'My Iran' — A Show Of Photography And Video By 6 Women — Contrasts Memory And Reality

"What or where is home? Is it a place or a people, a feeling or a memory, a reality or a fantasy?"

"Those questions are at the heart of My Iran: Six Women Photographers, an exhibition on display at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., through Feb. 9, 2020. All the photos were collected separately by the Sackler Gallery, one of the Smithsonian Institution's Asian art museums, and came together only for this showing. Much of the photographers' work has been displayed previously in Europe but rarely in the United States."

"My Iran showcases the works of six female Iranian photographers — Hengameh Golestan, Newsha Tavakolian, Shadi Ghadirian, Malekeh Nayiny, Gohar Dashti and Mitra Tabrizian — and their attempts to express the psychological condition of the Iranian people and state 40 years after the Islamic Revolution. At their heart, the works seek to capture the deep divides, geographic and philosophical, between Iranians at home and abroad."

"In the wake of the Islamic Revolution, many Iranians fled their homeland for a variety of reasons: their Western backgrounds or education, which were now suspect; liberals who opposed the Shah of Iran; men fleeing the draft for the Iran-Iraq War; women and children seeking greater opportunities outside the restrictive regime. However, just because they left does not mean they do not miss home."

500 Years After Leonardo Da Vinci's Death, France Celebrates His Life And Work

"The largest-ever collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci is drawing record crowds at the Louvre in Paris this year, the 500th anniversary of the artist's death. The Louvre has brought together more than 100 paintings, drawings and manuscripts for the exhibition, which opened in October and will end in February."

"Leonardo was a perfectionist, which is why, experts say, he produced only about 15 paintings. The exhibition includes 11 of them, the most ever brought together in one place. The Louvre keeps five of his paintings in its permanent collection."

"The show also includes more than 80 drawings. Biographer Serge Bramly says the drawings and notebooks give visitors a vivid sense of how Leonardo, who was born near Florence in 1452, worked."

"'You can really get into his brain and try to see how he thought,' says Bramly. 'For example, some of the drawings are really impressive because on the same page, you have geometry, machineries, antiques. There are some clouds in the corner. There is an eye. You can find very small horsemen fighting. Everything on the same page. And that's the way he used to think and work — doing everything at the same time.'"

This Florida Keys Neighborhood Has Been Flooded For Nearly 3 Months

"On Key Largo, to walk to Paul Butler's house it's best to wear rubber boots. "Did you see the 'No Wake' sign?" he asks. The recently installed "No Wake" signs are for drivers, not boaters."

"There are several inches of water on his street and others in this low-lying neighborhood. Butler has lived here 25 years and seen this kind of flooding before."

'It used to happen once a year during king tide, but it would only last for like a week or 10 days,' he says. 'This year, it's been going on for about 75 days, I think.' Other neighbors put it at 80 days and counting."

"The flooding here and elsewhere is happening during so-called "king tides." Those are times, mostly in the fall, when the moon's gravitational pull means tides are higher than usual.

"On Key Largo, the water doesn't drain, because there's nowhere for it to go. Brian Boylan says his flooded street is basically even with the bay, and during king tide the seawater overtops the canal in his backyard. 'You can see it coming right out of the ground,' he says.'Sometimes you can even see it bubbling.'"

99 Bottles Of Beer On The Touch Screen: The Spread Of Self-Serve Taps

"Walters Sports Bar is a gleaming new pub just blocks from the largest stadium in Washington, D.C. The decor is industrial chic — exposed ducts and poured concrete floors — and it's spacious enough to accommodate the enormous throngs of elated fans who crowded in after the Washington Nationals' recent World Series win."

"On a recent night, the bar was quieter. Still, customer after customer strode up to a stainless steel wall lined with beer taps to insert a card, touch a screen and pour a glass of self-serve beer."

"No waitstaff. No waiting."

"'This is my first time doing a beer wall!' says one patron, Chris Porcaro, over a yeasty IPA. 'I've been to many sports bars, but never a beer-wall sports bar.'"

