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Professional Soccer Players May Demonstrate Exceptional Cognitive Control

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Soccer fans sometimes imagine that they themselves could potentially perform at the highest levels of the sport, just like the athletic heroes they watch on the pitch. But if they ever do find the chance to try, they will learn that their body simply won’t cooperate—and they might even get seriously hurt. And many of them are ignoring the fact that the “beautiful game” is also a brain game. Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, an

international research group says it has now confirmed that success on the soccer field is about mind as well as body. The team, co-led by Leonardo Bonetti of Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Oxford, examined elite soccer players’ intelligence and personality types and discovered they have exceptional cognitive abilities—as well as a typical psychological profile.

The participants comprised more than 200 professional players from Brazil and Sweden, about 9 percent of whom were women, along with a control group of 124 Brazilian nonathletes with a similar education level and social background. The subjects filled out a personality questionnaire and completed several cognitive tests. The researchers compared the results for the athletes with the same measures in the control group and the general population.

Among other things, the professional players demonstrated a better working memory and showed better performance in planning and problem-solving. But above all, they really shined when it came to executive function—the regulation of information processing in higher-order brain areas that helps someone adapt to fast-changing events. In particular, the elite athletes performed far above the norm on the design fluency test, a measure of cognitive flexibility.

The design fluency test had proved to be a good marker of intelligence on the soccer field in previous studies, with higher scores indicating players who had superior skills in developing strategy and analyzing the play around them. “The ability to plan several steps ahead in order to reach a goal in a quickly changing environment may be one of the most crucial cognitive processes related to successful behavior in complex ball sports such as soccer,” Bonetti and his colleagues write in their new paper.

In the personality test, the professional athletes also demonstrated pronounced self-discipline, energy, extraversion and other factors—all unsurprising results. But at first glance, one thing did not fit the picture of success in a team sport: the players were assessed to be less sociable and cooperative than other people, perhaps because they were so focused on their own performance.

Other studies had previously shown that professional soccer players have a unique cognitive profile—but these investigations had smaller samples that often did not include top players. “Our novel study reproduced previous results but can also be regarded as the first conclusive study,” says Predrag Petrovic, co-senior author of the new paper and a senior lecturer of clinical neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. (Elite players demonstrate cognitive skills above the norm. But the nature of the game can compromise those superior abilities. The frequent heading of the ball and the collisions with other players can lead to head injuries that put players at higher risk for dementia.)

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https://static.scientificamerican.com/dam/m/63cd2e34dc7eef7/original/Soccer-player-making-sliding-tackle.jpg?m=1738952525.377&w=1000Andreyuu/Getty Images

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/professional-soccer-players-may-demonstrate-exceptional-cognitive-control/

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Radio

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For those of us who grew up listening to the radio –

Have fun!

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If you have nothing to do for the next 6 to 10 years you can play with this.

Here’s an unbelievable collection of old-time radio shows.

This is a chance to go back in time and listen to the radio.

Find your favorite, click on it, and listen to some of the episodes.

Remember Dragnet and Bergen & McCarthy?

 

