Science

This autumn brought something that isn’t always common for much of California — a decent amount of rain in October. Rather than heat waves, there have been umbrellas. After years in which some of the worst wildfires in state history happened in the fall, a lot of people are wondering: Is fire season over? It depends on where you live, fire experts say. And simply put, there’s more risk in Southern California right now than Northern California. “We have not yet seen enough rain in Southern California to end fire season,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “But we probably have in Northern California.” Related Articles Republican lawmakers request information about LA’s response to January wildfires — and diversity hiring practices Berkeley study of wildfire exposure adds to dispute over Sonoma County’s Ag Pass program for farmworkers PG&E CEO sees no credit upgrades until California fire se...

By DORANY PINEDA, MELINA WALLING and ANNIKA HAMMERSCHLAG, Associated Press One hot day last summer, Clarisa Lugo was inspecting and counting corn and soybean plants in the middle of a 300-acre farm field in Illinois when she started throwing up and panting. Her heart raced, she stopped sweating and a pounding headache didn’t go away for hours. Related Articles Richmond-San Rafael Bridge bike lane change set to begin Philippine victims of 2021 typhoon seek compensation from Shell The largest natural gas leak in U.S. history was in California 10 years ago Californians can now shoot swans year-round without a license AI can help the environment, even though it uses tremendous energy. Here are 5 ways how The heat index — a blend of temperature and humidity — had hit 105 F, and Lugo, who was eight months pregnant, was suffering from heat illness. “I remember that that day it was hard for me to go back to normal” despite drinking water and putting ice on her body, she recalled. ...

By Christina Larson | Associated Press Nurse Rod Salaysay works with all kinds of instruments in the hospital: a thermometer, a stethoscope and sometimes his guitar and ukulele. Related Articles Jarvis: This flu season doesn’t have to be as deadly as the last Letters: Trump succeeds in Mideast where diplomats have failed Cops on ketamine? Largely unregulated mental health treatment faces hurdles The Sonoma County connection to an off-the-grid Nobel Prize winner California mpox cases raise concerns. But health officials say the risk remains low In the recovery unit of UC San Diego Health, Salaysay helps patients manage pain after surgery. Along with medications, he offers tunes on request and sometimes sings. His repertoire ranges from folk songs in English and Spanish to Minuet in G Major and movie favorites like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Patients often smile or nod along. Salaysay even sees changes in their vital signs like lower heart rate and blood pressure, and s...

By Katerina Portela | Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — October is full of astronomical events, with a supermoon and dim meteor recently brightening the skies over Los Angeles. Next week, another is coming: the Orionid meteor shower. Related Articles How to watch the Orionid meteor shower, debris of Halley’s comet 2 green comets shine bright. How to spot them in the night sky Photos: Stunning Harvest Supermoon rises around the world Activist, astronaut shares her story at YWCA’s Inspire Luncheon A Japanese viewing party for the full ‘Blood Moon’ in Oakland The Orionid shower is made up of particles from Halley’s Comet burning in the atmosphere as Earth’s orbit intersects the comet’s path, according to NASA . This year, NASA says the view of the meteor shower will be “spectacular.” The Orionid shower gets its name the constellation Orion, which it appears alongside. For stargazers wondering where to look, Griffith Observatory says to keep your eyes on Orion’s raised club. W...

By CHRISTINA LARSON, AP Science Writer The Orionids — one of two major meteor showers caused by remnants from Halley’s comet — will peak with the arrival of a new moon, providing an excellent opportunity to see shooting stars without interference from moonlight. During Tuesday morning’s peak, expect to see up to 20 meteors per hour in ideal viewing conditions, said Thaddeus LaCoursiere, planetarium program coordinator at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, Minnesota. Viewing lasts until Nov. 7. “Weather permitting, it will be a great show,” LaCoursiere said. Halley’s comet passes near Earth every 75 years. Debris left by the comet leads to two major meteor showers every year. “Sometimes the Orionids leave trains, these bright lingering streak in the sky,” LaCoursiere said. Here’s what to know about the Orionids and other meteor showers . What is a meteor shower? As the Earth orbits the sun, several times a year it passes through debris left by passing comets and sometimes asteroids. T...

By the time Fred Ramsdell heard the news Oct. 6 while camping in Montana that he had won a Nobel Prize, he had hundreds of messages waiting for him, including from a company he helped start that has a Sonoma County connection. Ramsdell, who co-founded biotechnology company Sonoma Biotherapeutics , made headlines for missing the call from the Nobel committee that he and two others had been awarded the 2025 prize for medicine for their research into the immune system. On the day of the announcement, he was out of cellphone range vacationing off the grid near Yellowstone National Park, The New York Times reported. Related Articles Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize Hungarian master of absurdist excess László Krasznahorkai wins Nobel literature prize UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi wins Nobel prize in chemistry UC Berkeley professor Omar M. Yaghi shares Nobel Prize in chemistry with two other scientists UC Berkeley’s John Clarke wins...

