Ep. 55: In Pursuit of Climate-Friendly Refrigerants
This month: In December of last year, Congress passed legislation that gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to phase out most hydrofluorocarbons — potent greenhouse gases that keep...
View ArticleBelow Aging U.S. Dams, a Potential Toxic Calamity
An Undark investigation has identified more than 80 dams in 24 states, that, if they were to fail, could flood a major toxic waste site and potentially spread contaminated material into surrounding...
View ArticleBelow Aging U.S. Dams, a Potential Toxic Calamity
An Undark investigation has identified more than 80 dams in 24 states, that, if they were to fail, could flood a major toxic waste site and potentially spread contaminated material into surrounding...
View ArticleIn Klamath River Drought, a Massive Juvenile Salmon Die-Off
This spring, Oregon and California’s Klamath Basin is already in extreme and exceptional drought — and a warm-water infectious disease, C. shasta, is killing young salmon in alarming numbers. In early...
View ArticleWhen the Bison Come Back, Will the Ecosystem Follow?
Before they were pushed to the edge of extinction, 30 to 60 million bison lived in North America, primarily on the Great Plains. Today, declining biodiversity and fragmentation make that ecosystems...
View ArticleWe Can End Lead Poisoning During This Lifetime
The Trump administration missed an opportunity to strengthen the country’s out-of-date standards for soil contaminants like lead, which will never go away without mitigation. Perhaps it’s time to...
View ArticleBook Review: A Humanizing Portrait of Stephen Hawking
In “Hawking Hawking,” science writer Charles Seife explores the life and work of celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking, and his unusual path to global fame. Seife covers a double or even triple...
View ArticleAs U.S. Approaches Vaccination Goal, Many Countries Await Supply
The Biden administration detailed two initiatives to increase Covid-19 vaccination rates this week — one focused on the United States, and the other abroad. The announcements come as the divide widens...
View ArticleCan a Radical Treatment for Pedophilia Work Outside of Germany?
The German health ministry has supported a project to treat pedophilia with some $6 million per year since 2018, but so far, no other country has shown such support for a similar program. Klaus Beier...
View ArticleA Threatened Toad’s Hallucinogenic Secretions Are in High Demand
In underground “toad medicine circles” a psychedelic collected from the Sonoran Desert toad has become the latest trendy shortcut to spiritual awakening. But with the impacts of climate change and...
View ArticleThe Covid-19 Pseudoscience Suffocating Brazil
Proponents of tratamento precoce, or “early treatment” — which include Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro — lean on discredited or skewed experiments to trumpet the regimen’s effectiveness, even after...
View ArticleA Teachers Union Shaped CDC School Guidance. Is That a Problem?
New emails show that the CDC accepted input on February school reopening guidelines from the American Federation of Teachers, a powerful teachers union. Was that undue political influence — as some...
View ArticleBook Review: America’s Long Struggle to Tame Its Greatest Rivers
In “Holding Back the River,” Tyler J. Kelley offers a spirited tour of the nation’s crucial waterways, and the crumbling structures built to control them. Sorely underfunded and outdated, many dams...
View ArticleDespite Mixed Evidence, FDA Approves New Alzheimer’s Drug
On Monday, the FDA approved the use of a new Alzheimer’s drug called aducanumab, developed by the pharmaceutical company Biogen. Whether the drug works remains contested, and the approval decision has...
View ArticleA $26-Billion Plan to Save the Houston Area From Rising Seas
Lawmakers may soon decide the fate of a massive proposal to protect the coast around Houston from rising seas and climate change-amplified hurricanes. The centerpiece of the plan is a set of...
View ArticleBoeing Study Casts Doubt on Air Purifiers Used in Schools
Boeing found minimal or no reduction of pathogens on surfaces when treated with air purifier ionization technology made by Global Plasma Solutions. The study has been cited in a proposed class-action...
View ArticleHow Patent Extensions Keep Some Drug Costs High
For the top 12 grossing drugs in the U.S., each had an average of 71 patents granted, which almost doubled the time these drugs are protected from generic competition. Many of the granted patents are...
View ArticleIn a California Town, a Recreation Boom Kindles Wildfire Anxiety
In Mammoth Lakes, nestled in California’s Eastern Sierra, outdoor recreation is booming. But after 2020’s landscape-altering fire season, there seems to be a new and inescapable awareness that each new...
View ArticleEnd of Eviction Moratorium Could Spell Trouble for Public Health
Since September, a controversial policy from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have protected millions of cash-strapped tenants from eviction. Now, with the provision set to expire in...
View ArticleBook Review: The ‘Wood Wide Web’ of Plant Communication
In “Finding the Mother Tree,” ecologist Suzanne Simard shares her deeply personal story of discovering how trees talk. Simard writes of her own life growing up in the rainforests of British Columbia...
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