One in six parents say they’ve skipped at least one shot in the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, with most questioning the shots’ safety, efficacy and necessity, according to new surveying from KFF and The Washington Post.
Still, most parents agree with some vaccine requirements. Eight in 10 say they think public schools should require students to get the measles and polio vaccines while allowing for medical and religious exemptions.
These findings come as medical experts fear the impact that medical misinformation will have on vaccine hesitancy and preventive care access. Although healthcare providers have had to contend with misinformation for years, some say it’s gotten worse. That misinformation, when consumed and believed by patients, can have downstream impacts on how patients engage with their medical care or that of their loved ones.
This latest survey of more than 2,700 parents or legal guardians of kids under age 18 underscores the extent to which the American public is starting to question vaccine safety and efficacy.
Parents and guardians question vaccine safety and efficacy
According to the survey, parents who skipped or delayed childhood vaccines for their kids were generally worried about the side effects of the shots. They did not trust that vaccines are safe and did not believe that all recommended vaccines are actually necessary.
That is in contrast to other patient care access barriers, such as financial or geographic barriers. According to KFF and the Washington Post, it’s vaccine hesitancy and not logistical issues that keep parents from vaccinating their children.
Notably, populations most likely to skip or delay childhood vaccination include Republican parents (22%), those who identify with the “Make American Great Again” movement (25%), parents under age 35 (19%) and those who homeschool their kids (46%).
Dispelling vaccine falsehoods, myths with patients
There’s an opportunity for the medical industry to clear up misconceptions about the vaccines, the survey continued. Importantly, few parents fully believe false statements about the vaccines. For example, only 9% fully believe the false claim that the MMR vaccine can cause autism in children.
But there’s a sizeable proportion who aren’t sure what to believe.
For example, 48% of parents said they don’t know enough about vaccines to determine whether the MMR vaccine can cause autism.
These findings indicate that more and better messaging could help quell vaccine misinformation and support better patient education, but the survey cautions against overreliance on federal health agencies as spokespeople.
Only 14% of parents said they have “a lot” of confidence in government health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make sure vaccines are safe and effective. Instead, 29% said they have a little confidence CDC and FDA can ensure vaccine safety and efficacy, and 22% said they have no confidence at all.
Parents are also unsure whether CDC and FDA officials can make decisions based on science, not personal opinion, regarding vaccine recommendations. Notably, 26% of parents say that the CDC recommends too many vaccines.
Docs fill in the information gap
Lacking trust in federal health agencies means patients will seek out information elsewhere. Although the KFF-Washington Post survey did not explore who would be a better messenger than federal agencies, some experts suggest doctors fill in the gap.
Doctors are trusted by parents, some industry groups say, and they can leverage longstanding relationships with patients to build trust. To ensure patient-provider communication about vaccines is productive, healthcare providers can use the following strategies:
Lead with non-judgmental questions. Asking why a patient is worried about getting a vaccine or vaccinating their child will help uncover the next steps for combatting hesitancy.
Be empathetic to patient concerns. Telling patients that you understand their fears will help build trust and make a patient more receptive to your messaging.
Provide patients with vetted sources to do their own research. This can help promote patient autonomy and ownership of their vaccination decisions.
Connect on a human level. Telling patients that you and your loved ones have gotten vaccines will provide the human experience many patients crave in a healthcare interaction.
As healthcare professionals continue to contend with the impact misinformation has on vaccine hesitancy, understanding patient perspectives and addressing falsehoods with respect and understanding will be key.
Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.
Webtoon Entertainment Inc. signage during the initial public offering event outside the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Webtoon Entertainment shares surged on Tuesday after signing a deal to create a digital comic platform for Disney, and agreeing to sell the media conglomerate a 2% equity stake.
Webtoon briefly jumped more than 38%, reaching a new 52-week high and on track for its second-largest one-day advance since going public last year.
Webtoon Entertainment, 1-day
Disney and Webtoon agreed Monday to create a digital platform for the studio’s Marvel and Star Wars brands. More than 35,000 comics tied to Disney properties — including Pixar and 20th Century Studios — will be available on one service with a single subscription for the first time, the companies said.
A ‘preferred destination’
Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black described Monday’s deal as a “material expansion” from a partnership first announced in August. Disney can help diversify Webtoon’s revenue by creating a steady stream of recurring income.
The deal may also help boost interest from other intellectual property (IP) owners looking to follow Disney’s lead, Block said.
“The new agreement further validates Webtoon’s platform as the preferred destination for major IP distribution,” Black wrote to clients.
Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Cost was skeptical of the immediate impact of the deal on Webtoon’s near-term earnings. In fact, he pointed to the need to invest in order to build out the new platform.
