GOFLOW temperature gradient computed in the Gulf Stream region in the Atlantic Ocean. (Credit: Luc Lenain/Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
A new study published in
the journal Nature
Geoscience describes an artificial intelligence-powered technique
that can measure ocean surface currents over broad areas in greater detail than
ever before. Among the co-authors is Nick Pizzo of the
University of Rhode Island Graduate
School of Oceanography.
Called GOFLOW (Geostationary Ocean Flow), the approach uses
AI to analyze thermal images from weather satellites already in orbit. Because
it relies on existing satellites, no new hardware is needed, marking what
researchers describe as a major advancement in ocean observation.
A side-by-side comparison of ocean surface velocity and vorticity fields in the same region, showing GOFLOW (a) alongside AVISO (b). While the AVISO map is built from a 10-day average, the GOFLOW map is built from hourly data, revealing greater detail. (Credit: Luc Lenain/Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
The study was co-led by Luc Lenain of Scripps Institution of
Oceanography at University of California San Diego and Kaushik Srinivasan of
University of California, Los Angeles. Co-author Roy Barkan of Tel Aviv
University and Pizzo are also alumni of Scripps. The project was supported by
grants from the Office of Naval Research, NASA, and the European Research
Council.
WashU Medicine researchers have described how mRNA cancer
vaccines engage the immune system, through an unconventional pathway involving
two subsets of immune cells called dendritic cells. Credit: Sara Moser/WashU
Medicine
The advent of mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 in 2020
changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the Nobel Prize–winning
technology is being adapted to fight cancer, with mRNA vaccines in clinical
trials for melanoma, small-cell lung cancer and bladder cancer, among others,
opening the door to new ways of preventing and treating the disease.
Scientists assumed that one specific immune cell subtype was
required for mRNA vaccination to activate the immune system. But researchers at
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis show in a new study in
mice that even without these cells, the mRNA vaccine still triggers strong
cancer-killing responses. That's because, they found, a cousin to this subtype
of immune cell can also stimulate anti-tumor immune activity—an unexpected
finding given that this related subtype is not involved in responses to other
vaccines.
The findings are published in Nature,
offering a deeper understanding of how the immune system responds to mRNA
vaccination and guiding the optimal design of a cancer vaccine.
In its early days, Amazon.com cultivated a reputation for
low prices, which helped put a lot of small booksellers out of business. That
eventually gave way to a business model based on a wide product selection and
speedy delivery.
Its Prime subscription system was designed to make customers
focus on the benefits of free shipping and overlook the fact that the prices of
the products were not much of a bargain.
Now the giant e-retailer is facing allegations that it not
only abandoned the low-cost approach but actually conspired to raise the prices
charged on its own platform as well as those of its competitors.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta brought a price-fixing
lawsuit against Amazon in February and has just provided new details of the
alleged conspiracy in a motion filed in state court in San Francisco.
The
document claims that when a competing platform is offering a product at a price
lower than it is charging, Amazon demands that the supplier intervene to get
that price increased: “Vendors, cowed by Amazon’s overwhelming bargaining
leverage and fearing punishment, comply—agreeing to raise prices on competitors’
websites (often with the awareness and cooperation of the competing retailer)
or to remove products from competing websites altogether. The scheme is neither
subtle nor complex. It is price fixing, and it should be immediately enjoined.”
The pressure exerted by Amazon is said to be a part of a
system called Can’t Realize a Profit, or CRaP, in which it cuts off orders from
suppliers that don’t comply with the company’s demands.
What is notable about the California AG’s motion is that it
include details on specific vendors that were said to have gotten caught up in
the price fixing. For example, it quotes an email from GlobalOne Pet Products,
a producer of premium pet treats, to the big pet supplies website Chewy urging
it to coordinate a price increase with Amazon.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy
Jr. appeared before two Senate committees on April 22 and distanced himself
from record-breaking measles outbreaks in the United States, despite his role
as overseeing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the
many agencies in the HHS umbrella.
His testimony capped off a busy week on Capitol Hill, where
he made seven appearances.
Kennedy was there to discuss the proposed 2027 HHS budget,
but after failing to appear in front of lawmakers for many months, during which
Kennedy made broad changes to national recommendations for childhood vaccines,
appeared shirtless in promotional videos with Kid Rock, and withheld millions
of Medicaid funds from “blue” states like Minnesota and California, Kennedy
found himself facing questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
During his opening statements to both committees, Kennedy
focused on nutrition, food dyes, and the chronic disease epidemic, Make America
Healthy Again (MAHA) topics that are seen as less controversial than
anti-vaccine rhetoric that could punish Republicans during upcoming midterm
elections.
But senators repeatedly pivoted to two issues Kennedy
couldn’t shake: the punishing costs of prescription drugs, and the ongoing US
measles epidemic.
‘I have nothing to do with the measles outbreak’
Throughout the Finance Committee meeting, Kennedy said he
had nothing to do with large ongoing measles outbreaks across the country, and
implied it was rising international rates of the virus seeding outbreaks in the
United States.
10-12 noon @ Caf Bar in The Venue, 5153 Old Post Road, Charlestown
Tina will be giving an update from the State House. Don't miss it! No RSVP necessary, all are welcome.
