March 21, 2025: How tariffs work, according to economic studies. Plus, one man's lifelong journey to diagnose his rare neurological condition, and mice may perform first aid on each other. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Smog over Los Angeles. Westend61/Getty Images | | | • After 150,000 research articles and 17 million genome sequences, this is what science has taught us about SARS-CoV-2. | 10 min read | | | • When mice see an unconscious peer, they seem to perform first aid, apparently aimed at rescuing their companion, although not all experts are convinced. | 4 min read | | | • A new Trump administration health initiative called Operation Stork Speed aims to improve the safety of infant formula and reduce contamination risk. However, budget and staffing cuts at the FDA may make that tough to achieve. | 4 min read | | | Paul Marino, "motors" when his neurological condition manifests itself—often when he is feeling excited or engrossed. Tristan Spinski | | | For as long as he could remember, any time he felt excited by something, Paul Marino, now a journalist and artist, would bring his hands up near his face and flick his fingers against each other. His pediatrician and parents chalked it up to a childhood tic or quirk. But his "motoring," as Marino calls it, continued into adulthood, and until recently, neurologists had no official diagnosis. In the last few years, on a journey to find out why he motored, he determined that his condition is called Complex Motor Stereotypie, a rare disorder shared by a small group of other adults.
Why this is interesting: Children tend to present repetitive movements or sounds, called stereotypies, at around two years of age. Movements vary—arm flapping, finger flickering, grimacing, rocking—but the triggers are the same: excitement, engrossment, boredom, anxiety. A simple distraction can suppress them. In 2022, the DSM-5 (the go-to guidebook for psychiatric disorders) dedicated several pages to stereotypic movement disorder, the diagnostic name for Complex Motor Stereotypie.
What the experts say: Children with motor stereotypies often experience detailed visualizations while motoring. In a 2016 paper, Tammy Hedderly, a pediatric neurologist at Evelina London Children's Hospital, and her colleagues describe intense imagery movements as a subset of the condition. "It's almost, in some children, like a superpower, and not something to be pathologized," Hedderly told Marino during his personal quest to find a diagnosis. Of the adults Hedderly has diagnosed with the condition, a remarkable proportion are architects, designers, writers, producers, musicians, artists and "numbers people." "I officially belong to the 15 to 20 percent of the population considered neurodivergent, whose brains, for better or worse, are atypical," writes Marino. "All I can do is own it." | | | President Donald Trump is threatening steep tariffs on virtually all imports. But what is a tariff and what do economists know about their impact? A tariff is basically just a tax, but instead of applying to a particular type of product, it applies to all goods imported from a certain place, and the tax is paid by the consumer. Tariffs are meant to keep production at home. They artificially raise the price of imported products, allowing domestic manufacturers to charge higher prices.
What the evidence shows: Tariffs raise prices for consumers, reduce consumption, increase unemployment and inequality, and erode the gross domestic product, according to a range of economic studies on the policy. One analysis suggests that a 10-percent tariff on all international products and a 60-percent tariff on Chinese products could cut nearly $600 billion over four years from the U.S. gross domestic product. Even after existing tariffs levied by Trump during his first time and by Joe Biden, the federal government last year collected about 30 times more revenue from individual income taxes than through tariffs.
What the experts say: "Economists know that they are very inefficient; we know that they are very bad for consumers," says Luisa Blanco, an economist at Pepperdine University in California. "Tariffs actually create a deadweight loss" in which the consumer loses more than the producer gains, she says. —Meghan Bartels, senior news writer | | | • A member of a research crew at South Africa's Sanae IV research station in Antarctica has accused another crew member of assault, and allegations of sexual harassment are also being investigated, the BBC reported this week. Scientific field work has long been rife with sexual harassment in part because of its remote nature, and the number of incidences of sexual harassment in the sciences hasn't improved in decades, write Jenny Morber and Starre Vartan, both professional writers and former scientists. Science-backed training methods and new laws can make a difference, but research institutions must adopt them rather than carry on simply protecting themselves. | 9 min read | | | Put your scientific knowledge to the test with this week's science quiz. And here's today's Spellements. You know the drill: If you spot any science words missing from the puzzle, email them to games@sciam.com. This week, Michael W. found pepita, a shelled pumpkin seed. Tasty find, Michael. | | | MOST POPULAR STORIES OF THE WEEK | | | • Best-Yet 'Baby Pictures' of the Universe Unveiled | 4 min read | • Lifesaving mRNA Vaccine Technology Appears Targeted under Trump and RFK, Jr. | 5 min read | • USAID Funding Saved Millions of Children's Lives. Recent Cuts Put It in Jeopardy | 6 min read | | | We all have our own weird tics or idiosyncratic mannerisms. And it seems to be the human condition to feel at times that we are separate, different and apart from everyone else. I'd wager, though, that with enough searching, nearly everyone could find a small community of other people who also do that one quirky thing. | Thanks for being uniquely you and for reading Today in Science this week. Enjoy your weekend and send any feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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