One of Webtoon’s goals is to expand its English-speaking user base, the largest revenue opportunity for the company, Cost said.
Including Tuesday’s rally, Webtoon shares have now more than doubled in the past three months.
Federal Reserve officials are convening Tuesday and Wednesday for a pivotal meeting under unprecedented circumstances.
On Wednesday at the conclusion of their two-day policy meeting, central bankers are expected to announce their first interest rate cut since December to support America’s slowing labor market, with the hopes that President Donald Trump’s expansive tariffs might have only a limited impact on inflation.
But there’s an elephant in the room as officials debate about the US economy: Trump’s aggressive effort to reshape the Fed’s top ranks.
On Monday, the Senate confirmed Stephen Miran, Trump’s top economic adviser, to serve on the Fed’s Board of Governors to complete a vacated term that expires at the end of January, but could be extended. Miran has said he won’t commit to resigning when his term ends if a permanent successor hasn’t been named.
After being sworn in on Tuesday morning, Miran is able to cast a vote at this week’s Fed policy meeting.
Fed Governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump tried to fire in late August, will also cast a vote at this week’s meeting. An appeals court on Monday rejected Trump’s attempt to fire Cook while her lawsuit challenging Trump’s removal order moves forward. Cook is the first Fed governor ever to be subject to a firing attempt.
The latest Fed meeting is extraordinary, not just because central bankers are finally pivoting their strategy on interest rates, but also because of the latest developments implicating the Fed’s powerful board — all while the Trump administration continues to pile pressure on the politically independent central bank.
Mounting signs of labor market weakness are a key reason why the Fed is lowering borrowing costs for the first time in nine months, coupled with Fed officials’ growing belief that tariff inflation may be short lived.
Job growth during the summer was anemic: Employers added an average of about 29,000 jobs in the three months ending in August, according to Labor Department data, slightly higher than July’s average, which was the weakest three-month pace since 2010, outside of the pandemic.
There are now more unemployed people seeking work than there are job openings; new applications for jobless benefits in the week ending September 6 rose to the highest level in nearly four years; and in August, the number of people unemployed for more than 26 weeks reached its highest level since November 2021.
A preliminary benchmark revision to employment data for the year ending in March, released last week, showed that the US labor market was on even shakier ground than previously thought heading into the summer.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell laid the groundwork for this week’s rate cut during a high-profile speech in late August, stating that “downside risks to employment are rising.” Other Fed officials have echoed those concerns in recent weeks, though they were first raised prominently by Fed governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both Trump appointees, who backed a rate cut in July.
Fed officials’ latest economic projections, to be released on Wednesday, will show how aggressively the central bank might lower rates in the coming months with the labor market in a precarious state.
Inflation has crept up in recent months — mostly due to Trump’s sweeping policies, including his tariffs — but Fed officials have warmed up to the idea that any uptick in inflation may be temporary.
The Consumer Price Index rose 2.9% in August from a year earlier, the Labor Department reported last week, in line with economists’ expectations. For months, consumer inflation readings have mostly come in as expected, despite the chaotic rollout of Trump’s tariffs.
San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly wrote in a recent social media post that “tariff-related price increases will be a one-off.” St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem said in a speech earlier this month that he expects “the effects of tariffs will work through the economy over the next two to three quarters and the impact on inflation will fade after that.”
With a weakening labor market and persistent economic jitters, businesses now have less flexibility to raise prices compared to the years after the pandemic, when labor demand was red-hot and Americans’ coffers were flush with pandemic-era stimulus payments and beefed-up savings.
“Inflation has increased since the first quarter, but these numbers include the effects of import tariff increases, which, with inflation expectations anchored, I continue to expect will only temporarily raise inflation,” Waller said during an August 28 speech in Miami.
“Most forecasts are for 12-month inflation to continue to slowly increase for a couple more months, with monthly tariff effects dissipating by early 2026,” he added.
As Fed officials try to make sense of a complicated economic puzzle, the Trump administration continues to pressure the historically independent Fed.
Since the beginning of his second term, Trump has repeatedly and publicly lashed out at Powell and the Fed because officials haven’t lowered rates this year. Fed policymakers have held off on rate cuts until this week because they’ve wanted to see how Trump’s policies — and its impacts — play out first.
Trump threatened earlier this year to fire Powell, but eventually backed off after his advisers warned him that doing so could spark extreme volatility in financial markets, CNN previously reported.
In July, the Trump administration seized on the Fed’s ongoing $2.5 billion renovation of its headquarters in Washington, DC, as an opening to fire Powell, claiming it was mismanaged. At one point, Trump and Powell publicly feuded over the total cost of the project.
