprocessed foods, and the human ancestor Lucy was likely hairless. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Insect repellents are key to avoiding mosquitos' fast, subtle and mercilessly itchy bites, but not all products on the market are effective. Only those with EPA-registered active ingredients including DEET, PMD and icaridin (also known as picaridin) are proven to deter the pests (skip the fancy gadgets and bracelets, candles and bug zappers). Clothing treated with the insecticide permethrin is very safe and effective. The chemicals seem to temporarily block the bloodsuckers' senses and ability to hunt down meals, though their exact mechanism is unknown.
Why this matters: Rising global temperatures from greenhouse gas emissions are allowing mosquito populations to grow, persist and transmit diseases (like Zika and Malaria) longer during the year and in areas previously uninhabitable to them. Effective insect repellents are becoming only more essential for people living in or traveling to places with warm and wet climates.
What the experts say: "I think that one of the biggest problems is that we really haven't been that good at diligently using repellents," says Dina Fonseca, a Rutgers University entomologist. "We're starting to get better at this with sun protection by putting on SPF products every morning with our face lotions and creams. But I think it's time that many of us, especially those really sensitive to mosquito bites, to start incorporating repellents into our daily routines." --Riis Williams, news intern | | | A recent study set off a flurry of headlines proclaiming that eating plant-based fake meat is linked to an early death. But that's not what the study found. It found a correlation between the diets of more than 100,000 people in the U.K. between the ages of 40 and 69 and their risk of cardiovascular disease. For every 10 percent increase in the amount of plant-based ultraprocessed foods (foods that have been produced in an industrial setting with ingredients you can't find at home), the risk of death went up by 12 percent. But there's an important caveat: "plant-based" foods include common ultraprocessed items like packaged breads, cakes, potato chips and sugary sodas–not just fake meat.
Why this matters: Ultraprocessed foods have become central to many people's diets–especially in the U.S. A recent review of multiple studies that included data of almost 10 million people found that eating more ultraprocessed food was associated with a range of health risks, including cardiovascular diseases.
What the experts say: Using such a broad categorization of plant-based ultra-processed foods was "not wrong," says Gunter Kuhnle, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Reading in England, who was not involved in the study. "It was just easy to misunderstand." --Tanya Lewis, editor for health and medicine | | | A land leech of the genus Chtonobdella. Blickwinkel/McPHOTO/A. Volz/Alamy Stock Photo | | | • Scientists have finally documented blood-sucking land leeches jumping the same way snakes strike. (Scroll down for the video of a leech in action--it gave me shudders.) | 3 min read | | | • New genetic analysis suggests that Lucy, the 3.2 million year-old specimen of genus Australopithecus afarensis, may have been hairless, rather than heavily furry as commonly illustrated. | 5 min read | | | • Social media sites like Instagram and Tik Tok are flooded with misinformation about birth control. "We are alarmed by the sheer volume of online content that misinforms people, whether honestly or intentionally," write doctors and professors of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "Pushing back against the flood of harmful content requires establishing trusted sources of information and counteracting widespread misinformation and disinformation with supportive, positive, resources that are free of judgment," they say. | 4 min read | | | Some people (like me) are unfortunately magnets for mosquitos, and for now there's nothing that science can do to change it. The nonprofit product testing organization Consumer Reports puts many insect repellents through extensive testing--even if your repellent has a powerful active ingredient like DEET or picaridin, there are ideal ways to apply and use them and Consumer Reports has some good tips. | Welcome to a new week of Today in Science. Reach out anytime with your suggestions and recommendations for bug spray: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | P.S. Here's the solution to Friday's number sequence quiz:
The missing number in the following sequence is 4. 1 3 4 3 9 5 16 4 25 _ 36 3
The sequence shows each perfect square up to 36, followed by the number of letters in the word for its square root ("five" is the square root of 25, and has four letters). | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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