Exodus at the Environmental Protection Agency
Topping our weekly news roundup: 700 people have left the EPA — either through quitting, taking buyouts, or retiring from positions that will not filled — since Donald Trump became president. This puts...
View ArticlePodcast #22: The Poisoning of Michigan
Join our podcast host and former New York Times editor David Corcoran as he talks with Carrie Arnold about her Undark Case Study on the toxic legacy of a 1973 chemical mixup. Also: commentator Seth...
View ArticleWe Have Reached Peak Pharma. There’s Nowhere to Go But Down.
The dynamics of the decline of pharmaceutical drugs are precisely those of a gold mine. The fist-sized nuggets have all been found, the gravel and sand is getting more expensive to recover, and soon...
View ArticleAcross the Web, and the World, Citizen Scientists Help Track Animal Migrations
Their numbers are growing in tandem with the ambitions of migration scientists, who are finding novel uses for ever-smaller GPS satellite transmitters — though some critics worry about the unintended...
View ArticleWhy Are Alcohol-Related Emergency Room Visits Rising?
A dramatic increase in alcohol-related ER visits occurred in the nine-year period ending in 2014, new research finds. An increased rate in women’s drinking year to year, especially drinking that’s an...
View ArticleCounting Down to the Apocalypse: Lisa Vox’s ‘Existential Threats’
We all know we're doomed to die. But the end of the world is something else — dying as a communal experience. In a new book, Lisa Vox approaches doomsday from a professional and personal perspective,...
View ArticleAn Unprecedented Proposal for Offshore Oil and Gas Drilling
Topping our weekly roundup: In yet another move to roll back Obama-era regulations, the Trump administration announced a proposal that would allow new oil and gas drilling in nearly all U.S. waters,...
View ArticleOut of Uganda: An Aggressive Crop Killer That Threatens Global Food
Stem rust used to wreak havoc for agriculture across the globe, but researchers eventually managed to identify resistance genes against the fungus, and to successfully breed those genes into new into...
View ArticleHow Assisted Suicide Affects Physicians
Physicians who carry out assisted suicide have a wide variety of emotional and psychological responses. Nearly a quarter of them polled in a recent survey reported regretting their actions. Another 16...
View ArticleIn ToxicDocs.org, a Treasure Trove of Industry Secrets
ToxicDocs.org is a searchable public archive of some 20 million pages of material focused on six toxic substances: asbestos, benzene, lead, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), polyvinyl chloride, and...
View ArticleWith a Precious Crop Under Threat, Scientists Scramble for Solutions
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that demand for wheat in the developing world will grow by as much as 60 percent over the next 30 years. With somewhere between 70...
View ArticleIt’s Time to Bring Supervised Injection Sites Above Ground
The opioid crisis is the AIDS epidemic of our time. People are dying preventable deaths at the peak of their lives, and the government has been slow to respond. So rogue public health workers in one...
View ArticleIn ‘Listening In,’ a Surveillance Expert Warns That No Secret Is Safe
In her latest book, Susan Landau argues that we’ve entered a new era in the cybersecurity debate: “The Digital Revolution radically changed what our assets are and how those assets can be stolen or...
View ArticleNew Challenges May Lie Ahead for Use of CRISPR in Humans
Topping our weekly news roundup: 2018 has been called the "year of CRISPR in humans," but a new paper may tamp down some of the excitement. The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests...
View ArticleHunting for Wheat Rust Resistance Amid Relentless Fungal Mutations
Cultivating single, major resistance genes can completely shield crops from stem rust, but only until the fungus evolves and the plants become vulnerable again — usually three to five years. By...
View ArticleHow Close Are We to Self-Destruction?
Nearly four months after the Doomsday Clock was moved closer to midnight, Bill Gates tweeted that “this is the most peaceful time in human history,” citing a book by Steven Pinker as his source. Pinker...
View ArticleWhen Celebrities Talk Science
Zooey Deschanel wants us to avoid certain foods unless we can buy organic. While this appears to be useful safety advice, it’s hard to find any specific scientific support to back it up. And it’s not...
View ArticleHow the Pernicious Wheat Fungus Spreads
All of Ug99's pathotypes have different adaptations that allow them to move into new habitats and attack different wheat varieties. Determining whether this can explain its origins and success will be...
View ArticleAgainst Fungal Infections, Snakes May Have an Edge
Fungal diseases have wiped out amphibian populations worldwide and are decimating bats in North America. Scientists now are studying an emerging fungal disease among snakes, in hopes of getting ahead...
View ArticleMontana Attorney Moves to Prosecute Women Who Use Drugs and Alcohol During...
Last week, Big Horn County Attorney Jay Harris announced a proposal to prosecute women who use non-prescribed drugs and alcohol during pregnancy. Harris said his aim is to protect the rights of the...
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