A High-Pressure Campaign to Downplay a Gas Pipeline’s Steep Risks
In West Virginia, Dominion Energy made plans to construct the Atlantic Coast Pipeline through steep terrain in some of the most flood- and erosion-prone topography in the U.S. According to Forest...
View ArticleOn the Hunt: The Effort to Track the Illegal Cheetah Trade
For years, conservationists have worked to protect cheetahs, a threatened species. Yet the precise origins of trafficked cubs have long been mysterious. Now, several new scientific efforts aim to...
View ArticleThe Promise of Precision Agriculture Is Slowly Coming to Fruition
Precision agriculture has long promised to provide more granular data — and new technology to use it — for farmers facing pressure to increase yields while being more environmentally friendly. It’s had...
View ArticleWhen Police Shootings Don’t Kill: The Data That Gets Left Behind
In recent years, more researchers have dug into the extent of fatal police shootings. But what about the survivors? Victims may endure serious injuries, multiple surgeries, and long-lasting physical...
View ArticleIgnoring Noise Pollution Harms Public Health
In 1972, Congress passed the Noise Control Act, which directed the EPA to protect the public from noise pollution. But in the decades since, the EPA hasn’t fulfilled that obligation. Health reporter...
View ArticleInterview: The Lasting Impact of Environmental Factors on Health
Environmental factors like urban air pollution and wildfires can have a profound effect on long-term health outcomes, especially depending on one’s socioeconomic status, where you live, and race and...
View ArticleThe Fuzzy Science on Whether Fido Is Actually Good for You
Plenty of people believe there’s something salubrious about caring for a pet. But some experts argue that the scientific evidence that pets can consistently make people healthier is, at best,...
View ArticleAt Kew Gardens, a New View of Forests, Fungus, and Carbon Capture
Soil is a huge reservoir of carbon. Scientists used to think that most of the carbon captured by soil entered the ground when dead leaves and plant matter decomposed. But it’s now becoming clear that...
View ArticleSurvey Trolls, Opt-In Polls, and the New Era of Survey Science
In theory, pollsters call a randomly selected sample of Americans, ask them a question, and report those results to offer a snapshot of public opinion. But as people have stopped picking up the phone,...
View ArticleImposter Participants Are Compromising Qualitative Research
Qualitative studies that involve interviews with people about their experiences often recruit participants online. But imposters who fake their identities to take part are a growing problem. How can...
View ArticleBook Review: The Quixotic Struggle to Tame the Mighty Mississippi
In “The Great River,” journalist Boyce Upholt chronicles the long, checkered history of our efforts to control the Mississippi River with locks, levees, and dams. Such meddling has saddled the country...
View ArticleGaining Ground on the East Coast’s Intracoastal Waterway
Scientists hope a sediment-laying strategy can help preserve the 3000-mile marine highway — which in some parts is too shallow for ships to safely pass — while restoring surrounding marshlands. A pilot...
View ArticleA Step Forward in Stingray Science
While some stingrays flee quickly at the hint of danger, round rays stay buried in the sand — making them more easily stepped on by a passing human, and contributing to the thousands who are injured by...
View ArticleYoung Palestinians Face a Steep Toll on Mental Health
Long before the Israel-Hamas war began, tensions in the region eroded Palestinians’ mental health. More than half of Palestinian adults in the West Bank and Gaza suffer from depression, 10 times higher...
View ArticleThe Misplaced Incentives in Academic Publishing
Most academic journals rely on volunteers to peer review manuscripts submitted for publication. Their work is important, but the incentives for scientists to make such efforts are misplaced and...
View ArticleExcerpt: When Two Famous Physicists Faced Off in Mussolini’s Rome
A gathering of the world’s most famous physicists in 1931 hosted by Il Duce would pit two eminent Nobel Prize winners — Robert Millikan and Arthur Compton — against each other over revelations about...
View ArticleThe Sweeping Impact of the Supreme Court’s Chevron Reversal
In it’s reversal of the Chevron doctrine, the Supreme Court has transferred authority to interpret ambiguous laws from agencies (and their technical expertise) to the judicial system. This could prove...
View ArticleImposter Participants Are Compromising Qualitative Research
Qualitative studies that involve interviews with people about their experiences often recruit participants online. But imposters who fake their identities to take part are a growing problem. How can...
View ArticleHaunting the Human Genome Project: A Question of Consent
Archival records, along with interviews with many of the Human Genome Project’s central figures, paint a picture in which high-ranking officials — buffeted by elaborate experimental protocols and...
View ArticleImposter Participants Are Compromising Qualitative Research
Qualitative studies that involve interviews with people about their experiences often recruit participants online. But imposters who fake their identities to take part are a growing problem. How can...
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