The SciSchmooze Takes a Look Back

6 July 2026

Greetings, science aficionados,
Salutojn, sciencamantoj,
[Esperanto is spoken today by over 2 million people, usually as a second language.
L.L. Zamenhof published this ‘created language’ in 1887]

---

Let’s open a fascinating chapter of Public Health at a time we were confronted by an earlier deadly pandemic: Polio

Poliomyelitis – Infantile Paralysis – Polio – has been with us for over 4,000 years, but it did not become a major killer until the advent of modern sanitary practices. This paradox is attributed to the existence of multiple strains of the virus that are (1) mostly harmless, (2) easily contracted in less sanitary community conditions, and (3) confer immunity to a less common but deadly strain.

 Fatal epidemics of polio occurred in Europe beginning in the late 1800’s and in the U.S. during the 1900’s. It killed 1 out of 20 infected children with annual cases in the U.S. reaching 58,000. The disease permanently paralysed and shriveled muscles, sometimes paralysing the diaphragm muscles leaving sufferers to die from asphyxiation. [The photo above shows patients lying in “iron lungs” that rhythmically varied air pressure to squeeze and expand their torsos to force breathing.]

Franklin Delano Roosevelt survived polio in 1921 but it left him reliant on a wheelchair for the rest of his life. As President, Roosevelt founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938. The singer Eddie Cantor referred to the Foundation as the “March of Dimes” and the name stuck. The March of Dimes collected coins and donations; $250 million in 1953 alone. (over $3 billion in today’s currency.) The public – not the government – funded polio research and the treatment of polio victims.

In 1948 Hilary Koprowski developed an oral vaccine from ‘live attenuated’ polio virus. Although it was successfully tested on his family and on 20 children, the live attenuated vaccine was considered too risky for further testing or use in the U.S.  Other countries on 4 continents successfully put it to use.

In 1954 a ‘killed virus’ injectable vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was ‘tested’ on 1.6 million children in the United States, Finland, and Canada. It was licensed for general use in 1955 although – unlike Koprowski’s oral vaccine – Salk’s injectable vaccine required booster shots.

Albert Sabin received a sample of Koprowski’s oral vaccine and improved upon it. Unable to test it in the U.S., he took it to Moscow where it was given to tens of thousands of Soviet children with results superior to the Salk vaccine. In 1961, the Sabin vaccine was approved for use in the U.S.  It tasted very bitter so it was commonly given on a sugar cube which inspired the song, “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down” in the 1964 movie “Mary Poppins.”

The last case of poliomyelitis contracted in the U.S. was in 1979, yet there are many older persons living around the world with partial paralyses from having polio as a young child.

---

PATRIOTIC DUTY

The Trump Administration’s Executive Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposes to take complete control over all Federal disbursements.  All contracts, grants, and publishable results – including scientific research – will be approved or rejected by political appointees, thus sidestepping the current, relevant panels of experts. Furthermore, the Executive Branch will dictate – without explanation – which universities, contractors, and corporations are eligible and ineligible to receive Federal monies.

The window for you to comment on this proposed Regulation ends on July 13th. Click the “Comment” box on this Federal site.  If you want suggestions or assistance, check out this site. [For example, you may submit comments anonymously.]  I simply commented: “Do not adopt this regulation. Leave funding decisions to the professionals in their fields, not political appointees.”

I commented on this egregious power grab as my patriotic duty for the 4th of July.

---

RAFFLE

This 450ml laboratory coffee beaker is a popular SciSchmooze Raffle prize. Just send an email before noon Friday to david<dot>almandsmith<at>gmail<dot>com with your guess of an integer from 1 to 1,000. For our previous Raffle, the eOracle offered up 412. Mike and Charmaine were closest with their guesses of 444, but Charmaine’s entry arrived first, winning her a Science T-Shirt.

---

CLIMATE / ENVIRONMENT

Bad news:  Thousands of lakes, reservoirs, and rivers around the world are reaching historically low levels.  High temperature records are currently being broken around the Northern Hemisphere and contributing to thousands of excess deaths.

Good news: The Trump Administration reversed its decision to end the Ocean Observation Initiative – a $368 million NOAA system with over 900 installed instruments – following pushback by citizens, scientists, and legislators. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska: “I’m grateful to my colleagues in the Senate for approving this legislation unanimously and helping to ensure that stakeholders and industry experts are consulted to keep our scientific researchers, our fishermen, and our communities equipped with this essential information.”

Good news:  Researchers have identified over 150 coral reef systems that are not currently threatened. They exist in predominantly cooler water currents. Locations include Africa, Australia, Cuba, Indonesia, and around several island archipelagoes.

Good news:  After the Trump Administration fired climate experts and removed the website Climate.gov, those unemployed experts created a non-profit organization, crowd-sourced over a quarter million dollars, hired web technicians, recruited volunteer scientists, recovered the deleted content,  restored the website as  Climate.us, and are keeping it updated. [Consider making  a small donation to keep it going.]

