It’s Peak Mosquito Time on the Atlantic Coast: Will Zika Follow?
A new study, published ahead of peer review, concludes that the confluence of peak summer weather, tough-travelling Asian tiger mosquitoes, dense urban populations, and an infected traveler returning...
View ArticleGenetic Differences in Cell Line Could be Big News for Researchers
Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Brown found that specimens from the same cell line — which should have been the same — actually had significant genetic variation. Amid a flurry of news about problems...
View ArticlePutting a Price on Life
In cases of false imprisonment or wrongful death, the loss to the victim and their families encompasses a lot more than forgone wages. Many economists reject simple cost-benefit analyses and say it's...
View ArticleAbstracts: Asthma, Anthrax, and More
Exposure to a traditional farming lifestyle may put children at a lower risk for developing asthma. An anthrax outbreak in northern Russia is thought to have originated from an infected reindeer...
View ArticleWill QR Codes for GM Food Reveal Information — or Conceal it?
With genetically modified foods now required to carry explicit labeling, companies may elect to package that information inside QR codes. The problem is that most Americans don’t scan those, according...
View ArticleBook Excerpt: ‘Hood: Trailblazer of the Genomics Age’
Two weeks before Christmas 1999, biologist Leroy Hood appeared to have it all. But his endowed professorship at the University of Washington proved to be a roadblock in achieving his vision for...
View ArticleAbstracts: Wind Farms, Lead in Schools, and More
The first off-shore wind turbines in the U.S. have been installed off the coast of Rhode Island. Portland Public School District officials knew water from school taps was unsafe, but didn't post signs...
View ArticleBracing For the ‘Big One’ on Oregon’s Coast
Last month, government officials, utility companies, and civil and construction engineers from Oregon State University came together to lay out emergency management plans for the "big one," a massive...
View ArticleWhat I Left Out: Sharkpedo?
Under a secret Navy-funded undertaking known as "Project Headgear," U.S. scientists attempted to use sharks as bomb delivery systems. Strapping them with explosives and using electric shocks to steer...
View ArticleThe Ivanpah Solar Plant Kills Birds. Video Surveillance Could Help.
At the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System at the edge of the Mojave Desert in California, scientists are looking to video monitoring to better understand what's attracting the thousands of birds...
View ArticleInto the Wild: When Farmed Salmon Interbreed With Their Wild Cousins
Escaped salmon from fish farms are spreading genetic material into wild Atlantic salmon populations and compromising their reproductive health, according to a new study that sampled 20,000 fish in 147...
View ArticleUnsung: James Ellis LuValle
The 1936 Olympic games Berlin are perhaps best known for the singular performance of Jesse Owens, who undercut Adolf Hitler's notions of Aryan superiority by taking home four gold medals. But another...
View ArticleAfrica’s Nursery for Einsteins
Moving beyond the traditional international development model, physicist Neil Turok has a bigger goal for Africa — finding the next Einstein. And with the addition of more research institutions — and a...
View ArticleAbstracts: Flooding in Louisiana, Patient H.M., and More
President Obama declared Louisiana a federal disaster zone after flooding killed six and required tens of thousands to be rescued. Luke Dittrich responded to criticisms about the portrayal of MIT...
View ArticleConservation Purgatory: Listing a Species as ‘Data Deficient’
Before the red-crested tree rat was spotted on a nature reserve in Colombia in 2011, it was listed as "Data Deficient" by the IUCN. It's now listed as "Critically Endangered," but a lack of information...
View ArticleAre You a Scientist and Sexual Harasser? We Have Some Questions…
Sexual harassment in the sciences is nothing new, but it is gaining the attention of a new generation of science journalists, for whom persistent pockets of old-boy sexism within the academy appear as...
View ArticleFor the Obama Administration, the Clean Coal Dream Lives On
Clean coal technology, which hopes to capture and store carbon released from coal power plants, has no shortage of funding for experimental-stage research. If proven cost-effective and feasible, that...
View ArticleIt’s Never Too Early to Talk Science Policy on the Campaign Trail
Pointing to Barack Obama's formation of a scientific advisory team in the run-up to the 2008 election, an advocacy group argues that discussing science early on the campaign trail can have a profound...
View ArticleAbstracts: Sex-Testing at the Olympics, Dealing with Disasters, Voting, and More
Some call on Olympian Caster Semenya to undergo sexual-testing but others question how fair that procedure is, doctors ask people in Maryland how resources should be divided in a disaster scenario,...
View ArticlePlaying Politics With Zika — and the Public’s Health
Emergency Zika funding has been mired in Congress for months, and the delays have likely been made worse by a paralyzing and divisive presidential election. Now researchers are also publicly worrying...
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