Comedy
Al Jolson Show
Alan Young Show
Aldrich Family
Alka Seltzer Time
Amos & Andy
Avalon Time
Baby Snooks
Bergen & McCarthy
Bickersons, The
Bing Crosby
Bob & Ray
Breakfast In Hollywood
Bright Star
Burns & Allen
Cavalcade Of America
Command Performance
Couple Next Door
Curtain Time
Danny Kaye Show
Dennis Day Show
Duffy’s Tavern
Easy Aces
Father Knows Best
Fibber McGee & Molly
First Nighter Program
Frances Langford Show
Fred Allen Show
Fred Waring Show
Gasoline Alley
GI Journal
Glenn Miller
Goldbergs
Great Gildersleeve
Guest Star
Halls Of Ivy
Harold Peary
Harry James Show
Hollywood Barn Dance
It Pays to Be Ignorant
Jack Benny
Life Of Riley
Lum And Abner
Mail Call
Mayor of the Town
Mel Blanc
Milton Berle
Misadventures Of Si and Elmer
My Favorite Husband
My Friend Irma
Our Miss Brooks
Phil Harris & Alice Faye
Red Skelton
Story Lady, TheWesterns
American Trail
Cisco Kid, The
Fort Laramie
Frontier Fighters
Frontier Gentleman
Frontier Town
Gene Autry
Gunsmoke
Have Gun Will Travel
Hopalong Cassidy
Horizons West
Lone Ranger A
Lone Ranger B
Roy Rogers Show, The
Six Shooter
Tales Of The Texas Rangers
Detective
Barry Craig
Boston Blackie
Broadway Is My Beat
Casey, Crime Photographer
Chase, The
Crime Classics
Crime Club
Crime Does Not Pay
Danger, Dr. Danfield
Dick Tracy
Dragnet
Falcon, The
FBI In War And Peace, The
Federal Agent
Frank Race
Gangbusters
Guilty Party
I Was A Communist For The FBI
Jeff Regan
Let George Do It
Lineup
Mr. District Attorney
Mr. Keene, Tracer of Lost Person
Nero Wolfe
Night Beat
Pat Novak
Philip Marlowe
Saint, The
Secrets Of Scotland Yard
Sherlock Holmes
This Is Your F.B.I
Yours Truly Johnny DollarMystery
Adventures By Morse
Arch Obler’s Plays
Beyond Midnight
Black Museum
Cloak and Dagger
Clock, The
Creaking Door
Dangerous Assignment
Dark Fantasy
Dark Venture
Darkness
David Harding Counter Spy
Diary of Fate
Dimension X
Escape
Five Minute Mysteries
Frankenstein
Ghost Corps
Green Valley Line
Hall Of Fantasy
Haunting Hour, The
Hermits Cave
I Love A Mystery
Incredible, But True
Inner Sanctum, The
Lights Out
Macabre
Man Called X, The
Molle Mystery Theater
Mysterious Traveler
Mystery In The Air
Quiet Please
Sealed Book
Shadow, The
Strange Dr. Weird
Suspense
Weird Circle
Whistler, The
Witch’s Tale
X Minus One
Drama
Academy Award Theater
Adventure Theater
Adventures By Morse
Air Adventures Of Jimmy Allen
Archie Andrews
Audio History
Avenger
Avengers
Big John & Sparky
Big Town
Bill Sterns Sports Reel
Birdseye Open House
Blackstone, The Magic Detective
Blue Beetle
Box 13
British Shows 1
British Shows 2
Campbell Playhouse
Captain Midnight
Chandu The Magician
Chesterfield Chicago Theater Of
Cinnamon Bear
Columbia Workshop
Commercials
Corsican Brothers
Damon Runyon Theater
Dangerously Yours
Family Theater
Fifth Horseman
Fighting AAF
Fire Fighters
Flash Gordon
Ford Show Ford Theater
Frank Merriwell
Future Tense
Goon Show, The
Grand Hotel Grand Marquee
Hallmark Playhouse
Heartbeat Theater
Hollywood Star Playhouse
Hop Harrigan
Horizons West
Humphrey Bogart
I Love Adventure
Information Please
Jungle Jim
Lets Pretend
Little Orphan Annie
Lux Radio Theater 465
Magic Island
Matinee Theater
Mercury Summer Theater
Mercury Theater
Michael Shayne
Miscellaneous Music
Moon Over Africa
Moon River
Mr. President
Railroad Hour
Sears Radio Theater
Smilin Ed’s Buster Brown Gang
Soap Operas
Soldiers of the Press
Speed Gibson
Sports Thrills
Superman
Tarzan
Treasury Star Parade
Treasury Star Salute
Vic & Sade
World Adventures Club
World War II Shows
WSJV Complete Broadcast Day
Your Army Air Force

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Can Babies Safely Sleep on Their Sides? We Asked the Experts.

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Whether you’re a new parent or a seasoned pro, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about your baby’s sleep. You may have even wondered if babies can safely sleep on their sides—especially if they’re having trouble staying asleep. But according to pediatricians, parents should start all naps and bedtime by putting their baby on their back—even if they’ve mastered the art of rolling over.

“Parents should always offer sleep with babies starting on their backs from birth through 12 months old in order to reduce the risk of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome),” says Sarah Bossio, certified pediatric sleep expert and owner of Your Zen Baby Sleep.1

But what about babies that roll to their side after they’re asleep? Should you move them to their back, or can those babies sleep on their sides? We turned to experts to learn everything you need to know.

