NIH Funding Cuts Don’t Just Target Elite Universities
When the National Institutes of Health announced on social media that it would reduce funding for biomedical research grants, the agency pointed to elite universities and their hefty endowments. But...
View ArticleFederal Science Hamstrung by DOGE’s Credit Card Spending Limit
Elon Musk’s agency froze most spending above $1 on federal credit cards. Now, officials and researchers at science agencies are struggling to order basic supplies and carry out the main functions of...
View ArticleRural Texas Scrambles to Respond to Measles
With crumbling public health infrastructure, county health departments in Texas face steep challenges. Aging infrastructure, a dearth of primary care providers, and long distances between testing sites...
View ArticleInfertility Is a Mental Health Bombshell
In February, the White House issued an executive order meant to protect access to in vitro fertilization and reduce costs for IVF treatments. But it doesn’t address the emotional burden often...
View ArticleBook Review: How Our Digital Infatuation Undermines Discourse
Technology writer Nicholas Carr contends in “Superbloom” that our obsession with digital technology is causing us to live in a perpetual state of sensory and communication overload. In the process, our...
View ArticleHow One Company Wants to Make Geoengineering Profitable
For years, scientists have explored ways to cool the planet through geoengineering. Now a little-known, well-financed startup, Stardust, is aiming to develop a proprietary geoengineering technology,...
View ArticleAmid Gutting of USAID, Agent Orange Cleanup in Vietnam Halted
When foreign aid was halted in February, diplomats in Vietnam warned that defunding the clean up of a massive deposit of postwar pesticides would be a catastrophe for public health. Now, companies in...
View ArticleA Powerhouse of Global Satellite Infrastructure: Norway?
Norway may not be the first country that comes to mind when thinking of the space industry. But it has quietly emerged as a ground-station powerhouse, supporting some of the world’s most important...
View ArticleOur Toxic Relationship with Herbicides
Herbicides pose risks to the environment and to human health, but they are also the best tool land managers have for controlling invasive plants, which themselves can cause harm to ecosystems. One...
View ArticleBook Review: Casting a Brighter Light on Nuclear Energy
In “The Power of Nuclear,” Dutch journalist Marco Visscher lays out the reasons why widespread fears and hesitations about atomic energy are misguided, illogical, and propelled by unscientific...
View ArticleLawsuits Against Diversity Initiatives in Science Multiply
Recent lawsuits against the American Chemical Society and the University of Pennsylvania join a recent uptick in legal action against programs intended to promote diversity in academia. Many legal...
View ArticleColorado’s Experiment With Psychedelic Mushrooms Begins
Though the fungi await FDA approval, state regulators are issuing licenses for providing psychedelic mushrooms in mental health treatment and are planning to authorize “healing centers.” These are some...
View ArticleIn Genetics, a Tense Coexistence of Mainstream and Fringe Views
Researchers are, by and large, dubious of efforts to demonstrate a genetic basis for racial or ancestral-group differences in intelligence. The current tools, they say, simply aren’t equipped to...
View ArticleCommunities Must Take the Lead in Preventing Opioid Overdoses
A recent drop in the number of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. has puzzled researchers. But results from a recent study on drug addiction suggest how to keep that downward trend going: by engaging...
View ArticleBook Review: The Dazzling Complexity of the Frozen World
In “Ends of the Earth,” popular science writer and paleontologist Neil Shubin travels north and south to explore the frontiers of polar research, as well as the extraordinary biological adaptations of...
View ArticleTo Curb Online Sexual Abuse of Children, Experts Look to AI
Some experts say the online abuse of children is rampant, and that police and lawmakers need more tools to catch perpetrators. Now, researchers in several countries are training artificial intelligence...
View ArticleWhy Did the CDC Bury Its Latest Measles Forecast?
The move — along with the CDC’s explanation — is a sign that the nation’s top public health agency may be falling in line under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.
View ArticleAmid NOAA Cuts, Scientists Warn of Weather and Climate Risks
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration supports everything from emergency preparedness to weather apps to climate science. Many meteorologists say that recent reductions in funding and...
View ArticleNow Is the Time for a Covid-19 Synthesis
More than five years ago, the Covid-19 virus reached U.S. shores. Talking about the pandemic has become overwhelming, writes columnist C. Brandon Ogbunu. But now is the time to extract meaningful...
View ArticleMating and Monogamy: The Tricky Sex Lives of Birds
Even among the most durable migratory bird pairings, sexual exclusivity is rarely part of their relationship. One of the most remarkable evolutionary strategies is brood parasitism, or the sneaking of...
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