There’s a Huge Covid Surge Right Now and Nobody Is Talking About It

PLUS: Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast, and more.

View this email in your browser  |  Manage newsletter preferences 01.10.24 Your weekly roundup of the best stories on health care, the climate crisis, genetic engineering, robotics, space, and more. For all our science coverage, visit WIRED Science.   There's a Huge Covid Surge Right Now and Nobody Is Talking About It PUBLIC HEALTH | 4-MINUTE READ  The US is in the midst of the largest Covid surge since Omicron, but with minimal testing and good population immunity, the wave is largely being ignored. By Celia Ford   Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast SINKING FEELING | 4-MINUTE READ  Up and down the Atlantic Coast, the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That's destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising. By Matt Simon   A Gel Injected Into the Scrotum Could Be the Next Male Contraceptive SPERM STOPPER | 4-MINUTE READ  Biotech company Contraline has safely implanted a sperm-blocking hydrogel in 23 men. It's designed to be a fully reversible vasectomy. By Emily Mullin   California Is Solving Its Water Problems by Flooding Its Best Farmland ENVIRONMENT | 14-MINUTE READ  Restored floodplains in the state's agricultural heartland are fighting both flooding and drought. But their fate rests with California's powerful farmers. By Jake Bittle   How Your Body Adapts to Extreme Cold COOL BY ME | 9-MINUTE READ  Scientists are finding a dynamic story in human physiology linked to frigid temperatures—a story that climate change may rewrite. By Max G. Levy   Air Pollution Is Ruining Your Skin CHEMICAL PEEL | 3-MINUTE READ  Wildfire smoke and exhaust fumes are triggering spikes in eczema and other skin conditions. By Amit Katwala ADVERTISEMENT More from WIRED Science During Pregnancy, the Placenta Hacks the Immune System to Protect the Fetus Cells in the placenta have an unusual trick for activating gentle immune defenses and keeping them turned on when no infection is present. It involves crafting and deploying a fake virus. They Had PTSD. A Psychedelic Called Ibogaine Helped Them Get Better Ibogaine, a plant-based psychoactive drug, drastically reduced symptoms of depression and PTSD in veterans with traumatic brain injuries. Why Humans Are Putting a Bunch of 'Coal' and 'Oil' Back in the Ground Startups are processing plant waste into concentrated carbon to be buried or injected underground. It's like fossil fuels, but in reverse. Former NBA Star Rick Fox Is Making a Play for Carbon-Neutral Concrete Carbon-neutral concrete could transform construction's footprint—if it can scale in time. At Partanna Global, Bahamian basketball star and actor Rick Fox is trying to speed things up. Trending on WIRED CES 2024 | 12-MINUTE READ The Best of CES 2024 By Gear Team These are the products, prototypes, and ideas that most distinctly signaled the future at this year's consumer tech showcase. GET WIRED Our Winter Sale is Officially live! Subscribe to WIRED for only $29.99 $5. That includes subscriber-only content like Steven Levy's Plaintext column, plus FREE WIRED stickers as a special bonus! ADVERTISEMENT Have questions or comments? Reply to this email.   This email was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our email address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or Manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2024. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.