Risks of Babies Sleeping on Their Sides

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all babies are put to sleep on their backs.2 Not only is this the safest position for your baby, but it also reduces the risk of SIDS and other potential complications. In fact, some research shows that putting a baby on their side to sleep, even for a nap, increases their risk of SIDS by up to 45 times.3

“The ‘Back to Sleep’ campaign that began in 1994 (and was renamed to Safe to Sleep in 2012) has been one of the single largest contributors to decreasing the risk of sleep-related infant deaths,” says Jenelle Ferry, MD, board-certified neonatologist at Pediatrix Medical Group in Tampa, Florida.

While Side-Sleeping, Babies Can Roll Further

When babies sleep on their side, it is much easier for them to slip onto their stomach, which also can increase their risk of SIDS. Researchers have found that sleeping on the belly lowers your baby’s blood pressure and reduces their ability to get oxygen to their brain. And, for babies between 2 and 4 months old, the reflex to breathe is even more repressed when they are asleep on their belly.4

Side-Sleeping and Positional Torticollis

Babies who sleep on their sides may develop positional torticollis, or wry neck. This condition is caused by your baby’s head being kept in one primary position. It also can occur if your baby has a preference for having their head in a specific position.5

“Torticllis is a condition caused by a tightening of the sternocleidomastoid muscle in the neck, which results in the turning of the head to one side and tilting it to the other, and sometimes limits full rotation of the neck,” says Ferry.6

This condition can be present at birth or develop later, she says. “If an infant sleeps repeatedly on their side, they may develop a preference to turn their head in one direction that could potentially develop into torticollis with tightening of the muscles on one side, although this is not common.” 

When Is It Safe for Babies to Sleep on Their Sides?

Once a baby is developmentally ready to find their comfortable spot and has the skill of rolling from belly to back and vice versa, they may try to sleep on their side, says Bossio. This milestone typically occurs between 4 and 6 months. However, regardless of their abilities, you should still always place your baby to sleep initially on their back.

It’s also imperative to make sure your baby is in a safe sleep environment, adds Kandra Becerra, a pediatric sleep specialist and owner of Rocky Mountain Sleeping Baby. It can be dangerous if your baby rolls to their side while next to a blanket or in a baby swing. “If the baby is in a crib that is flat, and nothing in the crib, they are fine to sleep on their side, as long as they got there on their own.”

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https://www.parents.com/thmb/XabENqRYi2q8pv_-bBnGV9AAFiQ=/750x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/parentscanbabiessleepsides-4572398d49f541a7b9043adaa7a43718.pngParents/Getty Images

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.parents.com/can-babies-safely-sleep-on-their-sides-we-asked-the-experts-8780848?utm_source=pocket_discover_parenting

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Mysterious Blobs Found inside Cells Are Rewriting the Story of How Life Works

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No one saw the blob takeover coming. In 2009 a team of biophysicists led by Anthony A. Hyman of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, were studying specklelike structures called P granules in the single-celled embryo of a tiny, soil-dwelling worm. These specks were known to accumulate only at one end of the cell, making it lopsided so that, when it divides, the two daughter cells are different. The researchers wanted to know how that uneven distribution of P granules arises.

They discovered that these blobs, made from protein and RNA, were condensing on one side of the cell like raindrops in moist air, and dissolving again on the other side. In other words, the molecular components of the granules were undergoing phase transitions like those that switch a substance between liquid and gas.

That was a weird thing to be happening in cell biology. But at first it seemed to many researchers little more than a quirk and didn’t excite much attention. Then these little blobs—now called biomolecular condensates—began popping up just about anywhere researchers looked in the cell, doing a myriad of vital tasks.

Biologists had long believed that bringing order and organization to the chaos of molecules inside a cell depended on membrane-bound compartments called organelles, such as the mitochondria. But condensates, it turns out, offer “order for free” without the need for membranes. They provide an easy, general-purpose organization that cells can turn on or off. This arrangement permits many of the things on which life depends, explains biophysicist Petra Schwille of the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.

