Decades of Road Salting Is Polluting the Mississippi River
Across the U.S., freshwater sources are being polluted by dramatic increases in salt concentration. In colder states, road salt is typically the dominant source, resulting in a 35 percent spike in the...
View ArticleGood Blood, Bad Policy: The Red Cross and Jim Crow
The Red Cross’s 1940s policy of racially segregating blood propped up notions of racial difference and Black inferiority. For Black Americans who were already locked in a battle for dignity and civil...
View ArticleGoogle Search Has Nothing to Fear From ChatGPT
Some tech industry insiders have speculated that ChatGPT-style bots might revolutionize, or even replace, traditional internet search. Although ChatGPT is good at what it does — generating what appears...
View ArticleBook Review: Of Squirrels and Deer and Other Beasts of Burden
In “Pests,” science journalist Bethany Brookshire explores our complex relationships with the creatures that invade and share our spaces, making the case that the animals we label pests — from rats and...
View ArticleWanted (by Scientists): Dead Birds and Bats, Felled by Renewables
Biologists are creating a nationwide repository of winged creatures killed at wind and solar facilities. The carcasses hold clues about how the animals lived and died, and may answer questions...
View ArticleSevere Nausea During Pregnancy Often Goes Untreated
The nausea that comes with morning sickness is common in the first trimester of pregnancy, but some women experience symptoms that linger much longer and require medical attention. However, those often...
View ArticleCriminologists, Looking to Biology for Insight, Stir a Racist Past
After a decades-long effort to bring biology back to the study of crime, the field of biosocial criminology is thriving. But its rise has also sparked alarm among some criminologists and other...
View ArticleWhy Are We So Afraid of Nuclear Power?
Nuclear power has always been overshadowed by rhetoric: overpromising techno-utopians on one hand, and fearmongering doomsayers on the other. But as we face a warming planet, it might be time to...
View ArticleBook Review: Behind Wall Street’s Huge Gamble on Cancer Drugs
“For Blood and Money” is Nathan Vardi’s thriller-like account of how private investors fueled the race between two rival startups to develop groundbreaking blood-cancer treatments at the peak of the...
View ArticleFor Children With Fetal Alcohol Exposure, A Gap in Support
While research-based dietary and behavioral interventions for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder have been available since the 1990s and 2000s, respectively, patients almost never get these specialized...
View ArticleAfter Decades of Drilling, Should Alaska Pay Climate Refugees?
As climate change continues to destroy the habitability of coastal communities, the question of who should pay for adaptation and relocation efforts remains thorny. A legal strategy based on...
View ArticleFor a Host of Vital Lab Tests, No FDA Oversight Exists
Laboratory-developed tests, which include diagnostic tests for everything from Lyme disease to autism, have long been exempt from FDA regulation. No federal agency ensures these tests work the way they...
View ArticlePeople With Disabilities Deserve Better Health Care. We All Do.
Patients who need special accommodations struggle to find doctors that can adequately care for them. As a researcher who studies health care disparities, I have come to see that the barriers people...
View ArticleBook Review: The Stuff We’re Made Of
Dan Levitt’s “What’s Gotten Into You” is a lively, deeply researched history of of how our atoms journeyed from the beginning of time all the way to our bodies. Along the way, Levitt pays homage to the...
View ArticleAs Antarctic Fieldwork Ends, a Sexual Harassment Reckoning Looms
A bombshell report released in late August by the National Science Foundation detailed a long history of pervasive sexual harassment and assault at Antarctic research stations. Now, after the busiest...
View ArticleHit With Extreme Weather, Texas Cities Debate Cost of Adaptation
After a devastating storm killed 246 people in 2021, Texas cities once again buckled under a menacing winter storm last week. What’s happening in Texas is fresh evidence that cities and states across...
View ArticleIn State Legislatures, a Brewing Battle Over Eye Care
Over the past 50 years, state legislatures have enacted hundreds of laws granting non-physician optometrists the ability to perform a range of tasks that traditionally fell under the purview of...
View ArticleBirth Control Access May Get Easier. Here’s Why It’s Not Enough.
The U.S. may welcome its first over-the-counter birth control pill in 2023. But expanding contraceptive availability is no silver bullet for access and affordability issues. For true reproductive...
View ArticleBook Review: Monsanto and the Struggle Over Scientific Consensus
In “Glyphosate and the Swirl,” medical anthropologist Vincanne Adams explores the history and health effects of the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, and the fierce debate over chemicals...
View ArticleWhy Singapore Is Breeding Millions of Mosquitoes
Dengue is a common scourge in Singapore. To slow the spread, a government lab infects mosquitoes with a bacterium called Wolbachia. When the males mate with wild females, the eggs don’t hatch. So far,...
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