"The shiny beer wall allows customers to choose from 23 different varieties of beer — or "24 if you count Bud Light," says owner Jeremy Gifford. Pour-your-own beer isn't just a novelty, Gifford says; the idea is to cut down on waiting for alcohol (which means selling more of it) and freeing up bartenders to make cocktails."

Lighting Industry's Future Dims As Efficient LED Bulbs Take Over

"A revolution is upsetting the lighting business as LED lightbulbs replace energy-hogging incandescent ones. This is good news for consumers and the environment; using less energy reduces the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change."

"But this shift comes with a cost, exemplified by a century-old lightbulb factory in St. Marys, Pa., that is the latest to shut down."

"For much of its long history the LEDVANCE facility, 120 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, produced lightbulbs under the Sylvania brand. Now all it produces is scrap metal."

"Jeff Anderson worked at the plant for more than 20 years. He and about 175 others lost their jobs when LEDVANCE announced the closure last April."

"Recently Anderson watched sparks fly as a worker cut and dismantled one of the lightbulb production lines."

"'I was the last one to run that machine that's over there, that they are tearing apart,' says Anderson, occasionally appearing to choke up as he described what is happening to his former workplace. 'This plant has a lot to do with my life. My mom and dad actually met in this plant.'"

For Your Heart, Eat Fish Or Take Pills? A Dose Of This Drug Equals 8 Salmon Servings

"It's long been known that eating fish, especially cold-water fish such as salmon that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, is good for heart health."

"But, for the millions of Americans who are at high risk of heart disease, eating enough fish to make a difference isn't likely to be realistic for most."

"There's growing evidence that taking a very high-dose of purified fish oil, delivered in a prescription pill, can help prevent heart attacks and strokes among people who have elevated risks. The amount of fish oil in the daily recommended dose of the pill is the equivalent of eating about 8 to 10 servings of salmon a day."

"In early November, an advisory panel to the FDA voted unanimously to approve expanded use of the prescription drug, Vascepa, which is made from one type of omega-3 fatty acid, called eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA for short. The oil is extracted from sardines and anchovies, and then purified."

"Currently, Vascepa, is already approved for use in people with very high levels of triglycerides — which is a type of fat in the blood. (You can check your triglycerides as part of a cholesterol screening.)"

Greenland Is Not For Sale. But It Has The Rare Earth Minerals America Wants

"The southern Greenland town of Narsaq is just a speck of place. About 1,200 people live in colorful A-frame houses along a fjord, and it's a good hour's boat ride from the nearest community. While it may be remote, Narsaq has strategic importance."

"The craggy hills surrounding the town are estimated to hold about a quarter of the world's rare earth minerals. With names such as cerium and lanthanum, rare earths contain key ingredients used in many of today's technologies — from smartphones to MRI machines, as well as electric cars and military jets."

"A bumpy ride up the hills delivers you to the Kvanefjeld project, one of two major rare earth mineral deposits in Greenland. The rocky plateau at the base offers majestic views of this corner of the vast Arctic island. It is empty and silent out here; the mine is not yet up and running."

"Across the plateau there are large piles of dull, gray rocks. When you shine an ultraviolet light on them, they explode with vivid pink and orange hues, revealing the rare earths inside the rocks."

Eat Like The Ancient Babylonians: Researchers Cook Up Nearly 4,000-Year-Old Recipes

"What did a meal taste like nearly 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylonia? Pretty good, according to a team of international scholars who have deciphered and are re-creating what are considered to be the world's oldest-known culinary recipes."

"The recipes were inscribed on ancient Babylonian tablets that researchers have known about since early in the 20th century but that were not properly translated until the end of the century."

"The tablets are part of the Yale Babylonian Collection at the Yale Peabody Museum. Three of the tablets date back to the Old Babylonian period, no later than 1730 B.C., according to Harvard University Assyriologist and cuneiform scholar Gojko Barjamovic, who put together the interdisciplinary team that is reviving these ancient recipes in the kitchen. A fourth tablet was produced about 1,000 years later. All four tablets are from the Mesopotamian region, in what is today Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq."

"For a long time, says Barjamovic, scholars thought the tablets might be medical texts. In the 1940s, a researcher named Mary Hussey suggested the writing was actually recipes, but "people really didn't believe her" at the time, he says."

