Enlarge / It takes careful study and the right kind of bones to determine how something like this breathed. (credit: Tito Aureliano et. al. )

Somewhere in Earth’s past, some branches on the tree of life adopted a body plan that made breathing and cooling down considerably more efficient than how mammalian bodies like ours do it. This development might not seem like much on the surface, until you consider that it may have ultimately enabled some of the largest dinosaurs this planet has ever known. It was so successful that it was maintained by three different groups of extinct species and continues to exist today in the living descendants of dinosaurs.

Because lungs don’t usually survive fossilization, one might wonder how scientists are able to ascertain anything about the breathing capabilities of extinct species. The answer lies within their bones.

In a suite of papers published in late 2022 and early 2023 , paleontologists examined fossil microstructure within some of the earliest known dinosaurs to determine just how early parts of this system evolved.

Enlarge / It takes careful study and the right kind of bones to determine how something like this breathed. (credit: Tito Aureliano et. al. )

Somewhere in Earth’s past, some branches on the tree of life adopted a body plan that made breathing and cooling down considerably more efficient than how mammalian bodies like ours do it. This development might not seem like much on the surface, until you consider that it may have ultimately enabled some of the largest dinosaurs this planet has ever known. It was so successful that it was maintained by three different groups of extinct species and continues to exist today in the living descendants of dinosaurs.

Because lungs don’t usually survive fossilization, one might wonder how scientists are able to ascertain anything about the breathing capabilities of extinct species. The answer lies within their bones.

In a suite of papers published in late 2022 and early 2023 , paleontologists examined fossil microstructure within some of the earliest known dinosaurs to determine just how early parts of this system evolved.

Enlarge / It takes careful study and the right kind of bones to determine how something like this breathed. (credit: Tito Aureliano et. al. )

Somewhere in Earth’s past, some branches on the tree of life adopted a body plan that made breathing and cooling down considerably more efficient than how mammalian bodies like ours do it. This development might not seem like much on the surface, until you consider that it may have ultimately enabled some of the largest dinosaurs this planet has ever known. It was so successful that it was maintained by three different groups of extinct species and continues to exist today in the living descendants of dinosaurs.

Because lungs don’t usually survive fossilization, one might wonder how scientists are able to ascertain anything about the breathing capabilities of extinct species. The answer lies within their bones.

In a suite of papers published in late 2022 and early 2023 , paleontologists examined fossil microstructure within some of the earliest known dinosaurs to determine just how early parts of this system evolved.

Enlarge / A woman watches white flags on the National Mall on September 18, 2021, in Washington, DC. Over 660,000 white flags were installed here to honor Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. (credit: Getty | Chen Mengtong )

Amid the pandemic, Republican voters in Ohio and Florida had a significantly higher rate of excess deaths after the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines compared with those who voted Democratic, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine .

As the pandemic coronavirus spread between March 2020 and April 1, 2021, people from both parties saw similar surges in excess deaths—that is, deaths above what would be expected had there not been a global health crisis. But after April 1, when all adults in both states were eligible for vaccination, a gap emerged in the rate of excess deaths between Republican and Democratic voters. Republicans had an excess death rate 7.7 percentage points higher than their blue counterparts, amounting to a 43 percent difference in the excess death rates.

The study is just the latest to find a connection between political party affiliation and deaths during the pandemic . But, it takes the connection a step further, going beyond county-level political leanings and looking at how party affiliation linked to deaths at the individual level. The authors—all researchers at Yale University—focused on Ohio and Florida because those were the only two states with readily available public data on voter registration.

Enlarge / A woman watches white flags on the National Mall on September 18, 2021, in Washington, DC. Over 660,000 white flags were installed here to honor Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. (credit: Getty | Chen Mengtong )

Amid the pandemic, Republican voters in Ohio and Florida had a significantly higher rate of excess deaths after the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines compared with those who voted Democratic, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine .

As the pandemic coronavirus spread between March 2020 and April 1, 2021, people from both parties saw similar surges in excess deaths—that is, deaths above what would be expected had there not been a global health crisis. But after April 1, when all adults in both states were eligible for vaccination, a gap emerged in the rate of excess deaths between Republican and Democratic voters. Republicans had an excess death rate 7.7 percentage points higher than their blue counterparts, amounting to a 43 percent difference in the excess death rates.

