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The first case of a flesh-eating maggot in years has reportedly been detected in the United States. The maggot, the larva of a New World screwworm (NWS), is unique among maggots as it does not just devour dead flesh but living flesh as welland its infestation can be deadly to both animals and humans. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed the first human case of the NWS inside the United States, reported Reuters. The HHSs confirmation came weeks after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was said to have confirmed the same case of New World screwworm infestation. Fast Company reached out to HHS for comment. That case reportedly involves a person in Maryland who had traveled from Central America to the United States. The New World screwworm is readily found in South America and the Caribbean. It is unclear which country the person traveled from exactly, as some beef industry sources had told Reuters that the person came from El Salvador, while an HHS spokesperson said the individual came from Guatemala. What is a New World screwworm? The New World screwworm is a species of parasitic flies, according to the CDC. The larvae of the flies have a conical shape and have sharp teeth, which they use to eat through and burrow into flesh in a screw-like fashion. NWS fly larvae are introduced to animal and human flesh when the NWS fly lays her eggs on the tissue surrounding wounds on animals and humans. When the eggs hatch, the larvae screw their way into the flesh, infecting it. The larva then eventually drops from the open flesh and into the ground, where it burrows until it grows to become an NWS fly, and the process repeats. [Photo: John Kucharski/USDA] A unique feature about NWS maggots is that, unlike most other maggots, they eat living flesh, not just dead flesh. They frequently infect the area around open wounds, which the flies are attracted to, but can also burrow into the eyes, nose, and mouth. Because an NWS infestation can lead to bacterial or other infections, the infestation can be deadly to both animals and humans. In humans, an NWS infestation is serious and needs to be treated as soon as possible, sometimes with surgery to remove the often hundreds of maggots in the skin individually. But the main threat from an infestation of NWS is to livestock. An outbreak could devastate cattle across the country, leading to massive livestock deaths and severe economic consequences for the beef industry. Reuters notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that an NWS outbreak in Texas could cost the state $1.8 billion in livestock deaths, medication expenses, and labor costs. What are the symptoms of a New World screwworm infection? According to the CDC, the symptoms of an NWS infection in a human may include: Unexplained skin lesions (wounds or sores) that do not heal Skin wounds or sores that worsen over time Painful skin wounds or sores Bleeding from open sores Feeling larvae movement within a skin wound or sore, nose, mouth, or eyes Seeing maggots around or in open sores A foul-smelling odor from the site of the infestation The CDC says that an NWS infection can sometimes lead to secondary bacterial infections as well. How can New World screwworm infections be prevented? Given the threat to human life and livestocknot to mention the extreme negative impact an NWS outbreak could have on the beef industryhealth officials and governments take NWS infestations very seriously. The best way to head one off is through prevention. In the case of human NWS infestations, this includes taking precautionary measures, which include keeping wounds covered and cleaned, and wearing loose-fitting long-sleeve shirts, pants, and socks if you are traveling to a region where NWS is common. As for keeping livestock safe from NWS outbreaks, the best preventative measures are the eradication of the New World screwworm fly so its larvae cannot infect living flesh. The United States had previously eradicated the NWS from within its borders in the mid-twentieth century. But lately, the NWS has been moving north again from South America. The United States and Mexico are currently working on a previously successful eradication method, which involves actually engineering hundreds of millions of New World screwworm flies. But these engineered flies would be sterile, meaning any eggs they lay would not hatch. The idea behind these sterile engineered flies is that their introduction into the NWS population would eventually lead to that populations eradication, as when males mate with the female flies, they would no longer produce viable eggsultimately leading to population collapse. Should I be worried about the New World screwworm? If youre a cattle farmer, then some concern is justified. However, if you are someone who doesnt travel to infestation areas, then it probably doesnt make much sense to spend time fretting over the threat of the NWS to you, as the fly and its larvae are currently not widespread in the U.S. Confirming the case of NWS infection in the Maryland individual, HHS spokesman Andrew G. Nixon told Reuters in an email that “The risk to public health in the United States from this introduction is very low.
