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Rachel Feltman: For Science Quickly, this is Rachel Feltman. The 2024 election is approaching fast, and we’re here to help you prep for your trip to the polls. Over the last few months, Scientific American’s editors have been reporting on how Donald Trump and Kamala Harris approach the science-related policy issues that impact our everyday lives. They’ve been talking to experts on topics like gun violence, health care, immigration, and more to help explain what a Trump or Harris presidency might mean for these issues in the years to come.

Today we’re going to be hearing from a few of those Scientific American editors about what they’ve learned. First up is Tanya Lewis, a senior editor who covers health and medicine, to give us a primer on how the 2024 election could impact reproductive rights.

Tanya Lewis: Trump and Harris have pretty starkly different views and records on this topic.

Trump has had a pretty big impact on abortion access. He’s appointed three Supreme Court justices that helped overturn Roe v. Wade, and that led to abortion bans or [substantial] restrictions in about half of all U.S. states.

[CLIP: Donald Trump speaks at September’s presidential debate: “We’ve gotten what everybody wanted: Democrats, Republicans and everybody else, and every legal scholar, wanted it to be brought back into the states.”]

Project 2025 is the conservative agenda that Trump has distanced himself from but which was actually written by many of his former colleagues. And that project basically supports the use of the Comstock Act to roll back abortion rights. It also calls for reporting data on individual pregnancies and abortions to the U.S. government.

Abortion bans actually affect things like routine pregnancy care or emergency care. There are already women who are dying because of miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. Doctors [in some states] are scared of actually acting in these cases because they are afraid that they’re gonna face criminal charges.

Trump has falsely claimed that Harris supports abortion “after birth,” but that’s actually a meaningless term because abortion is not a legal thing that can happen after birth anywhere in this country.

Harris’s campaign has been much more focused on supporting reproductive rights, including abortion. The Biden-Harris administration actually signed several executive orders that protect abortion and abortion medication. The Biden-Harris administration has defended abortion access in a couple of different Supreme Court cases. One of them involved the approval of mifepristone, the abortion medication, by the [Food and Drug Administration], and another one involved emergency abortion care in Idaho.

The Biden-Harris administration expanded coverage of abortion-related travel and access to birth control under Medicaid, the government insurance program for low-income individuals. Harris has vowed to sign legislation that would protect abortion if she’s elected. Now, of course, this is dependent on whether or not Congress passes such legislation, which is somewhat unlikely in this environment.

[CLIP: Kamala Harris speaks at September’s presidential debate: “And I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade, as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.”]

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Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific American

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Quincy Jones, Giant of American Music, Dies at 91

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Over time, excess consumption of these added sugars can increase the risk of health problems. Here’s how that may play out in various parts of your body.

The Mouth

The potential issues from added sugars start in your mouth. Here, certain bacteria break sugars down and produce acids, which can eventually erode your tooth enamel.

Your saliva is able to neutralize these acids, but if you keep consuming sugary foods and drinks throughout the day, it won’t be able to keep up. Acid levels will remain high, increasing your risk for cavities.

A diet high in sugary drinks like soda and juice can also change your mouth’s microbiome — increasing the number of acid-producing bacteria and decreasing the beneficial ones. That may make you even more susceptible to cavities.

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Hmmmmm…

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

New Living Translation

⁹ This man will come to do the work of Satan with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. ¹⁰ He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. ¹¹ So God will cause them to be greatly deceived, and they will believe these lies. ¹² Then they will be condemned for enjoying evil.

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Hmmmmm… Someone, please fact-check these statements from a post on X (formerly known as Twitter)!

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Great Idea… His advisor seems to be Joseph Goebbels! The Republican constituency is in political thralldom.  Below, is a compilation from several sources.

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Matthew 12:37

New Living Translation

37 The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.

 

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REPENTANCE PRAYER

Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith, I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior. Amen

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The reformation of manners, the restoration of purity, the due administration of public justice, and the prevailing of honesty and fair dealing among men, are the strength and stability of any church or state. The confederate force of hell and earth will be renewing their assaults. As long as there is a devil in hell, and a persecutor out of it, God’s people must expect frequent alarms. (Matthew Henry)

 

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Mr. Mancinelli’s father, Alfred, was completely smitten with the star — or at least with the con artist impersonating her. He was convinced he was in a romantic relationship with Ms. Bliss, leading him to give up about $1 million in retirement savings (and his granddaughter’s college fund) to the impostor and a varied cast of online fraudsters he interacted with over several years.

When Mr. Mancinelli tried to intervene, moving his father’s last $100,000 to a safe account, Alfred sued him — his loyalty was to “Lexi.”