"'The tablets all list recipes that include instructions on how to prepare them,' the authors write in a piece about their work published in Lapham's Quarterly earlier this year. 'One is a summary collection of twenty-five recipes of stews or broths with brief directions. The other two tablets contain fewer recipes, each described in much more detail.'"

Infecting Mosquitoes With Bacteria Could Have A Big Payoff

"Cameron Simmons is far more familiar with dengue than he would like to be."

"'I've had dengue. My family's had dengue. It's a miserable, miserable experience,' he says. 'It's not one I'd ever want to repeat or have anyone else experience."

"Unfortunately, last year nearly 400 million people experienced the viral disease that is so painful it's often called break-bone fever. There's no specific drug to treat the infection; medication is given only for the fever and other symptoms. Severe cases, although rare, can be fatal. And the only licensed vaccine has run into concerns about its safety."

"In tropical places where dengue is rampant, annual outbreaks are a huge burden on health clinics."

"Simmons is the director of the impact assessment team for the World Mosquito Program. He and his colleagues are trying to make a dent in this persistent disease."

"'Throughout Southeast Asia, dengue is a guarantee every rainy season,' he says. 'And so communities know — and indeed our public health colleagues in those communities know — that what they're doing at the moment doesn't work.'"

"So instead of the old method of trying to trap and kill all the dengue-carrying mosquitoes, the World Mosquito Project is doing the opposite. Scientists are cultivating and releasing mosquitoes, except these mosquitoes are special: They've been infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia."

'Maybe It Will Destroy Everything': Pakistan's Melting Glaciers Cause Alarm

"For generations, farmers in the Harchi Valley in Pakistan's highlands enjoyed a close relationship with their glacier that snakes between two mountain peaks. It watered their fields, orchards and grazing lands."

"Following local tradition, it has a name — Ultar — and a gender — male, because it is black, owing to the debris that covers it (female glaciers are white, residents say)."

"Now, their relationship is unraveling as pollution and global warming cause the Ultar glacier to melt and form unstable lakes that could burst their icy banks at any moment. Already this summer, much of Harchi's lands were destroyed in glacial floods."

"Shamim Banno, a 55-year-old farmer, was working her potato fields when a flood rushed by. Tremors jiggled the ground. Car-size boulders tumbled down the nearby waterfall and smashed into the river below. The water rose and she clung to a tree, shouting for her son, who was recording the flood on his smartphone, mesmerized."

How Best To Use The Few New Drugs To Treat Antibiotic-Resistant Germs?

"Five years ago, Mary Millard went to the hospital for heart surgery. A contaminated medical instrument gave her an infection that led to septic shock. Her heart struggled, and her lungs and kidneys started to fail."

'What I caught was pseudomonas, and it's a very virulent superbug,' says the 60-year-old former nurse who lives in Baton Rouge, La. This bacterium no longer responds to most antibiotics, and 'it lives in you permanently, so I'm on lifetime antibiotics,'" she says."

"Her doctor prescribed one of the most powerful antibiotics available, and there is no clear backup for her if that stops working. 'It's kind of a wait-and-see. And that's what's scary."

"Millard is just one of about 2 million Americans who have been infected with a superbug. Tens of thousands die each year, and the numbers are vastly higher on a global scale."

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a major new report about antibiotic resistant germs on Wednesday. The CDC now estimates more than 2.8 million infections that resist treatment and 35,000 deaths a year in the United States from this problem – a big jump from its previous estimate in 2013."

"The report does show that improved medical practices have reduced hospital-related infections with these superbugs, but the agency warns that several common bacteria, including the one that causes gonorrhea, are becoming more resistant to antibiotics."

Amazon Rainforest Sees Biggest Spike In Deforestation In Over A Decade

"Picture, for a second, just how vast New York City is. All told, including Staten Island, the Bronx and every block in between, the massive metropolis takes up more than 300 square miles. Now, try to picture a hunk of land more than 12 times that size."

"That's about how much of the Amazon rainforest was destroyed in just the span of a year, according to Brazilian authorities."

