Ripped from the Headlines: August 2023: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for July 29–August 4, 2023

A new CDC study shows that 450,000 people may have a meat allergy that is caused by ticks. The condition, known as alpha-gal syndrome, can cause hives, nausea, and even anaphylactic shock after eating beef, pork, lamb, or meat from most mammals. Scientists say this allergy occurs when the lone star tick transmits a sugar that makes its host's immune system overreact to the same sugar in meat. Allergy is from a Greek root that means "strange."

Researchers found that extreme heat can interfere with cognition. In a test comparing the thinking abilities of college students, half of whom slept in uncomfortably warm rooms, those with air-conditioned dorms responded faster and more accurately. A second study showed that cognitive ability begins to decline when air temperatures reach 79 degrees, a result of nervous system changes and reduced oxygen levels in the blood.

A week after members of Niger's military seized control of the country's government, hundreds of Europeans began being evacuated. On July 26, Nigerien soldiers forcibly ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum. It's the fourth coup in Niger since the country gained its independence from France in 1960, and it follows recent military takeovers in Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali. The Greek root of coup, kolaphos, means "a blow, punch, or slap."

During the forty years since the artist Beverly Buchanan built her most famous outdoor sculpture, it has been slowly sinking into a Georgia marsh. The Marsh Ruins, three rocklike forms considered to be the late painter and sculptor's masterwork, were designed to do exactly that: to very gradually vanish within the swampy, saltwater-soaked landscape of the wetlands. Marsh is from the Proto-Germanic mari-, or "sea."

August will be an exciting month according to astronomers, with two full moons and the year's best meteor shower. A supermoon on August 1 will be followed by an unusual "bonus" full moon on August 30, known as a "blue moon." The entire month is a busy one for shooting stars, but the Perseid meteor showers, on August 12 and 13, will be the best chance to see the glowing space rocks sailing across the night sky. The Greek root of meteor means "things in heaven above."

A July 31 missile attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown left at least ten people dead and more than 100 injured. The Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih destroyed an apartment tower and a university building, despite the Kremlin's insistence that Russia only aims weapons at "legitimate military targets." Missile is from the Latin missilis, "that may be thrown or hurled," and its root, mittere, "to release, send, or throw."

A new poll found that registered Republicans prefer Donald Trump to be their next presidential nominee by a wide margin. Trump led his closest rival in the primary contest, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, by 37 percentage points. Potential voters who will choose the 2024 Republican candidate seem to be unconcerned by the former president's two federal indictments and other legal troubles. Nominee comes from a Latin word that means "name for office," and a root meaning "name."

Worms suspended in permafrost for 46,000 years were revived by scientists, who hope to learn how they stayed alive for so long. The two tiny roundworms, encased in Siberian soil that remained frozen solid for millennia, began to wriggle after being thawed by researchers. Their ability to survive extreme cold for tens of thousands of years suggests that it's possible for life to be paused. Permafrost, short for permanent frost, was coined in 1943 by a geologist.

A Taylor Swift concert in Seattle shook the ground hard enough to cause seismic activity roughly equivalent to a magnitude 2.3 earthquake. Swift's music itself, along with the 70,000 dancing fans who filled the stands at Lumen Field, caused sustained tremors twice as high on the Richter scale as the explosive vibrations from a 2011 Seahawks touchdown. The Greek root of seismic is seismos, "a shaking."

Two groups of interns for Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski spent the summer competing against each other to take selfies with every single U.S. senator on Capitol Hill. After the June cohort got photos with 75 lawmakers, the July interns vowed to track down every legislator in the Senate. They reached their goal hours before the August recess, taking their 100th selfie with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.

A White House panel recommended limiting the FBI’s ability to use a warrantless surveillance program to search for information about Americans. The advisory group said that failing to limit the monitoring of U.S. businesses and citizens would ultimately make it politically harder for the FBI to keep watch over foreign adversaries. Surveillance is from a French verb, surveiller, "to watch over," and its Latin root vigil, "watchful."

Archaeologists uncovered what they believe to be part of Nero's theater in Rome, including the remains of marble columns. Though historians have discussed the existence of the first-century emperor's private performance venue, this is their first concrete proof of it. Nero is known for his admiration of poetry and music. The Greek source of theater is theatron, "place for viewing," from theasthai, "to behold."