Bookmarks (84)

In “Unrooted,” science writer Erin Zimmerman uses historical examples to show how her experience as a former 21st-century botanist is still influenced by structural sexism, at the same time that natural history research — the foundation of all biological sciences — is on the decline.

In the U.S., some states guarantee minors full access to gender-affirming medical care while others ban such care outright. Instead, states should follow Europe’s example by adjusting policies based on weighing the emerging clinical evidence, writes independent healthcare analyst Joshua Cohen.

For one First Nation, the Nuchatlaht First Nation, researchers’ work regarding forest gardens is being used to support a legal land claim against the province of British Columbia and the Attorney General of Canada before the British Columbia Supreme Court.

In Oregon and Montana, researchers and landowners have been experimenting with drones to scare off predators who might otherwise prey on livestock. The approach is promising, but is limited by expense, regulations, impacts on other wildlife, and battery life.

There is no question that the planet’s oceans contain enormous amounts of energy. But can that energy be harnessed economically — or is the idea of pulling watts from the water doomed to be a sideshow in the quest for green energy? In Scotland, companies have been testing their technology to find out.

In her new book, “Alien Worlds: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos,” astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger, who founded the Carl Sagan Institute, explores how scientists might find life elsewhere in the universe, and what that has to do with life here on Earth.

Russian scientists publish extensively on fossils taken from Taurida Cave in occupied Crimea. The editorial boards and publishers of international journals, as well as the scientific community, appear to be ignoring the legal and ethical issues of this practice, according to legal scholar Paul P. Stewens.

The long-term effects of firearm violence in urban communities — and among young people in particular — are understudied, researchers say. But several recent papers use new methods and datasets to assess the consequences for health outcomes and rates of gun carrying.

Propelled by the draining of local aquifers, Mexico City’s land is sinking fast. New research surveys how uneven changes in the landscape are impacting the sprawling transportation system — a problem that could impact millions on the U.S. East Coast as well.

The Atacama boasts high altitudes and clear skies, making it a haven for stargazing. And by 2030, Chile will be home to almost 70 percent of the world’s astronomical infrastructure. Light pollution, though, threatens frontier research. Can a recently announced nationwide lighting standard make a difference?

Can scientists unlock the keys to a longer life? The field is flush with hope and hype. In “Why We Die,” biologist and Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan explores the science of aging, and helps readers make sense of billionaire antics, breathless press releases, and splashy scientific advances.

Precision livestock farming tools that make use of artificial intelligence offer a way to continuously and precisely monitor animals in real time. But to a group of scientists who advocate for a move to plant-based diets, such technologies won’t solve animal agriculture’s fundamental problems.

One startup has said a genetically modified microbe could prevent cavities. Experts, though, have safety and ethical concerns: The treatment has never been tested on humans in a clinical study. There’s also no data about whether it could spread between people.

Palliative care provides a constellation of services to people with serious or chronic illness, not just end-of-life care. As two states pioneer was to expand access, a growing body of research shows it reduces physical discomfort and stress, improves quality of life, and saves money.

Unlike high-frequency sounds, low-frequency waves can penetrate walls and carry farther distances. The research on low-frequencies is also thinner, but some experts say they can be a health hazard, causing headaches, anxiety, and sleep troubles — even when the noise isn’t audible. Others have doubts.

Beloved Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel García Márquez wanted his last book — which he wrote as dementia set in — to be destroyed. But “Until August” was posthumously published last month, providing a glimpse into how cognitive decline impacts creativity.

Ambitious plans to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions across the economy focus on engineering solutions such as carbon capture. But to achieve true sustainability, society must look beyond decarbonization and toward more holistic approaches, says environmental anthropologist Peter Sutoris.

Scientists are testing environmental DNA as a tool to help search for, locate, and repatriate lost soldiers’ remains. The research is still in the fledgling stages, but if the findings prove promising, experts say, it could be a game changer in the field of forensic science.

A landmark ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ordered the government of Peru to provide free medical care and compensation to 80 people impacted by a smelting and refining plant. The decision may have far-reaching implications for communities affected by extreme pollution and climate change.

Few tools measure biodiversity on a grand scale, and there’s still much scientists don’t know despite the intrinsic role that insects, particularly pollinators, play in the ecosystem. Most of those insects have neither a name nor a formal description. Environmental DNA may help fill in the gaps.

David M. Higgins, a pediatrician and author of a recent essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, argues that the popular belief that parental hesitancy about routine childhood vaccines has become commonplace but ignores data from polls, data, and the CDC that shows broad support for child vaccination.

AI-driven chatbots for bereaved people simulate interactions with lost loved ones based on their emails, texts, voice recordings, and more. The companies that make these so-called “griefbots” claim that the technology can help people deal with loss. But some researchers say that evidence is still lacking.

