By AJ Dellinger Published January 29, 2025 | Comments (27) | Donald Trump appears in front of a banner that reads 'Protect Our Food' Win McNamee/Getty Images Last Friday, President Donald Trump purged several agencies of their inspectors general, demanding that at least 17 people in the role immediately turn in their work laptops and ID badges. One of those IGs, Phyllis Fong at the US Department of Agriculture, decided not to leave, believing the order to be illegal. According to a report from Reuters, she was escorted from the building today by security. Fong is a 22-year veteran of the inspector general office with the USDA. And while that multi-decade career is probably in part why the Trump administration axed her (something something swamp, something something career bureaucrat, etc.), she also likely carried among the most institutional knowledge of IG operations in the federal government. In 2008, she was named the first Chairperson of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) and sat on the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board that oversaw federal spending related to disaster relief. Per her biography on the USDA website, she was also the recipient of numerous awards in recognition of her leadership in enhancing sound financial management practices and policies in the Federal Government. Seems like the kind of person that youd want around if your whole thing is eliminating wasteful spending and inefficient operations. Of course, perhaps there is some other reason that youd want to sack a person who is an expert in your stated goals. Maybe, just for instance, she was heading up an investigation into Neuralink, a company run by Elon Musk that is seeking to implant chips into peoples brains. Then maybe youd fire her as retributionhypothetically speaking, that is. Regardless of why Fong and some of her colleagues were fired, her position that the axings were illegal seems like it may hold weight. CIGIE responded to the firings by stating they appeared to violate federal law, with chairman Hannibal Ware writing in a letter to the White House that At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss Presidentially Appointed, Senate Confirmed Inspectors General. Senator Adam Schiff has also explicitly called the firings illegal. Even Republican Senator Chuck Grassley put out a statement urging the Trump administration to explain the firings and why there was no 30-day notice as required under the law. Will any of them actually do something about it, though? Thus far, the Democrats have proven feckless in the face of Trumps shock and awe campaign. When confusion over a Trump executive order seemed to lead to Medicaid portals becoming inaccessible across the country, Dem leadership announced an emergency meetingfor the next day.Maybe theyll get around to trying to reinstate the USDAs inspector general next week if they have time. Its not like the agency is currently monitoring a bird flu outbreak at the moment or anything. No rush!Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Matt Novak Published January 29, 2025 By Matt Novak Published January 28, 2025 By Matt Novak Published January 27, 2025 By AJ Dellinger Published January 24, 2025 By Lucas Ropek Published January 24, 2025 By Matthew Gault Published January 24, 2025

