Ripped from the Headlines: March 2022: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for March 12–March 18, 2022

Diébédo Francis Kéré became the first Black architect to win the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest accolade. Kéré, who was born in Burkina Faso, has won many other awards in his field, but he was surprised to receive what is considered architecture's greatest honor. Most of Kéré's projects, including hospitals and school buildings, are built in Africa. The prize committee described his work as "pioneering architecture." Accolade's root means "embrace."

Marine biologists are enthusiastically studying video footage of the Endurance, the ship found after being submerged for more than a century in frigid Antarctic waters. Many unusual deep-sea marine creatures can be seen in the images, including sea lilies, squirts, sponges, and flower-shaped anemones. Scientists say many of the organisms, including anemones, are attached to the ship's hull and feed on waste called "marine snow." In Greek, anemone means "wind-flower."

In response to the global climate crisis, there has been a worldwide drive to increase the planet's arboreal diversity by planting a huge number of trees. Billions of saplings were planted last year alone, an effort that may help reduce carbon emissions and rejuvenate ecosystems. Experts warn that trees must be added carefully, with attention paid to planting native species. Arboreal is rooted in the Latin arbor, "tree."

Russia escalated its attack on Ukraine this week with the bombardment of its capital city, Kyiv. Targeted bombing on March 14 and 15 damaged apartment buildings, hospitals, a subway station, and an airplane factory. Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced a 35-hour curfew to protect residents from the intensified artillery fire and aerial strikes. Bombardment is derived from the Greek bombos, "a deep, hollow sound."

Researchers studied thousands of noises made by pigs and determined that individual vocalizations can be associated with emotions. They analyzed more than 7,000 grunts, squeals, and oinks, comparing them with the pleasant or unpleasant stimuli that evoked the sounds. Short, low-frequency vocalizations were associated with positive experiences and feelings. Higher-pitched, longer noises were connected with negative events and emotions, including fear of being led to slaughter.

U.S. entomologists caused a lot of buzz this week with the news that an Asian spider which is now primarily found in Georgia will move up the eastern seaboard to New England this spring. The Joro spider is about three inches across, with striking black and yellow coloring. Spider experts say it's harmless but invasive, spreading by "hitchhiking" on cars. The Greek roots of entomologist are entomon, "insect," and -logia, "a theory or science."

Several Minneapolis-area nonprofits that claimed they used pandemic assistance to feed needy children were accused of fraud by the FBI this week. More than 15 organizations that purported to be feeding the hungry are being investigated. In court documents, the FBI said the groups stole tens of millions of dollars of federal food aid instead of buying meals for hungry residents. The Latin root of fraud means "cheating or deceit."

A new study suggests that ancient ocean creatures had an asymmetrical gait, a way of moving that resembled the gallop of a horse or a cheetah chasing its prey. The report upends previous assumptions that galloping evolved later, long after vertebrates first crawled onto land. Instead, new evidence points to the idea that the ability to gallop was lost and gained unevenly throughout the evolution of various species. The root of gallop means "to run well."

A growing number of Northern California residents are removing their utilities from the state's electric grid. Homeowners say they're frustrated by the cost of electricity and frequent blackouts. Many are taking advantage of newly affordable solar panels and batteries to disconnect from the regional network of transmission lines, transformers, and generation facilities. Some people in off-grid homes also cite Pacific Gas & Electric's poor safety record and lack of climate action.

During her BNP Paribas Open match against Veronika Kudermetova on March 12, a heckler made tennis star Naomi Osaka cry. The spectator yelled, loudly and cruelly insulting Osaka after she lost the first game of a second-round match. Osaka addressed the crowd following her eventual loss to Kudermetova, weeping as she referred to the verbal harassment. Heckler was originally used in Scotland, to describe someone publicly (and harshly) questioning parliamentary candidates.

Chicago has continued a longstanding St. Patrick's Day tradition, dying the Chicago River green in honor of the March 17 holiday. When the custom began in 1962, the city used a chemical dye; today an environmentally friendly vegetable-based powder locally known as "leprechaun dust" is used. The nonpolluting dye is orange, but it transforms water into the bright shade of green associated with the diminutive figures from Irish folklore. Leprechaun's roots mean "little body."

Australian regulators have approved a new malaria treatment for children. The single-dose drug, which has been proven to cure a particular variety of the mosquito-borne disease, was okayed for use in kids between the ages of 2 and 16. Malaria causes more than 500,000 deaths annually. Malaria is derived from the Italian mala aria, which literally means "bad air."

McDonald's ice cream machines are infamous for malfunctioning, and their constant breakdowns have spurred countless memes about the faulty soft-serve dispensers. Now they've also inspired a lawsuit, by the makers of an app meant to help franchise owners fix the broken machines themselves. The developers claim McDonald's conspired to steal their technology. Malfunction has roots meaning "perform" and "badly."

As Hong Kong faces its worst Covid-19 outbreak yet, the country is struggling to meet its testing needs. Since late January, Hong Kong has reported about 700,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths. While neighboring China responded to its own flare-up of the virus with massive lockdowns and by testing millions of residents, Hong Kong only has the capacity to test about 200,000 people each day.

Oil prices, which were already inflated, surged last week after the U.S. imposed sanctions against Russia. There was a respite this week from those high prices, with the cost of a barrel of crude oil dropping from $130 to less than $100 on March 15. The reprieve hasn't yet extended to buying gas at the pump, where prices have dipped slightly but remain well above average. Experts say the current pause in high prices is partly due to reduced use of oil in China during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Researchers have discovered the remains of a schooner that sank in Lake Superior during a storm in 1891. It's one of nine shipwrecks the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society has located in the past year using a new sonar device. The Atlanta, a schooner barge that carried coal and iron ore across the lake during the Industrial Revolution, was a three-masted ship with a crew of seven. Only two crew members survived the wreck.

The NCAA announced its official pairings for the men's college basketball tournament, with Arizona, Baylor, Gonzaga, and Kansas taking the number one seeds. The rankings, which match up each of the series' initial 68 teams for their first-round games, mark the official start of March Madness. The sports meaning of seed comes from the sense of spreading (or sowing) the teams like seeds, so the best ones won't meet up until later in the competition.

After Haiti's only functioning seismograph failed to detect 2010's devastating earthquake, a group of citizen scientists decided to make their own devices. These amateurs, practicing a kind of do-it-yourself seismology, successfully recorded the waves of last year's magnitude 7.2 quake. The information detected by the inexpensive devices allowed researchers to accurately locate the fault, detect its shape, and predict future seismic activity. The Greek seismos means "a shaking."

One day after squatters moved into a London mansion belonging to a Russian billionaire with ties to President Vladimir Putin, police arrested and removed them. No one was currently living in the residence when the protesters, who identified themselves as anarchists, occupied the building. They had covered the mansion with Ukrainian flags and banners, including one that read "This property has been liberated."

Indoor air quality experts say that one positive side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the attention currently being paid to ventilation in schools. High-quality air that moves and flows consistently through a building has been directly linked to health benefits and improved academics for the students who breathe it. The Latin root of ventilation means "wind."