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In 2023, 107,543 Americans died from an overdose—over 75 thousand of those overdosed from fentanyl. This is almost double the number of people who died in car accidents or from gun homicides that year.

Fentanyl has been cut into heroin for years, but now is often mixed into meth and cocaine, fueling rising death counts for those drugs, a troubling development, considering that Americans are much more likely to try meth and cocaine than heroin.

In Canada, the numbers are similarly astronomical, and fentanyl deaths have marched upward in Australia and many European countries as well. Ten years ago, fentanyl and its analogues overtook heroin to become the deadliest drug in Sweden.

“Fentanyl is the game changer,” Special Agent in Charge James Hunt of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told Vice News. “It’s the most dangerous substance in the history of drug tracking. Heroin and cocaine pale in comparison to how dangerous fentanyl is.”

Ben Westhoff is a best-selling investigative journalist focused on drugs, culture, and poverty. His book Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Created the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic is the bombshell first book about fentanyl. Since its publication, Westhoff has advised top government officials on the fentanyl crisis, including from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the U.S. embassy in Beijing, and the U.S. State Department.

His new book Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and My Search for the Truth tells the story of his relationship with Jorell Cleveland, his longtime mentee in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. When Jorell was murdered at age 19, and the case went cold, Ben used his skills as an investigative journalist to find the killer. It’s a three-year investigation set in the northern suburbs of St. Louis that uncovers a heartbreaking cycle of poverty, poor education, drug trafficking, and violence. Follow him at benwesthoff.substack.com and benwesthoff.com.

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Droplets of fluid have been known to hover above a hot surface, but a new experiment suggests the same can happen to tiny jets of liquid too

Today is a video day since the news is the depressing same-old-same old. Instead, I found this amazing three-minute video of a deep-sea (“benthic”) octopus, Graneledone boreopacifica, who brooded her eggs for more than FOUR YEARS (to be precise, 53 months). That is by far the record for any animal, as the video says. (The previous record for any animal was 14 months.)  Octopuses are smart, and I wonder if she got bored sitting in the same spot for all that time.

Do realize that she almost certainly had nothing to eat over that period.

As far as I know, this guarding/brooding behavior is known in all octopuses that have been studied, and the sad part is that after the babies hatch, the mother simply withers and dies. This means that females reproduce only once.

 

h/t: Matthew

A research team has succeeded in synthesizing simple, environmentally sensitive cells complete with artificial organelles. For the first time, the researchers have also been able to emulate natural cell-cell communication using these proto-cells -- based on the model of photoreceptors in the eye. This opens up new possibilities for basic research and applications in medicine.

Researchers have developed PanoRadar, a new tool to give robots superhuman vision by transforming simple radio waves into detailed, 3D views of the environment.

Researchers have developed PanoRadar, a new tool to give robots superhuman vision by transforming simple radio waves into detailed, 3D views of the environment.

When active filaments are exposed to localized illumination, they accumulate into stable structures along the boundaries of the illuminated area. Based on this fact, researchers developed a model that can be used to simulate the self-organization of thread-like living matter. This model provides important insights for potential technical applications in the formation of structures.

Researchers have developed a groundbreaking coating that could make medical devices safer for millions of patients, reducing the risks associated with blood clots and dangerous bleeding. The new material is designed to mimic the natural behavior of blood vessels so that catheters, stents, blood-oxygenation machines and dialysis machines won't trigger clotting by activating certain proteins in the blood.

Scientists have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, NeuroMechFly v2 helps us understand brain-body coordination, setting a path for neuroengineering's role in robotics and AI.

Scientists have advanced their NeuroMechFly model, simulating fruit fly movement in the real world. With integrated vision and smell, NeuroMechFly v2 helps us understand brain-body coordination, setting a path for neuroengineering's role in robotics and AI.

An international research team has for the first time designed realistic photonic time crystals ---- exotic materials that exponentially amplify light. The breakthrough opens up exciting possibilities across fields such as communication, imaging and sensing by laying the foundations for faster and more compact lasers, sensors and other optical devices.

Researchers have developed a patch for easier and more effective treatment of psoriasis. The method may also be used in treatment of other inflammatory skin diseases.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed a machine learning framework that uses limited water quality samples to predict which inorganic pollutants are likely to be present in a groundwater supply. The new tool allows regulators and public health authorities to prioritize specific aquifers for water quality testing.

Researchers have combined two gene editing methods. This enables them to quickly investigate the significance of many genetic mutations involved in the development and treatment of cancer.

The standard model for how galaxies formed in the early universe predicted that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would see dim signals from small, primitive galaxies. But data are not confirming the popular hypothesis that invisible dark matter helped the earliest stars and galaxies clump together.

Inside cells, there exists an extensive system of canals known as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which consists of membrane-encased tubes that are partially broken down as needed -- for instance in case of a nutrient deficiency. As part of this process, bulges or protrusions form in the membrane, which then pinch off and are recycled by the cell. A study has examined this protrusion process using computer simulations. Its finding: certain structural motifs of proteins in the ER membrane play a central role in this process.

Using data from historic ship measurements and Argo floats, researchers introduced a machine learning technique that improves assessment and analysis of the ocean's declining oxygen levels.

A team combined compositional data of primitive bodies like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets with new solar data sets to develop a revised solar composition that potentially reconciles spectroscopy and helioseismology measurements for the first time. Helioseismology probes the Sun's interior by analyzing the waves that travel through it, while spectroscopy reveals the surface composition based on the spectral signature produced by each chemical element.

A team combined compositional data of primitive bodies like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets with new solar data sets to develop a revised solar composition that potentially reconciles spectroscopy and helioseismology measurements for the first time. Helioseismology probes the Sun's interior by analyzing the waves that travel through it, while spectroscopy reveals the surface composition based on the spectral signature produced by each chemical element.

Research shows that a newly-developed wireless EKG patch is as accurate, if not more accurate, than results from traditional EKG machines. The device is known as the EKG Patch Solution.