Now, Trump is trying to oust Cook, citing allegations of mortgage fraud, which the Justice Department is actively investigating. The courts are keeping Cook in her job while her lawsuit challenging Trump’s attempt to oust her moves forward in litigation. New documents reported by the Associated Press show that Cook’s Atlanta condo, which the administration alleges is one of two properties she designated as a primary residence, was declared as a vacation home. Cook has denied any wrongdoing.
While Cook’s position remains in limbo, newly confirmed Fed governor Miran has elicited concerns from Democrats over his close ties with the president. For his part, Miran has said he will abide by ethics rules and federal law, and form independent opinions about the economy.
“I’m very independently minded, as shown by my willingness to stray from consensus and have out-of-consensus views, and I believe that I will continue to be as independent in my thinking process, if confirmed,” Miran said during his confirmation hearing.
Trump has said he wants a majority of Republicans on the Fed’s Board of Governors, and Miran’s confirmation process was swiftly shepherded through, taking only about a month from when he was nominated to when he got sworn in. The process typically takes a couple of months.
Trump’s insistence on lower rates likely sped up that timeline in order to get Miran on the Fed’s board in time for the September meeting. Fed watchers already overwhelmingly expect the Fed to announce at least a quarter-point cut at the conclusion of the meeting, with or without Miran.
Former Industrial Light & Magic artists join ILM.com to reflect on bringing the pre-digital cinema classic to life.
By Clayton Sandell
ILM modelmakers at work on the Inferno. L to R: Chuck Wiley, Barbara Galucci, Bill George, Randy Ottenberg (Credit: ILM).
During the summer of 1985, The Goonies hit movie screens and became an instant audience favorite. The timeless adventure tale follows a group of kids on a quest to discover One-Eyed Willy’s hidden pirate treasure, avoid a trio of ruthless family crooks, and save their homes (and way of life) in the “Goon Docks” of Astoria, Oregon.
While it’s not considered a massive visual effects film, part of the enduring charm of The Goonies is thanks to around 20 shots created by Industrial Light & Magic. Forty years later, four former ILM veterans share their memories about working on the celebrated classic.
ILM’s Michael McAlister was hired as the film’s visual effects supervisor, his first time in the role after working as an effects cameraman on projects including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983), and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
Dave Carson brought extensive ILM experience to the role of visual effects art director on The Goonies, with credits including Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Dragonslayer (1981), and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).
The work of The Goonies matte painter and fine artist Caroleen “Jett” Green has appeared in dozens of films, including Willow (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999).
Before a fruitful run as a visual effects supervisor, Bill George helped build a number of iconic models for films including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Blade Runner (1982), and Explorers (1985).The Goonies was directed by Richard Donner (Superman [1978], Ladyhawke [1985]) from a story by Steven Spielberg and a screenplay by Chris Columbus. Frank Marshall and the now president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, were among the producers.
The production team conducts a location scout on the Oregon coast (Credit: ILM).
MICHAEL McALISTER, VISUAL EFFECTS SUPERVISOR: Number one, Dick Donner was such a good man. His personality was so big, and he spoke with a booming voice, and he was just confident and gentle and kind. I was really impressed with him. It was a real joy to be around him. I also had good crews at ILM, and the experience of being on location in Astoria, Oregon, which is absolutely stunningly beautiful, was delightful.
DAVE CARSON, VISUAL EFFECTS ART DIRECTOR: It had so many effects shots in the first draft. I remember being in a meeting in Burbank early in the production. I don’t think Dick Donner was even there. And we were talking about the effects. And I said, “Well, I think eventually there’ll probably be like 80 shots.” The blood drained from everybody’s faces. I could see that was not where they were headed. It still was a great project, but the number of shots kept dwindling. The first draft had skeletons that came to life. It was full of effects and fantastic stuff.
I started just by drawing scenes from the script. Nobody asked me to, but you can’t read that script without wanting to draw some of the scenes in it. J. Michael Riva was the production designer, and he was cranking out beautiful stuff. [Art director] Rick Carter made beautiful blueprints. They were establishing the look of this film, and it was great. From that point on, my actual work for the production was pretty much taking established background plates and indicating where the effects would go. There wasn’t too much pie-in-the-sky stuff. I did a bunch of storyboarding of the sequence where the kids run into the cove, and they see some skeletons and they get on the ship.
Concept art by Dave Carson depicts the unfinished sequence when the Goonies are attacked by a giant octopus (Credit: ILM).
The ILM Model Shop built a highly detailed scale version of One-Eyed Willy’s sailing ship, the Inferno. Under the supervision of Barbara Gallucci, Bill George led a model-making team that included Randy Ottenberg and Chuck Wiley. ILM had plenty of previous experience with model spaceships, but building a wooden pirate galleon was something the crew had to learn from scratch.