“There was nothing we could do to convince him,” said Mr. Mancinelli, 47, a chemical engineer in Collegeville, Pa. An elder care specialist deemed Alfred “really sharp,” he said, but lacking purpose.

Mr. Mancinelli and others who have tried to awaken their loved ones from this trance often feel powerless, even after they’ve done everything to shatter the fiction and protect their assets. They say it’s as if their parent had been brainwashed into a cult.

In some ways, they were: These victims were slowly groomed by con artists posing as love interests, investment advisers or government officials, among others. Once ensconced inside this bubble, they are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that they have become victims. Even when their own children are warning them of the con.

“Romance scams are the most pernicious,” said Darius Kingsley, head of consumer banking practices at JPMorgan Chase. Some victims have become confrontational after being told that their wires were not going to lovers but were being used for nefarious purposes.

“They don’t believe it,” Mr. Kingsley added, which means banks may need to shut down their accounts if the behavior continues.

Americans lost an estimated $12.5 billion to online criminals in 2023, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, including $652 million in losses tied to romance and confidence scams. Many more go unreported.

Technology has put just about everyone in scammers’ cross hairs, but older Americans are disproportionately targeted for some of the costliest cons, often because they are perceived to have more money, to have less familiarity with technology, and to be potentially experiencing cognitive decline. Still, fully competent people fall for scams, too.

“For many people, what is going on is they are looking to fulfill an unmet need for companionship, an unmet need for financial security, an unmet need for a purpose,” said Marti DeLiema, an interdisciplinary gerontologist and assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work, who researches financial fraud and exploitation.

Victims are often caught up in fantasies created by perpetrators, isolating them from their real-life existence and families.

That’s what happened with Alfred Mancinelli, who had already endured tragic losses in his life. He and his wife lost their first child to leukemia when she was 3; then, he lost his wife when their boys were 9 and 14, raising them largely on his own. Later, he was forced into early retirement from his position as an electronic technician for Con Ed, the New York power company.

Chris Mancinelli said his father had “opened his heart” with some of his scammers, which may have played into how he was manipulated.

Before the Alexa Bliss impostor, Alfred sent money to someone called “Kate,” who said she had a sick 4-year-old daughter. He also sent money to “Anna,” who was helping a friend caring for unwell children.

“I believe they crafted stories that pulled on those heart strings,” Mr. Mancinelli said.

Alfred’s involvement in scams dated back to 2018, but worsened during the isolating days of the pandemic. By the spring of 2021, his once $900,000 nest egg had dropped to $128,000. Mr. Mancinelli estimates that most of his father’s money went to one or more Alexa Bliss impostors — her persona is frequently used in scams — and what seemed to be a satellite of associates.

His chat messages with the sham Alexa read like a soap opera. There were the battles with his son, whom he disowned, after Mr. Mancinelli tried to safeguard his money; other “evil” meddlers trying to spoil their relationship; and ongoing references to Vince McMahon, the former wrestling promoter, whom the fake Alexa accused of humiliating her after she refused his advances. But Alfred was always there, ready to extend emotional and financial support.

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“There was nothing we could do to convince him,” Chris Mancinelli said of his father, who lost nearly $1 million in savings to a cast of online fraudsters. Credit…Hannah Yoon for The New York Times

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Parents of tweens and teens like me are always in need of a brush up on current slang terms, such as lala bop, and rizz. Now, there’s another term making the rounds in middle and high schools, as well as on TikTok: “crashing out.” 

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, you’re not alone. Here’s your guide to what crashing out means and what to do about it.

What Does ‘Crashing Out’ Mean?

My 14-year-old explained “crashing out” to me as meaning “you’re going to flip out,” or “you can’t pull it together.” A popular TikTok also explains the term as essentially being an overreaction to a minor problem—like having your shoe stepped on. 

We may have called it something else, but kids (and adults!) have been “crashing out” since the beginning of human history. And there’s no denying that emotional regulation is a tough skill for people of all ages to master.

That’s especially true for tweens and teens, who are battling changing hormones, and pressures ranging from school to social media. Teens are also just learning how to navigate tough situations on their own, so “crashing out” happens. 

But sometimes “crashing out” becomes a habit, and a default response to problems big and small. In those cases, experts say it’s important for parents to step in.

Why ‘Crashing Out’ Happens

Many factors can lead to adolescents’ emotions becoming unmanageable—aka “crashing out,” says Kristie Tse, LMHC, a New York-based psychotherapist and founder of Uncover Mental Health Counseling.

“Hormones can amplify emotions, making small issues seem insurmountable,” she tells Parents. “External stressors like academic pressure, social media, and peer relationships exacerbate these challenges.”