These little blobs inside living cells now appear to feature across all domains of the living world and are “connected to just about every aspect of cellular function,” says biophysical engineer Cliff Bran­gwynne, who was part of the 2009 Dresden team and now runs his own lab at Princeton University. They protect cells from dangerously high or low temperatures; they repair DNA damage; they control the way DNA gets turned into crucial proteins. And when they go bad, they may trigger diseases.

Biomolecular condensates now seem to be a key part of how life gets its countless molecular components to coordinate and cooperate, to form committees that make the group decisions on which our very existence depends. “The ultimate problem in cell biology is not how a few puzzle pieces fit together,” Brang­wynne says, “but how collections of billions of them give rise to emergent, dynamic structures on larger scales.”

These ubiquitous specks have “completely taken over cell biology,” says biophysicist Simon Alberti of the Technical University of Dresden. The challenge now is to understand how they form, what they do—and perhaps how to control them to devise new medical therapies and cures.

Initially researchers studying condensates thought they formed by coalescing as one liquid phase became insoluble in another—like vinegar droplets in the oil of salad dressing. But condensates aren’t always simply phase-separated liquids.

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https://static.scientificamerican.com/dam/m/2c54c09a4e6a5881/original/sa0225Ball01.jpg?m=1736174431.311&w=1000Mark Ross

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mysterious-blobs-found-in-cells-are-rewriting-how-life-works/

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‘Bigorexia’ Is On The Rise. Here’s What Parents Should Know.

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Parents today are generally aware of mental health conditions that relate to body image, including common disorders like anorexia. But experts warn a lesser-known issue is on the rise, particularly among boys: muscle dysmorphia, aka “bigorexia.”

“Bigorexia is a psychological condition and type of body dysmorphic disorder which involves a distorted self-image that focuses specifically on muscle size and physical appearance,” Kara Becker, a certified eating disorder therapist and national director of eating disorder programs at Newport Healthcare, told HuffPost.

With bigorexia, the afflicted person is obsessed with becoming more muscular and preoccupied with the idea that their body isn’t brawny enough ― even if they actually have the physique of a bodybuilder.

“Individuals may have an inaccurate view of their bodies, often believing they are smaller or less muscular,” said Amy Gooding, a clinical psychologist at Eating Recovery Center, Baltimore. “This belief and subsequent preoccupation can lead to unhealthy behaviors, including obsessive exercise, and may lead to changing one’s eating to be as lean as possible.”

Although muscle dysmorphia can affect anyone, it’s more common in males, and research suggests the disorder is on the rise. A 2019 study indicated that 22% of adolescent boys engaged in “muscularity-oriented disordered eating behaviors” in an attempt to bulk up or gain weight and found that supplements, dietary changes and even steroid use were common among young adult males.

“Eating disorders in boys are often under-recognized and under-diagnosed, said Jason Nagata, a pediatrician specializing in eating disorders in boys and men, who co-authored the study.

He noted that a recent Canadian study found that hospitalizations for eating disorders in male patients had risen dramatically since 2002.

“While there’s more awareness around eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia can be overlooked for several reasons ― one reason being that it can lead to behaviors often encouraged in the weight room,” Gooding said. “Lack of awareness of the disorder may lead to the disorder being missed in someone who is struggling, as this is one of the less well-known disorders. Those who struggle may hesitate to reach out for help due to shame, secrecy or the normalization of the behaviors in the community.”

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https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/679d39031600002500636a0d.jpeg?cache=2TDITYOiii&ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp

SolStock via Getty Images Social media has become a dangerous influence on young people’s body image and self-esteem.

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bigorexia-parents-boys_l_6786dc1ee4b0a673540f92d2?utm_source=pocket_discover_parenting

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Tuberculosis Outbreak, Highly Pathogenic Bird Flu Strain and Polar Bear Hair

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Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Hope your February is off to a great start. Let’s kick off the week by catching up on all the science news you might have missed.

First, a quick note on some presidential moves that might impact health and science. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced at least some bipartisan pushback during confirmation hearings for his nomination for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. On Thursday the chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Republican Bill Cassidy, pressed Kennedy to take a definitive pro-vaccine stance. Cassidy, who practiced medicine for decades, claims he has constituents who credit Kennedy—at least in part—for their decision not to vaccinate.

