- FDA approves new drug that may help stop and even reverse a rare, fatal condition that doctors call a ‘ticking time bomb’
- ‘It’s like staring at demons’: Meet a man who lives with a disturbing condition
- A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
- The world wastes more than 1 billion meals every day as hundreds of millions go hungry, UN report finds
- How did the Big Bang get its name? Here’s the real story
- How to make an old immune system young again
FDA approves new drug that may help stop and even reverse a rare, fatal condition that doctors call a ‘ticking time bomb’
FDA 批准一種新藥，可能有助於阻止甚至逆轉一種罕見的致命疾病，醫生稱之為「定時炸彈」
Health
When doctors told Katrina Barry that she had a rare and serious condition called pulmonary arterial hypertension or PAH, they warned her not to Google it. Come on, she thought; they wanted a young woman who was bound for graduate school, who had survived a transatlantic plane flight while having a heart attack and now open-heart surgery, not to look up the condition that kept trying to kill her? Waiting for her on the internet was some chilling information. PAH affects about 500 to 1,000 Americans each year, often women between the ages of 30 and 60, according to the American Lung Association. Then her medical team offered her a potential lifeline: a first-of-its-kind experimental drug called sotatercept that corrals a growth factor that is overproduced by people with PAH, potentially changing the underlying biology of the disease. On Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the medication that Barry has taken for four years, a drug she credits with keeping her alive and allowing her to resume many of the activities she enjoyed before her diagnosis.
---from CNN
當醫生告訴Katrina Barry她患有一種罕見且嚴重的疾病，稱為肺動脈高壓（PAH）時，他們警告她不要用谷歌搜尋。 拜託，她想；他們想讓一個即將進入研究所的年輕女子，一個在一次跨大西洋的飛機飛行中心臟病發作，現在做了心臟手術並倖存下來的人，不去查找那個可能要了她的命的病情？ 在網路上等待她的，是一些令人毛骨悚然的資訊。根據美國肺臟協會的數據，PAH 每年影響約500至1,000名美國人，通常是介於30至60歲的女性。 然後，她的醫療團隊為她提供了一條潛在的救命之路：一種名為 sotatercept 的首創的實驗性藥物，它可以抑制 PAH 患者體內過量產生的生長因子，從而有可能改變這種疾病的潛在生物學特性。 週二，美國食品和藥物管理局批准了Barry服用了四年的藥物，她認為正是這種藥物讓她活了下來，並讓她恢復了診斷前喜歡從事的許多活動。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
‘It’s like staring at demons’: Meet a man who lives with a disturbing condition
「這就像在盯著惡魔看」：遇見一個生活狀況令人不安的男人
Health
For 59-year-old Victor Sharrah, the terrifying symptoms began on a winter day in Nashville. “I just woke up and was sitting on the couch watching TV when my roommate came into the room, and (looking at him) I’m like, ‘What am I seeing?’ Then his girlfriend walked in and her face was the same,” Sharrah told CNN. Each of the once-familiar faces had a grotesque grimace, elongated eyes and deeply etched scars. When turned to the side, pointy ears suddenly appeared, he said, much like those of Spock, the Vulcan first officer on the USS Enterprise in Star Trek. “I tried to explain to my roommate what I was seeing, and he thought I was nuts. Then I went outside and all of the faces of people I saw were distorted and still are,” Sharrah said. “It’s like staring at demons,” he added. “Imagine waking up one morning and suddenly everybody in the world looks like a creature in a horror movie.” Sharrah has a rare condition called prosopometamorphopsia, or PMO, in which parts of the faces of other people appear distorted in shape, texture, position or color. Objects and other parts of a person’s body, however, typically remain undisturbed.
