August 8, 2024: How stars go out, deaths from opioid overdoses decline, and Tim Walz's climate record. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Recent provisional data from the CDC show that drug overdose deaths have declined slightly from their peak last year. Deaths are still incredibly high—more than 100,000 per year. A large proportion of these are from the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is much more potent than other opioids. While overdoses have declined across much of the Eastern U.S., deaths in Western states have increased, suggesting the epidemic is still raging there. And deaths from cocaine and methamphetamine have increased.
Possible explanations: Overdose deaths increased dramatically during the COVID pandemic, possibly driven by isolation and lack of access to treatment such as the medications buprenorphine and methadone as well as the overdose reversal drug naloxone (Narcan). But as the pandemic has waned, more people may have been able to access help. The population of people using fentanyl may have also shrunk as more people have died, and reduced supply of opioids may have played a part.
What the experts say: "We're still at the stage where more than 100,000 people are dying a year from overdoses, so the number is still unacceptably high," says Magdalena Cerda, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. "But I am heartened by the persistent decline in overdose deaths in the past few months." --Tanya Lewis, senior health editor | | | Why do stars die? In their cores, stars fuse hydrogen into helium, and after about 12 billion years (for a star the size of our sun), that fuel runs out. Burned energy flows into the star's gassy outer atmosphere, which starts to expand. The surface area of the star grows so much that the amount of energy it radiates per square centimeter actually gets lower, lowering the temperature of the gas and changing its color to red. Over time, the gravity of the core can't contain the outer gases, and they blow away as solar wind, leaving a hot, white center–a white dwarf. Larger stars explode as enormous supernovae. Why this is interesting: Within the coming days or weeks, a two-star system called T Coronae Borealis (or T Cor Bor) will detonate in an enormous nuclear explosion. This ordinarily dim star, barely visible through binoculars, will suddenly be visible to the naked eye. In an instant it will blast out upwards of 100,000 times as much energy as the sun's annual output.
What the experts say: For most stars, their deaths leave a white dwarf that fades away over the eons into a hypothetical black dwarf (we've yet to see one). But T Cor Bor is on an 80-year cycle of burning and exploding as the white dwarf in the system drains gas and material away from its red giant companion. The pair may someday explode as a supernova, writes astronomer and columnist Phil Plait, but "that's not likely to be for a very, very long time, though, so enjoy the show it'll be putting on soon." | | | • Several athletes at the Paris Olympics have come down with COVID, but they are still allowed to compete. | 3 min read | | | • Kamala Harris's pick for VP, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, has passed strong legislation in Minnesota to address climate change. | 5 min read | | | • NASA astronauts have been stranded at the International Space Station for more than two months. They might be able to hitch a ride home with SpaceX. | 3 min read | | | Boeing's Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA's Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module's forward port. NASA | | | • Many opioid use disorder treatment programs require that people abstain from cannabis in order to qualify for treatment."This shortsighted policy potentially blocks thousands of individuals from receiving care—and overlooks the possibility that some constituents of cannabis may have therapeutic benefit," write Joao P. De Aquino and Gabriel P. A. Costa, professor of psychiatry at Yale University and medical student, respectively. "We should adopt evidence-based policies that prioritize access to approved medications while cautiously considering the potential role of cannabinoids in helping to treat opioid use disorder," they say. | 6 min read | | | • Check out where your state's electricity comes from in these cool infographics. | The New York Times | • Try slow productivity: Do less, work at a natural pace, and think more about quality. | Nature | • More than 1,200 pieces of bone were discovered underneath Ben Franklin's London home in the 1990s. What the heck? | Smithsonian | | | In a press conference at the end of June, NASA was emphatic that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are not "stranded" on the ISS. Whatever you want to call it, the two will have some time to kill in space. Astronauts on previous long-duration stays have said that downtime on the ISS is like it is on Earth--watching movies or streaming sports (the Olympics!), playing music or journaling. What a place to unwind! | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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