After a lot of back and forth, Cassidy asked Kennedy to agree that if he were to be confirmed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would not “deprioritize or delay review and/or approval of new vaccines and that vaccine review standards will not change from historical norms.” Kennedy replied in the affirmative—but it’s important to note that the nominee has a long history of promoting vaccine misinformation.

You can read more about RFK Jr.’s health care track record at ScientificAmerican.com, and we’ll keep you updated on the confirmation hearings as they proceed.

Last week was also pretty chaotic in terms of executive orders, a federal funding freeze, and more. As of last Friday afternoon, there were reports of webpages disappearing from government health agency sites. Stat News reported that data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a large national survey on youth behavioral habits that includes information on gender and sexual identities, had disappeared and was no longer accessible to researchers. The CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, which highlights groups particularly vulnerable to disasters because of factors like poverty, also appeared to be down on Friday, as did some resources about HIV. That’s not an exhaustive list by any means, and this story was very much still developing as of the time of this recording on the afternoon of January 31. We’re working on a deeper dive on these changes and their implications for this week’s Friday episode, so let us know if you have any specific questions. You can send those over to us at sciencequickly@sciam.com.

Feltman: Now let’s get into some public health news. You may have seen some headlines last week about a record-breaking outbreak of tuberculosis in Kansas. Initial reports dubbing it the nation’s largest TB outbreak since the CDC started keeping track of cases seem to have stemmed from an incorrect statement from the state health department. After the CDC refuted that, a state health official offered clarification, claiming this outbreak has seen the country’s highest case numbers over a one-year period.

The discrepancy has led to some confusion about the nature of this—very real and serious—outbreak. The health department says that as of January 31, more than 60 people in Wyandotte and Johnson counties have been diagnosed with active TB associated with the outbreak, though some have completed treatment since their diagnoses; “active” refers to a type of tuberculosis, not whether someone currently has the illness—more on that shortly. According to a state official, two people have died in the outbreak. Here to unpack the situation for us is Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga, a health equity reporter for the Kansas News Service and KCUR.

Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga: The first cases related to this specific outbreak were, we’ve been told, recorded in January of 2024. There was a pretty large spike over the summer, which is actually when the state came in and started assisting, and that’s when the CDC also came in and started assisting.

Shackelford-Nwanganga: They’re pretty confident that they’ve got the situation under control. They do expect to find more cases. They have to do a lot of contact tracing and a lot of investigations to try and figure out who is in touch with who. But for the most part, they are happy with how numbers are trending downward, and they are monitoring it pretty closely.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection. It can settle in other places in your body, but typically it settles in a person’s lungs. You know, when that person coughs or is singing, things like that, it can spread that way. Tuberculosis requires a lot of extended, close contact with a person to catch it.

And then there are two types of tuberculosis. There’s one that’s known as active tuberculosis. This is when a person is displaying symptoms—you know, persistent cough, coughing up blood, pain in the lungs, and then things like night sweats and fevers and weight loss. That means they have an active infection and they can spread it to others. For the other version of tuberculosis, latent tuberculosis—people sometimes call it sleeping tuberculosis—this means that someone has the bacteria in their body, but it’s not causing an active infection. It has to become active for it to spread to others. And if you have a latent case, you won’t be experiencing symptoms.

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https://static.scientificamerican.com/dam/m/450fc996fe659a91/original/SQ-Monday-EP-Art.png?m=1717792183.71&w=1000Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific American

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/h5n9-in-poultry-tuberculosis-outbreak-in-kansas-and-rfk-jr-s-confirmation/

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Can a child legally take puberty blockers? What if their parents disagree?

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Young people’s access to gender-affirming medical care has been making headlines this week.

Today, federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced a review into health care for trans and gender-diverse children and adolescents. The National Health and Medical Research Council will conduct the review.

Yesterday, The Australian published an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calling for a federal inquiry, and a nationwide pause on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors.

This followed Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls earlier this week announcing an immediate pause on access to puberty blockers and hormone therapies for new patients under 18 in the state’s public health system, pending a review.

In the United States, President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week directing federal agencies to restrict access to gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.