Pinnacle Mountain State Park Visitor Center / Polk Stanley Wilcox ArchitectsSave this picture! Timothy HursleyUnited StatesArchitects: Polk Stanley Wilcox ArchitectsAreaArea of this architecture projectArea:14000 ftYearCompletion year of this architecture project Year: 2024 PhotographsPhotographs:Timothy Hursley, Reese Rowland Lead Architects: Reese Rowland, Amanda Sturgell, Wendell Kinzler, Alex Longley, Jim Thacker More SpecsLess SpecsSave this picture!Text description provided by the architects. A new visitor center at Pinnacle Mountain State Park weaves through the trees as a structured, undulating canopy, lightly rooted into the sloping site and forming a gateway to not only Pinnacle Mountain but all Arkansas State Parks.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Of the 52 State Parks that grace the state of Arkansas, Pinnacle Mountain State Park is unique in that it sits adjacent to the capital city of Little Rock, which has grown to border the park. With over 750,000 people living in the metro area, Pinnacle Mountain may be for many their only experience with visiting a State Park; 600,000 people visit this park each year. While the park offers every geographic characteristic found in the state from steep cliffs to wetlands, the park's most prominent feature, and one of the state's as well, is the mountain itself. Climbing to the summit is a rite of passage for many children with their parents, and its trails are covered each day.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!While other state parks in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains have a variety of historic lodges and structures from the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) period that set their architectural style, Pinnacle Mountain did not have a precedent; its urban connection, and the younger city patrons that canoe, kayak, hike, climb and bike the mountain said it should connect in a different way. State Parks desired a building that fit seamlessly with the mountain, as part of the mountain. For those that have not ventured past this park, this Visitor Center needed to be not only a gateway to Pinnacle but to all of State Parks.Save this picture!In studying the site as long-time patrons, the most striking feature is a vein of rocks that runs from the peak down the mountain to a clearing that became the perfect location for access to trails, lower park amenities, and Highway 300. The design solution creates three rock "outcroppings" of functional spaces spread along the grade at this vein, all under one undulating roof canopy that reacts to the terrain and weaves through the actual tree canopy. Under that roof canopy, two buildings form a gateway for the trail opening to the mountain and the lobby. Reception, gifts, and exhibits all view the mountain through a continuous glass wall enclosure where education occurs inside/out to connect visitors visually, physically, and spiritually to the mountain. The Loblolly Outpost sits free under the canopy, offering visitors an outdoor caf setting to celebrate conquering the summit. The roof is lifted to match the mountain's slope to open the view up, direct water to the downward slope, and limit the view of the roof from above and below the mountain. Glass reflects nature by day but creates a dynamic open pavilion at night for returning hikers. The glulam beams structural bracing pattern at the roof emulates the organic order seen in nature.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The Pinnacle Mountain Visitor Center blends perfectly into the mountain as both gateway and destination with a progressive language that bridges the urban and natural environments.Save this picture!Project gallerySee allShow lessProject locationAddress:Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.About this officePublished on January 29, 2025Cite: "Pinnacle Mountain State Park Visitor Center / Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects" 29 Jan 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1026233/pinnacle-mountain-state-park-visitor-center-polk-stanley-wilcox-architects&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Although Mars is known for being a dry and desolate desert, its landscape hasnt always been so hostile. Rivers and lakes were once present on the Red Planet before it began to dry up somewhere around 3 billion years ago. The latest research has explored evidence from this distant chapter of Mars past, revealing ancient sources of water in the Gale crater region that evaporated and left behind wave ripples.Researchers have investigated these geological clues in a recent study published in the journal Science Advances. They concluded that the presence of wave ripples formed 3.7 billion years ago indicates that Mars climate was warm and dense enough to maintain bodies of water not covered by ice, and therefore open to the Martian air."The discovery of wave ripples is an important advance for Mars paleoclimate science," said John Grotzinger, geology professor at Caltech and a principal investigator of the study, in a statement. "We have been searching for these features since the Opportunity and Spirit landers began their missions in 2004."Discovering the RipplesThe ripples were first discovered in 2022 as NASAs Curiosity traversed through Mars Gale crater, an 96-mile-wide (154 km) impact basin that had been filled with lakes and streams billions of years ago.Researchers found one set of ripples in an area called the Prow outcrop, which used to contain wind-blown dunes; another set of ripples was found in the nearby Amapari Marker Band (AMB), a layer of rock likely tied to a 2-meter-deep ancient lake that previously existed. The AMB ripples occurred slightly later in Mars history than the Prow outcrop ripples, suggesting that the atmospheric conditions for both ripple formations occurred at multiple points in time.Evidence of a Shallow LakeIn the new study, the ripples were analyzed in computer models to determine the size of the lake and where they originated. The ripples themselves were only 6 millimeters high and spaced 4 centimeters to 5 centimeters apart, conveying that the movement of small waves formed them. This led the researchers to deduce that the lake was shallow, at less than about 2 meters deep.The researchers assert that the ripples represent wind blowing on open water. Some studies in the past have advanced the possibility of ice-covered lakes on Mars, but the AMB and Prow outcrop ripples distinctly show evidence of ice-free bodies of water."Earlier missions, beginning with Opportunity in 2004, discovered ripples formed by water flowing across the surface of ancient Mars, but it was uncertain if that water ever pooled to form lakes or shallow seas. The Curiosity rover discovered evidence for long-lived ancient lakes in 2014, and now 10 years later Curiosity has discovered ancient lakes that were free of ice, offering an important insight into the planet's early climate," said Grotzinger.Why Did Mars Dry Up?The study of the AMB and Prow outcrop ripples has helped to fill in a murky part of Mars history going back billions of years. Scientists arent certain, however, about the exact details surrounding the transition of the planets climate from wet to dry. Billions of years ago, Mars was also warmer than it is now the median surface temperature of Mars today is around negative 85 degrees Fahrenheit (negative 65 degrees Celsius).The climate of ancient Mars struck a balance that allowed water to exist; in particular, the late Noachian period (about 4.1 billion years to 3.5 billion years ago) is thought to have been a time when Mars was potentially habitable, even having rainfall that caused erosion.The most common interpretation for Mars transition to a dry climate is that intense solar wind stripped a significant amount of carbon dioxide (which also kept the planet warm) from the atmosphere, making it much thinner. A 2024 study in Nature Geoscience also claimed that the drying period was not one single transformation, but seven fluctuating climate transitions that may have even allowed water to exist periodically after 3 billion years ago.Although a consensus on the climatic mysteries of Mars hasnt yet been solidified, scientists are still hard at work trying to find any signs of life that may have once existed on the planet.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Science Advances. Wave ripples formed in ancient, ice-free lakes in Gale crater, MarsJack Knudson is an assistant editor at Discover with a strong interest in environmental science and history. Before joining Discover in 2023, he studied journalism at the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University and previously interned at Recycling Today magazine.

