Science

What do you do with a bizarre-looking dead fish that’s missing an eyeball and could be mistaken, at a distance, for a monster rattlesnake? If you’re the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, you preserve the fish , put it on display and hope it attracts attention. Related Articles San Jose hilltop ranch property sells for $5.5 million in open space deal Am I helping birds by putting out dryer lint? Yarn? Dog hair? Why do birds have different types of wings? SPCA Monterey County rescues dozens of malnourished pelicans Earth Day: How Trump’s environmental decisions are affecting California Workers had barely put the 11-foot, 2-inch oarfish in place Friday when patrons began crowding in for a look. Interest has soared since then, especially among wide-eyed children. “They all want to know whether it’s real,” Brian Gibson, a Birch exhibits fabricator, said Tuesday. This oarfish, on display at Birch Aquarium in La Jolla, washed up dead in Encinitas in November. (Photo by Sandy Hu...

By Sandee LaMotte | CNN Synthetic chemicals called phthalates, found in consumer products such as food storage containers, shampoo, makeup, perfume and children’s toys, may have contributed to more than 10% of all global mortality from heart disease in 2018 among men and women ages 55 through 64, a new study found. “Phthalates contribute to inflammation and systemic inflammation in the coronary arteries, which can accelerate existing disease and lead to acute events including mortality,” said senior author Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a professor of pediatrics and population health at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine. He also is director of NYU Langone’s Division of Environmental Pediatrics and Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards. Related Articles Cancer Support Community’s Lafayette expansion reflects a different approach to recovery care You can learn now when California farmers are spraying pesticides near your home. Here’s how. Q&A: Author B...

LAFAYETTE — Dexter Louie gets emotional thinking about the immediate sense of calm he felt visiting the Cancer Support Community for the first time, prodded by his wife and adult children who found the center in a desperate bid to keep him alive. Related Articles Jury orders Monsanto parent to pay nearly $2.1 billion in Roundup weedkiller lawsuit Opinion: How federally funded research saved my son’s sight — and his life Legendary SF Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas says his brain tumor has returned Ex-Stanford research coordinator convicted of tampering with cancer study database Lifelong East Bay Elvis fan battling cancer gets surprise visit from ‘The King’ After decades working as a head and neck cancer surgeon near his childhood home in San Francisco’s Chinatown, Louie was forced into the role of patient – retiring after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer that required intensive chemotherapy that nearly killed him halfway through tr...

After years of health concerns and advocacy from residents who live near farms, California has launched a first-in-the-nation program to let the public know beforehand when pesticides are going to be applied on agricultural fields. The program, called “Spray Days,” was started last month by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation. It allows people to enter their address and sign up to receive an email or text message alert at least 24 hours before farmers apply “restricted material pesticides,” some of the more toxic fumigants and other chemicals, to fields near where they live. The program also includes a new website — spraydays.cdpr.ca.gov — with maps showing pesticide locations around the state, when farmers plan to apply the pesticides and what type are being applied, with links to health and chemical details on each, with a translate function for people who speak Spanish, Chinese and other languages. “Pesticides are closely regulated in California,” said Karen Morrison...

As winter turned to spring in early 2020, Laura Davis and Tjardus Greidanus were working on a film about vaccines . They were focused on the increasingly politicized debate around them, especially in California, and explored how laws were tightened after a notorious measles outbreak at Disneyland in 2014 , despite some protests and organized opposition. “Wait a minute, measles was declared eradicated in the United States in the year 2000, so what is going on?” Davis, based in Los Angeles,  said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group. They started talking to experts, “trying to paint a picture for our viewers of what a pandemic looks like,” she said. “Then maybe two months after we started the film, COVID hits.” Related Articles Novavax says its COVID-19 shot is on track for full FDA approval after delay Fact Check: Examining RFK Jr.’s claims about measles, autism and diet as head of HHS CDC advisory group considers narrowing COVID vaccine recommendations Experts make ...

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The world’s biggest corporations have caused $28 trillion in climate damage, a new study estimates as part of an effort to make it easier for people and governments to hold companies financially accountable, like the tobacco giants have been. Related Articles Santa Clara County Fire to host wildfire prep workshop in Saratoga Your clothes are shedding bits of plastic. Here’s what people are doing about it this Earth Day What a view! Famous Bay Area nude beach preserved in $10 million deal Earth Day: How Trump’s environmental decisions are affecting California Another whale washes up dead on Bay Area beach A Dartmouth College research team came up with the estimated pollution caused by 111 companies, with more than half of the total dollar figure coming from 10 fossil fuel providers : Saudi Aramco, Gazprom, Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, National Iranian Oil Co., Pemex, Coal India and the British Coal Corporation. Fo...

Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez largely succeeded in making themselves the most hated women in America during the week of April 14, when they and King’s “CBS Mornings” show made a faux-female empowerment spectacle out of their quickie, “P.R.” stunt space ride aboard one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets. But as “cringeworthy” and “tone-deaf” as many viewers found this “gluttonous,” celebrity space-tourism trip, the event still delivered a ratings boost for King’s embattled morning show on April 14, NewscastStudio.com reported, citing Neilson Media Research released by CBS. “CBS Mornings” enjoyed an “impressive, rare, first-place finish” in the ratings for morning news shows on that day, NewscastStudio.com reported. Some 3.9 million viewers tuned into CBS Mornings that morning, ahead of the usually top-rated “Today” on NBC or “Good Morning America on ABC. But NewscastStudio.com cautioned against reading too much into this ratings jump, noting that “CBS Mornin...

ALAMEDA — A dead gray whale was found rolling in the surf off Alameda South Shore Beach, according to the Marine Mammal Center and the California Academy of Sciences. The whale marks the fourth gray whale to wash up in San Francisco Bay this year. It comes less than two weeks after four whales washed up in the San Francisco Bay in a week-and-a-half span , an occurrence that scientists deemed unusual. The gray whale drifted overnight from the surf near Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach, where it was spotted by the U.S. Coast Guard, to a different location off Alameda on Monday, said Giancarlo Rulli, the associate director of public relations for the Marine Mammal Center. The California Academy of Sciences and East Bay Regional Parks arranged for the whale to be towed to Angel Island State Park by a private towing service so that a necropsy could be conducted, according to a statement from the Marine Mammal Center and California Academy of Sciences. The centers are reviewing logist...