Underwater Noise Pollution Is a Critical Threat to Aquatic Animals
We often think of the ways climate change, overfishing, and run-off pollution threaten fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef, but today’s researchers are worried about yet another threat....
View ArticleThe Numbers Game: A New Book Laments the Human Infatuation With Metrics
Much good has come from our numbers-based transformation of the world. But we have also come to a new phase of logical lunacy, argues Jerry Z. Muller in “The Tyranny of Metrics,” an impassioned essay...
View ArticleIn America’s Battle Against Opioids, Legislators Want Answers
Last March, President Trump established a commission to address the country's opioid crisis. In October, he declared the crisis a public health emergency. And in November, his commission released...
View ArticleAwash in Unused Medications, With No Good Place to Put Them
Fewer than 3 percent of eligible take-back sites nationally register to do so, according to a recent federal report. Such sites would give consumers a convenient place to drop off unused or excess...
View ArticleMeasles for Christmas: Explaining Vaccines to Myself
This supposedly benign virus had me stuck in bed, dripping with sweat. I couldn’t tolerate any light at all, and my head pounded, filled with dark thoughts: What if this devil of a virus, which...
View ArticleChronic Wasting Disease: Real Risk or Irrational Hype?
Even though chronic wasting disease hasn't been proven to be a risk to human health, its similarity to other diseases that are — including “mad cow disease” and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has...
View ArticleA Remedy for Broken Science, Or an Attempt to Undercut It?
The report offers a lucid overview of the reproducibility debate in modern science. But it also raises concerns — particularly as it relates to mainstream climate science, which one of its co-authors...
View ArticleSpeaking of Evolution, in Non-Threatening Tones
Part of the stated goal was straightforward science education. After all, evolutionary theory is the backbone of chemistry and biology. But merely teaching evolutionary science wasn’t the point. The...
View ArticleGM Food Labels Could Burden Low-Income Consumers
A federal law that requires labels on genetically modified foods is set to go into effect over the next several years. A new study already suggests an unforeseen impact. Products that tend to come at a...
View ArticleChain Reaction: How a Soviet A-Bomb Test Led the U.S. Into Climate Science
In 1971, the USSR tried to use nuclear blasts to change the course of rivers. The scheme failed. But it had another consequence, all but forgotten until now: It set in motion the first U.S. government...
View ArticleWith New NASA Administrator, Legislators Sense Trouble Ahead
Since taking office in January of last year, President Donald Trump has made a number of head-scratching appointments. This week, Jim Bridenstine joins the ranks — and those of appointees without...
View ArticleIn the Fate of the Delta Smelt, Warnings of Conservation Gone Wrong
As it now stands, the Delta smelt has high odds of becoming the first fish to go extinct in the wild while under the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act. Others might well follow unless...
View ArticleShould Scientists Advocate on the Issue of Climate Change?
On one hand, it seems clear that climate scientists have a moral duty to speak up about the global warming crisis, particularly given the existential nature of the perils at hand. But views differ on...
View ArticleIn Tackling Gender Inequality in STEM, Considerations of Culture
For the numerous organizations dedicated to tackling the problem of women’s underrepresentation in science, explanations could have implications for developing appropriate interventions, and ultimately...
View ArticleFive Questions for Barbara Ehrenreich
In an interview with Undark’s Hope Reese, the best-selling author of “Natural Causes” and other books takes aim at the American obsession with wellness at all costs. Now 76, she forgoes cancer...
View ArticleAs EPA Administrator Faces Federal Investigations, Legislators Push for Answers
The nation’s embattled EPA administrator can’t seem to stay out of the limelight. When Scott Pruitt appeared before two congressional committees on Thursday, he was met with a barrage of questions from...
View ArticleBringing Science to Bear, at Last, on the Gun Control Debate
In charting a course forward on the gun debate, it is necessary to move beyond “people’s anecdotal opinions,” says David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. He and other...
View ArticleWhat’s Wrong With Positivity?
The field of positive psychology has been lambasted in recent years by critics like Barbara Ehrenreich and Ruth Whippman. While an overemphasis on positive emotions denies the key role negative...
View ArticlePodcast #26: The Fate of the Delta Smelt
Join our podcast host and former NYT editor David Corcoran as he talks with Sharon Levy about a tiny endangered fish that's stirring a big controversy. Also, Seth Mnookin on National Geographic's race...
View ArticleA Wayback Machine for Source Code
Since 2015, archivists at the Software Heritage project have collected 4 billion source files from more than 80 million open source projects available at various online repositories — or what its...
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