your science briefing for 04.29.2025

The next alarming phase of global warming may be on its way, a deepfake nude crisis in South Korea, bird flu's quiet advances in dairy cattle, and more...

Back in 1999, the sages of Smash Mouth warned us that the world was on fire, which is the consensus of virtually every scientist studying the subject, and a major concern for the future of humanity. Despite climate change already creating more intense and damaging storms and fueling increasing geopolitical unrest, the worst is yet to come. You see, climate change is not a linear process. It goes through very complex stages that can fuel warming at exponential rates, and scientists are concerned we’re closer and closer to the point at which permafrost, rich in methane, begins to melt for good, releasing gigatons of greenhouses gases and reflecting less sunlight, which wouldn’t just supercharge warming, but do potentially irreversible damage… (EsstN)

Remember bird flu? Everyone seems to be talking about it at the start of the year, and then it suddenly vanished from the news? Whatever happened to that pesky virus? It didn’t go away. If anything, it has been spreading further and wider at an accelerating pace, especially in dairy cattle. Not only are scientists still concerned that it has a real chance of mutating to spread between humans, but they’re now even more worried it may be more likely to achieve that epidemiological escape velocity given just how far it spread among animals in close contact with us… (Science)

Speaking of problems that haven’t gone away, as is the theme of this briefing so far, deepfake nudes were already becoming a serious problem a few years ago, and now they’re every bit as bad as ever. Teenagers are generating nudes of their classmates and selling them to each other, or using them as a bullying tactic. And in South Korea, where absolutely horrific mass sex crimes seem to be a constant occurrence, they’re becoming an epidemic in high schools and universities with laws seemingly impotent to even stem the tide of fake nudes… (CNN)

Thanks to our Secretary of Plagues and Inhuman Services’ virulent disdain for science and eugenics-inspired public health policy, the state of Utah is removing fluoride from its water supply with language and justifications the John Birch Society — which saw literally anything that its pathologically regressive and paranoid members didn’t like as a sinister communist conspiracy to destroy America — would approve of. What should we expect to happen? Well, in 2007 and 2011, Alaska’s Juneau and Alberta’s Calgary, respectively, stopped adding fluoride in their water and both cities saw an increase in aggressive tooth decay in children. If only there was some group of experts known as virtually every dentist ever who could’ve warned us about this… (Science News)

Chatbots, we are told incessantly, are all the biggest thing since both sliced bread and perforated toilet paper. Some are even using them for companionship and therapy. To capitalize on the trend, Facebook added their own bots to the platform with a fun little twist: celebrity voices. Sounds like good, clean fun, right? Well, in typical Meta fashion of prioritizing engagement above anything else, including basic safety and sanity, the bots were allowed to do anything from telling knock-knock jokes, to… Wait, erotic role play with minors? Meta is denying this report, of course, but also saying they fixed the problem because that’s what you do. Fix problems that don’t exist… (Techcrunch)