- Next Season, You May be Able to Take Your Flu Vaccine at Home
- The Loneliness Epidemic: Nearly 1 in 4 Adults Feel Lonely, New Survey Finds
- One of the Most Important Jobs in American Politics Has Turned into a Nightmare
- This Year’s Most Popular (and relevant) Halloween Costumes
- These Tiny Mummies Reveal the Unexpected Survival Skills of Mice
- The Plant Poisons That Shape Our Daily Lives
Next Season, You May be Able to Take Your Flu Vaccine at Home
下個季度，您也許可以在家中接種流感疫苗
Health
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing an application for the nasal spray flu vaccine FluMist to be able to be self-administered at home, drugmaker AstraZeneca said Tuesday. The vaccine, the only nasal spray option against flu, has been on the market in the United States since 2003. AstraZeneca has asked the FDA to allow adults ages 18 to 49 to be able to give themselves the vaccine, or to give it to children as young as age 2, citing a “usability study” showing people can do it properly without a health care provider present. If approved, it would be the first flu vaccine cleared for self-administration. Patients would still need to go through an online pharmacy system to order the vaccine, which would then be shipped to their home in temperature-controlled packaging, AstraZeneca’s Dr. Lisa Glasser told CNN. The hope is that a self-administered flu vaccine option could increase uptake; while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone age 6 months and older get a seasonal flu vaccine every year, fewer than half of Americans get vaccinated.
--from CNN
AstraZeneca藥廠週二表示，美國食品藥物管理局正在審查鼻噴流感疫苗 FluMist 的申請，以便能夠在家中自行注射。 自 2003 年後在美國上市，該疫苗是唯一針對流感的鼻噴劑。AstraZeneca引用一項「可用性研究」表明人們可以在沒有醫療保健提供者在場的情況下正確地做到這一點，向FDA提出藥物的許可，針對18 至 49 歲的成年人能夠自己接種疫苗，或給兒童接種疫苗小至2 歲。 如果獲得批准，這將是第一種可以自行注射的流感疫苗。 AstraZeneca的Dr. Lisa Glasser告訴CNN，患者仍然需要透過線上藥房系統訂購疫苗，然後疫苗將透過溫控包裝運送到他們的家中。 期待自行接種的流感疫苗這樣選擇可以增加接種率； 既便美國疾病管制與預防中心建議 6 個月及以上的每個人每年都接種季節性流感疫苗，但只有不到一半的美國人接種了疫苗。
-- 摘錄翻譯自 CNN
The Loneliness Epidemic: Nearly 1 in 4 Adults Feel Lonely, New Survey Finds
孤獨流行：新調查發現近四分之一的成年人感到孤獨
Health
If you feel lonely, you’re actually in good company: Nearly 1 in 4 adults across the world have reported feeling very or fairly lonely, a new Meta-Gallup survey has found. The new survey, taken across 142 countries, found 24% of people age 15 and older self-reported feeling very or fairly lonely in response to the question, “How lonely do you feel?” The survey also found that the rates of loneliness were highest in young adults, with 27% of young adults ages 19 to 29 reporting feeling very or fairly lonely. The lowest rates were found in older adults. Only 17% of people age 65 and older reported feeling lonely. Over half of adults age 45 and older reported not feeling lonely at all, while the majority of those younger than 45 answered that they felt at least a little lonely, if not very or fairly lonely.
