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Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on October 2 for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. The technology was critical in slowing the pandemic — and is also being studied to fight cancer and other diseases.
Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman won the prize for contributing "to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health," according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.
The panel said the pair's "groundbreaking findings ... fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system."
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain's University of East Anglia, described the mRNA vaccines made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna Inc. as a "game changer" in shutting down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots with saving millions of lives.
"We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of COVID without the mRNA vaccines," Hunter said.
Karikó, 68, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She said her husband was the first to pick up the early morning call, giving it to her to hear the news.
And Karikó was the one to break the news to Weissman, since she got in touch before the Nobel committee could reach him.
Both scientists thought it was a joke at first, until they watched the official announcement.
"I was very much surprised," Karikó said. "But I am very happy."
Before COVID-19, mRNA vaccines were already being tested for diseases like influenza and rabies — but the pandemic brought more attention to this approach, Karikó said. Now, scientists are trying out mRNA approaches for cancer, allergies and other gene therapies, Weissman said.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor — $1 million — from a bequest left by the prize's creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The winners are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
news4
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How much do you love animals? Maybe not as much as photographer Joel Sartore, who is traveling the world to take pictures of as many animals as he can find.
Sartore is working to take photos of all 20,000 different types of animals living in the world's zoos, aquariums and wildlife sanctuaries. And he's already taken nearly 15,000!
He hopes his photos will inspire people to help save the planet's most endangered animals, and that he can document them before they're gone.
"My job is to tell their stories and hope that the world cares in time," he told The Weather Channel in 2022.
He calls his project the Photo Ark, like the Bible story of Noah's Ark, in which a large boat is built to save every type of animal in the world from a flood.
Sartore started the Photo Ark in 2006 in his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. And he's still working on it, having taken his 10,000th photo in 2020 — of a guiña, the smallest wildcat in the Americas.
Sartore doesn't just take his animal photos in the usual zoo environment, however — he puts each animal on a black or white background with studio lights. This helps him photograph their true colors, and lets people see a little mouse as clearly as a big elephant — and look each animal right in the eye.
"When people connect to animals through eye contact, we've got a real chance at changing human behavior," Sartore says.
His photos have been shown around the world, and can also be seen on Instagram, where Sartore has 1.6 million followers.
He asks people to buy his books and photos, give money to the Photo Ark, and support zoos, aquariums and wildlife sanctuaries near where they live.
news5
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Since Studio Ghibli released its first film in 1986, people in Japan have been in love with its movies. So maybe it's only natural that people looking for someone to fall in love with might want to start with Studio Ghibli.
Or at least, maybe that's what the Aichi Prefectural Government was thinking when it sponsored a matchmaking event for 400 Ghibli fans.
The event has been planned for October 7 at Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park. The park is home to Ghibli Park, which features a number of areas inspired by Studio Ghibli films, as well as many reproductions of things that can be seen in the movies.
Aichi's matchmaking event won't take place inside Ghibli Park. But part of the event will include looking for 15 public art pieces representing "lost" items — and characters — from Ghibli films that can be found around Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park.
Applications for the event were open from August 1 to September 18. By the time they closed, nearly 2,250 people had applied — almost six times more than the available spaces!
The final 400 participants had to be chosen by lottery, with the successful applicants notified on September 21.
To apply, people had to be single and between 20 and 39 years of age. They also had to live, work or go to school in Aichi.
Before the event, participants will have to watch something that isn't Ghibli: at least two videos on things like communication skills for matchmaking and how to make a good impression with fashion.
Found just east of Nagoya, Expo 2005 Aichi Commemorative Park was built nearly 20 years ago for Expo 2005 Aichi Japan.
A replica of Satsuki and Mei's house, from the Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro, was built for the Expo. It has now been joined by four other areas that make up Ghibli Park: Ghibli's Grand Warehouse, Mononoke Village and the Valley of Witches.
news3
Most US Workers Want Four-Day Week, Survey Finds
Most workers in the US want a four-day work week, according to a new survey — and many would be happy to work longer days to get it.
A survey by personal finance company Bankrate found that 81% of Americans who work full time would like a four-day week at work.
In most cases, working a four-day week means employees spread their work over four days instead of five, and get paid the same amount.
The survey also found that 89% of those people who want a four-day week would sacrifice something to get it.
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Some said they would change jobs to get a four-day week, while others said they'd work evenings and weekends, or even take fewer holidays.
More than 2,300 adults took part in the survey — about half of them were working full time or looking for full-time work at the time of the survey.
Sixty-four percent of the people surveyed said they would like to work from home all the time, while 68% said they would prefer hybrid work — spending some of the time at home and some of the time in the office.
However, Mark Hamrick from Bankrate said there is a difference between what people want and what employers want to offer.
"Just because people want this flexibility doesn't mean that it's going to be readily available," he said.
news1
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Ethiopian runner Tigist Assefa broke the women's marathon record by more than two minutes at the Berlin Marathon on September 24, while Eliud Kipchoge won the men's race for the fifth time but couldn't break his own record.
Assefa — who also won in Berlin a year ago — ran the race in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds to break the previous women's record of 2:14:04, set by Kenya's Brigid Kosgei at the Chicago Marathon in 2019.
The 26-year-old was nearly six minutes faster than any other runner in the marathon. Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya came second with a time of 2:17:49, and Tanzania's Magdalena Shauri, in third place, had a time of 2:18:41.
Assefa previously specialized in shorter events on the track and competed in heats of 800 meters at the 2016 Olympics.
But she found much more success after switching to road running in recent years. She ran her first marathon in March 2022 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before winning in Berlin in a course-record time of 2:15:37 in 2022.
The Berlin course is popular among runners hoping for world records because of its flat terrain and cool weather. Several men's records have been broken there in the past 20 years, but Assefa was the first to break the women's world record in the German capital since 2001.
In the men's event, Kipchoge ran alone from 32 kilometers onward after Ethiopia's Derseh Kindie fell behind, but he slowed slightly toward the end. His time of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 42 seconds was more than a minute and a half off the record he set in Berlin last year.