Ripped from the Headlines: April 2022: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 9–April 15, 2022

A recent employment posting by the University of California, Los Angeles caused a stir in the world of academia and beyond. The job, as an adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, required a Ph.D. and extensive teaching experience, but it offered no pay. UCLA removed the posting after many people protested, but the incident led to a wider discussion about the fact that most of these part-time, contract-based positions are underpaid, and often they have no salary.

Astronomers have a new theory about an ongoing mystery: why the distant side of the moon looks so different from the surface that's visible from Earth. While the near side is darkened by ancient lava flows, the far side is much paler. After studying the largest lunar crater, scientists deduced that the asteroid that caused it may have spread intense heat inside the moon, causing volcanoes to erupt on the side we can see. Astronomer has a root meaning "star."

Twitter announced that Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, will not serve on the social media company's board of directors. After Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder, he was initially invited to join its governing body. As a board member, Musk would have been limited to acquiring no more than 14.9 percent of Twitter; the announcement led to speculation that he may try to take over the company.

On April 11, President Bident nominated former prosecutor Steven M. Dettelbach to be the new head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The selection of Dettelbach to lead the department is seen as part of the administration's renewed push to combat gun violence. Over time, the meaning of bureau evolved from "desk" to "office" to "government office."

A dog named Parks is one of the newest employees at Florida's Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. The two-year-old Labrador retriever was hired thanks to his impressive ability to follow directions. Parks knows 40 commands, ranging from ordinary instructions like "sit" and "stay" to complex directives, including turning on lights, opening doors, and even playing cards, choosing a single one from a deck. His most important task, however, is comforting and cuddling sick kids.

After being exiled from its city and its nation, a Ukrainian soccer team will play a series of exhibition games in several countries. The Shakhtar Donetsk club was forced to leave Kyiv when bombs began falling on players' homes. After continued fighting in Ukraine abruptly canceled the soccer season there, the team went abroad to play, hoping to draw attention to Ukraine's plight. The Latin root of exile is exul, "banished person," from roots meaning "wander away."

After owners of a small farm in Maine learned that nearby land had used sludge, or treated sewage waste, as fertilizer in the 1990s, testing revealed that their soil and water had high levels of PFAS, dangerous "forever chemicals." Investigations have shown that the issue is much wider, with nearly 3,000 confirmed sites of contamination in the U.S. Improving soil with sludge is still common, though it's becoming increasingly clear that it may not be a safe way to fertilize farmland.

Seventeen years after escaping from a zoo in Kansas, a fugitive flamingo has been identified in Texas. The bird made its getaway from the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita during a 2005 windstorm, moments before its wings were scheduled to be clipped to prevent long flights. The runaway flamingo was identified this week by its leg tag, as it calmly strolled on a beach in Port Lavaca on the Gulf Coast. Fugitive is derived from a Latin root meaning "to flee or to take flight."

A sophisticated cheese heist in the Netherlands left cheese farmer Gerda van Dorp with an empty storage room. Thieves snuck in overnight and stole 3,500 pounds of cheese, a total of 161 large wheels, valued at about $23,000. The break-in set back production by six months, and the criminals also made off with wheelbarrows and a trailer, presumably to transport the purloined cheese wheels. Heist comes from American slang, via hoist, "to lift."

A baby pademelon was finally spotted this week at the Chester Zoo in England, two months after its birth. After spending those first weeks hidden inside its mother's pouch, the tiny marsupial was spied peeking its head out. The dusky pademelon, often described as a "miniature kangaroo," is native to New Guinea and on islands around Indonesia. The Greek marsipion, "little pouch," is the root of marsupial.

Some immunologists believe the future of Covid-19 vaccination lies in nasal sprays, rather than injections. They say that the aerosol spread of the virus, frequently from one person's nose to another, means that a puff of vaccine inside a patient's nostrils may be the most effective prevention. Delivering medication nasally can boost immunity within the nose itself, and it's easier for people who are leery of needles. Nasal comes from the Latin nasus, or "nose."

Paleontologists at a site in North Dakota think they've discovered shards of the asteroid responsible for killing the dinosaurs. After years spent excavating fossils from the Tanis site, scientists found spherules, small hardened droplets of molten rock that result from meteor impacts, which they believe formed 65 million years ago. Large, intact dinosaur fossils found nearby reinforce their theory, though it remains controversial. The root of paleontologist means "ancient."

Pakistan's parliament chose the country's new prime minister on April 11, selecting the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif. Two days earlier, Imran Khan was ousted after a parliamentary vote of no confidence. Sharif is the younger brother of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, part of a family that's been investigated repeatedly for corruption. Members of Khan's party boycotted the vote by lawmakers in an effort to undercut the new leadership's legitimacy.

Despite last month's warnings from Western leaders not to spread Russian disinformation about the invasion of Ukraine, Chinese state media has increasingly parroted those messages. In recent days, China has echoed Russian denials of civilian deaths in Bucha and retweeted fake photos of Ukrainians holding Nazi flags, fueling conspiracy theories worldwide. The verb parrot comes from the bird of the same name and its uncanny ability to mimic human speech.

As of April 11, U.S. citizens now have a third choice when marking their gender on passport applications. In addition to "F" and "M," the forms now offer "X" as an option. The change follows a lawsuit last year by a nonbinary Colorado resident who wanted their travel documents to accurately reflect their gender. A State Department official said that the "unspecified or another gender identity" choice would be available on additional government records in 2023.

A Japanese billionaire is investing in a company that makes "emotional" robots, meant to be used with children and senior citizens. Yusaku Maezawa's investment group bought the company Groove X, which produces the Lovot, or "love robot." The programmable, automated machines roll on wheels and have dozens of sensors that allow them to respond affectionately to human stimuli. Robot is from the Czech robotnik, "forced worker," and a root that means "servant."

The first round of a French presidential election on April 10 ended with the current president, Emmanuel Macron, finishing slightly ahead of the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. The two will face a runoff vote on April 24. If Le Pen wins that deciding election, she will be the first far-right president in France's history. The political meaning of runoff, "an election between the two with the most votes in a prior election," was first used in American English in 1910.

The world's skinniest skyscraper is finished and ready for residents of its luxury apartments to move in. The New York City building, which is a quarter of a mile tall and only 60 feet wide, is locally described as "the coffee stirrer" because of its stick-thin shape. Units in Steinway Tower range in price from seven- to sixty-six million dollars. In German, a skyscraper is known as a Wolkenkratzer, or "cloud-scraper."

Bird lovers — and scientists — have long believed that a Shakespeare fanatic introduced the European starling to New York in 1890 as part of his quest to bring every bird mentioned in the Bard's plays to North America. However, new research suggests that the birds, which now number about 85 million, were introduced to the continent earlier, and by many different people. Starlings have distinctive speckles and a purple sheen, and fly in enormous formations known as "murmurations."

The 77-year-old ice cream company Baskin-Robbins announced it has updated its brand, its first such makeover in 16 years. The logo's playful pink-and-blue font has been replaced with a crisp, modernized version. Baskin-Robbins employees have newly designed uniforms, and even the packaging has gotten a refresh. A company representative said the update is meant to appeal to younger customers.