--from CNN
即便你感到孤獨，事實上你有很好的陪伴：一項新的 Meta-Gallup 調查發現，全球近四分之一的成年人表示感到非常或相當孤獨。 這項在 142 個國家/地區進行的新調查發現，在回答「你感覺有多孤獨？」這一問題時，24% 的 15 歲及以上人士表示感到非常或相當孤獨。 調查還發現，年輕人的孤獨感最高，19 至 29 歲的年輕人中有 27% 表示他們感到非常或相當孤獨。 老年人的發病率最低。 65 歲及以上的人中只有 17% 表示感到孤獨。 超過一半的 45 歲及以上成年人表示根本不感到孤獨，而大多數 45 歲以下的人回答說，他們至少感到有點孤獨，即使不是非常孤獨或相當孤獨。
--摘錄翻譯自CNN
One of the Most Important Jobs in American Politics Has Turned into a Nightmare
美國政治中重要的問題變成了一場噩夢
Culture
Winning a majority party’s nomination for speaker of the House of Representatives usually elevates a lawmaker into the pantheon of American political leaders. But such is the toxicity of the GOP three weeks after the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy that the nominee expected to emerge on Tuesday may never get the top job. The nomination is an assignment to what may be an impossible political mission to unite a conference that might never be reconciled. And even if the nominee wins the gavel, the next speaker has a reasonable chance of a tenure even shorter than McCarthy, who lasted nine months. But this is about more than the plight of a Republican Party that often looks like it’s tearing itself apart. If the dysfunctional House GOP majority cannot get its act together, the US government could run out of funding before Thanksgiving week – and millions of Americans could pay the price.
-- from CNN
贏得多數黨的眾議院議長提名通常會將這位議員提升為美國政治領袖的萬神殿。 但議長凱文·麥卡錫(Kevin McCarthy)下台三週後，共和黨的問題如此之大，以至於預計週二出現的提名人可能永遠無法獲得最高職位。 這項提名是一項或許是不可能的政治使命，旨在團結一個可能永遠無法調和的會議。 即使被提名者贏得了木槌，下一位議長的任期也有可能比麥卡錫的任期更短，麥卡錫的任期為九個月。 但這不僅關乎共和黨常常看起來是正在分裂的困境。如果功能失調的眾議院共和黨多數派無法採取一致行動，美國政府可能會在感恩節前耗盡資金，數百萬美國人可能會為此付出代價。
--摘錄翻譯自CNN
This Year’s Most Popular (and relevant) Halloween Costumes
今年最受歡迎（且相關）的萬聖節服裝
Culture
Halloween, our annual celebration of the scary, has long been a showcase for ghost costumes and vampire teeth. This year, though, the most popular costumes might look a little different. Barbie, Spider-Man and Wednesday Addams (from “The Addams Family”) are among the most searched costumes ideas in the US this year, according to Google Trends’ Frightgeist, which analyzes the most-searched costume ideas across the country. If you still haven’t found a costume idea, fear not. CNN has you covered with five topical, yet still popular, Halloween costume ideas guaranteed to stun. Barbie Of course, after “Barbie” made history with a $1 billion box office run, the doll is almost guaranteed to appear at your local Halloween party or trunk-or-treat. The Mattel favorite is the most-searched Halloween costume of the year, begging the question: How can you do Barbie, without unintentionally twinning with everyone else at the event?
--from CNN
萬聖節是我們一年一度的恐怖慶祝活動，長期以來一直是幽靈服裝和吸血鬼牙齒的展示場所。 不過，今年最受歡迎的服裝可能看起來有點不同。 Google趨勢的 Frightgeist 分析了全國搜尋次數最多的服裝創意，根據該趨勢，芭比娃娃、蜘蛛人和星期三亞當斯（來自《亞當斯一家》）等，是今年美國搜尋次數最多的服裝創意之一。 如果您還沒有找到服裝創意，請不要擔心。 CNN (CNN) 為您介紹了五種熱門但仍然流行的萬聖節服裝創意，保證令人驚嘆。 芭比 當然，在《芭比娃娃》創造了 10 億美元票房歷史之後，這個娃娃幾乎肯定會出現在您當地的萬聖節派對或「trunk or treat」上。 Mattel最受歡迎的服裝是今年搜尋次數最多的萬聖節服裝，這引出了一個問題：如何才能扮演芭比娃娃，而不會無意中與活動中的其他人變成雙胞胎？
--摘錄翻譯自CNN
These Tiny Mummies Reveal the Unexpected Survival Skills of Mice
這些小木乃伊揭示了老鼠意想不到的生存技能
Sciences
Towering kilometres above sea level, the tops of the Andean volcanoes are extremely hostile to life. Temperatures there never rise above freezing, the air is so thin that breathing is difficult and there is a constant barrage of wind. But life has found a way: researchers who climbed to the peaks of three volcanoes in Chile and Argentina found more than a dozen naturally mummified leaf-eared mice (Phyllotis vaccarum), some of them possibly centuries old. The presence of the freeze-dried creatures and analysis of their genomes suggest that leaf-eared mice spend extended periods in these hostile locations. “This is truly surprising and challenges our previous assumptions about the adaptability of species to extreme environments,” says Emmanuel Fabián Ruperto, a behavioural ecologist at the Argentine Institute for Dryland Research in Mendoza.