"The country's National Institute for Space Research, or INPE, released data Monday revealing that 3,769 square miles of rainforest were lost to deforestation in a 12-month period ending in July. That marks the highest rate of deforestation since 2008 — and a nearly 30% spike over the rate recorded by INPE during the previous yearlong span."

19-Hour London To Sydney 'Test Flight' Shows How To Make Long Hauls Tolerable

"Passengers on board Qantas flight 7879 took off from London early Thursday morning and arrived in Sydney a bit after noon on Friday — 19 hours and 19 minutes in the air."

"So how do you keep people on board from going crazy — or getting deep-vein thrombosis — while they're cooped up that long?"

"The Australian airline's approach on the 11,000 mile flight was to design the meals and lighting carefully, get passengers out of their seats, and focus on the remarkable: two sunrises in one day."

"In addition to Sydney, Qantas is exploring a number of new nonstop flight routes that would be longer than any currently operating, including from New York and London to Melbourne and Brisbane. And so, the 52 people on board – largely employees of the airline, along with some journalists – were guinea pigs."

Last month, Qantas landed the first nonstop commercial airline flight from New York to Sydney. That flight took 19 hours, 16 minutes. The carrier says that flight saved passengers three hours over the normal routing, which includes a stop.

Scientists Create New, More Powerful Technique To Edit Genes

"Scientists have created a new way to edit DNA that appears to make it even easier to precisely and safely re-write genes."

"The new technique, called prime editing, is designed to overcome some of the limitations of CRISPR. That technique, often described as a kind of molecular scissors for genes, has been revolutionizing scientific research by letting scientists alter DNA."

"'It's proven difficult to use these molecular scissors to make precise DNA changes in most cell types,' says David Liu, a biologist at Harvard, MIT and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass."

"Liu heads the lab where the new prime editing technique was created in research led by Andrew Anzalone. The advance is described in the journal Nature, in an article published Monday."

"One advantage of the new editing technique is that, unlike CRISPR, prime editing doesn't rely on the ability of a cell to divide to help make the desired changes in DNA. That means it could be used to correct genetic mutations in cells that often don't divide, such as cells in the nervous system. Many diseases are caused by mutations in genes in those cells, such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases."

Keeping Your Blood Sugar In Check Could Lower Your Alzheimer's Risk

"Brain scientists are offering a new reason to control blood sugar levels: It might help lower your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease."

"'There's many reasons to get [blood sugar] under control,' says David Holtzman, chairman of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis. 'But this is certainly one.'"

"Holtzman moderated a panel Sunday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago that featured new research exploring the links between Alzheimer's and diabetes."

"The risk for dementia is elevated about twofold in people who have diabetes or metabolic syndrome (a group of risk factors that often precedes diabetes)," Holtzman says. "But what's not been clear is what's the connection?"

"One possibility involves the way the brain metabolizes sugar, says Liqin Zhao, an associate professor in the school of pharmacy at the University of Kansas."

"Zhao wanted to know why people whose bodies produce a protein called ApoE2 are less likely to get Alzheimer's."

"Previous research has shown that these people are less likely to develop the sticky plaques in the brain associated with the disease. But Zhao looked at how ApoE2 affects glycolysis, a part of the process that allows brain cells to turn sugar into energy."

Hong Kong's 'Indigenous' Villages Mirror Tensions Of An Increasingly Divided City

"In Hong Kong these days, conflicting views of the ongoing anti-government protests are painfully felt in Yuen Long, a town far to the northwest of the glittering skyscrapers on Hong Kong island. It's famed for its cuisine and ancestral temples — and for its pro-Beijing sympathies. On the night of July 21, dozens of men wearing white shirts stormed the Yuen Long metro station twice, assaulting protesters and bystanders trapped inside. At least 45 were injured."

"Pro-democracy activists suspected that Beijing-funded triads were behind the attacks. Yuen Long, closer to the border with mainland China than it is to Hong Kong island, has historically been a stronghold of triad activity. But residents of Yuen Long insist the attacks were in self-defense, initiated by clan networks, fearful that protesters would destroy their villages."