---from CNN
對 59 歲的 Victor Sharrah 來說，可怕的症狀始於Nashville的一個冬日。 「我剛睡醒，正坐在沙發上看電視，我的室友走進來，我看著他，心想，『我看到了什麼？』然後他的女朋友走進來，她的臉也是這樣」。Sharrah告訴CNN。 每一張曾經熟悉的臉孔，都有一個怪誕的鬼臉、細長的眼睛和深深的傷疤。他說，當她的臉轉向一邊時，尖尖的耳朵突然出現了，很像《星際爭霸戰》中企業號航空母艦上Vulcan大副Spock的耳朵。 「我試著向我的室友解釋我看到了什麼，但他認為我瘋了。然後我走到外面，我看到所有人的臉都扭曲了，現在仍然如此，」Sharrah說。 「這就像盯著惡魔看一樣，」他補充道。「想像一下，有一天早上醒來，突然間發現世界上的每個人都看起來像恐怖電影裡的生物。」 Sharrah患有一種罕見的疾病，稱為人臉變形症（PMO），這種疾病會看其他人一部分的臉部形狀、表面、位置或顏色出現扭曲。然而，物體和一個人身體的其他部位通常不會受到干擾。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
A dog and a bird formed an unlikely friendship. Their separation has infuriated followers
一隻狗和一隻鳥之間產生了不可思議的友誼。他們的分離激怒了粉絲
Culture
Peggy is a stout and muscular Staffordshire bull terrier, and Molly is a magpie, an Australian bird best known for swooping on humans during breeding season, not for befriending dogs. In the four years since their unlikely bond was posted online, the odd couple has attracted almost two million followers on Instagram and Facebook. But in an emotional video posted online Tuesday, Peggy’s owners, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, announced that the animals had been separated. “It breaks our heart to make this announcement today,” said Wells. “We had to surrender Molly to the Department of Science and Innovation (DESI) – Department of Science and Innovation – as we had a small group of people constantly complaining to them.” Fans online were quick to demand justice. “This is a classic example of bureaucracy over common sense and humanity,” one user wrote on Instagram. “Our tax-payer funded departments should be using their resources to help out the community and save mis-treated wildlife, not harm them!!” said the comment, which attracted more than 1,000 likes. However, spokesman for the Department of Science and Innovation (DESI) said in a statement the bird had been “illegally” taken from the wild and been kept with “no permit, licence or authority.” “Animals in rehabilitation must not associate with domestic animals due to the potential for them to be subjected to stress and the risks of behavioural imprinting and transmission of diseases,” the statement added. “Animals from the wild, must stay wild.”
---from CNN
Peggy是一隻粗壯、肌肉發達的Staffordshire bull terrier狗,，Molly是一隻喜鵲，它是一種澳大利亞鳥類，最出名的是在繁殖季節猛撲攻擊人類，而不是與狗交朋友。 自從他們不可思議的關係在網路上被發布後的四年裡，這對奇怪的情侶在 Instagram和Facebook上已經吸引了近200 萬粉絲。 但在週二在網路上發佈的一段感人影片中，Peggy的主人Juliette Wells 和 Reece Mortensen宣布，這兩隻動物已被分開了。 「今天宣布的這個消息讓我們心碎，」Wells說。「我們不得不將Molly交給 DESI（科學與創新部），因為有一小群人不斷向他們抱怨。」 網路上的粉絲迅速要求伸張正義。 一位用戶在Instagram上寫道：「這是官僚主義凌駕於常識和人性之上的典型例子。」 「我們的納稅人資助的部門應該利用他們的資源來幫助社區，拯救受到虐待的野生動物，而不是傷害它們！！」這則評論吸引了1000多個讚。 然而，科學與創新部（DESI）發言人在一份聲明中表示，這隻鳥是「非法」從野外捕獲的，並且「沒有任何許可證、執照或授權」。 聲明補充說：「康復中的動物不得與家畜接觸，因為它們可能會受到壓力，並有行為印記和疾病傳播的風險。」 「來自野外的動物，必須保持野生。」
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
The world wastes more than 1 billion meals every day as hundreds of millions go hungry, UN report finds
聯合國報告發現，全世界每天浪費超過 10 億份餐點，卻有數億人挨餓
Culture
More than 1 billion meals are wasted across the world each day while nearly 800 million people go hungry, a new United Nations report has found. The world wasted 1.05 billion metric tons of food in 2022, meaning about a fifth of the food available to people was squandered by households, restaurants and other parts of the food service and retail sectors. This is on top of the 13% of the world’s food lost as it makes its journey from farm to fork. In total, about a third of all food goes to waste during the production process. These waste figures are particularly stark when contrasted with the report’s findings that about a third of the world’s population faces food insecurity and 783 million are affected by hunger. The staggering statistics, published Wednesday in the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Food Waste Index Report 2024, raise questions about the world’s ability to distribute the food it produces and highlights the role of food waste as a driver of climate change.
