A Few Things I've Noticed Lately

The difference between the melting point and boiling point of Xenon is only 4.7°C.

In the US, most kids born to non-college-educated parents are now born outside marriage.

More than 30% of the global land area now sees monthly temperatures above the two-sigma statistical level in any given year, up from about 1% in 1950. (Robinson+ Nature 2021, Figure 1a.)

"'We're concerned': Walmart, Lowe's among latest companies to warn Trump tariffs could raise product costs" (Yahoo Finance).

I just checked something on a weekly spreadsheet I keep. During Trump's first term, the average real price of gasoline in the US was $3.10. That was the nominal price adjusted weekly for inflation, using the interpolated Consumer Price Index. By now that's $3.724 in this week's dollars. The average real price under Biden so far is...$3.718.

"Early in the pandemic, people living near oil and gas wells experienced higher rates of COVID-19 and related mortality compared with those with no exposure to well pollution." (Eos)

In communities within 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) of an actively producing well, COVID-19 cases were 34% higher and mortality rates were 55% higher in the first 4 months of the pandemic. Though the results did not show a significant association between well production and COVID-19 cases over the entire year, mortality rates were higher in the areas with the highest production. 

"Few Minerals Are Named for Women - New research shows that less than 3% of all minerals are named after women, and progress has stalled since 1985." (Eos)

Emproto and his colleagues found that of the 2,738 minerals named for people, those named for men outnumbered those named for women by more than 15 to 1....

Because the number of women entering the geosciences has almost doubled since 1985, the group expected the number of minerals named after women to have also risen steadily. However, they saw that the increase in the rate that minerals were being named after women slowed significantly after around 1985. In the years since, women’s representation has plateaued at about 10% for new mineral namesakes each year....

Boulton said she suspects this effect might be related to fewer women being afforded positions in which they are more likely to have minerals named after them. Although most mineral eponyms were named for scientists, no minerals were named after graduate students and, on average, people were 60 years old when they had a mineral named for them. “Even now, it’s much harder for women to become senior scientists and to stay senior scientists,” she said....

According to the study’s findings, naming trends are variable worldwide. For example, Russian women account for about 43% of all women honored with mineral names, despite Russians constituting less than 15% of all mineral namesakes. Americans account for 16% of minerals named after women.

Emproto said that the large representation of Russian women likely reflects the Soviet Union’s emphasis on women’s participation in sciences."