'What are you going to do when someone wants to come to your house and wants to burn down your property and rape your women? Are you going to sit there and wait for it to happen?' says Paul, a 68-year-old resident of Nam Pin Wai, a so-called "indigenous" village — where residents' ancestors predated British colonial rule — just steps away from the Yuen Long metro station. Nam Pin Wai is where the white-shirted assailants retreated after beating protesters on July 21. According to local media, the village is also the territory of a well-known triad group, Wo Shing Wo."

"Paul declined to give his full name for fear of reprisals by protesters. But he was unapologetic about his fellow villagers beating the protesters. 'We are not going to be sitting ducks. We are not chicken****,' he declared, using an expletive."

How Magic Mushrooms Can Help Smokers Kick The Habit

"Carine Chen-McLaughlin smoked for more than 40 years."

"She didn't want to be a smoker. She'd tried to stop literally dozens of times over the decades. But she always came back."

"Smoking was 'one of my oldest, dearest friends,' she said of her habit. 'To not have that relationship was very, very scary.'"

"Then she heard about a clinical trial to treat nicotine addiction with something a little unusual: magic mushrooms. Well, not actual magic mushrooms, but a little pill of a drug called psilocybin. It's the ingredient in mushrooms that gives people hallucinogenic visions."

"New research shows that psilocybin may be an effective treatment for diseases like depression and addiction. While the work is still in its early stages, there are signs that psilocybin might help addicts shake the habit by causing the brain to talk with itself in different ways."

"'These brain changes lead to, often times, a sense of unity,' says Matthew Johnson, an experimental psychologist at Johns Hopkins University. It all may sound a little 'woo-woo,' he admits, but it seems to be working. Early results suggest that psilocybin, coupled with therapy, may be far more effective than other treatments for smoking, such as the nicotine patch.

Trio Wins Nobel Prize In Physiology Or Medicine For Work On Cells And Oxygen

"Three scientists who made important discoveries about how cells sense and adapt to different oxygen levels have won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, in the first announcement of Nobel winners for 2019."

"William G. Kaelin Jr. of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University, Peter J. Ratcliffe of Oxford University and the Francis Crick Institute and Gregg L. Semenza of Johns Hopkins University were jointly awarded the prize."

"'The seminal discoveries by this year's Nobel laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life's most essential adaptive processes,' the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said."

"The scientists studied hypoxia — low oxygen levels — and while many people may know about that condition because of its link to high altitude, Ratcliffe has called hypoxia 'an important component of many human diseases including cancer, heart disease, stroke, vascular disease, and anemia.'"

The Gulf Of Maine Is Warming, And Its Whales Are Disappearing

"Each summer for the last two decades, Jim Parker has readied his small whale watch boat, and made a business out of ferrying tourists out into the cool blue waters of the Gulf of Maine."

"For years, it was steady work. The basin brimmed with species that whales commonly feed on, making it a natural foraging ground for the aquatic giants. Whales would cluster at certain spots in the gulf, providing a reliable display for enchanted visitors to the coastal community of Milbridge, Maine."

"But lately, the whales have been harder and harder to find. Waters in the gulf have been warming, sending the whales' food supply searching for cooler temperatures. The whales have gone with them. Some days this summer, Parker says he didn't spot a single one. Business fell 20%, forcing him to cut his season short."

"To help make ends meet, he's been leading nature tours instead of whale watching expeditions. It's gotten so bad, Parker says, that he and his partner have considered moving away from whale watching."

Ancient Greek Scroll's Hidden Contents Revealed Through Infrared Imaging

"More than 200 years ago, scholars glued the remains of an ancient papyrus scroll onto cardboard to preserve it. But the scroll, a history of Plato's Academy, also had writing on the back. Now scholars have deployed imaging technology to read what's been concealed."

"This scroll came from a library in Herculaneum, near Mount Vesuvius. And it was caught in the famous eruption of that volcano nearly 2,000 years ago — the same eruption that buried the city of Pompeii."

"The scroll doesn't look like much now. It's blackened and in tatters. In fact, it looks like what you'd find at the bottom of your barbecue."

"But the same processes that charred the scroll and the rest of that library also preserved it, according to papyrus scholar Graziano Ranocchia from the Italian National Research Council."

"'Unless Vesuvius erupted, they would never have survived,' he says."