The Xylom

Every day, our newsroom seeks to grow science with words and serve the Asian American community. But we can’t do this work without you. Today kicks off this year’s #NewsMatch campaign here at The Xylom! With your help, we can raise important funding to keep our independent newsroom strong. Through Dec. 31st, NewsMatch, Heising-Simons Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation will match your new monthly donation 36x (or quadruple your one-time donation!), up to $1,000. Democracy needs news. News needs you. Will you answer the call? ☎️ Donate today: https://lnkd.in/ePhn_Rw3

NEW by me: Documents obtained by The Xylom show that MARTA Rail experienced single-tracking-related service cuts 80% of weekends over the last 12 months, taking nearly 5,500 trains out of service that would have served Midtown, Downtown, and the Airport.

It’s an understatement to say that there’s a LOT on the line today as Americans cast their votes. But, our nonprofit newsroom is built on the ideals of democracy — and we know readers like you rely on our truth-seeking and transparent journalism to help you stay civically engaged during election season and all year long. Will you give The Xylom — and democracy — a vote of confidence by contributing what you can this Election Day? A better-informed, more equitable country begins with you. Donate here: https://lnkd.in/ePhn_Rw3

NEW: Following an Atlanta Pride Parade where trains came as infrequently as every 42 minutes, Alex Ip reviewed publicly available data to quantify for the first time how bad MARTA's weekend service cancellations have been in the past 12 months. https://lnkd.in/eBw4efy9 Quadruple your impact, give to NewsMatch: https://lnkd.in/ePhn_Rw3 #atlanta #transit #transportation #climate #news #journalism

“I lived in Khumjung for a year in 1984 while working on my Ph.D., and even then, there was a tremendous water shortage in the village," — Dr. Alton C. Byers, Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder. Check out my new piece about the state of the drinking water supply in the Everest region. Thanks to everyone who contributed their insights to bring this piece to life. Special thanks to Shreya (Rhysea) Agrawal for the incredible edits and Alex Ip for kindly allowing me to publish this story with The Xylom. A Nepali translation of this piece will be out soon. Cheers. https://lnkd.in/d7UrE9UG #mounteverest #drinkingwater #drinkingwatercrisis #Nepal #sagarmatha #solutionjournalism #sciencejournalism #thexylom #scicomm #trekkingnepal #nepaltourism #khumbu #khumung https://lnkd.in/d7UrE9UG

NEW: As tourism and regional pollution contaminate Nepal’s Khumbu Valley in the shadow of Mount Everest, researchers are zapping the ground to find new potable water sources, writes Manish Koirala.   https://lnkd.in/esVCEeh4 #nepal #environment #climate #science #research #journalis

This week, we released our FY2025 budget, which began earlier in the month. At $150,000, it's triple that of the past fiscal year! That's because we finally have full-time reporting staff on our payroll, which allows us to take on more stories that can make an impact. The numbers may seem daunting but we’re confident. Here's our Managing Editor Shreya (Rhysea) Agrawal explaining why in our latest newsletter: https://lnkd.in/edp8Cerx

NEW: Museums are not anachronisms, but rather, they are an important part of modern biological research with their vast specimen collections, writes Don Lyman. 🧪 https://lnkd.in/ep9M65gn #science #biology #museum #research #essay

📌 My new work for The Xylom on the intersection🔥 between #climatechange vulnerabilities and #Blackfever, also known as #Kala-azar outbreaks in India explores about two-thirds of all these cases in Asia, with the state of #Bihar accounting for over 50% of the cases in India. “Girls here in villages are considered a burden and this disease has made things worse for them. This disease is now a part of my identity,” says a girl affected by the #Kala-azar in #Bihar. #Climatechange is making conditions for these vectors even more favourable with rising temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns, which means the disease has the potential to spread even faster than before. Due to a lack of specialised care in rural parts of India, VL has frequently been misdiagnosed as other diseases such as malaria. Patients on the margins like her lack enough resources for a protracted course of care. As a result, they suffer from a poor quality of life: She is forced to miss school regularly and experiences social stigmatization while her parents struggle to keep their jobs due to the burden of care. Despite the high burden, there is a significant gap in research and reporting regarding #NTDs in children. Paediatric trials highlight a disconnect between the prevalence of these diseases in children and the research dedicated to them. This underrepresentation complicates treatment efforts, as many medications lack adequate labelling for paediatric use of World Health Organization-recommended medicines for NTDs are approved for children. However, there is a ray of hope as organisations like Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative - DNDi for Neglected Diseases Initiative, researchers are trying to simplify existing treatments and conduct additional trials for an oral treatment for VL, which can help revolutionize current treatment methods and solve a public health crisis. Solutions Journalism Network Reporting on #neglecteddiseases is critical for #advocacy, #socialjustice, #research stimulation, #policy formation, and #ethical journalism. By covering these issues comprehensively, we as journalists can significantly impact awareness and action against #NTDs that affect over 1.4 billion people globally, including more than 500 million children. Link: https://lnkd.in/gYUa7yVD #NTDsreporting #solutionjournalism #climatechange #childrenreportying #vulnerablecommunities #publichealth #india

New: Climate change is creating more favorable conditions for parasites in northeast India's Bihar state. This has led to challenges in eradicating black fever, a neglected tropical disease, writes Aliya Bashir. https://lnkd.in/eEutS_vx #india #climate #publichealth #tropicaldiseases