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It looks like ordinary cement. It feels like ordinary cement. But it has a hidden ability: this “supercool” cement can naturally keep buildings cooler without air-conditioning or electricity. Cement normally soaks up heat from the sun, and that in turn makes our buildings hotter. So we crank up the A/C. That’s a major problem for the climate: as the planet warms, and A/C use grows, the energy used for air-conditioning is expected to triple by the middle of the century. Air conditioners, ironically, are perpetuating extreme heat as they contribute to climate change. But they’re not the only way to keep buildings cool. By tweaking the chemistry of cement, scientists at Chinas Southeast University designed the material to reflect more incoming sunlight. Whatever heat is absorbed is beamed away into the atmosphere. In tests, the new cement can reduce indoor temperatures by nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In some locations, the approach could help make it possible for buildings avoid air-conditioning completely. In other places, it can help cut energy use. In hot, dry climates or places with clear skies, super-cool cement can significantly lower building envelope temperatures, reducing or even eliminating the need for mechanical air-conditioning, says Guo Lu, the lead author of a new study about the work published in Science Advances. In more humid or variable climates, it can still substantially reduce energy consumption by easing the load on HVAC systems. How supercool cement is made To make the cement, the scientists engineered the mix so that it forms extra ettringitea mineral that normally is produced in cement in small amounts. The new process creates lots of ettringite crystals in different sizes, helping reflect away light and scatter it in different directions. By adding alumina-rich minerals and making other changes to the chemistry and microstructure, the scientists also made it possible for the material to reflect heat into the atmospheric window, letting it escape into space instead of heating up the surrounding neighborhood like an AC condenser. The material design means that the cement can be made at lower temperatures than standard Portland cement, so it’s better for the planet starting at the production level. We can significantly lower carbon emissions, says Fengyin Du, a postdoctoral researcher of building materials at Oregon State University who worked on the study as a student. The researchers calculated that the process cuts the carbon footprint of making cement by around 25%. Over the cements full lifetime of use in a building, as it saves energy, researchers say that the material could even become carbon negative. Thats a major achievement: cement is currently one of the worlds largest sources of emissions. Finally, because it takes less energy to make, it’s also cheaper than ordinary cement. That lower cost could help it scale. “It requires no extra additives or fillers, and production is fully compatible with existing cement infrastructure,” Lu says. “This allows for low-cost and large-scale deployment, making it highly feasible for widespread adoption in both new construction and retrofitting projectsespecially in regions facing heat stress.” The material can even perform better than typical cement, with faster setting times and higher strength because of its composition. Other researchers have developed coatings that also help buildings stay cooler, including the worlds whitest white paint and an iridescent, plant-based coating. But coatings are fragile and sometimes need to be reapplied. Because the cement inherently reflects light and heat, it’s much more durable. It also can be added as a coating itself, but one that’s long-lasting. The scientists worked with a cement company, Jiangxi Yinshan White Cement Co., to test pilot-scale production. Now, they’re scaling up to produce larger cement panels, the next step toward commercialization, proving that A/C isn’t the only way to keep buildings cool. “Radiative cooling is a passive, zero-energy strategybut that doesnt mean its less effective,” Lu says. “In fact, passive cooling is inherently stable, maintenance-free, and highly energy-efficient, making it particularly valuable in regions where electricity access is limited or energy costs are high.”
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning. When Matt Garman interned for Andy Jassy at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2005, the unit was still considered an internal startup and had yet to begin selling IT infrastructure services to other companies. Twenty years later, Jassy is president and CEO of Amazon, and Garman is CEO of AWS, which last year reported revenue of $107.6 millionnearly 17% of the e-commerce giants 2024 sales. With long tenures at one company growing increasingly rare, I asked Garman, who had worked at startups before joining AWS and had initially planned to return to a smaller company, what kept him at Amazon for so long. I found that I could actually have more freedom to build here at Amazon than I had at a startup, he says. Amazons ability to mint new products and services at scaleearly in Garmans time at AWS, the unit launched Simple Storage Services, or S3; Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2); and Amazon Simple DB in quick successionis attributable to its distinctive and peculiar culture. From the outset, founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos emphasized tenets such as customer obsession, frugality, bias for action, ownership, and hiring great talent. These evolved into a set of leadership principles that guide the company. MEETINGS WITH BEZOS For some, the environment can be incredibly energizing. Garman, for example, says he learned quickly that good ideas matter more than hierarchy. When I was an intern, I had a couple of meetings where I presented to Jeff Bezos, and he didnt care that I was an intern, he recalls. He cared that I had interesting or good ideas . . . and we debated those. That, to me, was impactful because . . . I didnt have to check with my boss or bosss boss. He wanted to get ideas directly from me. That kind of information gathering among senior leaders and employees drives the way Amazon operates. Youre making decisions based on the actual data and not high-level distillations of the data, Garman says. If you just get a polished or shiny version of the truth through several layers, youll make worse decisions because you wont know all of those specifics. But Amazons culture isnt for everyone. Leaders expect employees to be in the office consistently, five days per week, and Garman has said that workers who disagree with the policy should move on. We think that [in-person collaboration] is important to our customer; we think thats important to the future innovation and the culture of our company, he told The Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker earlier this year. It doesnt mean that thats the only decision you can make, but it is the decision that were making. And if its not for you, then thats okay, you can go and find another company if you want to. For those early-career employees who stay, theres always a chance that one of them will someday occupy Garmans seat. When asked whether a future AWS CEO might be a current intern, he lit up: “I think so. I think part of the benefit that we have is we give people so many opportunities to learn and grow in all stages of their career.” Leaning into AI Like most tech CEOs, Garman is especially occupied with Amazons artificial intelligence developments and investments, which range from its Trainium custom chips to applications like Rufus, an AI-powered shopping assistant that helps customers discover and evaluate products through natural conversation. When I asked Garman how he would advise other CEOs to approach AI, he was blunt: Its super important to lean into it and learn the technology. If you resist it and say, Im going to wait and be a late adopter, its probably going to be too late because theres a real flywheel effect of adopting some of this technology early. HOW PECULIAR IS YOUR CULTURE? What are your companys leadership principles or values, and how do they drive the way you operate? Send your ideas to me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com. Ill feature some of the most compelling examples in a future newsletter. Read more: the path to the top Honeywell Internationals CEO was shaped by his time in the field Why former CFOs are finding success as CEOs Principal Financial Groups CEO rose from intern to chief executive
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