-from Nature
安地斯火山的頂部海拔數公里高，對生命極為不利。 那裡的氣溫永遠不會高於冰點，空氣稀薄，呼吸困難，而且狂風不斷。 但生命已經找到了出路：研究人員爬上智利和阿根廷的三座火山頂峰，發現了十幾隻自然木乃伊化的葉耳鼠（Phyllotis vaccarum），其中一些可能已有數百年歷史。 凍乾生物的存在及其基因組分析表明，葉耳小鼠在這些惡劣的地方度過了很長時間。 「這確實令人驚訝，挑戰了我們先前關於物種對極端環境適應性的假設，」Argentine Institute for Dryland Research in Mendoza的行為生態學家伊曼紐爾·法比安·魯佩托(Emmanuel Fabián Ruperto ) 說。
--摘錄翻譯自Nature
The Plant Poisons That Shape Our Daily Lives
影響我們日常生活的植物毒物
Sciences
Science 2023.10.23 The Plant Poisons That Shape Our Daily Lives 影響我們日常生活的植物毒物 https://media.nature.com/lw767/magazine-assets/d41586-023-03303-z/d41586-023-03303-z_26189370.jpg?as=webp One beautiful summer’s day about 30 years ago, my father had a mini-stroke. He was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia and was prescribed the blood-thinning drug warfarin. But after a few years of relative stability, tests showed that his body was no longer metabolizing the warfarin properly. Searching for an explanation, doctors eventually realized that my father had started drinking grapefruit juice with his breakfast. The fruit contains chemicals called furanocoumarins, which stop warfarin being metabolized in the liver. As my father’s experience shows, plants that we might think of as benign can — depending on our circumstances — be anything but. In fact, many are bioactive. In Most Delicious Poison, biologist Noah Whiteman delves into why plants’ myriad natural toxins arose, how animals have adapted to them and how humans have attempted, for better or worse, to harness them for our benefit, without fully understanding the effects that these poisons have on our brains and bodies. Whiteman explores these ideas by looking at plant chemicals that people use for medicine, food and pleasure, including toxins such as ethanol (from plant sugars) that can end up as addictive substances.
-- from Nature
大約 30 年前的一個美麗的夏日，我父親得了一次小中風，因而被診斷出患有心律不整，並被開了血液稀釋藥物warfarin。藥物使用幾年內狀況相對穩定，但血液測試顯示他的身體不再正常代謝warfarin。 在尋找可能因時，醫生最終發現到我父親開始在早餐時喝葡萄柚汁。 這種水果含有一種叫做呋喃香豆素(furanocoumarins)的化學物質，可以阻止warfarin在肝臟中的代謝。 正如我父親的經驗所顯示的結果，我們可能認為是良性的植物——取決於我們的環境——實際上可能並非如此。 事實上，許多都具有生物活性。 在《Most Delicious Poison》一書中，生物學家Noah Whiteman深入探討了植物中無數天然毒素產生的原因、動物如何適應它們，以及人類如何嘗試（無論好壞）利用它們來為我們謀取利益，但沒有完全了解這些毒素的影響對我們的大腦和身體有影響。 Whiteman透過研究人們用於醫藥、食品和娛樂的植物化學物質來探索這些想法，其中包括乙醇（來自植物糖）等毒素，這些毒素最終可能成為成癮物質。
--摘錄翻譯自Nature