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The alarming shortage of nurses in all of Spain's autonomous communities drastically compromises the health of the public. This is one of the main conclusions of the new report on nursing ratios in Spain published by the General Nursing Council, which also analyses the situation in relation to other European countries.
Red kites (Milvus milvus) born during a period of drought are disadvantaged throughout their lives, according to a study of a population of red kites in the Doñana National Park. The research is published in Nature Communications.
Research with 11 lactating women vaccinated against covid-19 has found small amounts of mRNA from the vaccine in breast milk, undetectable 48 hours later.
As planned, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirect Test) mission has hit the asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid, Didymos. Neither is a threat to Earth. This is the first planetary defence test mission designed to change the orbit of an asteroid, launched by NASA and the Johns Hopkins APL laboratory, with Spanish participation. Scientific teams will study with ground-based telescopes how much the orbit of Dimorphos will change around Didymos after the collision.
In an interview on TV3's Els Matins, the Catalan government's health minister Josep Maria Argimon explained that they are preparing a regulation to ban smoking on bar terraces and make them "smoke-free spaces". They are also considering adding canopies and the entrances and exits of schools to the ban.
A study published in Science analyses the potential climate benefits of afforestation - both planting trees to create new forests and reforesting old ones - of the world's drylands. The authors show that the cooling effect of afforestation of this vast area would only amount to a decrease of about 1 % of projected greenhouse gas emissions in the business-as-usual and medium-emissions climate scenarios.
A sarbecovirus distantly related to SARS-CoV-2 and found in horseshoe bats in Russia is able to enter human cells using the ACE2 receptor, according to research published in PLOS Pathogens.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports the publication of data from a clinical trial studying the drug Tofersen against a form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) caused by mutations in the SOD1 gene, which accounts for 2% of sporadic ALS. Six months after treatment, some biomarkers of neuronal damage improved, but not the clinical condition of the patients. In an extension of the study, with no placebo group, a slowing of functional loss was observed, although the researchers acknowledge that there are limitations in interpreting this result.
The Plenary of the Senate has approved this afternoon the Proposition of Law for the recognition of legal personality to the Mar Menor lagoon and its basin. The law, which was approved in Congress last July, comes from a Popular Legislative Initiative signed by more than 600,000 people.
Researchers have analysed the presence of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in 72 textile products purchased online in the US and Canada in 2020 and 2021. The results, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, show high concentrations in school uniforms and higher concentrations in 100 % cotton as opposed to synthetics.