The House passes a bill banning transgender girls and women from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

The bill would amend Title IX , the law banning sex discrimination in schools, to recognize a person's "sex" The bill passed in the House with 218 voting in favor, 206 voting against and one voting present.

A similar measure has been reintroduced in the Republican -controlled Senate .

The vaquita, which means "little cow" in Spanish , is the world's smallest porpoise and most endangered marine mammal.

Since 1997 , vaquitas have experienced a dramatic population loss from about 600 individuals to an estimate of less than 10 animals.

Florida Atlantic University , in collaboration with the San Diego Natural History Museum and SeaWorld San Diego, is playing an important role in this preservation.

Vaquitas are expected to become extinct imminently.

The 3D scans of this vaquita skeleton will be hosted on MorphoSource , a publicly accessible data repository.

The scans will be available for download and used for education, outreach, and research purposes.

SeaWorld San Diego will be working with Bone Clones to produce full replicas of the skeleton for education.

8% of U.S. health care costs are attributable to work-related stressors, particularly among medical providers.

45% of medical providers report high levels of job burnout.

Self-guided meditation may be a low-cost, low-burden way of improving employee health at scale.

As little as five minutes a day decreases stress.

The Milken Institute's yearly rankings highlight U.S. metro areas with job growth, affordable housing, economic equality and other big draws.

The top five spots are claimed by Raleigh , North Carolina ; Ogden , Utah and Salt Lake City , Utah ; Huntsville , Alabama ; and Colorado Springs .

Florida 's manatee population is still recovering from a mass starvation event several years ago .

Warm-water outflows of about a dozen power plants are a popular destination for the docile aquatic mammals.

Manatees have been attracted to the warm-water discharges for decades , following a watery travel route.

The number of manatees near the power plant can fluctuate, but the most they've counted this year is about 85 .

The manatee was downgraded from endangered to threatened in 2017 and will remain in that classification.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rejected efforts by several Florida environmental groups to get the manatees back on the endangered species list.

Officials and residents need to remain vigilant in protecting the threatened species, de Wit says.

Online parenting skills program developed at the University of Oregon can help parents in rural areas.

Parents who engaged with the program reported fewer symptoms of depression and improved parenting effectiveness.

Rural areas have been disproportionately affected by the opioid epidemic.

Mental health issues, substance misuse or both affect many families in the United States .

More information: Katherine A. Hails et al, Family Check-Up Online effects on parenting and parent wellbeing in families of toddler to preschool-age children, Early Childhood Research Quarterly ( 2024 ). DOI: 10.1016 /j.ecresq.2024.09.009 Provided by University of Oregon .

Daniel Chapo sworn in as president of Mozambique under heavy guard following weeks of deadly political unrest.

Chapo extends Frelimo party's 50-year rule of the gas-rich African nation after October 's contested election.

Supporters of opposition candidate Venancio Mondlane have protested for months , sometimes drawing a violent police response.

H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) has caused a panzootic affecting all continents except Australia .

First detected in milk samples collected from dairy cattle in Kansas and Texas in March 2024 , Clade 2.3.4b of the virus has since been further detected in cattle on 891 farms across sixteen states in the US .

Procter & Gamble sought to understand which surfactants in cleaners can cause eye irritation.

Researchers used the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory .

P&G has committed to global sustainability goals through its Ambition 2040 initiative.

The study grew out of the firm's commitments to product performance, safety and environmental sustainability.

Surfactants in shampoo and other cleaners that irritate the eye disrupt the outer corneal membrane to create microscopic holes that allow chemicals to penetrate to the tissues beneath.

Increased concentration of surfactants studied didn't necessarily increase damage to the membrane, at least in contact with the liposome alone.

The results could point to formulas for gentler, less-irritating surfactsants.

The interest rate for the most popular U.S. home loan rose last week to an eight-month high of 7.09% , extending an upward trend that's squeezing would-be homebuyers.

The average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose 10 basis points in the week ended Jan. 10 .

It was the fifth straight weekly rise and puts the main home-loan rate nearly a full percentage point above where it was in September .