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New York Times
16-06-2025
- Health
- New York Times
It's Not Just You: The Tick Situation Is Getting Worse
Lately, Shannon LaDeau and her colleagues have had unwelcome visitors at their office in New York's Hudson Valley: ticks, crawling up the building and trying to get through doors. 'Which is kind of alarming,' said Dr. LaDeau, a disease ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies who studies the arachnids and the pathogens they carry. As winters get warmer, ticks of several kinds are flourishing. Deer ticks, known for transmitting Lyme disease, are moving farther north. The longhorned tick, which came from overseas, has gained a foothold on the East Coast and begun moving west. Gulf Coast ticks have made it to states like Connecticut and Indiana. The lone star tick, which can make people allergic to red meat, is fanning out from the South and has been found as far as Canada. And even in places long accustomed to them, ticks are becoming more numerous and active for longer stretches of each year. Why is this happening, and how can you protect yourself? We asked the experts. What changes are researchers seeing? Marc Lame, an entomologist and clinical professor emeritus at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, put it simply: 'There are more and different types of ticks around than there used to be, and I don't see that stopping anytime soon.' The spread of individual species can be difficult to track. The longhorned tick, for example, was not identified in the United States until 2017, but a recent study confirmed that it was here as early as 2010. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
LeMonde
25-05-2025
- Science
- LeMonde
Are some tropical trees getting struck by lightning on purpose?
Scientific research is particularly fascinating when it produces results that contradict our intuitions. Such is the case with this work by an American multidisciplinary team, recently published in New Phytologist, concerning lightning. Its destructive power, which can kill living beings or ignite objects or buildings, appears to benefit some trees. According to this study, certain large specimens of tropical forests benefit from being struck by lightning to such an extent that they develop a strategy, through their height and the expanse of their canopy overshadowing their competitors, to attract lightning. Evan Gora, the lead author of the article and a researcher at the Cary Institute in Millbrook, New York, has made a name for himself among forest ecosystem specialists with his publications on lighting. While on an expedition in the tropical forest of Barro Colorado, Panama, he answered our questions via email, acknowledging his passion for this phenomenon for 11 years. This study was conducted based on data collected in this forest, managed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, arguably the most thoroughly documented in the world since the late 20 th century. The lightning tracking system pinpointed 94 strikes on 93 different trees. Using field observations and drones, the researchers monitored each of these trees for two to six years to quantify survival, crown and trunk condition, vine colonization and the mortality of neighboring trees.