People all across the Bay Area will dive under desks on Thursday morning at 10:16 am to take cover. That’s not a prediction of a major earthquake. Rather, it’s part of increasingly popular statewide and  international earthquake preparedness event. The Great California Shakeout is a 1-minute drill in which people at more than 9,000 schools, businesses, churches, hospitals and other facilities around the state — representing 10.3 million Californians so far — have signed to up stop what they are doing and pretend that a major earthquake is happening. They will be told to “drop, cover and hold on” and will receive tips and other information about how to be safe when the next major earthquake occurs. “It’s an important chance for everyone, everywhere, once a year to practice earthquake safety to learn what do and know what to do,” said Mark Benthien, director of public education at the Statewide California Earthquake Center at the University of Southern California. Millions of pe...

A new vaccine against salmonella and typhoid moves closer to approval, according to results of a clinical trial published by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Oct. 8. “These results are highly encouraging,” study lead investigator Dr. Wilbur Chen said in a statement announcing the news. “They show that [this treatment] has the potential to protect children in regions where both typhoid and salmonella are endemic and deadly.” Results were  published in the journal Nature Medicine . Salmonella bacteria — usually from contaminated food — infects about 1.35 million people in the United States each year,  according to the Centers for Disease Control . Another species of salmonella causes typhoid fever, a life-threatening illness usually picked up in international travel. Both diseases are major causes of illness and death among children in sub-Saharan Africa. Related Articles California’s Prop. 36 promised ‘mass treatment’ for defendants. A new stu...

By Jack Brook | Associated Press NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans family cleaning up their overgrown backyard made an extremely unusual find: Under the weeds was a mysterious marble tablet with Latin characters that included the phrase “spirits of the dead.” Related Articles Stromboli fans: Tony DiMaggio’s in San Jose is back in business Shutdown closes Bay Area home of the ‘father of the national parks’ Today in History: October 11, Carter awarded Nobel Peace Prize Here’s a look at American bison one of the greatest conservation stories Today in History: October 10, Malala Yousafzai, Kailash Satyarthi awarded Nobel Peace Prize “The fact that it was in Latin that really just gave us pause, right?” said Daniella Santoro, a Tulane University anthropologist. “I mean, you see something like that and you say, ‘Okay, this is not an ordinary thing.’” Intrigued and slightly alarmed, Santoro reached out to her classical archaeologist colleague Susann Lusnia, who quickly realized that th...

UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian immigrant molded by the American public school system, reached the pinnacle of his field on Wednesday, sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry . After receiving the award for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which have incalculable applications, Yaghi acknowledged the role his American education played in the realization of his work at a press conference. “This recognition is really a testament of the power of the public school system in the U.S. that takes people like me — with a major disadvantaged background, a refugee background — and allows you to work hard and distinguish yourself,” Yaghi said. “Especially UC Berkeley, where the faculty are given full freedom to explore, fail and succeed.” Related Articles UC Berkeley professor Omar M. Yaghi shares Nobel Prize in chemistry with two other scientists UC Berkeley’s John Clarke wins Nobel Prize for discovery that led to iPhone, quantum computers George Smoot dies at 80; N...

The acting director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for vaccine makers to develop separate shots against measles, mumps and rubella to replace combination MMR vaccines, despite no evidence of any benefit to getting the shots separately. “I call on vaccine manufacturers to develop safe monovalent vaccines to replace the combined MMR and ‘break up the MMR shot into three total separate shots’,” Jim O’Neill, who also serves as deputy secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, wrote in a post on X on Monday. He quoted from a September 26 post by President Donald Trump. Related Articles With CDC signoff, CVS says Covid-19 vaccines will be available nationwide without a prescription CDC stops recommending COVID-19 shots for all, leaves decision to patients CDC recommends patients consult a health care provider for Covid-19 vaccination New coronavirus approach shows promise in study, California scientists say Elias: Blame RFK Jr., Trum...

By Brenda Goodman, Katherine Dillinger, CNN The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on a recommendation that patients must consult a health care provider to get a Covid-19 vaccine , although they don’t necessarily need a prescription. The recommendations shifted away from a broader push most people to get a Covid-19 vaccine and was made by a new panel of vaccine advisers chosen by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. CDC’s OK makes the recommendations final and US vaccine schedules will be updated, HHS said on Tuesday. Related Articles New coronavirus approach shows promise in study, California scientists say Elias: Blame RFK Jr., Trump for any deaths resulting from lack of vaccines How to get a COVID-19 shot and ensure it’s covered by your insurance Kennedy’s vaccine advisers change COVID shot guidance, calling them an individual choice Kennedy’s panel recommends new restrictions on chicken pox, measles, mumps and rubella vaccines...

BERKELEY — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed into law legislation that is aimed at advancing the state’s position in fusion and quantum technologies, a move lawmakers see as a key in keeping California as the epicenter of global innovation. Newsom made the announcement while visiting one of two of the state’s national quantum research hubs. Related Articles Will your congressional district change if Prop. 50 passes? Use these maps to find out In California, paying someone to vote could result in a $10,000 fine or jail Will new California law prevent gas price spikes? This bill has been hailed a ‘landmark’ victory for Bay Area YIMBYs. But it only narrowly escaped defeat Mathews: California’s marriage to the U.S. is beyond repair. We must divorce. “California is the epicenter of global innovation — it’s made us the fourth-largest economy in the world and the talent pipeline for the nation,” Newsom said in a statement. “Our state was literally born from our ability to lean in...