This recent wave of political attention might imply gender-affirming care for young people is risky, controversial, perhaps even new.

But Australian courts have already extensively tested questions about its legitimacy, the conditions under which it can be provided, and the scope and limits of parental powers to authorise it.

What are puberty blockers?

Puberty blockers suppress the release of oestrogen and testosterone, which are primarily responsible for the physical changes associated with puberty. They are generally safe and used in paediatric medicine for various conditions, including precocious (early) puberty, hormone disorders and some hormone-sensitive cancers.

International and domestic standards of care state that puberty blockers are reversible, non-harmful, and can prevent young people from experiencing the distress of undergoing a puberty that does not align with their gender identity. They also give young people time to develop the maturity needed to make informed decisions about more permanent medical interventions further down the line.

Puberty blockers are one type of gender-affirming care. This care includes medical, psychological and social interventions to support transgender, gender-diverse and, in some cases, intersex people.

Young people in Australia need a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to receive this care. Gender dysphoria is defined as the psychological distress that can arise when a person’s gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. This diagnosis is only granted after an exhaustive and often onerous medical assessment.

After a diagnosis, treatment may involve hormones such as oestrogen or testosterone and/or puberty-blocking medications.

Hormone therapies involving oestrogen and testosterone are only prescribed in Australia once a young person has been deemed capable of giving informed consent, usually around the age of 16. For puberty blockers, parents can consent at a younger age.

In the United States, President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week directing federal agencies to restrict access to gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.

This recent wave of political attention might imply gender-affirming care for young people is risky, controversial, perhaps even new.

But Australian courts have already extensively tested questions about its legitimacy, the conditions under which it can be provided, and the scope and limits of parental powers to authorise it.

What are puberty blockers?

Puberty blockers suppress the release of oestrogen and testosterone, which are primarily responsible for the physical changes associated with puberty. They are generally safe and used in paediatric medicine for various conditions, including precocious (early) puberty, hormone disorders and some hormone-sensitive cancers.

International and domestic standards of care state that puberty blockers are reversible, non-harmful, and can prevent young people from experiencing the distress of undergoing a puberty that does not align with their gender identity. They also give young people time to develop the maturity needed to make informed decisions about more permanent medical interventions further down the line.

Puberty blockers are one type of gender-affirming care. This care includes medical, psychological and social interventions to support transgender, gender-diverse and, in some cases, intersex people.

Young people in Australia need a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to receive this care. Gender dysphoria is defined as the psychological distress that can arise when a person’s gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. This diagnosis is only granted after an exhaustive and often onerous medical assessment.

After a diagnosis, treatment may involve hormones such as oestrogen or testosterone and/or puberty-blocking medications.

Hormone therapies involving oestrogen and testosterone are only prescribed in Australia once a young person has been deemed capable of giving informed consent, usually around the age of 16. For puberty blockers, parents can consent at a younger age.

Can a child legally access puberty blockers?

Gender-affirming care has been the subject of extensive debate in the Family Court of Australia (now the Federal Circuit and Family Court).

Between 2004 and 2017, every minor who wanted to access gender-affirming care had to apply for a judge to approve it. However, medical professionals, human rights organisations and some judges condemned this process.

In research for my forthcoming book, I found the Family Court has heard at least 99 cases about a young person’s gender-affirming care since 2004. Across these cases, the court examined the potential risks of gender-affirming treatment and considered whether parents should have the authority to consent on their child’s behalf.

When determining whether parents can consent to a particular medical procedure for their child, the court must consider whether the treatment is “therapeutic” and whether there is a significant risk of a wrong decision being made.

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https://images.theconversation.com/files/645943/original/file-20250130-15-og5rwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=1%2C68%2C997%2C498&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=cropMirasWonderland/Shutterstock

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://theconversation.com/can-a-child-legally-take-puberty-blockers-what-if-their-parents-disagree-248651?utm_source=pocket_discover_parenting

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Trump Tariffs Spark Fears of Clean Energy Supply Chain Chaos

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CLIMATEWIRE | Clean energy has gotten steadily cheaper for years thanks to a global network of research facilities and factories.

That’s over now.

