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By Laurice Angeles
In the science world last week:
Doctors now have to choose between medical ethics and the law with Roe v. Wade overturned.
Heat waves are getting more common around the world.
South Korea launches satellite with homegrown rocket for the first time.
Have polar bears in Greenland adapted to climate change?
World’s largest bacterium is the size of an eyelash!
Like most doctors, ob-gyn Dr. DeShaw Taylor in Arizona is now faced with a dilemma after Roe v. Wade was overturned—to choose safe healthcare options or to follow the law.
With Roe overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, states now have the choice to ban the abortion procedure. And about half of the states have already indicated to do so.
Doctors take the Hippocratic oath upon graduation from medical school—”to do no harm,” and learn about healthcare and medical ethics in their years of profession afterwards. And they defend access to legal abortion as a legitimate and safe health care option. Otherwise, women will die.
Ob-gyn Dr. Louise King says doctors are not that much outspoken in defense of abortion, but that’s just because they don’t want to disturb healthcare with controversy. The US, however, has “reached a tipping point.” And so, many doctors and medical organizations alongside her are now very vocal about abortion as essential healthcare.
The summer officially started just last week, but it started getting hot long before that.
Record-breaking heat waves topping 38°C (100°F) occurred in many European countries, northern China, and mid-west and southern states in the US two weeks ago.
Temperatures at this level usually happens in July, but it’s only mid-June. Wildly hot days like these are getting more common around the world and are causing longer summers with both more wet and more dry conditions.
Heat waves like these are dangerous. Both Spain and Germany are experiencing wildfires. Just last week, a now mostly contained wildfire in southern New Jersey grew to more than 5,500 hectares (13,500 acres) in size.
Also, France cancelled outdoor festivities last weekend. And Italy issued health alerts and emergencies for 18 cities last week because of very high temperatures.
Korean wave reaches space!
For the first time, South Korea launches a satellite with a homegrown rocket. This feat boosts their “growing aerospace ambitions,” as it made South Korea the 10th nation to achieve this.
The satellite carries four smaller satellites to be released in the coming days “for Earth observation and other missions,” according to ministry officials.
The launch also shows the kind of the technologies they have that could “launch spy satellites and build larger missiles amid tension with rival North Korea.”
North Korea launched Earth observation satellites in 2012 and 2016 but there is not proof that either brought images and data back to Earth. These launches received punishments from the United Nations through economic sanctions because they were viewed as covers for testing banned long-range missile technology.
Other interesting stuff:
Have polar bears really adapted to global warming?
Scientists found out that a group of polar bears in Greenland survived periods of about 250 days without their sea ice habitats each year. This is considered a very short sea ice season. They adapted to use freshwater ice from Greenland’s ice sheets.
When you think of bacteria, you’d imagine them under the microscope, but with Thiomargarita magnifica, you won’t need one.
This newly-discovered bacterium is visible to the naked eye and looks like an eyelash found in Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles, according to study. “To understand how gigantic that is for a bacterium, it is the same as if we were to find a human as tall as the Mount Everest,” CNN quoted co-author of the study and marine biologist Jean-Marie Volland.
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