MEXICO
Only 30 vaquitas—small porpoises that live exclusively in the Gulf of California—remain in the wild, according to a recent report. The marine mammals get trapped in illegal gill nets set to catch totoaba fish, another endangered species.
SOUTH AMERICA
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Indigenous peoples may have shaped the Amazon rain forest more than previously thought. Data from 1,000 forest plots show that trees known to have been cultivated—such as cacao, acai and Brazil nut—are more common in the Amazon basin than nondomesticated trees.
U.S.
A ballet about space travel will premiere this month at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Classical dance superstar Ethan Stiefel visited NASA headquarters to research the piece.
FRANCE
Pyrethroid insecticides may be affecting children's behavior in the region of Brittany. Six-year-olds whose urine contained the chemical or whose mothers' urine contained it during pregnancy were more likely to behave abnormally.
CHINA
The frequency of hail storms, thunderstorms, high winds and other severe weather events dropped by nearly half on average across the nation from 1961 to 2010, a recent study concludes. Climate change and air pollution could play a role.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA
A new insight could help efforts to control the spread of malaria, which has developed resistance to the go-to drug artemisinin. Thanks to genome sequencing, researchers now know that the gene mutation that caused the first case of artemisinin-resistant malaria originated in West Africa.