Especially when left unaddressed, emotional dysregulation can result.1 But a lot of it also comes down to development.

“The brains and bodies of tweens and teens are in a dynamic state of growth and development, as are their abilities to regulate emotions, make well-thought-out decisions, and manage social, school, family, and personal pressures,” says Tom Milam, MD, MDiv, Chief Medical Officer of Iris Telehealth, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and Attending Psychiatrist at Carilion Clinic.

Sanam Hafeez, PsyD, a New York City-based neuropsychologist and Director of Comprehend the Mind, adds, “Teens go through intense hormonal shifts in impulse control, and the prefrontal cortex—which regulates self-control—is still developing.”

How Parents Can Help Kids Avoid ‘Crashing Out’

Understanding the underlying emotions that cause kids to “crash out” can help prevent outbursts and encourage healthier emotional expression, according to Tse.

Meanwhile, modeling appropriate reactions to stressful situations is one of the most important things parents can do to help kids do the same.

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Parents/GettyImages/fotostorm

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Yet another strain of the virus that causes mpox might be readily spreading from person to person, according to an analysis of the pathogen’s genome. This development could further complicate efforts to halt the spread of the disease in Central Africa, which has seen a surge in infections over the past year. And it has left researchers scratching their heads over what is currently driving this surge.

The findings hint that the strain, called clade Ia, is spreading in a sustained fashion between people — possibly through sexual contact — in an outbreak in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Previously, the viral variant was known to transmit predominantly from animals to humans in Central Africa.

“We know that viruses evolve — we have seen it with Ebola, we have seen it with COVID and we expected to see it with mpox as well,” says Placide Mbala, head of epidemiology and global health at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa, who co-led the analysis. “We don’t know how far these adaptations can go, and we are gathering data to understand how this evolution is occurring.”

The preliminary results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, were posted on 22 October to the genomic-epidemiology discussion forum Virological.

Mpox diversifies

There are four known variants of the monkeypox virus: clades Ia, Ib, IIa, and IIb (see ‘Quick guide to the strains of monkeypox virus’). Historically, clade I viruses have appeared mostly in Central Africa, and clade II viruses have cropped up in West Africa.

This all changed in the mid-2010s, when a clade II strain sparked an outbreak in Nigeria. At the time, some researchers suggested that the variant might be capable of transmission through sexual contact. Their insights proved prescient: a similar clade II strain, called IIb, sparked a global outbreak of mpox in 2022 that has infected more than 90,000 people and continues today.

Meanwhile, clade I viruses have caused sporadic infections in people for more than 50 years — largely in rural regions of Central Africa. But in late 2023, researchers identified a rapidly growing outbreak in more densely populated, urban areas in eastern regions of the DRC that disproportionately affected sex workers, suggesting that this strain of the virus could, like IIb, spread readily between people.

Genomic sequencing confirmed that the variant causing this outbreak contained several key differences from other clade I viruses, leading researchers to name it Ib. This strain has been detected in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Thailand, India, Germany, and six African countries that had never reported mpox infections before. The DRC has been hit particularly hard: the country has reported nearly 36,000 suspected infections and more than 1,000 deaths from mpox in 2024.

But now — about one year after researchers detected an outbreak of clade Ib in eastern DRC — clade Ia is worrying health officials, too. The strain has also been on the rise in western regions of the DRC and in Kinshasa. In particular, having both Ia and Ib circulating in the capital city threatens the 17 million people living there and raises the possibility of clade I spreading internationally, given that Kinshasa is a travel hub.

Quick guide to the strains of monkeypox virus

• Clade Ia: a strain that has been spreading in Central Africa since the virus was first discovered to infect humans in 1970. Most infections have been in children, and it was known to mainly transmit from animal to human — until recently.

• Clade Ib: the strain that has caused a surge of cases in Central Africa since its discovery in late 2023. Known to spread from person to person, including through sexual contact.
• Clade IIa: the least-studied mpox strain. It has mainly spread in Guinea, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire. Modes of transmission are not fully understood; there is no documented evidence of sexual transmission, but it is likely that all forms of close contact contribute to its spread.
• Clade IIb: the strain responsible for the still-simmering 2022 global outbreak. Known to spread from person to person, including through sexual contact. Most affected population has been men who have sex with men.

Signs of evolution

Health officials have been using genomic-sequencing tools to track the outbreak. As part of the effort, Mbala and his colleagues sequenced virus samples from infections in Kinshasa. In samples of both the clade Ia and Ib virus, they found a specific pattern of single-letter genetic mutations indicative of the ongoing battle between the human immune system and the virus — a pattern that would be unlikely to appear unless there was sustained human-to-human spread.

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