Good news:  Over 900 huge wind turbines located in New Mexico came ‘online’ last month. Over 880 km (550 mi) of High Voltage Direct Current powerlines connect them to Arizona. This largest renewable energy project in the U.S. can – at peak power – deliver 3.5 gigawatts of electricity – enough for one million homes.

Good news:  A test installation near Turlock may lead to solar panels covering much of California’s 6,000+ kilometers (3,600+ miles] of canals. As an added benefit, billions of liters of water would be prevented from evaporating each year.

¿News?  During the annual “London Climate Action Week Conference” in June, a session titled, “Extreme Heat: Improving governance and strengthening action around the world,” was cancelled due to extreme heat.

---

EDUCATION

Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) in Oakland took a survey of State Republican Party Platforms with respect to teaching science. Here are a few relevant ‘planks’:

• Minnesota:  “Science standards should recognize the controversy over the theory of evolution.”
• Missouri:  “[T]he Missouri Republican Party SUPPORTS: … Empowering local school districts to determine how best to handle the teaching of creationism and the theory of evolution.”
• Oklahoma:  “We believe Biblical creation and intelligent design must be taught and must receive equal funding, class time, and materials as other theories such as evolution.”
• Oklahoma:  “We oppose the teaching of the theory of anthropogenic global warming without providing equal time for instruction in the complex systems of geo-physics [sic] that cause observable climate change, such as solar variations, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions.”
• Texas:  “In science, we support objective teaching of scientific method, practices, and theories including the complexity of life origins and the changing climate throughout geologic history. These concepts shall be taught as challengeable scientific theories subject to change as new data is [sic] produced. Teachers and students shall discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly, without fear of retribution or discrimination.”
• Iowa:  Refers to “alleged man-made global warming or climate change”
• West Virginia:  “We reject the notion of man-made climate change and do not submit to a radical climate agenda that seeks to weaken America.”

I’ve extracted a few more ‘interesting’ State Republican Party Platform planks.

• Idaho:  “[We] do not support using taxpayer funding for programs beyond high school.”
• Minnesota: “Educators who discuss creation science should be protected from disciplinary action.”  “College education should be paid for by students and not taxpayers.”
• Oklahoma: “We oppose all Marxist ideology such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and all other critical theories.”
• South Carolina:  “We reject any and all mandated vaccine decrees.”
• Texas:  “We demand that the Legislature pass a law prohibiting the teaching of sex education, sexual health, or sexual choice or identity in any government school in any grade whatsoever…”

---

SPACE

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory officially began its unprecedented data collecting mission of the skies. A flood of data is now flowing out from the mountains of Chile that will reveal thousands of ‘new’ asteroids & supernovae, and will inform studies of dark energy and dark matter. Click here to zoom into a mind-blowing ‘zoomable’ example of Rubin’s view of the heavens.

¿Why do we call it “Kepler’s Supernova Remnant”? Because Johannes Kepler – among others – witnessed the supernova explosion in 1604. Debris continues to spread. NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been recording the aftermath since the year 2000.

---

GOOD NERDY PODCAST

Fact Checking Wikipedia – Body of Evidence – Christopher Labos & Susan Gerbic – 32 mins

GOOD NERDY VIDEOS

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring – 250 to 250 – Katherine Richardson – 1 min

Vera C. Rubin Observatory – CuriousMindsTech – 2 mins
Great little video from earlier this year

Dramatic Bamboo – Hannah Fry – 2 mins
With a ‘dramatic’ true story

60 Million Stars – ESA – Euclid Telescope – 3 mins
Mind-blowing!

A Short History of Modern Communication – Cup o’ Joe – Joe Schwarcz – 4 mins
Only 99 simultaneous intercontinental telephone conversations in 1962

Advance in Treating Brain Tumors – SciShow – Savannah Geary – 7 mins
Turning cancer cells into functioning brain cells

A Meter-Long Scorpion – 7 Days of Science – Ben Thomas – 8 mins
Oh My!

Whale Necropolis Discovered – nature video – 8.5 mins
7 kilometers below the ocean’s surface

¿Life on Mars? – Star Talk – Neil deGrasse Tyson & David Grinspoon – 10 mins

Attack of the Bubbles: Detergents – Sci Show – Savannah Geary – 11 mins

Scholars use Tech on Burnt Scrolls – Dig It With Raven – Raven Todd daSilva – 12 mins
Vesuvius burned scrolls to a crisp but we are reading them anyway

High-Fatality Heat Waves Are Not Disasters – PBS Terra – Maiya May – 12 mins
Huh?

Insane Clean Energy Manufacturing – Engineering with Rosie – Rosie Barnes – 14 mins
Off to China we go!

First (& almost fatal) Trip into the Stratosphere – SciShow – Savannah Geary – 23 mins
Yikes!

Magnesium – Tales from the Periodic Table – Ron Hipschman – 35 mins

---

Put on good shoes, take some water, and go enjoy our world.
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics

---

“I am profoundly convinced that every nationalism offers humanity only the greatest unhappiness, and that the aim of all peoples ought to be: creating a harmonious humanity.”
— L.L. Zamenhof (1859 – 1917) Creator of the Esperanto language.