The annular solar eclipse was visible in the United States and Latin America. The phenomenon occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth at its farthest point from our planet. Since it's so distant, it doesn't completely cover the Sun, creating an orange "ring of fire" effect. The eclipse moved into South America through Colombia and northern Brazil before ending at sunset in the Atlantic Ocean. The event also serves as a background for a total eclipse that will occur in April 2024.
A team of Chinese scientists has achieved for the first time that genetically modified silkworms make spider silk thread. Spider silk thread is also six times stronger than Kevlar, the synthetic fibre used to make bulletproof vests. Researchers used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology and hundreds of thousands of microinjections into fertilized silkworm eggs to modify the worms' DNA and introduce spider genes to it. Currently, worm silk is the only animal silk fiber marketed on a large scale.
Breast cancer accounted for the highest number of cases in people younger than 50 in 2019, but those of the trachea (nasopharynx) and prostate cancer increased the fastest since 1990. The highest rates of early-onset cancers in 2019 occurred in North America, Australasia and Western Europe. But low- and middle-income countries were also affected, with death rates highest among those under 50 in Oceania, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Genetic factors are likely at play, but diets high in red meat and salt, and low in fruits and milk, and alcohol and tobacco use are the main risk reasons.
In 1990, 256 million people had osteoarthritis. By 2020, the number increased to 595 million people, an increase of 132% since 1990. By 2050 this number is estimated to approach the one billion mark. More women than men will continue to deal with this condition. The most common areas of the body where it occurs are the knees and hips. The study shows that a high body mass index is a major risk factor for the condition. It emphasizes that if obesity is effectively addressed in the global population, the impact of the condition could decrease by 20%.
Nearly one in three men over the age of 15 in the world is infected with at least one variant of the human genital papillomavirus (HPV), the sexually transmitted infection of the virus. Of the more than 200 different HPV variables, twelve are considered "high-risk" (HR-HPV) for their carcinogenic nature. HPV-related cancers in men, mainly penile, anal, oral or throat, reached approximately 69,400 cases in 2018, according to the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer.