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PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
Huge Underground Search for Mysterious Dark Matter Begins (Maria)
The author writes, “In a former gold mine a mile underground, inside a titanium tank filled with a rare liquified gas, scientists have begun the search for what so far has been unfindable: dark matter. Scientists are pretty sure the invisible stuff makes up most of the universe’s mass and say we wouldn’t be here without it — but they don’t know what it is. The race to solve this enormous mystery has brought one team to the depths under Lead, South Dakota. The question for scientists is basic, says Kevin Lesko, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: ‘What is this great place I live in? Right now, 95% of it is a mystery.’”
Trump Left Sarasota Media Company Weeks Before Federal Subpoenas Were Issued (Sean)
From the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: “Donald Trump removed himself from the board of his Sarasota-based social media company, records show, just weeks before the company was issued federal subpoenas by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and a grand jury in Manhattan. Trump, the chairman of Trump Media and Technology Group, was one of six board members removed on June 8, state business records show. … The SEC served Trump Media and Technology Group with a subpoena on June 27, according to a regulatory filing. Trump’s media company owns Truth Social, an app similar to Twitter.”
More Than 1,000 Ohio Docs Form Abortion Rights Group (Mili)
From MedPage Today: “Marcela Azevedo, MD, sat in frustration late last month as she first watched the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade, and then Ohio enact its 6-week ‘heartbeat’ abortion ban. Azevedo, a pulmonologist and critical care physician in Cleveland, told MedPage Today how she was gravely concerned. … After connecting with fellow Ohio physician Lauren Beene, MD, a pediatrician, and organizing on Facebook, Azevedo and Beene co-founded a grassroots group called Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights. The group decided to write and publish a letter detailing physicians’ anguish and medical opinions about what has happened, and what they believe a ban on abortions will do to their patients. … Since the letter’s publishing, there are now some 1,200 physicians who have joined the group, and that number is expected to grow.”
Here’s What Happens Now That Boris Johnson Will Resign as British PM (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation as Conservative leader on Thursday following mounting pressure from lawmakers in his own party to stand down. Under the UK political system, between elections, only Conservative members of Parliament have the power to remove a sitting Conservative Prime Minister. So, what happens to the UK government when a Prime Minister resigns, and how is a new leader elected?”
For Educational Gag Orders, the Vagueness Is the Point (DonkeyHotey)
From PEN America: “A prime concern of PEN America’s advocacy against educational gag orders for the past year has been that many are sloppily drafted and in some cases hastily passed. The most recent example is SB 1 in Kentucky, which, due to the rushed and rocky way the bill became law, inadvertently included a punishment of jail time for educators who teach certain topics the wrong way. Thankfully, this mistake was caught and quickly amended in a separate law. Nevertheless, the debacle illustrates the ongoing lack of thought or care that lawmakers have been putting into these bills.”
No Antibiotics Worked, So This Woman Turned to a Natural Enemy of Bacteria to Save Her Husband’s Life (Mili)
The author writes, “With her husband near death from an antibiotic-resistant superbug, a scientist found a cure no one had used in the US — intravenous injections of viruses called phages — and convinced the medical system to save his life.”
