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SPONSORED BY  | | | | October 10, 2024: The government is burning through its disaster relief money, cases of whooping cough are rising, and why astronauts often get kidney stones. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | A crane sits on the street after crashing down into the building housing the Tampa Bay Times offices after the arrival of Hurricane Milton on October 10, 2024 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Spencer Platt/Getty Images | | | • We're only eight days into a new fiscal year and FEMA has spent nearly half the disaster relief money that Congress has allocated for the next 12 months. | 3 min read | | | • Floodwaters from hurricanes and other disasters can contain a nasty mix of pathogens, chemicals and debris. | 3 min read | | | • A matchmaking algorithm called Gale-Shapley (or the "Stable Marriage Problem") underpins dating apps and school admissions. | 6 min read | | | Cases of whooping cough dropped dramatically during the COVID pandemic, but are climbing again, with more than 16,000 reported in the U.S. this year as of the end of September–four times the count at this time last year. Officially called pertussis, the disease is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, which is transmitted by droplets from the nose and mouth, and causes a severe cough characterized by a distinct whoop sound on the inhale.
Why this matters: Whooping cough is very contagious and infants are particularly at-risk. Because they don't start breathing through their mouths until they are between three and six months old, the mucus and intense coughing of pertussis prevents babies from getting enough oxygen. Last year more than one in five children under six months old who had pertussis were hospitalized.
What the experts say: Though vaccine use in babies and children is high, many adults lapse on the vaccine or boosters for whooping cough (which is part of the tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, called Tdap). Plus, only about half of pregnant women take the vaccine, which helps extend immunity to infants. "It would not be fair for babies to die of pertussis right now, having the tools that we have," says Flor Muñoz, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Baylor College of Medicine. | | | Astronauts are strangely susceptible to kidney stones while in space. Researchers analyzed data from astronauts during their missions and of rodents on Earth and found that people in space experience a combined effect of microgravity and radiation that messes with the organs.
What they found: Microgravity shifts the distribution of fluids in the body, and kidney tubules tend to shrink. These tiny tubes ferry filtered blood from the kidneys back to blood vessels. Shrunken tubules hinder kidney filtration of calcium and salts, and those minerals accumulate into stones. In space, astronauts are subjected to a stream of high-energy particles that originate from the sun and other stars (and are usually deflected away from the surface of Earth by the planet's magnetic field). Exposure to such radiation shuts down mitochondria in astronaut's cells and leads to inflammation and damage of the kidney tubules.
What the experts say: If we're going to eventually go to Mars or pursue longer-duration space missions, more research is urgently needed into how to strengthen spacecraft shields meant to scatter incoming radiation, says Evagelia Laiakis, a radiotherapy researcher at Georgetown University. | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY CCHCS | Use your skills to make a positive difference in the lives of incarcerated persons. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) / California Correctional Health Care Services (CCHCS) is seeking full-time compassionate, knowledgeable psychiatrists to join our multidisciplinary mental health teams. Learn More | | | • Census data show that socially vulnerable groups are displaced from their homes at higher rates than other groups in the wake of disasters like hurricanes. Plus, disasters exacerbate existing inequalities, write Tricia Wachtendorf and James Kendra, researchers at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. "If we as a society care about those who contribute to our communities, we must find the political and organizational will to act to reduce the challenges reflected in the census and disaster research," they say. | 4 min read | | | Surviving natural disasters takes a toll on mental health. Researchers have recorded anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder for months and years after the storm in people who have experienced strong hurricanes. Some experts want mental health care to be a core part of disaster recovery plans. Hurricanes are not simply an economic blow, but the first link in a chain of physical and mental hardship that can be long-lasting if not met with support and proper resources. | I hope this newsletter and the science journalism we do at Scientific American can be a help to you, no matter your circumstances. Email me anytime with feedback or suggestions: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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