In Brazil’s Successful Vaccine Campaign, a Lesson for the U.S.
Covid-19 vaccination rates have soared in Brazil in recent months, just as they’ve stalled in the U.S. The Latin American nation could become one of the world’s most vaccinated countries, a turn that...
View ArticleBook Review: How Our Planet Grew So Warm
In “Our Biggest Experiment,” Alice Bell traces the evolution of climate change and the scientific discoveries that revealed the hazards of unfettered energy consumption. Through this wide-ranging...
View ArticleAs Pandemic Continues, Race for Covid-19 Therapeutics Heats Up
On Monday, the drugmaker Merck and a partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, announced they were seeking emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for a new Covid-19 drug. If...
View ArticleLimits to Growth: Can AI’s Voracious Appetite for Data Be Tamed?
By processing massive datasets, machine learning reveals patterns in data. But some computer scientists are asking whether the brute force approach of compiling ever-larger datasets is necessary to...
View ArticlePulling Funding for Fossil Fuel Projects in Africa Is Unjust
Wealthy countries are increasingly vowing to cease public funding for nearly all fossil fuel projects in less developed countries while making no such commitments at home. The blunt exclusion of these...
View ArticleWestern Australia Blocked Out Covid. Now What?
Even if 80 percent of West Australians were fully vaccinated, modeling suggests hundreds of thousands will get Covid-19 if the hard border is lifted without restrictions. And with effectively no...
View ArticleWhat LeBron James Gets Wrong About Vaccine Activism
When the NBA star said he would not use his platform to promote Covid-19 vaccination, he seemed to misunderstand an important point: Just like racism, police brutality, and other issues he has deemed...
View ArticleBook Review: Steven Pinker on the Power of the Rational Mind
In “Rationality,” Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker walks readers through the virtues of rational thinking — from logic to various branches of statistics — and why it seems to be in short supply....
View ArticleMore Covid Boosters Authorized as Much of World Awaits First Dose
On Wednesday, the FDA amended its emergency use authorization to allow certain populations to receive booster shots of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines. The authorization was...
View ArticleFor Forest Blazes Grown Wilder, an Alternative: The ‘Good Fire’
Prescribed fire helps protect forests by giving trees like Ponderosas a healthy pruning that allows them to survive a future blaze, while reducing the fuel available to power a wildfire. In...
View ArticleNew Mexico’s Chile Pepper Farmers Feel the Heat of Climate Change
Chile peppers, which are native to South America, were introduced to what is now New Mexico more than four centuries ago. But growers of the state’s iconic crop are already seeing the effects of...
View ArticleWomen’s Professional STEM Societies Rethink Gender Diversity
This past summer, the Association for Women in Psychology’s newsletter ran opposing editorials. The central question: Should the organization remove the word “woman” from its name? As science has...
View ArticleWhy I Still Believe Covid-19 Could Not Have Originated in a Lab
From an evolutionary viewpoint, argues Wendy Orent, there is something fundamentally wrong with all lab-leak arguments. SARS-CoV-2 is a human-adapted virus capable of effective, stealthy transmission...
View ArticleBook Excerpt: Sounding the First Alarm on Covid-19
Shanghai scientist Zhang Yongzhen faced an agonizing decision after his team mapped the genome of a mysterious new coronavirus from Wuhan. Each day the genetic information wasn’t publicly available...
View ArticleSparring Over Fauci Turns to Puppies
Right-wing backlash against National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci intensified this week over an unexpected issue: beagle puppies. The dispute was sparked last Friday...
View ArticleAdvocates Challenge the CDC’s New Effort to Track HIV Spread
Public health officials say a new initiative makes it possible to detect and halt HIV outbreaks before they spin out of control. But some people living with HIV say they never consented to the new...
View ArticlePast International Climate Talks Have Proved Ineffective. Why?
Emissions and temperatures have continued to increase, even as their impacts and global efforts to rein them in have grown. The reasons why are complex, but some recent climate studies suggest a common...
View ArticleThe Lure of Emotionally-Complex Video Games
Many video game players now crave experiences that elicit not just happiness and excitement, but also sadness, guilt, shame, and remorse. Researchers are beginning to understand the draw of a new...
View ArticleICE Is Leaving Detainees at the Mercy of Covid-19. It’s Inhumane.
An immigrant detention center in rural Georgia has become a hotspot for Covid-19. Yet, against the advice of medical experts, the facility refuses to release detainees whose underlying conditions put...
View ArticleInterview: Katharine Hayhoe on How to Talk About Climate Change
A leading expert on global warming discusses how honest, one-on-one conversations can make a difference in motivating meaningful large-scale action. Those conversations aren’t always easy, but...
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