Exoplanets, Life, and the Danger of a Single Study
It is perfectly legitimate to ask those at the highest level of their profession to give their view on their own work, even if that view is speculative and at odds with what their rivals and colleagues...
View ArticleCalifornia’s Plan to Buy Carbon Offsets in the Amazon Raises Ethical Concerns
Some indigenous peoples, policymakers, environmentalists, and researchers view California's new carbon offset program as a novel way to financially support those struggling against the odds to protect...
View ArticleThe Nobel Prize: What Is it Good For?
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences minted nine new science Nobel Laureates this week. But in the 118 years that such prizes have been awarded, only 20 out of more than 600 have gone to women. The...
View ArticleDeath Valley’s Park Service Wants Them Gone. But Are Wild Donkeys Really the...
Wild burros have long flourished in Death Valley National Park, and officials are now seeking to remove them because of their destructive impact on scarce water and vegetation resources. But new...
View ArticleDespite Progress Towards Gender Parity, Women Rarely Win Science Nobels
The rarity of female Nobel laureates raises questions about women’s exclusion from education and careers in science. Female researchers have come a long way over the past century. But there’s...
View ArticleA Mobile Health Clinic Is Bringing Contraception to the Rio Grande Valley
A new medical school is working to bring a range of contraceptive methods to the underserved Rio Grande Valley. Women have indicated they want better access, but some argue that such outreach efforts...
View ArticleConcussion Research Has a Troubling Patriarchy Problem
Experts estimate that millions of women and people of marginalized genders have suffered from intimate partner violence and untreated concussions. The fact that concussions are viewed primarily as...
View ArticleDeep Time, and the Precarious Future of Humanity
Time is key to understanding the risk of human extinction. For manmade threats like A.I., biotech, or nuclear war, existential calamity can strike in a blink. But for natural existential threats, like...
View ArticleTo Tackle Drug Use, Researchers and People With Addiction Alike Turn to...
Today, online forum threads about drug use aren’t just of interest to the site’s users. As the opioid epidemic worsens, claiming about 130 lives a day in 2018 in the United States alone, a cadre of...
View ArticleAmid Private Dinners and False Advertising, Facebook Comes Under Fire
On Monday, Politico reported that Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hosting private, off-the-record dinners with prominent, and in some cases controversial, conservatives. The story...
View ArticleThe Problem With Labeling Gut Troubles ‘Dysbiosis’
As the concept of microbial balance has reached the public — in part through direct-to-consumer testing kits — it has contributed to an untold number of people attempting to give themselves fecal...
View ArticleAs the World’s Garbage Piles Up, Controversy Over Waste-to-Energy Continues
Many governments are looking to build waste-to-energy plants to help deal with growing trash outputs, the most common of which incinerate trash and use the emitted heat to spin electricity-generating...
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