President Donald Trump’s decision on Saturday to slap steep tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China signals the birth of a new global trade regime: one focused on nationalist protections, with potentially expensive repercussions for Americans. And although clean energy is a bit player in the president’s trade war, the tariffs could hit the solar, battery, wind, and electric vehicle industries particularly hard.

“It probably slows down the energy transition because it drives up cost, especially the tariffs on China, and creates chaos” in supply chains, said David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California, San Diego. It “probably also introduces a large amount of uncertainty about the credibility of international rules on trade investment, insofar as those seem to matter at all anymore.”

Trump’s order — which is scheduled to go into effect Tuesday — places a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. It imposes a lower levy of 10 percent on Canadian oil imports.

A White House fact sheet posted Saturday night called tariffs “a powerful, proven source of leverage” for stemming the flow of immigration and drugs like fentanyl. The order could significantly increase prices for goods, with organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Petroleum Institute raising concerns over the impact on the U.S. economy.

“Energy markets are highly integrated, and free and fair trade across our borders is critical for delivering affordable, reliable energy to U.S. consumers,” API President and CEO Mike Sommers said in a statement.

The tariffs come as clean energy industries race to curb costs in a bid to displace fossil fuels, the main drivers of climate change.

Trade has been a key reason behind the global decline in clean energy costs in recent decades. The average lifetime cost of utility-scale storage fell 83 percent between 2009 and 2024, even after accounting for a post-Covid bump in solar costs, according to Lazard, an investment bank. Onshore wind costs were down 65 percent over that time.

Tariffs threaten those gains. The American Clean Power Association, a trade group, said it was “concerned that increasing the costs of energy production inputs will put upward pressure on consumer energy costs and diminish our capacity to unleash energy abundance.”

“While the fuel relied upon by wind and solar energy — complemented by battery storage — is free, some parts for these machines that harness these renewable resources are manufactured in Canada and Mexico,” the group added.

Roughly three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion batteries are made in China, according to the International Energy Agency.

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https://static.scientificamerican.com/dam/m/58a5f91c53f64491/original/Solar-panels-and-wind-turbines-in-field-at-sunset.jpg?m=1738596688.823&w=1000

The president’s new tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China could hit the solar, battery, wind, and electric vehicle industries particularly hard. Peter Cade/Getty Images

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trump-tariffs-potential-clean-energy-effects-explained/

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Adaptive Screens Are Great, But I Still Want My Son To Learn Braille

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I was born with nystagmus, a neurological condition that affects my vision, and until I was in my 30s, I’d only met one person that shared it. At a holiday party with my parents when I was probably 8 or 9, my mom pointed out a boy across the room. “He has nystagmus like you,” she said. “But not exactly. Your eyes bop all over your head and his just move back and forth. He also has albinism, which is why his eyes do that. We don’t know what causes yours.” I regarded the ice blond teen across the room. I don’t think we spoke. What would I have said to him? My vision was a point of shame and something I tried to hide. If kids pointed it out, I usually ended up in tears.

My son inherited my nystagmus. It’s given me the unusual opportunity to watch how people react to his vision as a window into how the world reacts to me. Being able to watch my child closely — the flickering of his eyes as he nursed, the tilt of his head as he searched for me among the waiting moms (yes, they were always all moms) at school pickup, as he struggled to read the routes on the approaching buses just like I did — these were moments of familiarity but also of novelty, as I observed how the world observed him. The social stigma of appearing disabled trained out of me many of the behaviors that mark him as “different,” movement patterns that I have no personal recollection of, but can pick up from the family photos in which I always was tilting my head, my eyes struggling like his do to make contact with the aperture of the lens.

In some ways, it has given me the opportunity to revisit my own childhood experience of disability. And one of my main regrets, if I have any, is that I never learned braille. According to the National Federation of the Blind, only about 10% of blind and low-vision children in the U.S. are learning braille. Much of this is due to our bias toward learning through sight, and so children who have any vision are pushed toward text magnification as a replacement. But like me, every person I’ve asked who is blind or low-vision wishes they’d been taught braille as a child or, if they’d been introduced to it, wish they’d been pushed to gain true fluency. Access to language is power. That’s why I’m determined to make sure my kid learns it.

