Microbes in our gut can have a profound impact on our health, but research is showing that those surrounding us in our environment'what's known as the natural environmental microbiome'can have a big impact too. This suggests that we should all spend a lot more time interacting with nature, both outdoors and indoors. I was first introduced to this emerging area of science by Professor Gretchen Daily from Stanford University. She mentioned a Finnish research project that showed how letting kindergarten-aged children play in a yard that contained 'dirt' from the forest floor resulted in a significant positive impact on their gut microbiome. Seventy-nine young children took part, all living in urban environments and spending the majority of their days at different daycare centers around Finland. The only difference between them was that these daycare centers had three different types of outdoor spaces. The first type was a fairly standard outdoor play area, comprised of concrete, gravel, and some plastic matting. The second was the type typically found in daycare environments that are already nature-orientated, with grass, soil, and planted areas for the children to play in. These two acted as a control against which to compare the third experimental space, where the concrete and gravel were covered with segments of forest floor and soil from the local coniferous forest....
Four employees have sued Rivian in separate lawsuits this year over allegations they were harassed, in some cases by top executives, and that the company's leadership did little to address their concerns, according to a TechCrunch review of court records. Lawsuits aren't uncommon in the automotive industry, particularly with large companies that operate factories and multiple facilities. But the allegations contained in these previously unreported lawsuits against Rivian, and the ones that it has settled, suggest the company is still sorting out its internal culture ' a culture that was thrust into the spotlight three years ago when it went public. One filed by former color, material, and finish team director Elizabeth Curran in February 2024 accuses Hammoud of being 'prone to irrational outbursts of anger,' incidents she describes as being 'often directed at the women in leadership.' The other, filed by sculptor Nathan Facciolla in October 2024, alleges Hammoud created a hostile work environment and called Facciolla's wife 'a hooker' because she worked a night shift at a hospital....
The year 2024 was a challenging year for sustainability, from climate issues to inequality. Three top concerns include elections and political turmoil that threaten progress, companies retreating or staying silent on DEI and ESG goals, and the rise of sustainability reporting that's (temporarily) taking up companies' time. Other issues from the past year include the clean economy hitting tipping points, AI's growth threatening decarbonization, heavy industry making some progress, and the beginning of a crackdown on 'greenwashing.'...
But devices that record electrical signals in cell cultures and other liquid environments often use wires to connect each electrode on the device to its respective amplifier. Because only so many wires can be connected to the device, this restricts the number of recording sites, limiting the information that can be collected from cells. Small electrical changes in the surrounding liquid environment alter how the antennas scatter the light. Using an array of tiny antennas, each of which is one-hundredth the width of a human hair, the researchers could measure electrical signals exchanged between cells, with extreme spatial resolution. The devices, which are durable enough to continuously record signals for more than 10 hours, could help biologists understand how cells communicate in response to changes in their environment. In the long run, such scientific insights could pave the way for advancements in diagnosis, spur the development of targeted treatments, and enable more precision in the evaluation of new therapies....
