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🥵Sunny and hot, with highs around 89. Sunset will be at 7:50 p.m.
Today we have some answers to kids’ questions about jellyfish. But first: Gov. Maura Healey yesterday signed a bill allowing doctors to perform abortions past 24 weeks of pregnancy. The new law uses simpler language than the state’s previous abortion laws, stating that “an abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.”
One of the people who advocated for this law was Kate Dineen, who in 2021 found out her fetus had a stroke in utero. She had to travel to Washington, D.C., for an abortion. “He would either die or survive for some period of time with a spectrum of devastating outcomes. And so, upon learning of the prognosis, I asked, 'What are my options?’ And I will never forget the response. ‘You may still be able to explore termination if you’re able to travel,’” Dineen said. “Travel where? We were standing in our kitchen in Boston, just less than a mile from some of the best hospitals in the country.” You can read more about this law here.
Four Things to Know
1. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is launching a congressional investigation into the Trump administration’s deportations of people in the military and their families. An Associated Press investigation found that immigration agents detained and deported spouses and partners of more than 50 active-duty troops.
“Donald Trump is breaking our country’s promises to service members by tearing apart dozens of military families who were promised immigration protections,” Warren said. “That’s just plain cruel, and it’s hurting our military readiness and morale.”
2. City leaders in Worcester are asking the MBTA for quicker and more frequent service to and from Boston. A spokesperson for the MBTA said the agency’s leaders share “similar aspirations for enhanced regional rail.”
But actually making it happen will take some figuring out. “The issues are complex,” said Richard Burke, the chair of Worcester’s working group on transit. “Some can be addressed in the short term. Some will take funding and many, many years to address.”
3. Researchers conducted 45-minute interviews with people who use cannabis in states where it’s legal. Participants said they appreciated stronger quality control measures and felt less stigma when purchasing cannabis legally. The study’s title is “I like not having to go behind a dumpster at a Taco Bell.”
But respondents also said they want to know more about where the taxes they pay on legal cannabis are going. In Massachusetts, there is a 6.25% state sales tax, a 10.75% excise tax and up to 3% in optional taxes that go to cities and towns.
4. Northampton residents are asking the city council to rethink the city’s ban on letting people post flyers downtown. “I don’t want people sticking flyers on post office boxes or parking meters, but I feel like [light] posts and general public structures should be fair game,” arts promoter Oliver Kelly said.
Right now people can post their flyers on boards inside local businesses. Northampton City Councilor Garrick Perry said he worries allowing them in more places would create questions, such as who would take down flyers for events and projects that have already passed.
Kids have questions about jellyfish. This ‘jelly lab’ has answers.
Every day kids gather in front of the New England Aquarium’s jellyfish display and direct a torrent of questions toward their parents, teachers and anyone else within earshot: Can jellyfish see? How do they reproduce? Can they regenerate their tentacles?
Unbeknownst to them, there’s a lab a few floors overhead where scientists who study jellyfish hold the answers to those very questions. So GBH’s Craig LeMoult spoke with some kids at the aquarium and brought their questions to the jellyfish researchers. Here are a few of them.
How does a jellyfish see? — Margot Pepyne, 6
They don’t really see, said Chris Doller, part of the team that breeds jellyfish. “Some jellyfish have a very primitive eye,” he said. “Not enough to, like, see images. But almost to, sort of, navigate around an obstacle in their way. But for the most part, jellyfish are not capable of sight.”
How [are] they made? — Kenessa Bradway, 5
“The males have sperm, females have eggs,” Doller told LeMoult. “They spawn in the water when the conditions are right.” Jellyfish sperm and egg combine to form a larval egg, which turns into a polyp. That polyp can reproduce by itself. “The polyps can reproduce asexually, so they can sort of clone themselves,” Doller said. “So what started as one fertilized egg plants itself on a rock, [and] may colonize a whole rock of these polyps. Each polyp itself can actually metamorphose and bud off these little swimming jellyfish.”
You can hear more from Doller and the curious kids here. One last tip before we go: If you get stung by a jellyfish, Dollar recommended putting vinegar on it.
Dig deeper:
-Cold-stunned sea turtles return home after six months of rehab
-Local marine animal response team frees humpback off Rockport
-Hammerhead shark tagged off Block Island for first time ever
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