THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Enormous floods have once again engulfed much of South Sudan, as record water levels in Lake Victoria flow downstream through the Nile. More than 700,000 people have been affected. Hundreds of thousands of people there were already forced from their homes by huge … Read more
You could say that this is exactly what Isaac Newton’s picture of gravity does—giving a relation between an object’s mass and the gravitational force it exerts. And you would be right. But the concept of space-time curvature gives rise to a much richer range of phenomena than a simple force. It allows a kind of … Read more
Why are most cases of polio vaccine-derived variants? Most cases of paralytic polio are now vaccine-derived due to the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. OPV has been instrumental in the near-eradication of wild polioviruses around the world. However, in areas where vaccination rates drop and enough people are susceptible to infection, the weakened … Read more
While much weaker than their Pacific counterpart, Atlantic Niñas can, however, partially counteract La Niñas by weakening summer winds that help drive the upwelling that cools the eastern Pacific. Why Are Both Happening Now? In July and August 2024, meteorologists noted cooling that appeared to be the development of an Atlantic Niña along the equator. … Read more
