🚨 TikTok Ban Imminent? 🚨

CULTURE

THIS MIGHT BE THE END OF TIKTOK

Congress is discussing a law that would ban TikTok from the United States if its parent company Bytedance doesn’t sell the platform to an American company.

TikTok has launched a public advocacy campaign to prevent the sale - encouraging its young users to call their elected representatives to protest the bill.

WHY IT MATTERS?

• Over 150 million Americans use TikTok every month, and would be forced to use a different platform in the event of a ban.

• Cybersecurity experts have raised massive red-flags about the privacy of user data on the platform due to the surveillance practices of the Chinese government.

GO DEEPER: Read more

SCIENCE

ARE WE CLOSE TO RESURRECTING THE WOOLY MAMMOTH?

Geneticists at the Colossal Biosciences lab say they have taken a “momentous step forward” in their efforts to genetically engineer a wooly mammoth.

The researchers were able to transform DNA from the Asian elephant (the closest living relative of the extinct mammoth) into an embryo - an obstacle that scientists have struggled with for a decade!

WHY IT MATTERS?

• The wooly mammoth has been extinct for the past 4000 years.

• The mammoth’s absence has thrown tundra ecosystems out of balance, and its return would massively improve the health of these environments.

• This is the first time that stem cells have ever been derived from Elephant DNA.

GO DEEPER: Read more

SCIENCE

THE REAL LIFE DIET OF AN URBAN COYOTE

A landmark UC Davis study has revealed the diet of coyotes live in urban areas like San Francisco.

By studying the poop of coyotes, researchers were able to determine what they were eating by running DNA tests on the feces.

WHAT DO THEY EAT?

• The coyotes rarely prey on domestic pets like cats and dogs - instead preferring meals of pork, fish and squirrels.

• They also seem to have a much stronger taste for human food than we previously thought, with a particular appetite for chicken wings and nuggets.

WHY IT MATTERS?

• It’s only in the past 20 years that coyotes have returned to San Francisco, as cops would previously euthanize the animals if seen inside city limits.

• It’s a common misconception that coyotes are starving and need to be fed by humans - this study finds that they are eating just fine.

GO DEEPER: Read more

QUICK HITS:

• Cystic Fibrosis patients have had their lives transformed by a breakthrough treatment

• A 20-year old college student is transcribing pop hits on YouTube for millions of fans

• Bald eagles were found nesting in Toronto for the first time ever

BOOK REC: Why We Remember - this book dives deep in the neuroscience behind the human memory, discussing why and how we remember vivid and mundane details of our lives. Get it here!