Joe Palca
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Once upon a time, there were plenty of blue whales in Antarctic waters, but commercial whaling changed that.
Writing in the African Journal of Marine Science, the researchers say prior to 1978, some 350,000 blue whales were killed,
By some estimates, the population declined by 97%.
Sightings of blue whales remain rare.
The researchers could only confirm 12 sightings off the coasts of Namibia and South Africa between 1964 and 2025, but most occurred since 2012, seeming to confirm predictions that whales are slowly returning to the waters of the southern Atlantic.
Similar increases were seen for sightings of fin whales, another endangered species.
Hookworm infection doesn't kill you, but the parasitic worm that lodges in your intestines can cause pain, diarrhea, weight loss, fatigue, and anemia.
Children are particularly vulnerable.
There are drugs to easily treat the disease, but it's just as easy to get reinfected.
Public health experts say a vaccine is needed to bring the disease under control.
Researchers in Texas and Washington tested their new vaccine in several dozen healthy human volunteers.
Those receiving the vaccine did not appear to get infected when exposed to the parasite.
The vaccine will need to be tested in places where hookworm is prevalent to prove it really worked.
The new research appears in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Voyagers 1 and 2 left Earth in 1977.
Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, where it discovered two new moons, and Saturn, where it spotted five new moons and a new ring.
Voyager 2 also flew by Jupiter and then Uranus and Neptune, finding new moons at all three planets.