The study is just the latest to find a connection between political party affiliation and deaths during the pandemic . But, it takes the connection a step further, going beyond county-level political leanings and looking at how party affiliation linked to deaths at the individual level. The authors—all researchers at Yale University—focused on Ohio and Florida because those were the only two states with readily available public data on voter registration.

Enlarge / A woman watches white flags on the National Mall on September 18, 2021, in Washington, DC. Over 660,000 white flags were installed here to honor Americans who have lost their lives to COVID-19. (credit: Getty | Chen Mengtong )

Amid the pandemic, Republican voters in Ohio and Florida had a significantly higher rate of excess deaths after the nationwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines compared with those who voted Democratic, according to a study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine .

As the pandemic coronavirus spread between March 2020 and April 1, 2021, people from both parties saw similar surges in excess deaths—that is, deaths above what would be expected had there not been a global health crisis. But after April 1, when all adults in both states were eligible for vaccination, a gap emerged in the rate of excess deaths between Republican and Democratic voters. Republicans had an excess death rate 7.7 percentage points higher than their blue counterparts, amounting to a 43 percent difference in the excess death rates.

The study is just the latest to find a connection between political party affiliation and deaths during the pandemic . But, it takes the connection a step further, going beyond county-level political leanings and looking at how party affiliation linked to deaths at the individual level. The authors—all researchers at Yale University—focused on Ohio and Florida because those were the only two states with readily available public data on voter registration.

Enlarge / A promotional image made by Apple to convey what the in-person developer labs for Vision Pro will be like. (credit: Apple)

Apple needs third-party apps for Vision Pro when it launches next year, but most developers don't have the headset yet. That would seem at first glance to be a conundrum, but Apple Monday opened up three different ways app developers can start testing their apps on Vision Pro hardware well before the product launches to the public.

None of them are surprises, of course—Apple previously laid out these plans at WWDC. But now developers can actually start signing up for and using these resources.

It has been possible to get at least some serious work done since Apple made a beta release of Xcode available with support for visionOS. That version of Xcode (Apple's IDE for Macs that is required to build apps for the company's various platforms like iOS) includes a visionOS Simulator that presents work-in-progress visionOS apps in a virtual 3D space navigable with keyboard and mouse or trackpad controls.

Enlarge / A promotional image made by Apple to convey what the in-person developer labs for Vision Pro will be like. (credit: Apple)

Apple needs third-party apps for Vision Pro when it launches next year, but most developers don't have the headset yet. That would seem at first glance to be a conundrum, but Apple Monday opened up three different ways app developers can start testing their apps on Vision Pro hardware well before the product launches to the public.

None of them are surprises, of course—Apple previously laid out these plans at WWDC. But now developers can actually start signing up for and using these resources.

It has been possible to get at least some serious work done since Apple made a beta release of Xcode available with support for visionOS. That version of Xcode (Apple's IDE for Macs that is required to build apps for the company's various platforms like iOS) includes a visionOS Simulator that presents work-in-progress visionOS apps in a virtual 3D space navigable with keyboard and mouse or trackpad controls.

Enlarge / A promotional image made by Apple to convey what the in-person developer labs for Vision Pro will be like. (credit: Apple)

Apple needs third-party apps for Vision Pro when it launches next year, but most developers don't have the headset yet. That would seem at first glance to be a conundrum, but Apple Monday opened up three different ways app developers can start testing their apps on Vision Pro hardware well before the product launches to the public.

None of them are surprises, of course—Apple previously laid out these plans at WWDC. But now developers can actually start signing up for and using these resources.

It has been possible to get at least some serious work done since Apple made a beta release of Xcode available with support for visionOS. That version of Xcode (Apple's IDE for Macs that is required to build apps for the company's various platforms like iOS) includes a visionOS Simulator that presents work-in-progress visionOS apps in a virtual 3D space navigable with keyboard and mouse or trackpad controls.