---from CNN
一份新的聯合國的報告發現，全世界每天有超過10億份餐點被浪費，而有近8億人挨餓。 2022 年，全世界浪費了10.5億噸食物，這意味著人們可獲得的食物中約有五分之一被家庭、餐廳和其他食品服務業和零售業浪費掉了。 這還不包括世界上13%的食物在從農場到餐桌的過程中的損失。整體而言，大約三分之一的食物在生產過程中被浪費了。 與報告的調查結果相比，這些浪費的數字顯得特別明顯，該調查結果顯示，全球約有三分之一的人口面臨糧食不安全，7.83億人受到飢餓的影響。 週三在聯合國環境規劃署 (UNEP) 2024 年食物浪費指數報告中公佈了這些驚人的統計數據，這些數據引發了人們對世界分配其生產的食物的能力的質疑，並凸顯了食物浪費在氣候變遷中所引起的推動作用。
---摘錄翻譯自CNN
How did the Big Bang get its name? Here’s the real story
大爆炸的名字是怎麼來的？這是真實的故事
Sciences
Several misconceptions linger concerning the origin and impact of the popular term. One is whether Hoyle introduced the nickname to ridicule or denigrate the small community of cosmologists who thought that the Universe had a violent beginning — a hypothesis that then seemed irrational. Another is that this group adopted ‘Big Bang’ eagerly, and it then migrated to other sciences and to everyday language. In reality, for decades, scientists ignored the catchy phrase, even as it spread in more-popular contexts. The first cosmological theory of the Big Bang type dates back to 1931, when Belgian physicist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaître proposed a model based on the radioactive explosion of what he called a “primeval atom” at a fixed time in the past. He conceived that this primordial object was highly radioactive and so dense that it comprised all the matter, space and energy of the entire Universe. From the original explosion caused by radioactive decay, stars and galaxies would eventually form, he reasoned. Lemaître spoke metaphorically of his model as a “fireworks theory” of the Universe, the fireworks consisting of the decay products of the initial explosion. However, Big Bang cosmology in its modern meaning — that the Universe was created in a flash of energy and has expanded and cooled down since — took off only in the late 1940s, with a series of papers by the Soviet–US nuclear physicist George Gamow and his US associates Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman. Gamow hypothesized that the early Universe must have been so hot and dense that it was filled with a primordial soup of radiation and nuclear particles, namely neutrons and protons. Under such conditions, those particles would gradually come together to form atomic nuclei as the temperature cooled. By following the thermonuclear processes that would have taken place in this fiery young Universe, Gamow and his collaborators tried to calculate the present abundance of chemical elements in an influential 1948 paper1.
---from Nature
關於這個流行術語的起源和影響，存在著一些誤解。其中一個是，引入Hoyle這個綽號，是否是為了嘲笑或詆毀一小群宇宙學家，他們認為宇宙有一個劇烈的開端—這個假設在當時看來是不合理的。另一種解釋是，這群人急切地接受了「大爆炸」這個名詞，然後又將它轉移到其他科學和日常詞彙中。事實上，幾十年來，科學家忽略了這個朗朗上口的詞彙，即使它在更流行的情境中傳播開來。 第一個大爆炸類型的宇宙學理論可以追溯到1931年，當時比利時物理學家兼天主教牧師Georges Lemaître提出了一個模型，該模型基於他所謂的「原始原子」在過去某個固定時間的放射性爆炸。他認為這個原始物體具有高度放射性，而且密度很大，以至於它包含了整個宇宙的所有物質、空間和能量。他推斷，從最初由放射性衰變引起的爆炸開始，最終會形成恆星和星系。 Lemaître將他的模型比喻為宇宙的「煙火理論」，煙火是由最初爆炸的衰變產物組成。 然而，現代意義上的大爆炸宇宙論—宇宙是在能量的閃光中產生的，然後不斷地膨脹和冷卻—直到1940年代末期才開始興起，隨著蘇聯-美國核物理學家George Gamow以及他的美國同事Ralph Alpher 和 Robert Herman發表的一系列論文才開始起步。Gamow假設，早期宇宙一定非常炎熱和緊密，以至於充滿了輻射和核粒子（即中子和質子）的原生漿液。在這種條件下，隨著溫度的降低，這些粒子會逐漸聚集在一起形成原子核。Gamow和他的合作者在1948 年發表的一篇有影響力的論文中，透過追蹤在這個熾熱的年輕宇宙中可能發生的熱核過程，試圖計算出目前化學元素豐度。
---摘錄翻譯自Nature
How to make an old immune system young again
如何讓老化的免疫系統恢復年輕
Sciences
Old mice developed more youthful immune systems after scientists reduced aberrant stem cells in the aged animals. The technique strengthened the old rodents’ responses to viral infection and lowered signs of inflammation. The approach, published on 27 March in Nature, treats older mice with antibodies to diminish a population of stem cells that give rise to a variety of other cell types, including those that contribute to inflammation. Excess inflammation can wreak havoc in the body, and these pro-inflammatory stem cells become dominant as mice and humans age. It will be years before the approach can be tested in people, but many aspects of the stem-cell biology that underlies immune-cell production are similar between mice and humans. “It’s a really important first step,” says Robert Signer, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved in the research. “I’m excited to see where they take this work next.”
--from Nature
在科學家減少老年小鼠體內的異常幹細胞後，老年小鼠的免疫系統變得更加年輕。這項技術增強了老年囓齒動物對病毒感染的反應，並減少了發炎的跡象。 該方法發表在3 月27日的《自然》期刊上，用抗體治療老年小鼠，以減少會產生多種其他細胞類型(包括會導致發炎的細胞類型)幹細胞群。過度的發炎會對身體造成嚴重破壞，而隨著小鼠和人類年齡的增長，這些促發炎幹細胞將變得占主導地位。 這種方法要在人體上進行測試還需要幾年時間，但小鼠和人類之間，做為免疫細胞產生基礎的幹細胞生物學，在許多方面都是相似的。「這是非常重要的第一步，」加州大學聖地牙哥分校的幹細胞生物學家Robert Signer說，他沒有參與這項研究。 「我很高興看到他們下一步的研究方向。」
--摘錄翻譯自Nature