BILL GEORGE, CHIEF MODELMAKER: I was really happy to be put on the project leading the construction of the miniature pirate ship. We wanted to do a good job and do something impressive that would get people talking. We put more into the model than we needed to. The production provided blueprints, which were amazing. We read books on building miniature ships and had the opportunity to do research and learn. We went to San Francisco Bay to study the Balclutha, which is a vintage wooden sailing ship. We studied all the details, the belaying pins, the rigging, the wood texture and wear. We wanted our model to look as authentic as possible.
We started with stanchions, very much the way you would build a boat. Those were covered in thin sheets of balsa wood. One of the big technical challenges on this was the rigging and the sails. Randy’s main focus was the sails. And, of course, there were no computer graphics that were advanced enough to do CG sails at that point. So the decision was made to make them out of a very, very fine silk, which would blow in the wind, and the silk was also great because it was transparent and pure white. Once again, we did some research. We found that we could use coffee and tea to stain the sails so they had a little bit of a warmer, aged color without stiffening the fabric. At the time Goonies came along, ILM had established itself as the visual effects house of choice for very successful films. Then there were all these films that Spielberg was producing, including The Goonies and Explorers and Back to the Future [1985], and all of them kind of funneled through ILM. It was a really exciting time because there was a whole diversity of interesting projects coming in.
Chief modelmaker Bill George at work on the Inferno (Credit: ILM).
MICHAEL McALISTER: It was unbelievably beautiful. But by the time the model was in the process of getting made, they decided to just go ahead and build the entire set on the soundstage. Which then meant that we didn’t need as many shots using the model.
BILL GEORGE: I was a little disappointed because we didn’t get to showcase it as much in the film. It was very backlit, and it was very far away, and I knew that the model could hold up. So it was a little bit of a disappointment. But I’m super proud of the model we built.
On deck, there’s even a little R2-D2 Easter egg. It was actually a casting from Star Wars. In the model shop, we had molds of the castings that go with the plug at the top of the X-wing starfighter. That’s what that was.
In 2023, the Inferno model was donated to the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures by Richard Donner’s widow, producer Lauren Shuler Donner.
The hidden R2-D2 figure from Star Wars tucked away on the deck of the Inferno (Credit: ILM).Modelmaker Randy Ottenberg at work on the Inferno‘s masts (Credit: ILM).
Production designer J. Michael Riva had the Inferno and a water-filled cavern built as a full-size, practical set on Stage 16 at the Burbank Studios (now Warner Bros.) in Southern California.
MICHAEL McALISTER: I’ll never forget it. It was the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen in my entire movie career, hands down. The first time I walked on the stage, here’s this full-size pirate ship. And every little glorious detail was just striking.
The director of photography, Nick McClean, was going back and forth to another stage at the same time as he was trying to light this pirate ship, and it wasn’t working out very well. He just didn’t have all that much time to be on Stage 16.
So he just turned to me and said, “Michael, light it for me,” and walked away. I was like, “Oh my God, I don’t know how to light a set!” I was freaking out because I didn’t want to come up short. I didn’t want to disappoint him, didn’t want to embarrass myself. And I remember thinking, “How would you light it if it was a miniature, and just scale it up?” So that’s what I did.
You just got thrown into something, and you had to figure it out. So Nick came back, and he looked at my lighting, and he was pretty happy. Only changed one thing. I learned something about confidence, and I learned something about lighting. It doesn’t really matter how big a thing you’re going to light. It’s all the same idea.
The ILM team made visits to the Goonies sets in Burbank to capture reference photography. Here the Inferno and surrounding cave is under construction (Credit: ILM).
DAVE CARSON: It was an amazing thing to see. One morning on the set, there were probably a dozen of us all standing around drinking coffee, and Steven Spielberg walks in and he’s looking around. We’d met a few times, but he didn’t know me all that well. He says, “So what do you think?” I said, “There’s some great shots here,” and he says, “Oh yeah? Where?” I’m thinking, “Is he kidding me?” I was just trying to be conversational. But I decided I’d just follow through. So I walk over to the island with like twelve people following Steven, and I got down, just trying to find some interesting angles. I don’t know what he made of it all.
Visual effects supervisor Michael McAlister wades in the water tank on the Inferno set (Credit: ILM).
For wide shots of the Inferno, ILM artists Frank Ordaz and Caroleen “Jett” Green created matte paintings to help complete the illusion of a tall sailing ship rising beyond the limited height of the Burbank soundstage. Chris Evans served as matte painting supervisor.
