A new study establishes what many people suspected anecdotally. People of color in the United States are exposed to more air pollution than white people. Per the Associated Press, “Using government air pollution and census data, researchers found that disproportionate numbers of non-white people were exposed to potentially hazardous fine particle pollution from nearly all major U.S. emission sources, regardless of where they live or how much money they make. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, also found that Blacks were the only group disproportionately exposed to each of the pollution sources examined.” https://bit.ly/3t2m1jd

The pandemic has hit economies around the world in a big way. This has resulted in decreases in spending. Scientists in the United Kingdom have experienced this first hand recently. According to Nature, “The reductions to the UK aid budget, also known as official development assistance (ODA), have hit more than 800 other research projects, affecting thousands of UK and overseas researchers. Since 2014, the government has channelled a portion of ODA funding to public science agencies to help researchers address pressing problems in the developing world, such as emerging infectious diseases, by building collaborations with researchers overseas. But in November, in response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians slashed provisions for the ODA from 0.7% of gross national income to 0.5%. Many saw the move as controversial.” Expect more of this, unfortunately. https://go.nature.com/3aOOQto

There are enough Egyptian mummies held by institutions around the world that they can seem mundane (keyword is “seem”) especially in the eyes of non-Egyptologists. A recent discovery in Poland surprised everyone, including the scientists examining the mummy. Per the Guardian, “Polish researchers examining an ancient Egyptian mummy that they expected to be a male priest were surprised when X-rays and computer tests revealed instead that it was a mummy of a woman who had been seven months pregnant. The researchers said on Thursday it was the world’s first known case of such a well-preserved ancient mummy of a pregnant woman.” https://bit.ly/3e5f0Ke

Thanks for reading. Let’s be careful out there.