Center Pierre-Louis: For scientific American‘S science quicklyI’m Kendra Pierre-Louis on behalf of Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to our weekly science news roundup.
First, a worrying prediction about women’s heart health.
A new analysis by researchers at the American Heart Association was released last Wednesday in its journal spread It is estimated that by 2050, approximately 60 percent of women will have some form of heart disease. This is up from nearly 50 percent in 2020. The significant increase, according to the scientific statement, would be due to an increase in hypertension or high blood pressure. This happens when the force of the blood on the artery walls is too great, causing the heart to work harder. high blood pressure, which may go undiagnosed because it often has no symptoms leading drivers of stroke And heart attack may also occur. The paper estimates that diabetes rates will increase by about 15 percent to 25 percent over the same time period, along with smaller but still significant increases in coronary heart disease and stroke.
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Perhaps the most important part of the projection is that while cardiovascular disease will continue to be most common among older women, its rates are likely to increase significantly among younger women. Researchers found that nearly a third of women ages 20 to 44 will have some form of heart disease by 2050, down from less than a quarter today. This will be partly driven by an increase in risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes. Other risk factors include lack of physical activity starting in childhood and poor diet, as well as what the authors call “deep disparities associated with race and ethnicity.”
Karen E. Joynt Maddox, volunteer chair of the statement writing group, highlighted the urgency of the discovery.
(CLIP Karen E. Joynt Maddox speaking about the findings: “We’re setting millions of girls up to develop diabetes, develop high blood pressure, develop pregnancy complications, right — all these things that we see as a follow-up to childhood obesity, high blood pressure, having diabetes. And so I think it’s really a call to action for us to focus on that space.”)
Focusing on the topic of women’s health, laws designed to restrict access to abortion also significantly reduce the number of obstetricians and gynecologists overall. That’s the conclusion of a study published last Wednesday in the journal health Economics.
The laws in question are called targeted regulation of abortion providers, or TRAP, laws, which aim to shut down abortion providers through requirements that are often costly and medically unnecessary. Researchers at the University at Albany, State University of New York, collected state-specific data on TRAP laws. They also collected county-level data on the availability of obstetrician-gynecologists overall, as well as state-level data on medical licensing for new obstetricians and gynecologists.
They found that, on average, within two years of TRAP law enactment, a state lost just over two out of every 100,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. And this decline continues for at least nine years after the law is implemented. according to Gutmacher InstituteTRAP laws are in effect in 25 states as of the end of January.
In some ways the study echoes the findings of a 2025 research paper published in the journal Jama network opened. This study follows what happened in Idaho after an anti-abortion law was enacted after the Supreme Court’s decision was overturned. Roe vs. Wade. Trigger laws are so called because they remain unenforceable until a change in the statute or a court decision allows them to take effect. After the Supreme Court’s decision, Idaho lost 94 of its votes. 268 Obstetricians-Gynecologists who worked in obstetrics. This is a decline of 35 percent. Researchers in that study also found that over a two-year period 114 obstetricians either closed their practices entirely, stopped practicing obstetrics and focused only on gynecology, moved out of the state or retired. Only 20 new midwives moved to Idaho during that period.
Separate research found that residency applications from midwives declined in states with restrictive TRAP laws from 1993 to 2021.
Now for some space news.
Turns out, NASA’s historic Moon mission won’t happen in March after all. last Wednesday Artemis II The rocket and spacecraft were moved from its launchpad and a portion of its structure returned to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building for repair work. It happened after engineers discovered a problem with how helium was flowing in the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket. The setback has further delayed the launch date of the 10-day mission to send four astronauts around the moon and back.
On February 20, NASA had set the target date for this as March 6. Artemis II Launched on 19 February after conducting a successful “wet dress rehearsal”. But just a day after the launch date was announced, NASA reversed its stance.
The wet dress rehearsal is a critical prelaunch test that simulates almost everything required for launch, including loading fuel onto the rocket and completing the launch countdown steps, but without actually launching the ship. Issues such as a hydrogen fuel leak were revealed during the first wet dress rehearsal on February 2, causing the launch to be postponed until at least March. Now, with the new helium issue, the earliest possible launch date is April 1st.
In a surprise move, NASA also announced a revised plan Artemis III. The mission was scheduled to land astronauts on the Moon for the first time in more than half a century in 2027. Here’s NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman speaking at a press conference last Friday.
