Month: August 2021

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

Apple will finally let developers tell users about purchase options available outside the iOS App Store. The iPhone maker agreed to this and other concessions—including $100 million in payments to developers—in a proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by two app developers in 2019.

Apple and the developer plaintiffs who sued the company filed motions today urging a federal judge to approve the settlement. The case is in US District Court for the Northern District of California.

"Apple has agreed to revise its App Store Guidelines to permit developers of all app categories to communicate with consenting customers outside their app, including via email and other communication services, about purchasing methods other than in-app purchase... This injunctive relief is extremely valuable. By informing customers of alternative payment options, developers can avoid paying Apple's commissions and, moreover, exert competitive pressure on Apple to discipline its pricing," the plaintiffs' brief said.

Enlarge / tablets of Ivermectin drugs in Tehatta, West Benga, India on 19 May on 2021. (credit: Getty | Nurphoto)

Amid the current delta-fueled wave of COVID-19, officials have noted a dangerous surge in the misuse of a deworming drug routinely used in livestock. The result is an uptick in calls to poison control centers, empty shelves in farming supply stores, and pleas from regulators.

In an attention-grabbing tweet over the weekend, the Food and Drug Administration wrote bluntly: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it."

The agency stressed that the drug, ivermectin, is not FDA-approved to treat or prevent COVID-19 and, so far, there is no evidence that it does either of those things. However, it can cause serious side effects and overdoses, which can be life-threatening, the agency warned. Overdoses can result in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma, and even death.

Enlarge / This is likely one of 664 uranium cubes from the failed nuclear reactor that German scientists tried to build in Haigerloch during World War II. (credit: John T. Consoli/University of Maryland)

For decades, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been home to an unusual artifact from World War II: a small cube of solid uranium metal, measuring about two inches on each side and weighing just under 2.5 kilograms. Lab lore holds that the cube was confiscated from Nazi Germany's failed nuclear reactor experiments in the 1940s, but that has never been experimentally verified.

PNNL scientists are developing new nuclear forensic techniques that should help them confirm the the pedigree of this cube—and others like it—once and for all. Those methods could also eventually be used to track illicit trafficking of nuclear material. PNNL's Jon Schwantes and graduate student Brittany Robertson presented some of their initial findings this week at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (a hybrid virtual/in-person event).

University of Maryland physicist Timothy Koeth is among the outsider collaborators in this ongoing research. He has spent over seven years tracking down these rare artifacts of Nazi Germany's nuclear research program, after receiving one as a gift. As of 2019, he and a UMD colleague, Miriam Herbert, had tracked down 10 cubes in the US: one at the Smithsonian, another at Harvard University, a handful in private collections—and of course, the PNNL cube.