CAROLEEN “JETT” GREEN, MATTE ARTIST: They had that big ship that they shot in a way that, at the last minute, they needed to extend the masts and add sails. We had to work quickly to make it all work perfectly.
The challenge was, we didn’t have much time, and the sails of a ship needed to have fluidity, an airy quality. Our matte painting extensions were static, so lucky for us the shots of the sails were only on for a couple of seconds.
I knew how to paint something realistically. What you also learn with matte painting is how to change lighting. You need to know what goes on with light, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, how it affects everything. If there’s a blue haze that’s moving in the shot, I might add some carefully mixed blue paint to match. It all got combined together.
I was an apprentice matte painter, learning the techniques and skills in order to become a great matte painter. I was working in a room with highly creative people, all excellent at what they do. I really wanted to keep up with these guys. And I told myself, well, “I’m just going to put in 150%.”
Matte painting supervisor Chris Evans (right) confers with Carson (left) and McAlister (Credit: ILM).
Another ILM contribution includes what might be considered an early example of a so-called “invisible effect.” Searching for their next clue, Mikey (Sean Astin) lines up a doubloon with cutouts to match rocks and a lighthouse in the distance. What appears to be a practical shot is actually a mix of multiple blue screen elements, background plates, and matte paintings. A complex rack focus helped complete the illusion.
DAVE CARSON: I remember the challenge at the time on the doubloon shot was they wanted the doubloon in focus and crisp up close. That means anything in the distance is going to be soft. So they had to pull off the rack focus in post-production.
MICHAEL McALISTER: One of the reasons that the shot was never attempted on set is because the rocks in the ocean didn’t exist. And they certainly didn’t exist to line up with the doubloon. So, based on that criteria, it automatically became a visual effect. And dealing with the rack focus was very challenging during that time because it was all optical printer composites, and you didn’t get good mattes out of blurry edges in the optical process. Today, it’s not an issue with all the CG capabilities and the compositing software, but it was a challenge at the time to get that right.
A storyboard by Dave Carson (Credit: ILM).
The organ chamber sequence – in which an incorrectly-played musical note causes part of the floor to fall away and reveal a treacherous cavern below – was achieved using five different matte paintings and a 16-by-20-foot miniature set featuring stalactites, pools of water, and fog. The original set was scaled down in size during pre-production, posing a challenge for creating the critical illusion.
ILM modelmakers at work on the large miniature for the organ chamber sequence (Credit: ILM).The miniature set ready for shooting (Credit: ILM).
MICHAEL McALISTER: The concept was supposed to be something that instantly communicated absolute death if you fell down there. That was one of the hardest things I’ve actually ever done in my career, creatively. And to this day, I’m not really happy with what that image communicates because it didn’t look like instant death to me. Richard [Donner] and [Steven] Spielberg didn’t ever complain to me about it, but I wasn’t really happy with that. It was supposed to be all misty and foggy, which made the lighting so diffuse that it was just really hard.
The ILM camera crew prepares to shoot the miniature from the ground up. A mirror was used for reference while standing (Credit: ILM).
Four decades later, The Goonies continues to be treasured by fans young and old. In 2017, the Library of Congress added the title to the National Film Registry, which honors movies with cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance.
DAVE CARSON: It’s so funny. Of all the films I’ve worked on, when people find out I worked on The Goonies, a lot of times that’s the one that they’re impressed by. “Oh, you worked on The Goonies? I love that movie!” Yeah, it’s still a very popular film.
BILL GEORGE: The story reminded me of when I was a kid with my buddies, and we were looking for adventure on the street, throwing dirt clods, that kind of stuff. It really captured the essence of that in a really magical way. And I think for kids that age, they’re like, “Hey, let’s make this happen. Let’s find the treasure.” Goonies have a special place in our hearts.
CAROLEEN ‘JETT’ GREEN: We were all seriously into what we were doing: matte painting.
I considered many of the artists geniuses. Just a brilliant group of creatives. We would start painting at around 10 o’clock in the morning and go into the zone of silence for hours. Then we’d come up for air at the same time, lunchtime or later. At times, I would even stay until sunrise.
MICHAEL McALISTER: It is meaningful to me that there are a few films that I’ve worked on that are classics and will always be remembered. During TheGoonies, I had a hunch about it because every kid dreams about finding a pirate ship and a pot of gold. I can’t take any credit for the fact that these movies have such legacies, but it’s nice to have been involved with a movie that made such a dent and endures.
When I first walked the halls of ILM, I realized I was walking among the best in the world at what they do. It was just such a privilege to be in that company, in the company of those artists, that level of creativity and expertise for so many years.
