ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 147

Not long ago, the center of the Milky Way exploded

By ASTRO 3D A titanic, expanding beam of energy sprang from close to the supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way just 3.5 million years ago, sending a cone-shaped burst of radiation through both poles of the Galaxy and out into deep space. That’s the finding arising from research conducted by a …

Iranian Instagram star ‘arrested for blasphemy’

By Julie Zaugg An Iranian Instagram star famous for her radical appearance and cosmetic surgery has been arrested for blasphemy by the Tehran Prosecutor’s Office, according to the country’s semi-official Tasnim News agency. Tasnim News said the influencer, who goes by Sahar Tabar on Instagram but was identified as Fatemeh Kh by Iranian media, using …

Judge Kills Conversion Therapy Ban, Not Convinced Practice Is Harmful

By Trudy Ring A federal judge has struck down Tampa, Fla.’s ordinance banning the use of conversion therapy on minors. In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge William Jung said states rather than cities should regulate health care, the Tampa Bay Times reports. He also said the ban may interfere with patients’ rights to privacy and parents’ …

Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to 3 for Work on Cells and Oxygen

By Gina Kolata and Megan Specia The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to three scientists — William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza — for their work on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. The Nobel Assembly announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in …

Astronomers Find Our Second Interstellar Visitor Looks like the Locals

By Jonathan O’Callaghan Last month astronomers were thrilled by the confirmation that a second known interstellar object is flying through our solar system. Named 2I/Borisov—after its discoverer, Crimean amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov—it has already attracted huge attention. Countless observatories, from the Very Large Telescope in Chile to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, are studying the object, and plenty …

Ugandan Leader Links LGBTQ+ People to Terrorists

By Shannon Power Uganda’s minister of defense has called LGBTQ+ people “terrorists” as his government cracks down on supporters of a popular presidential candidate. In an interview on a local news program, Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs Adolf Mwesige, spoke out against the People Power, Our Power movement inspired by popular singer Bobi Wine. The …

Unsupervised accused priests teach, counsel, adopt children

By Claudia Lauer and Meghan Hoyer Nearly 1,700 priests and other clergy members that the Roman Catholic Church considers credibly accused of child sexual abuse are living under the radar with little to no oversight from religious authorities or law enforcement, decades after the first wave of the church abuse scandal roiled U.S. dioceses, an …

Judge Tammy Kemp Gives Amber Guyger Bible, Promotes Christianity In Court

By Michael Stone Abuse of judicial power for Jesus: Judge Tammy Kemp promotes Christianity in the courtroom, gives convicted murderer Amber Guyger a Bible and instructions on being a Christian. In a despicable display of inappropriate judicial conduct in the name of Christian privilege, Judge Tammy Kemp put her religious superstition before her duty as an officer …

These Butterflies Evolved to Eat Poison. How Could That Have Happened?

By Carl Zimmer Monarch butterflies eat only milkweed, a poisonous plant that should kill them. The butterflies thrive on it, even storing milkweed toxins in their bodies as a defense against hungry birds. For decades, scientists have marveled at this adaptation. On Thursday, a team of researchers announced they had pinpointed the key evolutionary steps …

No, Vitamin C won’t cure your cold

By Madeline Marshall Many people reach straight for the orange juice when they start to get a cold. Or pick up a Vitamin C supplement that claims to boost your immune system. But studies have shown that Vitamin C can’t actually cure your cold. At most, taking 1,000 mg of Vitamin C regularly could reduce …