For Babies Born Into Addiction, Punishing the Mother Is No Cure
It’s easy to become enraged by the thought of a newborn spending her first days of life enduring the torment of opioid withdrawal. But that rage shouldn’t fuel policy. The science suggests that...
View Article3D Printing and the Murky Ethics of Replicating Bones
Rules governing how real human remains can be used, as well as whether individuals can buy and sell such remains, are already uneven worldwide, with different rules across different borders. 3D...
View ArticleAustralians Battle Historic Fires — and Official Climate Inaction
Many Australians say Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s policies have done too little to address climate change — despite clear evidence that it is producing ideal conditions for more deadly fires. But so...
View ArticleIn Outrage Over Its Bunk Science, Goop Finds Fuel for Growth
Science advocates have condemned the dubious health products peddled by Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle brand Goop. But with a lucrative new TV series, The Goop Lab, poised to debut on Netflix, it appears...
View ArticleHow Bots Spread Mistruths About Cannabis on Twitter
In a recent analysis, we found that Twitter bot accounts are more likely to promote content that suggests cannabis could help with health concerns, even when these claims aren’t backed up....
View ArticleBlowing in the Wind: Why the Netherlands Is Sinking
Over the centuries, the Dutch have built windmills to drain peatland in a country that is nearly a third below sea level. Now the ground is slowly sinking, damaging building foundations and roads, and...
View ArticleHumans’ Enduring Toll on the Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are home to some of the most unique natural habitats in the world, teaming with species found nowhere else on Earth. But ever since humans set foot there nearly 500 years ago,...
View ArticleHow Mass Animal Die-Offs Reshape Ecosystems
The wildfires raging across Australia have already killed hundreds of millions of animals. In the United States, researchers are simulating the effects of these mass die-offs by placing the carcasses...
View ArticleHow Mathematics Can Save Your Life
From the spread of infectious disease to crime statistics and choosing the shortest line in a grocery store, mathematics is crucial to understanding everything around us. In “The Math of Life and...
View ArticleIn New Jersey and Nationwide, Battles Over Vaccinations Continue
Five states ban religious exemptions from vaccines, compelling parents to have their kids vaccinated as a condition for attending public school. New Jersey sought this week to become the sixth, but to...
View ArticlePsychology Still Skews Western and Affluent. Can It Be Fixed?
For decades, the overwhelming majority of psychology research has examined people who live in the United States and other affluent Western countries. By focusing on this very narrow population,...
View ArticleRestricting Trade of Endangered Rosewood Can Backfire
To combat illegal trade of endangered species, governing bodies impose restrictions meant to curb demand. But these well-intentioned regulations can backfire: In anticipation of rising prices,...
View ArticleWhen Exercise Comes to the Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit
While intensive care in hospitals has improved dramatically over the decades, there is now a broad recognition that survivors are not walking away unscarred. New research suggests that some patients...
View ArticleClimate Change Is a Political Crisis, Not a Reproductive One
Our personal lifestyle choices aren’t unimportant. But an obsession with population management as a means for mitigating climate change unfairly puts the burden on the backs of poorer people and people...
View ArticleTracking the Florida Panther’s Tenuous Comeback
In “Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther,” Craig Pittman chronicles Florida’s fraught relationship with its state animal. After prompting the cats’ decline, humans are now...
View ArticleMocking ‘Prophets of Doom’ Abroad, Trump Guts Water Rules at Home
The U.S. President scolded what he called the “perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse” at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, while back at home, Trump...
View ArticleIs the Medication You’re Taking Worth Its Price?
The quality-adjusted life year (QALY) is an economic calculation used around the world to help determine which treatments citizens can obtain under public health care. Here in the United States, the...
View ArticleWith Specialty Drugs, the Costs Are More Than Financial
Specialty drugs, peddled exclusively by only a subset of pharmacies, are ambiguously classified and financially costly, and can severely limit the autonomy of the patients who take them. It’s time the...
View ArticleDoes Science Support the ‘Wilderness’ in Wilderness Therapy?
Residential wilderness therapy programs pair counseling for troubled teens with a variety of outdoor activities, costing parents thousands of dollars. Without firmer evidence supporting the wilderness...
View ArticleA Nobel Laureate Retracted Her High-Profile Paper. Bravo!
This January, Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold retracted a paper on enzyme catalysts, after finding the work couldn’t be replicated. Some critics seized the opportunity to discredit the entire scientific...
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