Quickies
Quickies: Bird wings in amber, new helium stash found, and trans women politicians making history
- Two working class trans women politicians make history in congressional primary wins – “For the first time, two trans women will be running for Congress under the auspices of a major political party. Utah’s Misty K. Snow and Colorado’s Misty Plowright—both Democrats, both trans women—have handily won their primaries, and will face Republican opponents this November.” From Alex.
- Bird wings trapped in amber are a fossil first from the age of dinosaurs – “Two tiny wings locked in amber 99 million years ago suggest that in the middle of the Cretaceous period — when dinosaurs still walked the planet — bird feathers already looked a lot like they do today.”
- Sexual harassment case exposes renowned Ebola scientist – “Michael Katze, famous for his studies of Ebola and the flu, ran a lab at the University of Washington where intoxication and sexual harassment went unchecked, and where he misused public resources for personal gain.”
- Discovery of huge stash of helium is game-changer for industry – “We consume far more helium than we produce each year. When Robert Richardson, a Nobel-winning physicist from Cornell University, chaired a 2010 study by the National Academy of Sciences, he memorably declared that our existing reserves should run out within 25 years, and in light of that, helium balloons for parties should cost $100 per balloon—if the cost were determined on the basis of an open market.”
Amanda,
So things as large as small birds can get fossilized in amber? Wow. Birds are definitely bigger than insects.