(CLIP: Jared Isaacman speaks at a press conference on Feb. 27: “Instead of going straight to the lunar landing, we will attempt to rendezvous with one or both of our lunar landers in low-Earth orbit.”)
As part of the rationale for the delay Isaacman cited liquid hydrogen leaks and helium flow issues observed in preparation Artemis II and a similar hydrogen fuel leak that occurred before the launch of Artemis I, an earlier lunar orbiting mission. The space agency will attempt to land on the Moon in subsequent missions-Artemis IV And V-In 2028.
Coming back to Earth, a study published last Wednesday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution Suggests that the world’s oceans, especially their marine life, are in serious trouble due to climate change.
Researchers at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and the National University of Colombia found that fish biomass is declining by about 20 percent per year in many oceans in the Northern Hemisphere due to ocean warming linked to climate change. Fish biomass is a measure of the total weight of fish in the world’s oceans.
As human-caused climate change has warmed the planet, the oceans have borne the brunt of that heat, almost 90 percent Of excess heat. According to NASA, the first approximately 6,500 feet of depth in the world’s oceans absorbed about 372 zettajoules of heat between 1955 and 2024. A typical candle can produce up to 100 joules of heat per second. By comparison, a zetajoule takes 100 joules of heat from a candle and adds 19 extra zeros.
The warming ocean puts stress on fish, most of which are cold-blooded. As a result many people have evolved to live within specific temperature ranges. To fish, hot water can not only feel uncomfortably hot, but can also be suffocating because hot water contains less oxygen. Some fish cope with rising temperatures by moving – around the world, fish are moving away from equatorial regions and towards the poles in search of cooler waters. But this research shows that many fish also die.
Researchers say the scale of the damage is partly masked by marine heat waves, another product of climate change. Before human-caused climate change, marine heat waves – when ocean temperatures far exceeded normal temperatures for more than five days – were rare. But as the planet has warmed, they have become hotter has become increasingly commonEspecially since the 1980s. This phenomenon may disproportionately impact fish species. Species at the warm edge of their range may experience the death of up to 43 percent of their biomass. But fish at the cooler edge of their range can experience temporary biomass increases of up to 176 percent during a marine heat wave, potentially obscuring overall declines.
Researchers say that the main conclusion of their study is that marine life is declining due to climate change and this especially affects fisheries. According to a 2020 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 40 percent of people worldwide depend on fish for a significant portion of their animal protein.
And finally, here’s an animal mystery for you. Why do female deer have antlers while other female deer do not? A new study was published last Tuesday in the journal Ecology and Evolution One answer suggests: The horns act like postpartum vitamins.
The idea comes from a study led by researchers at the University of Cincinnati that explored how caribou, also known as reindeer, and other Arctic mammals use bone resources. Caribou live in the arctic tundra and boreal landscapes of North America, Europe, and much of Asia. And researchers already understood that animals eat bones to obtain key vitamins and minerals such as calcium and phosphorus, a process known as osteophagy. But when Ohio researchers examined the bones of a reindeer calf’s antlers and skeleton in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, they discovered something unusual about which bones and who was butchering them. For example, they found that less than half of the skeletal remains showed some evidence of gnawing, compared to about 90 percent of reindeer antlers. And while skeleton bones were chewed almost exclusively by carnivores, reindeer antlers primarily showed bite marks from reindeer.
Female reindeer shed their antlers soon after they reach their calving grounds, within a few days of giving birth. Given this, researchers believe that the horns act as a storehouse of key vitamins and minerals that the animals can use during the difficult period of raising their calves. This is especially important because reindeer migrate very long distances, are considered the longest of all land animals and may have greater nutrient requirements than other deer species. This isn’t the only theory as to why female deer have antlers – they may also be a defensive tool. But study co-author Madison Gaetano said Science Deer antlers remain on the ground much longer than the reindeer’s body. Therefore their use as postpartum vitamins may make more sense.
that’s all for today! Tune in on Wednesday, when we talk to journalist Thomas Germain about hacking ChatGPT.
science quickly It is produced by me, Kendra Pierre-Louis, with Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak, and Jeff DelVisio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Scheana Poses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. agree scientific American For more latest and in-depth science news.
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