Health Trotter

By BY JAN HOFFMAN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3xYeLYS

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By BY REED ABELSON from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3BqSp4m

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3hRYqzm

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3wQBmoV

By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3eESyaK

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By BY APOORVA MANDAVILLI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3znkyaX

July 20, 2021 at 09:10PM Give Jeff Bezos this: When he builds a rocket, he rides the rocket, strapping his own mortal hide into a seat and test-flying what he’s developed before inviting paying passengers aboard to make the same journey. “If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for anyone,” Bezos said in a video segment released by Blue Origin, his private rocket company, before Tuesday morning’s first crewed launch of its New Shepard rocket on a suborbital lob shot that soared to an altitude of 106 km (66 mi.). Today, the rocket—which had previously flown 15 uncrewed missions to suborbital space—indeed proved safe not just for Bezos, but for the three other passengers aboard with him: Wally Funk, 82, an aviator and flight instructor and now the oldest person to fly in space; Mark Bezos, marketing executive and volunteer firefighter and Jeff Bezos’s brother; and Oliver Daemen, 18, a paying passenger who became the youngest person to fly in space, after his father, the founder ...

July 20, 2021 at 07:31PM This has been a big month for billionaires in space. On July 11, Richard Branson flew aboard his Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spacecraft 80 km (50 mi) up to suborbital altitude, returned safely to Earth, and earned his astronaut wings in the process. Tuesday morning, Jeff Bezos followed, flying his Blue Origin New Shepard ship even higher—100 km (62 mi) up—and similarly joined the astronaut club. The media did what the media will always do in situations like this—present company included —which was to find a catchy hook (Billionaire Space Race!) and devote no end of coverage to the Branson-Bezos doings. And with good reason: the technology is nifty, the achievements are real, and both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic aim to open the flights to the public too—or at least the vanishingly small portion of the public that can afford a six-figure fare for little more than a 10-minute flight to and from space. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But the storm...

By BY JAN HOFFMAN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/2UlEBrt

By BY PAM BELLUCK, SHEILA KAPLAN AND REBECCA ROBBINS from NYT Health https://ift.tt/2V2fsC8

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By BY EMILY ANTHES from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3riYtY6

July 19, 2021 at 10:40PM Gaping holes of muddy brown water where manicured streets used to be. Huge piles of abandoned belongings set on fire because there’s nowhere else to put the trash. Army tanks rolling through once picturesque villages now turned to rubble. Northwestern Europeans—accustomed to a mild climate rarely troubled by the extremes of weather they see on the news—were not prepared for the scenes they saw this week after the worst flooding to hit the region in at least 80 years. “People kept saying it was worse than the war,” says Arne Piepke, from the DOCKS photography collective, which captured the scenes in western Germany—the center of the flooding. War was the best analogue locals could think of for the death and destruction wrought by the weather, he says. “This just hasn’t happened here before.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] More than 7 inches of rain fell on parts of the western German states Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia between...

By BY GINA KOLATA from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3eyxAKN

July 18, 2021 at 11:31PM There’s a good reason for all the fuss about Wally Funk this week. On July 20, Funk, 82—an aviator, the first female air-safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—will climb aboard a Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft and fly a suborbital arc more than 100 km (62 mi.) up, becoming the oldest person ever to go to space. The flight comes courtesy of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, who is accompanying Funk and two other passengers on the first crewed flight of his company’s spacecraft. Bezos tapped her for the mission last month—fulfilling Funk’s lifetime dream of going to space—and released an irresistible video of him breaking the news to her in person, and asking her what her first words would be when she landed. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “I would say, ‘Honey, that’s the best thing that ever happened to me!'” she exulted, grabbing ...

By BY CLAY RISEN from NYT Health https://ift.tt/3xP3tpZ

By BY EMILY ANTHES AND ALEXANDRA PETRI from NYT Health https://ift.tt/36GclCb

July 17, 2021 at 12:03AM Carbon emissions from power plants around the world declined in recent years, but they’re poised to make a dramatic comeback over the next 18 months, according to a worrying report released July 15 by the International Energy Agency (IEA). https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cQ7Ua/2/ COVID-19 lockdowns were responsible for some of the recent decline, as office buildings , for instance, reduced their energy consumption while employees were working remotely. After shrinking by 1% in 2019, CO2 emissions from power generation fell by another 3.5% around the world during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, part of a broader contraction in emissions during that period. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But as economies recover, global power consumption is set to erase those reductions, with electricity demand expected to increase by 5% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, per the IEA report. Expanded development of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power will make up ...

July 16, 2021 at 07:12PM Greenland dropped all plans for future oil exploration on environmental grounds, saying the price of extraction was “too high.” The island’s socialist-led government, in office since April, has made climate concerns central to its legislative program. While the decision to scrap planned exploration is a win for environmental groups, it cuts off potential investments that could have aided efforts to gain economic independence from Denmark. The government “has decided to cease issuing new licenses for oil and gas exploration,” it said in a statement . “This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of our tourism industry, and to focus our business on sustainable potentials.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Ten years ago, Greenland had become a hotspot for drillers as a commodity-price boom attracted not only oil explorers but miners of diamonds, iron, rare earths and other metals. But crude’s subse...