Ep. 38: Mosquito Music, Wildlife Poaching, and Imaging a Black Hole
Join journalist and author Seth Mnookin as he chats with astrophysicist Andrew Chael about the team that got the first image of a black hole. Also: addressing wildlife poaching in Uganda, and a study...
View ArticleIn Uganda, Threatened Chimps Find Protection in Former Poachers
In the Budongo Forest of western Uganda, chimpanzees often fall victim to poachers as they get caught in wire or jaw-like traps set for other animals. Veterinarian Caroline Asiimwe and her team — some...
View ArticleThe Bad News About Delivering Bad News
As a research assistant at one of the top teaching hospitals in the U.S., I’ve come to realize how little we understand about teaching doctors to communicate with patients. Doctors have been looking to...
View ArticleFaceless Killer: The Invisible Threat of Air Pollution
Pollution’s victims, counted in aggregate and understood only through statistical analysis, are usually rendered faceless. In "Choked," the reporter Beth Gardiner visits the communities that suffer the...
View ArticleAfter Record-Breaking Storms, Mozambique Faces a Humanitarian Crisis
Six weeks after Cyclone Idai devastated Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, a second storm dealt another blow to the region, further stretching limited relief funding and resources. Cyclone Kenneth...
View ArticleFor Patients With Memory Loss, Working Towards Better Diagnosis
A number of brain disorders, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy, can only be officially diagnosed with an autopsy, so many people live without knowing much about the trajectories their minds...
View ArticleMy Wife Is One More Reason to Have Your Kids Vaccinated
It's not just young children or the immunocompromised that public health officials are trying to protect by encouraging everyone to be vaccinated. There are those among us who do not seem to develop...
View ArticleProbiotics Could Help Frogs and Bats Fight Wildlife Epidemics
Studies of the human microbiome have revealed the potential benefits of probiotics in treating health disorders and boosting immune function. Now, disease ecologists are exploring their use in other...
View ArticleIn Swiss Academic Science, Charges of Bullying and Gender Bias
For all of its attributes as a country known for learning and tolerance, some critics say Switzerland harbors a culture of sexism within its academic institutions — and in workplaces more broadly. Now,...
View ArticleGenetic Medicine Is Poised to Create New Inequality. Here’s How to Fix It.
There's a little-discussed skeleton in the closet of the burgeoning field of genetic medicine: Because it relies heavily on genetic information gathered from people of European descent, it can easily...
View ArticleAnts, Humans, and the Lessons of War
Only humans and social insects like ants have populations that can explode into the millions. And the larger the population, the greater the capacity for warfare, from occasional raids and skirmishes...
View ArticleHumans Are Driving a Million Species Towards Extinction, Says U.N. Report
An exhaustive and damning report from the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says human activities have thrust global...
View ArticleThe Methane Detectives: On the Trail of a Global Warming Mystery
The uptick was so unexpected that it was not considered in pathway models ahead of the 2015 climate talks in Paris. Meanwhile, understanding the sudden rise in methane levels is not simply an academic...
View ArticleHealthy Coral Reefs Can Prevent Over a Billion Dollars of Flood Damage
In addition to fostering rich marine ecosystems, coral reefs in U.S. waters provide our country with more than $1.8 billion in flood protection benefits every year by acting as natural barriers....
View ArticleScience, Sensationalism, and the Lessons of ‘Insectageddon’
When a recent review of studies published in the journal Biological Conservation charted a catastrophic decline of insect populations worldwide, I was primed to take it at face value. Apparently other...
View ArticleThe March for Science Fizzled, but It Didn’t Fail
While the march breathed new life into science activism, its enduring success will depend on grassroots efforts and on the work of the organizations and community leaders who’ve been fighting for...
View ArticlePsychiatry, Racism, and the Birth of ‘Sesame Street’
Dr. Chester Pierce, the head of a black psychiatrists group in the 1960s, saw how children were growing up glued to TV screens, and helped design a new kind of show to help minority preschoolers...
View ArticleIn Restricting Abortions, Lawmakers Skew Reproductive Science
Alabama’s ban is the latest in a spate of legislation passed this year to limit abortions. While other states have passed so-called “heartbeat laws” claiming fetal personhood begins at six weeks, when...
View ArticleFive Questions for Susan Hockfield: The Dawn of the Biotech Revolution
The author of "The Age of Living Machines" argues that today's scientific innovation depends on the intersection of biology and engineering, whether it's biotech like aquaporin — water purified through...
View ArticleFates Intertwined: Vaquitas, Totoabas, and Fishing on the Sea of Cortez
The Mexican government is working to save the vaquita, but the endangered marine mammal continues to get caught and killed in illegal gillnets used to catch totoaba, a fish whose bladder fetches $2,500...
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