Ripped from the Headlines: March 2024: This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for March 9–March 15, 2024

The U.S. Department of Defense stated there was no evidence that aliens have ever visited Earth. Pentagon officials said the department reviewed government archives from 1945 to the present day on the subject of extraterrestrial life. The report showed earthy explanations for every UFO sighting, and no indications that authorities had hidden crashed alien spacecraft. Alien derives from the Latin alius, "other."

Oppenheimer won seven Oscars on March 10, including best picture and best director for Christopher Nolan. The movie presents a portrait of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who invented the atomic bomb during World War II. It follows the scientist over decades, including his discovery that the energy released during nuclear fission, when a uranium or plutonium atom's nucleus is split, can be used to create a powerful weapon.

Archaeologists in Iran found the oldest known lipstick, dating from 1936–1687 BCE. The Bronze Age cosmetic is a dark red paint inside a cylindrical stone vial which was probably applied to the lips with a brush. The Greek kosmetike, "the art of dress and ornament," is the root of cosmetic. Scientists cited the irony of making the discovery in a country where wearing lipstick, nail polish, and other cosmetics is illegal for many women.

After 98 years of students taking the SAT using pencils and paper, the college entrance exam is now fully digital. Not only will the famously stressful test be taken on a computer using an app called Bluebook, but its format has also been revamped. Instead of three hours, the SAT is now two hours and 14 minutes long, with more time given to answer each question. Test-takers will also have access to an online graphing calculator for the math section.

On March 13 the House of Representatives passed a bill meant to force a sale of TikTok. Officials claim the social media platform's Chinese ownership is a national security risk, because China could use it to spread disinformation or steal data. TikTok's popularity and powerful algorithm make it ideal for disseminating falsehoods and political propaganda, according to lawmakers. Disinformation is a Cold War-era translation from the Russian dezinformatsiya.

The Senate approved a funding bill that will pay for about 30 percent of federal agencies, avoiding a partial government shutdown. The legislation is a step in the direction of passing a wider budget agreement. The $459 billion plan provides the necessary funds for military, veterans affairs, agriculture, commerce, justice, transportation, housing and urban development, and energy departments.

A biotechnology company says it's close to reviving the long-extinct woolly mammoth. Colossal Biosciences announced it had developed elephant stem cells that could be transformed into a version of the enormous creatures that lived thousands of years ago. The reconstructed mammoth would, like the original, be a massive, shaggy, elephant-like animal that thrives in very cold temperatures. Mammoth is from a Russian word and its Ostyak root meaning "earth-horn."

A new study suggests that humans are fairly bad at reading their pets' cues. Researchers found that people misinterpreted signals from unhappy cats 30 percent of the time. Humans usually understand a cat's purr to mean contentment, but purring can be a "self-soothing" sound masking tension. Likewise, a dog's wagging tail can signal aggression, but people usually see it as friendliness. The Latin roots of misinterpret mean "understand badly."

Scientists have found a spicy way to preserve ancient Egyptian scrolls. Researchers at The Grand Egyptian Museum discovered that wasabi, the green Japanese horseradish served with sushi, keeps fungal infections from spreading on fragile papyrus. The material, made from the stem of a water plant into thick sheets, is vulnerable to fungi. Wasabi vapors stave off fungal growth without damaging the paper or ancient texts written on it. In Latin, papyrus means "the paper plant."

An investigation found that Elon Musk’s philanthropy mainly serves his own interests and makes him eligible for enormous tax breaks. Musk's charity controls billions of dollars, but in 2022 donated millions less than tax law requires. Half the funds it did give were linked to Musk, his businesses, or his employees, including a nonprofit school where five of the 14 students were his own children. Philanthropy is from phil-, "loving," and anthrōpos, "mankind."

During his State of the Union address, President Biden criticized "shrinkflation." This happens when companies surreptitiously increase their profits by, for example, putting fewer potato chips in a bag. It's a sneaky way for businesses to earn more money, making consumers think they're buying the same box of cookies or roll of toilet paper; though the price stays the same (or increases slightly), people get less of the product they pay for.

Conservation efforts over the past 25 years have helped elephant populations in southern Africa bounce back from their decline, according to a new study. Researchers found that the rebound occurred mainly in large, protected areas with space for the elephants to migrate. After decades of dwindling numbers, elephants from Tanzania southward have returned to their 1995 population of 290,000. Rebound is from re-, "again," and the Old French root bondir, "to leap."