Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! In fact American scientific‘s Fast ScienceI’m Rachel Feltman. Welcome to our first science news roundup of 2025. Here are some of the stories you missed last week.
There’s a ton of public health news right now, so we’ll get that off the top.
First, there are cases of norovirus in many parts of the United States right now. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in the week of Dec. 5 — the latest week for which the agency has official numbers — 91 norovirus outbreaks were recorded by state health departments nationwide. That may not seem like much, but keep in mind that these are only official reports. Most people who get norovirus have a miserable time, but don’t need to seek medical treatment for the “stomach flu.” Also, in the same week of the year from 2021 to 2024, the CDC never more than 41 occurrences were reported. Norovirus is highly contagious, making it one of the few pathogens hand sanitizer can’t kill. So make sure you’re washing your hands with soap and water before eating, handling food or taking medicine, and of course after using the bathroom or changing a diaper.
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Now let’s look at bird flu. last week The Louisiana Department of Health reported the first US death from H5N1It has infected at least 66 humans in the US since the start of 2024. The individual who died became seriously ill after contact with wild and backyard birds. The health department noted that this individual was over 65 years old and had certain underlying health conditions, and most cases of H5N1 in the US have not required hospitalization. But while the current risk is low for most people, that doesn’t mean we’re not at risk of things turning around. On Wednesday we will have a longer conversation about the H5N1 situation.
Finally, you may have seen the headlines about the rise in human metapneumovirus cases in China…and news of Indian casesalso But the good news is that this upper and lower respiratory virus, called HMPV for short, is not currently a cause for concern in the U.S. Unlike COVID, HMPV has been around for more than 60 years and many people have some amount of immunity. to him There has been a steady increase in HMPV cases in the U.S. since November, according to CDC data, but its impact today pales in comparison to COVID and seasonal flu. So our advice for HMPV is simple, and it’s the same advice we have for those other respiratory infections: wear a mask, wash your hands and stay home if you’re sick.
Speaking of health care, last Tuesday the Biden administration announced a rule that will remove medical debt from US credit reports. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureauthis will wipe $49 billion in debt from the credit reports of about 15 million Americans, raising their credit scores by an average of 20 points. This rule will also prevent the recall of devices such as wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs. Several House Republicans have come out against the rule, and are expected to try to repeal it under the incoming administration. Consumer Data Industry Association, which represents the credit bureausHe said in a statement that he will work to “protect the credit reporting system and fight CFPB misconduct in this area.” According to the data analysis carried out by KFFAbout 14 million people in the US owe more than $1,000 in medical debt. About 3 million people, or 1 in 100 US adults, owe more than $10,000.
Going to climates Last week there were a lot of wildfires in Los Angeles.
(CLIP: (Karen Bass, Mayor of Los Angeles): “Good afternoon everyone and thank you to all the leaders who are here with us today. We are going to unite our city. We are going to get through this crisis. And we are going to rebuild a better Los Angeles. First, of course, my thoughts are with the thousands of Angelinos affected by these ongoing fires. There is a new fire, unfortunately…”)
I spoke with Andrea Thompson, SciAmSenior Earth and Environmental News Editor on how this all started last Thursday evening and where the disaster could be headed next.
So, Andrea, can you tell us what’s been going on in Los Angeles this past week?
Andrea Thompson: LA saw some of the most devastating wildfires it has ever seen in its history, and that’s due to a combination of a few things. One is a major wind event in Santa Ana. This is a common phenomenon in this part of the country at this time of year, and it happens when you have a certain weather setup.
So you have an area of high pressure air over what’s called the Great Basin, so that’s the Western Interior, and then an area of low pressure air over Southern California. And the air wants to go from high pressure to low pressure, so you move that wind in that direction toward the sea, and the Great Basin is a little bit higher than that elevation, and as the air goes downhill, it gets compressed. And that means it’s getting hotter and drier, the increasingly hotter and drier weather is perfect for fires.
As the air descends, it wants to move along the path of least resistance, and that’s what these mountain canyons really dominate in the area. As you enter these canyons, it speeds up. So all of these factors mean that when you get a fire, they are set up to spread the fire very quickly. And that’s exactly what happened, it was a very intense event. And it also happened to overlap with really dry weather.
