your science briefing for 03.13.2025

A possible glance at the universe's first stars, great news if you love tainted food and toxic air, RFK Jr. tries to see how many plagues he can bring back, and more...

The universe’s very first stars were bizarre, according to our calculations. Huge, short lived, and possibly packing black holes in their interiors. Stars just a few tens of million years older were already a lot more like the ones we know today, as we’ve seen in our own backyard with Methuselah stars. JWST was built to give us just the smallest peek at them at the dawn of the cosmos, a chance to check if our models are ever remotely correct. And it may have just done exactly that… (ScienceAlert)

Look, I don’t know about you, but I’m generally a big fan of not having to worry if what ends up on my plate could kill me with some highly dangerous bacteria. But as Trump appointees are busy promising to make America healthy — according to the standard from the Dark Ages, apparently — they’re also shutting down committees responsible for making sure your produce won’t have you spending the rest of your week glued to your porcelain throne at best, or the ER at worst… (Food & Wine)

Another thing you may enjoy is clean air and water. But did you know that those things are actually bad for business, and believing that you probably shouldn’t have to worry about a lungful of tumors from just breathing outside, makes you nothing more than a lousy commie traitor hooked on “climate change religion” like the anti-American scum that you are? Lucky for us, the nation’s new EPA chief will show us the GO-aPproved way to be an American, by coal-rolling the entire continent… (NBC)

Speaking of an-American wrongthink, let’s talk about walkable neighborhoods which are — believe it or not — considered by the online right to be a sinister conspiracy by a communist cabal. This is the reason why you’re not getting nearly enough pedestrian-friendly places to live anytime soon, despite studies finding that not only are they way better for your waistline and community cohesion, but could also stave off the risk of dementia, which is rising in the coming decades… (SciTechDaily)

With a dedicated anti-vaxxer and science denialist at the helm of once respected and highly regarded American public health research, parents in Texas are being advised to hold good, old fashioned measles parties in the face of the outbreak created by the exact kind of anti-vaxxers now running our medical institutions. Given that measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans, it’s really sad that we have to once again tell people how fucking stupid and dangerous that is… (Salon)