A doodle by an ILM crew member on the Inferno model during its construction (Credit: ILM).
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Clayton Sandell is a Star Wars author and enthusiast, Celebration stage host, and a longtime fan of the creative people who keep Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound on the leading edge of visual effects and sound design. Follow him on Instagram (@claytonsandell), Bluesky (@claytonsandell.com), or X (@Clayton_Sandell).
To mark F1’s 75th anniversary celebrations, F1.com is counting down the sport’s 25 greatest races with a new feature every week. While you may not agree with the order, we hope you enjoy the stories of these epic races that have helped make this sport what it is today. You can read the introduction to the series and see the list of races here.
Coming in at No. 7 on our list is the 2008 British Grand Prix, a remarkable rain-hit race that saw Lewis Hamilton master treacherous conditions to win by over a minute and seize the momentum in the championship fight…
Researchers applied particle physics techniques to solve real-world problems for measuring sediment buildup in underwater infrastructure.
From the Journal: Journal of Applied Physics
The Shanghai Outer Ring Tunnel runs across the Huangpu River, with areas covered by mucky soil and silty clay (top). The researchers placed a portable muon detector within the tunnel to monitor muon flux as a way to measure the sediment buildup (bottom). Credit: Khaw et al.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2025 – Over 200 underwater bridge tunnels exist for vehicular traffic around the world, providing connectivity between cities. Once constructed, however, these tunnels are difficult to monitor and maintain, often requiring shutdowns or invasive methods that pose structural risks.
Muography — an imaging technique using high-energy particles, called muons, which can traverse hundreds of meters within the earth — can provide a noninvasive approach to examining subterranean infrastructure. In the Journal of Applied Physics, by AIP Publishing, a group of researchers from public and private organizations in Shanghai applied this technique to the Shanghai Outer Ring Tunnel, which runs under the Huangpu River as part of the city’s ring expressway.
Because sediment composed of mucky soil and silty clay has a higher density than the water surrounding the tunnel, it is more effective at reducing muon flux than water on its own. When placed within the tunnel, the researchers’ portable muon flux detection system is sensitive to these differences, proving useful for identifying locations with high levels of sediment buildup.
“Muons lose energy primarily through ionization, where they electromagnetically interact with and eject electrons from atoms — denser materials lead to a higher energy loss, effectively blocking more muons,” said author Kim Siang Khaw. “The granular or clay composition of sediment intensifies this effect.”
Using a combination of a spatial scan over the length of the tunnel and a simulation of muons passing through a simplified tunnel model, the researchers mapped the thickness of the sediment. They took 10 minutes of data per location at 50-meter intervals as proof of their technique, but in its actual deployment, they plan to permanently install multiple detectors at fixed points throughout the tunnel, allowing for round-the-clock monitoring.
They intend to extend their studies to several more tunnels in Shanghai and note that other cities can easily adopt the technique into their own infrastructure. All that is needed is basic information about the tunnel’s geometry and materials, environmental data, and baseline muon flux measurements.
“No complex models are necessary upfront — the method works with simplified inputs, validated through simulations in this study,” said Khaw. “This technique can also identify dangerous underground cavities, such as those formed when a burst pipe washes away soil, creating a hidden collapse hazard.”
Muography has been used for archaeological studies, mine exploration, and more, but tracking a system’s change over time is a relatively new, real-world application.
“We are now in a truly exciting era for muography,” said Khaw. “We hope to collaborate with more researchers to apply these advancements in fundamental science to solving pressing societal challenges.”
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Article Title
Toward noninvasive sediment monitoring using muography: A pilot run at the Shanghai Outer Ring Tunnel
Authors
Kim Siang Khaw, Siew Yan Hoh, Tianqi Hu, Xingyun Huang, Jun Kai Ng, Yusuke Takeuchi, Min Yang Tan, Jiangtao Wang, Yinghe Wang, Guan Ming Wong, Mengjie Wu, Ning Yan, Yonghao Zeng, Min Chen, Shunxi Gao, Lei Li, Yujin Shi, Jie Tan, Qinghua Wang, Siping Zeng, Shibin Yao, Yufu Zhang, Gongliang Chen, Houwang Wang, Jinxin Lin, and Qing Zhan
Author Affiliations
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Geological Engineering Exploration (Group) Co., Ltd, Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, Shanghai Chengtou Highway (Group) Co., Ltd, Shanghai Surveying and Mapping Institute, Shanghai Institute of Natural Resources Survey and Utilization
The owner of the ceramics business Wedgwood has said it will freeze production at its factory in Staffordshire for 90 days in a move that will place 70 workers on temporary leave.
