How Archaeology Could Help Solve an Age-Old Problem
Our work was spurred by trying to find more accurate, and less destructive methods for spotting vitamin D deficiency in ancient peoples. But in the end, it may have provided an unexpected benefit: a...
View ArticleWhat The New York Times Magazine Got Right, and Wrong, In Its Climate Change...
The New York Times Magazine just published an ambitious issue entirely devoted to telling a single complicated story: How the world missed its window to address climate change. While it succeeds in...
View ArticleLyme Disease, Climate Change, and Science (or the Lack of It)
The increasingly bitter debate over Lyme disease is like the partisan divide in politics — “characterized less by warring sides than by parallel universes,” Mary Beth Pfeiffer observes in her new book....
View ArticleTrump Administration Targets Obama-Era Fuel Efficiency Standards
In one of its latest moves, the Trump administration announced a proposal to eliminate Obama-era fuel efficiency rules and revoke a waiver that has allowed California to set its own, higher, mileage...
View ArticleNew in School: AI-Driven Gun Detection Systems
It sounds promising, but some experts worry about turning school grounds into surveillance zones. They also argue that there is little to no public data available to assess whether and how well such...
View ArticleLearning to Read the Brain’s Temporary Records
In recent work published in the journal Neuron, my colleagues and I figured out how the brain keeps temporary molecular records of transient experiences. Our finding not only helps to explain how the...
View ArticleGasping for Air in India’s Industrial North
In the summer, pollutants from the plains can easily rise to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and escape over the mountains. But in the winter, cold air and pollution arising from a mix of...
View ArticleThe General Is a Robot: Artificial Intelligence Goes to War
Robots can do everything from cleaning the living room to driving cars to killing terrorists. A new book warns that the step from armed drones controlled remotely by humans to fully autonomous machines...
View ArticleFrom California’s Wildfires, the Growing Threat of Air Pollution
As California continues to battle raging wildfires, including its largest ever, people across the West Coast are feeling its effects in the form of dangerous levels of air pollution. The most worrying...
View ArticleIn Hunting Down ‘Borrowed’ Artifacts, Colombia Reclaims Its Heritage
Colombia’s efforts have included mobilizing lawyers and government employees in a handful of countries around the world. They are handling complex negotiations for the return of more than 300 specimens...
View ArticleToxicology Has Advanced. The EPA Needs to Advance With It.
EPA regulations protect our daily safety in numerous ways, and many Americans unwittingly put their trust in the agency’s decisions. Often, that trust is warranted. But recent advances in toxicology...
View ArticleWhere Interpreters Are Scarce, Immigrant Health Care Is Lost in Translation
Despite legal requirements regarding health care interpreting services, thousands of hospitals and other medical facilities continue to fall short, leaving patients — if they are lucky — relying on...
View ArticleThe Obliteration of Night: On the Consequences of Electric Light
The electric light bulb is touted as one of the most significant technological advancements of human beings. It ranks right up there with the wheel, control of fire, antibiotics, and dynamite. But as...
View ArticleCan You Rewire Your Brain? Maybe. (It’s Tricky. Be Careful.)
I wanted to learn, among other things, how to concentrate better and to overcome my irrational anxieties about life. Some things are so deeply embedded into the wiring of the brain that you can’t...
View ArticleHow Peddlers of ‘Food-Grade’ Hydrogen Peroxide Exploit the Sick and the...
Sites with names like Pure Health Discounts and Guardian of Eden have promoted the use of the chemical to treat a dizzying array of ailments, from Lyme disease and skin problems to leukemia and even...
View ArticleIt’s Time to Kill the Modern Automobile
Changing how we power our homes and businesses is important. But as Germany’s shortfall shows, the only way to achieve the aggressive emissions reductions necessary to combat global warming is to...
View ArticleIn the Rural West: More Oil, More Gas, More Ozone
The Trump administration is pushing to expand natural gas production, holding four lease sales so far this year in Utah and Colorado, and offering formerly protected land for fossil fuel development....
View ArticleWhat Makes Some Species More Likely to Go Extinct?
All species that exist today — including human beings — will invariably go extinct at some point. But what factors make any one species more or less vulnerable to extinction? Scientists have done a...
View ArticleWhen the World Was Cold: Five Questions for Dagomar Degroot
"The world has already warmed more, relative to mid-20th-century temperature averages, than it cooled in the chilliest stretches of the Little Ice Age,” says Dagomar Degroot. That period, which...
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