If you'd like to donate to Tina's re-eelction campaign, please make personal checks payable to: The Friends of Tina Spears 82 Hillside Drive Charlestown, RI 02813
Or click HERE to contribute online or scan the QR code
Want to volunteer on Tina's re-election campaign? Contact us here. We have lots of fun and we'll keep Tina in the State House!
Last month, climate scientist and author Kate Marvel resigned from her position at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she had spent more than a decade studying a warming world. In her resignation letter, she cited the Trump administration’s attacks on the field.
“I anticipated that our work would be questioned,” she wrote, “but only because its implications were politically inconvenient. I never expected that science itself would come under attack.”
Marvel joins more than 10,000 professionals with doctoral degrees in the sciences who have left the federal workforce since Donald Trump took office in January 2025: a period that has seen the administration evict the Goddard Institute from its historic home on the Columbia University campus, dissolve the U.S. Global Change Research Program, dismiss the nearly 400 authors of the next National Climate Assessment, and repeal the legal foundation for federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
Grist spoke with Marvel about what she left behind, who fills the vacuum, and why spite might be the most underrated climate emotion.
Picture this: your brain is a high-performance engine. Over
decades, it doesn't just wear down, it also starts to run hot. Tiny
"fires" of inflammation smolder deep within the brain's memory
center, creating a persistent brain fog that makes it harder to think, form new
memories or even adapt to new environments, all the while increasing the risk
to disorders like Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists call this slow burn "neuroinflammaging," and for decades it was thought to
be the inevitable price of growing older. Until now.
A landmark study by researchers at Texas A&M University
Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine suggests the inflammatory tide
responsible for brain aging and brain fog might actually be reversible. And the
solution doesn't involve brain surgery, but a simple nasal spray.
Led by Dr. Ashok Shetty, university distinguished professor
and associate director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, along with
senior research scientists Dr. Madhu Leelavathi Narayana and Dr. Maheedhar
Kodali, the team developed a nasal spray that, with just two doses,
dramatically reduced brain inflammation, restored the brain's cellular power
plants and significantly improved memory.
The most surprising part? It all happened within weeks and
lasted for months.
The findings, published in the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles, could reshape the future
of neurodegenerative therapies and may even change how scientists think about
brain aging itself.
John Jones knows about voter suppression. Currently the president of Dickinson College, Jones – nominated in 2002 by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate – served for almost two decades as a federal court judge. In that role, Jones presided over a case, filed just prior to the November 2020 presidential election, in which a conservative legal foundation sued Pennsylvania’s top election official, alleging that she had allowed 21,000 dead people to remain on the voter rolls. The group asked Jones to stop those people from voting.
Jones denied the request. “In an election where every vote matters, we will not disenfranchise potentially eligible voters based solely upon the allegations of a private foundation,” he wrote in his memorandum on the case. In this interview with The Conversation politics and legal affairs editor Naomi Schalit, Jones discusses Donald Trump’s March 31, 2026, executive order to wrest control of mail-in voting from states and give it to the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security; how the constitutional design of U.S. voting bars such federal control; and how Trump’s order would disenfranchise voters and is now the subject of lawsuits by voting rights groups and 23 states.
Article 1, Section 4, of the Constitution says, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” When you saw the executive order by the president, what did you think?
My first thought was, this executive order is dead on arrival. It assumes two problems that really don’t exist.
The president’s March order asserts that states don’t maintain active and appropriate voter rolls. That’s just not true. State after state takes that very, very seriously, and it’s a principle of federalism that states are given the responsibility for conducting elections. This includes maintaining accurate voter rolls, which, despite the noise to the contrary, states have historically done very well.
The second inaccuracy that undergirds this executive order is that there is rampant fraud in mail-in voting. There is absolutely no evidence to show that that is true.
Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed there is pervasive fraud in mail-in voting, despite a lack of evidence.
Loughlin at left (facing away from camera) at a League of RI Businesses PAC event. Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)
In a press release, Republican candidate for Lieutenant
Governor John Loughlin,
“[c]iting hard IRS migration data from Massachusetts and New York,” labeled the
proposed 3% surtax on incomes over $1 million as a “proven job-killing,
wealth-repelling mistake.”
Unfortunately, the interpretation of the “hard IRS
migration data” that Loughlin cites (without attribution) comes from the wealth
lobby in the form of right-wing think tanks, such as Investment
News and others.
It ignores better studies from the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrating that “[s]ince its
implementation in 2023, the [Massachusetts] levy has delivered billions of
dollars in new funding for transformative investments [like universal free
school meals, fare-free buses, and affordable childcare.] The tax has also
routinely exceeded initial revenue projections — outpacing expectations by $3
billion over roughly its first three years.”
.png)
.png)
"This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."
.webp)
John Jones knows about voter suppression. Currently the president of Dickinson College, Jones – nominated in 2002 by President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate – served for almost two decades as a federal court judge. In that role, Jones presided over a case, filed just prior to the November 2020 presidential election, in which a conservative legal foundation sued Pennsylvania’s top election official, alleging that she had allowed 21,000 dead people to remain on the voter rolls. The group asked Jones to stop those people from voting.
Article 1, Section 4, of the Constitution says, “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.” When you saw the executive order by the president, what did you think?