According to a recent study published in Science Advances, a greasy hair day keeps the ice away for polar bears, that is.After examining polar bear fur, an international research team identified what helped keep polar bears ice-free, even in sub-zero temperatures. It all comes down to their greasy fur.This work not only represents the first study of the composition of polar bear fur sebum, but it also resolves the question of why polar bears dont suffer from ice accumulation, said Richard Hobbs, an assistant professor and Royal Society-Science Foundation Ireland University Research Fellow in Trinitys School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre, and senior author of the study, in a press release.Greasy-Haired Polar BearsPolar bear fur is a marvel. Its double-insulated to help keep the bears warm in the arctic conditions, and the hair itself is hollow. While polar bears have black skin, their fur is actually translucent, which makes the fur appear white to humans. Along with all of these fascinating features, it also prevents ice from sticking to it. This ability has stumped researchers in the past, but they now know that it has to do with the sebum on the bear's fur.Sebum is the main ingredient in the oil that the body naturally produces to help keep skin moisturized. Its made up of cholesterol, triglycerides, and fatty acids. An excessive amount can build up on the body, leading to acne. It can also build up in hair which gives it that greasy, dirty look.On polar bears, their sebum is made up of diacylglycerols, cholesterol, and fatty acids, which prevent ice from sticking to their fur.With these findings, researchers have a better understanding of polar bear biology, and could also use this information to make more adaptive cold weather gear, such as skiing or snowboarding equipment.Studying Polar Bear SebumResearchers collected hair samples from six polar bears and did a series of different tests on them. From the results, the team pinpointed the sebum as what was preventing ice from adhering to the polar bear fur.We measured ice adhesion strength, which is a useful measure of how well ice sticks to fur, said Julian Carolan, Ph.D. candidate from Trinity College Dublins School of Chemistry and the AMBER Research Ireland Centre and lead author of the study, in a press release.The sebum quickly jumped out as being the key component giving this anti-icing effect as we discovered the adhesion strength was greatly impacted when the hair was washed. Unwashed, greasy hair made it much harder for ice to stick, he added, in the press release.Why Polar Bear Sebum Is DifferentPolar bears are far from the only animals to have sebum in their fur. But why is it that ice will stick to greasy human hair and other animal fur and not a polar bears? After identifying that sebum had anti-ice properties, researchers did a deeper analysis of the oil.It turns out that while most sebum is made of cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and fatty acids, including a polar bears, they were missing one component squalene, an active part of sebum found on humans and other aquatic mammals, such as otters.Despite having thick layers of insulating blubber and fur and spending extensive periods in water at sub-zero temperatures, it seems that the fur grease provides a natural route for polar bears to easily shed ice when it forms due to the low ice adhesion on their fur, said Hobbs in the release.These findings could lead to new and safe ways of creating an anti-stick coating on certain products.We expect that these natural lipid coatings produced by the bear will help us to develop new more sustainable anti-icing coatings that may replace problematic forever chemicals like PFAS that have been used as anti-icing coatings, Hobbs concluded in a press release.Read More: 5 Things You Never Knew About Polar BearsArticle SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Science Advances. Anti-icing properties of polar bear furLibrary of Congress. Is a polar bears fur transparent?A graduate of UW-Whitewater, Monica Cull wrote for several organizations, including one that focused on bees and the natural world, before coming to Discover Magazine. Her current work also appears on her travel blog and Common State Magazine. Her love of science came from watching PBS shows as a kid with her mom and spending too much time binging Doctor Who.