The shutdown, which the firm’s owner, Fiskars Group, described as a short-term measure, will start on 29 September in response to weaker demand in some of its most important markets.
It will also pause factory tours at its World of Wedgwood tourist attraction, with plans to restart them early next year.
Wedgwood, which can trace its heritage to the 18th century, makes porcelain and luxury home accessories.
It is headquartered in Barlaston near Stoke-on-Trent, where it employs 274 people. The company said it had many more people working globally for the business in markets such as China and Japan, where it has the majority of its stores.
The pottery and ceramics sector has struggled in recent years under the pressure of rising costs and energy bills. A number of potteries have collapsed in Staffordshire, including the nearly 200-year-old Royal Stafford in February.
A Wedgwood spokesperson said: “This short-term measure is being taken to address elevated inventory levels caused by lower consumer demand in some of our key markets.
“Barlaston and its community are of key importance to Fiskars Group and Wedgwood.”
The company said its artisans still used techniques pioneered by founder Josiah Wedgwood, who was born in Staffordshire in 1730.
“This living tradition reflects our commitment to craftsmanship, the value of Made in England and Barlaston’s enduring role in our heritage and operations,” a Fiskars spokesperson said.
Fiskars, which employs 6,850 people across its group, also owns Royal Doulton and the Danish porcelain brand Royal Copenhagen, among others.
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The business, which is listed in Finland, reported net sales of €1.2bn (£1bn) in its 2024 financial year, up slightly from €1.1bn in the previous year. Its pre-tax profit, however, fell by 77% from €79.7m to €18.5m.
The group lowered its profit guidance for the year in June, blaming the impact of US tariffs on retailer demand. The US accounts for about 30% of its overall sales.
Wedgwood dates back to 1759, when Josiah Wedgwood started as an independent potter in Staffordshire. He invented new ceramic materials such as jasperware and black basalt, and was among the first makers to stamp his name on his product. He was the grandfather of Charles Darwin.
The Galaxy A56, released earlier this year, is one of the best mid-range phones Samsung has ever made. It goes beyond a yearly iterative refresh, and Galaxy A55 owners should consider two key factors if they’re thinking of upgrading their phones. Let’s talk about it.
It’s not always worth recommending a yearly upgrade, especially now that mobile phones seem to evolve at a slower rate. Yearly upgrade recommendations are even harder to make for phones at lower price points, but significant leaps can happen sometimes. Such a leap happened with the launch of the Galaxy A56 earlier in 2025.
Two key factors that make the Galaxy A56 a worthy yearly upgrade
Beyond the arguably refined design, the improved build quality, the slightly larger and brighter display, the faster charging, and the extended firmware support, there are two key aspects that we want to highlight if you are a Galaxy A55 owner thinking of an upgrade.
In our view, these two aspects make the upgrade from the A55 to the A56 all worth it.
Vastly superior battery life
Samsung has advertised two-day battery life for a long time, but the Galaxy A56 is the first in the series to actually achieve that.
Honestly, battery life is one of the things that surprised us about the Galaxy A56 the most. It’s really good, and you will certainly notice the difference if you replace your Galaxy A55 with the sequel.
Significantly smoother performance
The other aspect that impressed us the most is the phone’s performance in One UI. It very rarely stutters, and for the most part, it feels as fast as any Galaxy S flagship all around One UI. The same cannot be said for the Galaxy A55.
The Galaxy A56 features the newer Exynos 1580 chip, up from the Galaxy A55’s Exynos 1480 SoC.
We’re not sure if the Exynos 1580 is the only reason the Galaxy A56 feels as smooth as it does. Extra optimization might also play a part. But regardless, the Galaxy A56 performs significantly better than the A55 across the UI, so if you are bothered by stutters on your 2024 model, don’t hesitate to test the A56 if you get a chance.
If you want to read or learn more about the Galaxy A56, you should check out our video below and read our full review.
The IAU (International Astronomical Union), an international non-governmental research organization and global naming authority for celestial objects, has approved official names for features on Donaldjohanson, an asteroid NASA’s Lucy spacecraft visited on April 20. In a nod to the fossilized inspiration for the names of the asteroid and spacecraft, the IAU’s selections recognize significant sites and discoveries on Earth that further our understanding of humanity’s origins.
The asteroid was named in 2015 after paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, discoverer of one of the most famous fossils ever found of a female hominin, or ancient human ancestor, nicknamed Lucy. Just as the Lucy fossil revolutionized our understanding of human evolution, NASA’s Lucy mission aims to revolutionize our understanding of solar system evolution by studying at least eight Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter.
Donaldjohanson, located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, was a target for Lucy because it offered an opportunity for a comprehensive “dress rehearsal” for Lucy’s main mission, with all three of its science instruments carrying out observation sequences very similar to the ones that will occur at the Trojans.
