Online Data Could Pose Risks in a Post-Roe v. Wade World
If the Supreme Court overturns the landmark decision, women in states where abortion becomes illegal could find themselves subject to increased digital surveillance. For someone suspected of seeking an...
View ArticleHas the BLM Movement Influenced Police Use of Lethal Force?
For decades, researchers have studied the influence of social movements on broader society. Yet nearly nine years after the start of Black Lives Matter, few studies have sought to quantify the...
View ArticleIn Myanmar, Lessons for Life After Roe v. Wade
In Myanmar, where abortion is illegal unless the mother’s life is at risk, some grassroots networks have made it their mission to provide access to reproductive care. In a post-Roe v. Wade world, such...
View ArticleBook Review: An Urgent Plea to Save the World’s Megaforests
In “Ever Green,” John W. Reid and Thomas E. Lovejoy offer a surprisingly hopeful look at the five largest forests remaining on Earth — in New Guinea, the Congo, the Amazon, the North American boreal...
View ArticleFor Online News Association, the Thorny Ethics of Partnering with 3M
For decades, 3M withheld evidence showing PFASs accumulate in the environment and in people’s bloodstreams and have potentially toxic effects. Now embroiled in chemical-related lawsuits, 3M has...
View ArticleWith Reduced Air Pollution Comes Less — or More — Hurricanes
The effects of increased emissions are well known, but a new study shows rapid air pollution reduction has vastly different impacts on tropical storms depending on location. Industrial soot, or...
View ArticleIt Took 35 years to Get a Malaria Vaccine. Why?
At a time when Covid-19 vaccines were developed and authorized in less than one year, the delay for malaria raises a question: Why did a vaccine for a leading global killer take so long to arrive? The...
View ArticleFrustrated With Delays, Doctors Take Aim at Prior Authorization
Doctors must seek approval from insurance companies before prescribing certain medications and tests. While this process is supposed to ensure evidence-based care, physicians groups say the paperwork...
View ArticleBook Review: A Timely History of Nuclear Catastrophes
In “Atoms and Ashes,” Harvard professor Serhii Plokhy provides a harrowing account of the world’s six past nuclear catastrophes, from the 1954 Castle-Bravo test in the Marshall Islands to the 2011...
View ArticleOn Reservations, Scarce Health Resources Worsen Fentanyl Crisis
In the first three months of 2022, the Montana Highway Patrol seized over 12,000 fentanyl pills, more than three times the number from all of 2021. In March, Blackfeet Nation political leaders declared...
View ArticleEp. 61: When Accents Speak Louder Than Words
This month: For scientists who come from abroad to live and work in America, accents can be personal. It’s discouraging to be misunderstood, even when they think they’re speaking clearly. Sometimes, it...
View ArticleThe Challenges of Calculating a Lab Leak Risk
The odds of a dangerous pathogen escaping a lab are uncertain. And some analysts say attempts to evaluate such risks highlight the large unknowns that remain about laboratory safety — and the...
View ArticleThe Long, Uncertain Road to Artificial General Intelligence
A versatile new artificial intelligence system, released by Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind, has led some computing experts to speculate that the industry is on the verge of creating machines that can...
View ArticleBook Review: Behind the Quest for Eternal Life
In “The Price of Immortality,” Peter Ward explores the frontiers of longevity science and pseudoscience, weighing with a journalist’s eye the merits of products, promises, and scientific advances from...
View ArticleA Fight Over Wolves Pits Facts Against Feelings in Wisconsin
In the latest debate about the right number of wolves for Wisconsin, nearly all participants claim to have science on their side. But cultural values and politics run deep in wildlife management, and...
View ArticleUnder Climate Change, Care Workers Often Act as First Responders
The pandemic illuminated how important this workforce is in times of emergency. It also exposed how little care workers are integrated into disaster response planning, despite the role they played in...
View ArticleHealth Workers Fill the Gaps for Millions of Zimbabwean Villagers
Although more than two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s 15.3 million people live in rural areas like Makusha Township, rural health facilities in the country are often under-resourced, with fewer nurses and...
View ArticleIn Remote Ecuador, Pandemic Health Care Is Stretched Thin
Public health experts overwhelmingly agree that Covid-19 has surfaced deep-rooted systematic problems in Ecuador’s rural health care system. Roughly 9,800 health care professionals serve more than 6.3...
View ArticleFor Many Rural Americans, Covid Highlights a Dearth of Doctors
In New York State, as well as across the U.S., medical personnel have quit in record numbers during the pandemic. Turnover rates were four times higher for lower-paid health aides and nursing...
View ArticleIn Economics, Grade Restrictions Weed Out Students of Color
A culture of competition in many introductory college courses, known as weed-out courses, is exacting an outsized toll on students from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. If GPA...
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