Ripped from the Headlines: July 2023: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for July 15–July 21, 2023

A new study suggests that silence is actually a "sound" you hear. Researchers presented subjects with auditory illusions, testing to see if their minds perceived silence and sounds the same way. They found that illusions which trick people into falsely believing one audible tone is longer than another also work with varying lengths of silence; our brains interpret silence as an auditory experience. The Latin root of auditory means "to hear."

As Houston's South Asian population grows, so does the popularity of cricket in the Texas city. The traditional British sport, which involves hitting a ball with a wide bat as the opposing team simultaneously tries to hit a wicket with the ball, is especially popular in India and Pakistan. It's increasingly easy to watch or play cricket in Houston. Cricket comes from the Old French criquet and the Middle Dutch root cricke, "stick."

Critics are questioning whether a North Korean defector's stories about her home country are accurate. Yeonmi Park fled the authoritarian regime 16 years ago, and today she is a popular figure in conservative circles. Park often draws comparisons between North Korea's brutality and U.S. "cancel culture." Scholars cite inconsistencies in her stories about life in the repressive country, many of which contradict the stories of her fellow defectors.

Environmental activists disrupted two Wimbledon matches, first interrupting play in a game between Grigor Dimitrov and Sho Shimabukuro. Two hours later, another protester briefly halted a match between Katie Boulter and Daria Saville. Both events were planned by the climate justice group Just Stop Oil and involved activists throwing glitter and puzzle pieces onto the tennis court mid-game. The public disruptions are meant to bring media attention to the climate crisis.

Much of the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing extreme heat this week, a situation scientists warn has become increasingly likely. Temperatures in Phoenix exceeded 110 degrees for 19 days in a row, and dozens of other U.S. cities recorded dangerous heat. The severe weather, which makes it unsafe for outdoor play, sports, or work, is caused by burning fossil fuels and the effects of El Niño. The Latin extremus, "utmost," or "greatest degree," is the root of extreme.

A new touch-based technology gives deaf people a way to "hear" music. Engineers created a haptic suit fitted with 24 vibrating plates. The suit allows its wearer to feel musical vibrations around their body, giving subtle and varied sensations ranging from light thumps to the feeling of raindrops on skin. An accessible dance party gave both hearing and deaf guests a chance to feel and move to music. The Greek root of haptic is haptikos, "come into contact with."

Like a scene from a detective story, dozens of tourists were stranded at a former home of mystery novelist Agatha Christie after a tree fell and blocked the road. The visitors were only trapped for a few hours, and none met the tragic fates of many Christie characters in similar circumstances. If the incident, in which no one could enter or exit the property, had been part of a mystery plot, there would have been at least one baffling murder to be solved by the end of the day.

On July 16, a passenger crash-landed a small plane on Martha's Vineyard after its pilot was incapacitated. The 68-year-old Connecticut woman was the only rider on the 2006 Piper Meridian Turbo Prop plane when her 79-year-old husband suffered a medical emergency. The woman took over the controls and managed to set the plane down off the runway, without landing gear. Both the passenger and the pilot were taken to a hospital, where the man is listed in serious condition.

Scientists have invented a new paint so ultra-white that it reflects 98 percent of the sun's rays. When it's applied to the outside of buildings, the paint can reduce the surface temperature as much as 19 degrees. By bouncing waves of light away from buildings, the new paint is able to cut air conditioning use by up to 40 percent.Reflect is derived from the Latin reflectere, "to bend back."

New analysis of ancient sloth bones is helping archaeologists determine when humans first migrated to the Americas — and it was earlier than they previously believed. Three fossils belonging to enormous, long-extinct relatives of today's slow-moving tree dwellers show signs of having been modified into jewelry-like ornaments. The age of the bones indicates that humans probably inhabited what is now Brazil as long ago as the Ice Age.

Negotiations between striking writers and actors and Hollywood executives are at a stalemate, with both sides currently unwilling to compromise. Movie and television writers have been on strike for two months, while the actors' union voted to walk out just last week. Writers and actors are seeking increased pay and restrictions on the use of AI in films and TV. The impasse is predicted to last for weeks or months. Stalemate is a chess term meaning "unable to make a move."

A Kentucky man unearthed over 700 Civil War-era gold coins in a cornfield, many of which have turned out to be rare and valuable. A video posted to YouTube shows the man counting piles of dirt-encrusted coins, which he had just dug up. Archaeologists speculate that the coins were buried in the 1860s to hide them from an invading Confederate Army. Unearth adds un-, "the opposite of," to the now-obsolete verb earth, "commit a corpse to the ground."