This Week in Words: April 13–19, 2019

Eleven-year-old Laura Maradiaga-Alvarado was scheduled to be deported back to El Salvador without her sister and mother, who are seeking asylum in United States. However, the girl’s pending deportation was halted by a federal judge this week when her case gained national attention after a Houston police chief tweeted about it.

Pete Buttigieg, a.k.a. “Mayor Pete,” is the latest politician to announce that he’s running for the Democratic party’s nomination to unseat President Trump in the upcoming 2020 election. If he wins, 37-year-old Buttigieg would be the youngest person ever elected president. He is the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a war veteran, and a Rhodes scholar.

A new, non-invasive cancer treatment called Proton Radiation Therapy (PRT) has shown promise in treating neuroblastoma. PRT appears not to damage healthy cells, targeting only the cancer tissue. A recent study demonstrated that patients who received the new treatment experienced double the survival rate when compared to those who received traditional therapy.

Trade talks between China and the United States have passed the preliminary stages and reached the point where the negotiators will meet face to face. The envoys, or officials, will meet later this month with the goal of reaching an agreement in late May or early June.

The Overstory by Richard Powers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this week. Powers previously won the National Book Award in 2006 for The Echo Maker. When something is evocative, it brings to mind all kinds of associations and connections and is rich in memory-stirring details.

In more Pulitzer Prize news, Aretha Franklin was awarded a Special Citation for her lifetime of artistic achievement and excellence. The citation was awarded posthumously, or after death, as Franklin died in August, 2018. Franklin made history as the first female artist to win this prestigious honor. Something indelible will endure, lasting for generations to come.

A devastating fire swept through the famous Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, France. Although the spire could not be saved, the main section of the cathedral was found to be structurally sound after the flames were extinguished. No one knows yet how many priceless religious artifacts were lost, although several had been moved to other secure locations in recent years because of the threat of terrorist attacks. A fund to rebuild the damaged section has already raised over one billion dollars.

When a woman noticed an unusual, musky smell on her husband, she insisted that he go to the doctor for a checkup. The man was subsequently diagnosed Parkinson’s disease, and is undergoing treatment. Now the woman is working with researchers to develop a “smell-test” method of sniffing out the disease. So far, she has been 98% accurate in detecting the illness. Early diagnosis of a degenerative disease like Parkinson’s is considered crucial to treatment.

A new study suggests that a typical human beard is “ickier” than the fur on your average dog. Researchers measured the amount of harmful, or pathogenic, microbes and concluded that a dog’s neck contains less stuff that could make it sick than the crop of microscopic critters that's hiding out in human facial hair.

On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr released a redacted form of the long-awaited Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The 448-page report is the result of a two-year investigation. The report did not find that Trump or his team conspired with the Russians, but it does lay out how Russia interfered in the election and how the president attempted to thwart the investigation itself.