Pulmonary tuberculosis,spreading through the lungs. BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesShareEven with life-saving vaccines and antibiotics, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the worlds most deadly infectious diseases. Now, an international clinical trial has found three sew safe and effective drug regimens to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of TB. The results are detailed in a study published January 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.Why is tuberculosis still dangerous?TB is a bacterial infection that primarily affects the lungs. It spreads through air droplets released when talking or coughing. It is very infectious and can remain in the air for several hours, depending on the environment. However, TB only spreads when a person is symptomatic.It can take on two forms once the bacterium infects a person. Active TB is when a patient has a long-standing cough, in addition to other symptoms including bloody phlegm, fever, and night sweats. In latent TB, the bacterium hibernates a persons lungs or somewhere else in the body. Latent TB is not contagious and doesnt cause symptoms. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.According to the Cleveland Clinic, roughly 10 million people became ill with TB and about 1.5 million people died from the disease globally in 2020. There were roughly 7,860 tuberculosis cases reported in the United States in 2021.Currently, an outbreak centered in the Kansas City, Kansas area has killed two people since it began last January. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported that 67 people are being treated for active TB and 79 have latent TB.We would expect to see a handful of cases every year, Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Kansas Health System, told the Associated Press. However, Hawkinson said that the high case counts in this current outbreak were a stark warning.In October, the World Health Organizations (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 found that reported cases increased from 7.5 million in 2022 to 8.2 million last year. Disruptions to vaccination schedules due to the COVID-19 pandemic and drug-resistant strains were cited as potential reasons for the increases.Since it is a bacterial illness and not a virus like influenza, antibiotic resistance is a growing concern. Some TB strains are already resistant to rifampin, the most effective of the first-line antibiotics used to treat the disease. Rifampin and some other approved treatment regimens must be administered for years, require daily injections, and use some highly toxic medications that can come with severe side-effects.The endTB trialsThis new research is part of the endTB trial, a collaboration among Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health, Mdecins Sans Frontires, and Interactive Research and Development.The endTB trial is one of four recent randomized controlled trials testing new, shorter, and less toxic treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB. The trials are using two fairly new drugsbedaquiline and delamanid. The medicines were first brought to the market in 2012 and 2013 and were the first new medications for TB in almost 50 years.The trial launched in 2017 with 754 patients from India, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Pakistan, Peru, and South Africa. The goal was to improve treatment for patients with tuberculosis resistant to rifampin which sickens about 410,000 people each year. Only 40 percent are diagnosed and treated, 65 percent of them successfully, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).[ Related: How infectious diseases killed Victorian children at alarming rates. ]In the trial, endTB tested five new, all-oral regimens using bedaquiline and delamanid in combination with other drugs. The regimens were taken over nine months. A third drugpretomanidreceived emergency authorization from the FDA in 2019. However, it is not included in these trials.Three out of the five new regimens were considered successful for between 85 and 90 percent of patients with this treatment-resistent strain of TB. The control group was treated with longer treatments and was successful in 81 percent of cases.According to the team, the trial regimens were considered effective if they performed at least as well as the control group. The control group still received a well-performing standard of care in accordance with WHO recommendations.A step towards more accessible careTwo of the three new endTB regimens and another WHO-recommended regimen cost under $500, to meet a target set over 10 years ago. All of these innovations together could mean that shorter, all-oral regimens are available to more people than ever.This Harvard-led partnership among NGOs, ministries of health, and other academic partners identified three new regimens that will make lifesaving care dramatically more accessible, Carole Mitnick, trial co-principal investigator and Harvard Medical School epidemiologist, said in a statement. We also resolved a critical question left open by pharmaceutical industry trials that brought bedaquiline and delamanid to market: How can these new drugs be used to shorten and simplify treatment while retaining efficacy?According to Mitnick, poor treatment options and low-quality evidence previously have made it difficult to prevent some tuberculosis deaths. These new regimens take advantage of already approved drugs to expand and shorten treatment, minimize side effects, and treat patients using pills instead of daily injections. The endTB trials have since concluded. More deals, reviews, and buying guidesThe PopSci team has tested hundreds of products and spent thousands of hours trying to find the best gear and gadgets you can buy.SEE MORE GEAR

Nature, Published online: 29 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08458-xA comprehensive meta-analysis of global terrestrial and marine genetic diversity covering more than three decades of research demonstrates rapid loss of genetic diversity and identifies conservation interventions that could mitigate this process.

Nature, Published online: 29 January 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08484-9Structural and cellular assays and molecular dynamics simulations reveal the mechanism of action of -glutamyl carboxylase, which involves cholesterol and vitaminK.

A space rock dubbed 2024 YR4 has a 1.2% chance of smashing into our planet, scientists estimate.

Ocean warming has more than quadrupled in recent decades and is likely to accelerate even faster if humanity fails to address climate change, scientists find.

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