At Glasgow Summit, Advocates Plead for Urgent Climate Action
World leaders gathered in Glasgow, Scotland this week to respond to some grim scientific projections: The world is on track to warm by more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels by 2100;...
View ArticleIn Colorado, Locals Question a Critical-Mineral Survey
A USGS program called Earth MRI aims to identify U.S. geological formations across the country that could contain critical minerals, useful for everything from cell phones to weapons, and usually...
View ArticleDespite a Surge in Funding, Public Health’s Brain Drain Persists
In California, public health nurses, microbiologists, epidemiologists, and health officers who fend off infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV, inspect restaurants, and work to keep communities...
View ArticleFacebook’s Climate Misinformation Problem Is Getting Bigger
A report released last week by the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent watchdog group, found that among 195 Facebook pages known to distribute climate misinformation, there were an estimated...
View ArticleIt’s Time We Stop Listening to Economists on Climate Change
At their core, economists’ models of climate change attempt to do something that the discipline is simply unequipped to do: They try to quantify, with seemingly actionable precision, the impact of...
View ArticleFrom Cows to Covid: The Spooky Origins of Vaccines
Vaccination arose in the 18th century during a frenzied period of trial and error, in which many didn’t survive a trip to the doctor. If you squint a little, writes Brendan Borrell, it looks a lot like...
View ArticleFollowing CDC Green Light, Kids Start Getting Vaccinated
Children across the United States received their first Covid-19 vaccine doses this week, days after the federal government authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for 5-to-11-year-olds. By Wednesday,...
View ArticleAmong Social Scientists, a Vigorous Debate Over Loss Aversion
In a nutshell, loss aversion holds that when people make decisions, the impact of losing something carries greater weight than the impact of gaining something of similar value. But behavioral...
View ArticleU.S. Schools Take on a Bigger Role in Student Mental Health
Schools across the U.S. are using portions of their federal Covid relief money to quickly expand their capacity to address students’ struggles with mental health. The urgency of the problem has been...
View ArticleIn Afghanistan, Climate Change Drives an Uptick in Child Marriage
Temperatures in Afghanistan have risen by roughly double the global average, speeding evaporation and causing extended drought. Lower crop yields have plunged many Afghans into poverty, and with few...
View ArticleProfound Climate Change May Be Inevitable, but Society Can Go On
Proponents of “Deep Adaptation” posit that only after we accept the inevitability of climate catastrophe can we begin to prepare for it. But whereas they see societal collapse as all but guaranteed, I...
View ArticleBook Review: How Vermin Helped Shape the Modern World
Part history of public health and natural science and part sociological study, Lisa T. Sarasohn’s “Getting Under Our Skin” explores the fraught social, political, and cultural significance of our...
View ArticleCovid Resurgence in Europe Brings New Records — and Restrictions
Covid-19 cases continued to climb across Europe this week, prompting fresh public health restrictions in some countries. The wave of infections has also fanned concerns in the U.S. about a larger than...
View ArticleThe Deep Toll of Tar Sands On Canada’s Indigenous People
Alberta’s tar sands — also called oil sands — have helped make Canada the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, with significant economic benefits. But the ecological impacts are so vast and so deep...
View ArticleWhy the U.S. Hasn’t Stopped Syphilis From Killing Babies
When pregnant mothers who have syphilis go untreated, there is a 40 percent chance their babies will be miscarried, be stillborn, or die shortly after birth. Countries including Cuba, Malaysia, and Sri...
View ArticleScientists Square Off Over Covid, Wuhan, and Peter Daszak
Since forming in late 2020, the Paris group has been working to influence the WHO’s investigation of Covid origins, citing a need for balance and transparency. The group claims Peter Daszak, in his...
View ArticleIt’s Time to Rethink the 12-hour Nursing Shift
With the nursing profession suffering through a worker shortage and tremendous burnout, now seems like a good time to ask: Is the traditional 12-hour shift still worth it? Increasingly, evidence is...
View ArticleWhy Cheap At-Home Covid Tests Are Hard to Find
The U.S. produced Covid-19 vaccines in record time, but, nearly two years into the pandemic, consumers have few options for cheap tests that quickly screen for infection, though they are widely...
View ArticleIn the Russian Arctic, One of the Most Polluted Places on Earth
Originally built as a resource colony by prisoners in the Soviet Gulag, the town of Norilsk has been a metal making center for 80 years. Norilsk Nickel has poisoned rivers, killed off boreal forest,...
View ArticleHow Texas’ Abortion Law Is Impacting Patients and Providers
On Sept. 1, a new Texas law made it illegal to perform abortions once the embryo is showing cardiac activity. Since then, providers have worked in limbo as they wait to see if it passes the Supreme...
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