Normally this part of the country has a wet season in the winter, and you’d normally get rain now, which would help reduce fire danger, but it’s been one of the warmest and driest starts to winter ever for Southern California. so the conditions are just the perfect storm for any spark that ignites to happen and grow into a big fire.
And that’s especially the case with the Palisades Fire and the Eaton Fire. These were wind driven events where it is almost impossible to stop at the height of the wind event because it is moving so fast that there is nothing firefighters can do to contain the fire at that point. Winds are too high for helicopters and other aircraft to make water drops. The fire is moving too fast for firefighters on the ground to try to tackle it.
Feltman: How does that compare to the wildfires that California and LA in general have seen in the past?
Thompson: Therefore, these types of fires are not rare in this region; this is what the ecosystem of this region has evolved into. They are unusual in their destructiveness because there are more people in these places than historically. And when fires have started in the past when people lived there, we put them out. And this suppression has resulted in much more fuel for the fires that do occur.
That’s especially the case this year because there have been two wet winters in a row—the previous winters—so there was plenty of water to encourage lots of vegetation growth. And then there was a hot summer and a hot fall, and all that vegetation dried up, and it’s ready: it’s Tinder-dry. It’s ready to go at any second if there’s a spark.
These are different than what you might see in other parts of California or other parts of the West if it’s a wooded area. Wildfires and bushfires can be slightly different in several ways: The way fire travels can be slightly different. The effects and type of smoke may be slightly different. But when it comes to the LA Basin, it has seen fires like this in the past. This is the most devastating in a long time. In fact, the Palisades is the most destructive in the history of the city.
Feltman: Right now, Thursday, almost 5pm Eastern time, where are things in LA?
Thompson: The main fires, the Palisades and Eaton fires, are still what is called “zero percent containment.” So this means that the firefighters are burning without any perimeter to try to stop the spread of the fire.
The wind is supposed to pick up. On Tuesday night they died from its summit; that’s part of what allowed firefighters to get out in front of the Sunset Fire. The winds weren’t too bad, so they were able to use helicopters that did water drops, which helped to contain that fire a little bit more. And also the dying winds meant the fire wasn’t spreading as fast, but you could still see embers coming out of the winds there and then starting what are called point fires that grow and coalesce as a fire front. continues to move downhill.
So right now the firefighters are trying to get a handle on the fires that are burning, to try to get some containment to protect the structure that they can. They are waiting for new fires to start, which is always a possibility. The weather is still incredibly dry and very hot.
So they’re basically trying to get out ahead of the fires now, while the winds aren’t as bad, to prepare for when they’re going to get windy again, because the winds can pick up again at any time, even if they don’t. As bad as it is expected to be on Tuesday, there is still a good chance of another big fire starting.
Feltman: Andrea, thanks for coming and explaining that.
Listeners: Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the wildfires in and around Los Angeles. Of course, this is a rapidly evolving story, so if you’re looking for more up-to-date information, we recommend checking some of the latest news sources. You can see Andrea’s latest coverage status if you go to sciam.com.
We’ll end with the star news from space. We talked last Friday a mysterious, completely hypothetical hunt for our solar system Nine planets. But just because Pluto isn’t a full planet anymore doesn’t mean scientists don’t care. A new study aims to To explain how Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, formed in their unique cosmic dance. Instead of the moons orbiting Pluto, Charon and the dwarf planet both orbit the same fixed point between them. The couple is also stranded on the shore; which means that it rotates in such a way that they always present the same face to each other, holding hands and spinning together like a pair of ice dancers.
So how did Charon get there? This new study says it was a “kiss and grab”. Basically, the idea is that Charon and Pluto smashed into each other at some point, then stuck together for a while before Pluto’s rotation pushed Charon away.
Previous theories have mostly focused on a process similar to the one that created our moon, where a collision caused the two objects to collide. melt and mix. The researchers behind this new study say that since Pluto and Charon are much smaller than most objects thought, they must behave differently.
That’s all for this week’s news roundup. We’ll be back on Wednesday with a deeper dive into bird flu. And on Friday we had a fascinating conversation about why so many different languages say “ouch” the same way.
Fast Science produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Emily Makowski, Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck check out our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. subscribe American scientific for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
In fact american scientific this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!