After exploring the asteroid and getting to see its features up close, the Lucy science and engineering team proposed to name the asteroid’s surface features in recognition of significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries, which the IAU accepted.
The smaller lobe is called Afar Lobus, after the Ethiopian region where Lucy and other hominin fossils were found. The larger lobe is named Olduvai Lobus, after the Tanzanian river gorge that has also yielded many important hominin discoveries.
The asteroid’s neck, Windover Collum, which joins those two lobes, is named after the Windover Archeological Site near Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida — where NASA’s Lucy mission launched in 2021. Human remains and artifacts recovered from that site revolutionized our understanding of the people who lived in Florida around 7,300 years ago.
Two smooth areas on the asteroid’s neck are named Hadar Regio, marking the specific site of Johanson’s discovery of the Lucy fossil, and Minatogawa Regio, after the location where the oldest known hominins in Japan were found. Select boulders and craters on Donaldjohanson are named after notable fossils ranging from pre-Homo sapiens hominins to ancient modern humans. The IAU also approved a coordinate system for mapping features on this uniquely shaped small world.
As of Sept. 9, the Lucy spacecraft was nearly 300 million miles (480 million km) from the Sun en route to its August 2027 encounter with its first Trojan asteroid called Eurybates. This places Lucy about three quarters of the way through the main asteroid belt. Since its encounter with Donaldjohanson, Lucy has been cruising without passing close to any other asteroids, and without requiring any trajectory correction maneuvers.
The team continues to carefully monitor the instruments and spacecraft as it travels farther from the Sun into a cooler environment.
Stay tuned at nasa.gov/lucy for more updates as Lucy continues its journey toward the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids, and download a postcard commemorating the Donaldjohanson encounter.
Women with long Covid are prone to longer, heavier periods, which could put them at greater risk of iron deficiency that exacerbates common symptoms of the condition, doctors say.
The findings emerged from a UK survey of more than 12,000 women, which also found that the severity of long Covid symptoms rose and fell across the menstrual cycle and became worse when women had their periods.
Preliminary tests revealed hormonal changes and excessive inflammation of the womb lining in women with long Covid, but more work is needed to establish the knock-on effects. There was no evidence that long Covid harmed ovary function.
The work points to a two-way effect, with long Covid affecting women’s periods and hormonal changes over the menstrual cycle affecting the severity of long Covid symptoms.
“Our hope is that this will allow us to develop really specific treatments for women with long Covid who are suffering with menstrual disturbance,” said Dr Jacqueline Maybin, a reader and honorary consultant gynaecologist at the University of Edinburgh. “It may also lead to female-specific treatments for long Covid itself, which we know can be quite prevalent in women of reproductive age.”
An estimated 400 million people worldwide either have long Covid or have recovered from the condition. Nearly 2 million people in England alone self-report as living with long Covid, defined as symptoms that persist for at least four weeks after catching the virus.
Doctors have recorded more than 200 long Covid symptoms, but the most common include fatigue, brain fog, difficulty breathing, digestive issues, headaches and changes to smell and taste. The ailments appear to be driven by an array of problems, from residual infection and ongoing inflammation to disruption of the immune system and mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cells.
Maybin and her colleagues analysed data from 12,187 UK women who completed an online survey between March and May 2021. More than 1,000 had long Covid, while more than 1,700 had recovered from the virus. More than 9,400 had never tested positive for Covid.
Women with long Covid had longer, heavier periods and more bleeding between their periods than other women, the researchers found. A follow-up survey with 54 women revealed that the severity of their symptoms fluctuated over the menstrual cycle and worsened in the two days before and during their periods.
The researchers went on to analyse blood from 10 women with long Covid. Tests revealed inflammation in the womb lining and higher-than-usual levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone. Both could be drivers of heavier periods.
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Importantly, according to the study in Nature Communications, the tests found no evidence that long Covid harmed the normal functioning of the ovaries.
Many women of child-bearing age are iron-deficient, and heavy periods often contribute to the issue. This leads to symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath and dizziness, all of which are common in long Covid. “If you have long Covid on top of iron deficiency, it’s unsurprising that these women are really debilitated and unable to function,” Maybin said.
Dr Viki Male, who studies reproductive immunology at Imperial College London, said inflammation in the uterus was associated with heavy menstrual bleeding, so this could be the link between long Covid and prolonged or heavy periods. “Anti-inflammatory drugs are already used to treat heavy periods, so these findings suggest they might also be helpful for people who experience heavy menstrual bleeding as a symptom of long Covid,” she said.