In middle school, I learned to hate public speaking. I was in every sense an “overachiever,” so I remember preparing fastidiously for my first presentation in English class, where we had to present instructions about how to perform a skill or task for our classmates. I had rainbow pastel index cards where I’d written my presentation talking points.

Then I got my grade. It wasn’t perfect. I’d been marked down because I held the note cards in front of my face and I’d failed to make eye contact with my classmates. It wasn’t so much the grade that bothered me, but the awareness that when I spoke publicly, my disability was super visible. In my attempt to assimilate and be “normal,” I feared that visibility more than anything else. From that point on, any kind of speaking in front of other people made me extremely nervous. I dreaded when other people had to watch me talk and avoided it as much as I could.

There are moments where my throat catches as I watch my kid encountering situations l can remember from my own childhood.

It wasn’t until my mid-30s when I started to work with other disabled people and from their comfort with themselves and speaking publicly, I pushed myself to get through my shame. But even with this new confidence, public speaking is still a struggle for me. The more stressed I get, the more my eyes move and so I stumble over words and easily lose my place.

To compensate, I stopped using written notes for my presentations. Instead of reading from my book at author’s events, I used slides with images to prompt me through the outline of my presentation.

Then I watched as a blind advocate read a proclamation at a public hearing using braille. Her presentation was flawless — the kind of flawlessness I’d been dreaming of since my stumbles in middle school. I wanted that skill. But braille, like any language, is difficult to learn in adulthood. If I worked really hard at it, maybe someday I’d be able to read it fluently enough to crib notes for a talk, but I’d never have the speed of someone who learned it as a child.

In the 1820s, braille was created by and embraced by students at the National Institute for the Blind in Paris. But soon their sighted educators tried to stop its adoption, at one point burning all the braille books. These educators preferred a language that they too had access to, like raised letter shapes embossed on the page. Braille was harder for sighted educators to read and it threatened their control and their careers.

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Scott T. Baxter/Photodisc/Getty Images

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.romper.com/parenting/braille-blindness-vision-screens?utm_source=pocket_discover_parenting

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Bonobos Can Tell When a Human Doesn’t Know Something

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A few captive bonobos recently faced a seemingly simple task: locate a tasty snack hidden under one of three cups. Because bonobos are brainiacs, pinpointing the cup with the treat should have been no sweat.

But there was a wrinkle: the apes were relying on a human, not another member of their own species, to flip over the correct cup. What’s worse, this person sometimes did not see where the food was placed. So the bonobos took it upon themselves to point out the correct cup to their human partner.

“The bonobos knew when their partner was ignorant, and they communicated proactively to make sure that their ignorant partner still made the correct choice,” says Christopher Krupenye, an evolutionary cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University, who helped run the experiment.

Krupenye and his graduate student Luke Townrow described the bonobos’ behavior in a paper published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Their findings provide compelling evidence that the apes can infer someone’s ignorance and also act to help clear up the confusion.

The ability to infer the mental states of others is often referred to as theory of mind. Humans utilize theory of mind to successfully communicate and coordinate with one another. For example, intuiting when someone lacks certain information helps us determine when and how to share knowledge.

Researchers have proposed that humans’ closest evolutionary cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos, may also possess theory of mind. But few have examined this idea in controlled experimental environments, according to the authors.

Krupenye and Townrow worked with three male bonobos living at Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative, a research center in Des Moines, Iowa. During the experiment, one of the male bonobos would sit across from Townrow as a treat, like a grape or a peanut, was placed under one of three cups on the table between them. If Townrow flipped over the correct cup, the bonobo would receive the reward.

In some trials, Townrow could see the treat being placed under the cup. In others, his view was blocked by cardboard. Once the treat was stashed, he would wait 10 seconds before flipping over a cup.

The bonobos appeared to know when Townrow had his eye on the treat. In the trials where he had observed the placement of the treat, the apes patiently waited for him to flip over the correct cup. In the trials where Townrow’s view was blocked, however, the bonobos pointed toward the correct cup in an effort to fill him in on what he had missed. “They got the task immediately and knew where to point,” Townrow says.

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Female bonobo. Anup Shah/Getty Images

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Click the link below for the complete article:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bonobos-can-tell-when-a-human-doesnt-know-something/

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