In 1998, a publication detailed how a child’s behavior could change alarmingly after a strep infection. It stirred controversy, and many doctors still hesitate to diagnose or treat the condition, called PANDAS. But some experts say that may be changing.

There exists no single, unified list of all species. Taxonomists in different fields don’t always define specimens the same way; a single organism might have multiple scientific names, or, conversely, a single name can refer to different organisms. Some scientists want that to change.

The chemotherapy drug fluorouracil, known as 5-FU, kills an estimated 1 in 1,000 patients, but a gene test can often uncover those who may be at risk of death or severe side effects. With only 3 percent of U.S. oncologists routinely ordering such tests, advocates are pushing for change.

In “On the Move,” Abrahm Lustgarten explores the profound demographic impact that global warming will have on Americans as millions become displaced and in search of more habitable places to settle, which models show will shift to the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest, and into Canada.

Some people who get Covid-19 experience symptoms long after the initial illness, developing what’s known as long Covid. But a lack of consensus over the diagnostic criteria for the condition has impeded research progress and could lead to stigma for patients, says DePaul University psychologist Leonard A. Jason.

As supporters lobby for regulatory acceptance, a group of large consulting companies and eDNA specialists see the tool as a promising way to monitor corporate sustainability. Experts say eDNA has limitations and drawbacks.

A new report highlights the risk that 120,000 abandoned oil and gas wells pose to underground carbon dioxide storage in Louisiana, home to more proposals to pump the greenhouse gas underground than any other state.

Surging interest in xenotransplantation, the implanting of non-human animal parts into human bodies, has cast a spotlight on the use of brain-dead subjects in medical research. Such studies fall into a regulatory gap marked by few ethical guidelines and little, if any, oversight.

Despite what we see in science fiction movies, intelligent machines cannot perform surgeries alone. But highly trained human surgeons are using an emerging generation of cutting-edge robots as another tool to help them do their jobs with higher precision and smaller incisions.

Scientific collections housed in museums, archives, and libraries are part of a country’s cultural heritage. During its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army targeted cultural properties for destruction. Scientist and curator Pavel Gol’din says rescuing such collections is necessary for a society to survive.

A complex mission to retrieve samples from the red planet is in the works. But while it’s been a long-time priority for the planetary science community, the project’s ballooning budget — which has led to funding cuts for other NASA projects — has some experts wondering: Will the mission be worth it?

A group of scientists are analyzing satellite images to teach computers to recognize when farmers butter the land with livestock poop in winter, a largely restricted but suspectedly pervasive practice in America’s Dairyland. Some advocates want the state to use their data as it regulates livestock manure.

In the rapidly growing field of eDNA, technological innovation has been key to surveying biodiversity. And while some scientists continue to use traditional methods, others are also banking on tools such as robots to help collect samples, as well as advanced lab analyses.

Psychologists and cognitive scientists are probing the mysteries of play and dreaming among animals, which may be intimately connected. Since dogs, horses, birds, and many other creatures dream, evolutionary biologists assume that it must have adaptive advantages. But what are they?

The World Health Organization recommends that all preterm infants receive at least 8 hours of skin-to-skin contact with a caregiver — known as kangaroo mother care, or KMC — beginning immediately after birth. Psychotherapist Ruth Bettelheim says that policies in the U.S. must change to make KMC standard.

The Decentralized Damage Mapping Group, an ad hoc association of about 18 researchers worldwide, came together last fall to increase the understanding and use of satellite data for monitoring the impacts of conflict. Two of the group’s researchers have now identified an estimated 157,200 damaged or destroyed buildings in Gaza.

While other forensic tools have leapt into the digital age, the rape kit — a ubiquitous but overlooked instrument — remains stuck in the 1970s. When used correctly, it can identify violent criminals and also prevent wrongly accused men from going to prison. But reforming the kit is overdue.

Time researchers make this point, and research results and public opinion polls reflect it: Something is awry about the way we mark time. Research into time zone boundaries, daylight saving time, and more reveals how subtle policies can shape our lives — and suggests avenues for reform.

In a spirited conversation centered on his new book, astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter has a lot to say about the public’s lack of trust in science, and how it can be fixed. He also has plenty to say about the tenure system, peer review, science journalism, p-hacking, and the crucial role of scientists in politics.

Journalists need to put the claims of climate scientists under the same scrutiny they would give to those of politicians, argues longtime science communicator Dennis Meredith. By not recognizing scientists’ motives, journalists can’t accurately report the truth about the dire state of the climate.

The vast majority of drugs prescribed for children appear to be safe, but a lack of proper testing puts kids at a relatively high risk of side effects, experts told Undark. And medications that work well in adults might be less effective in young people. Some researchers are pushing for change.

Memory does not work like a recording device, Charan Ranganath writes in “Why We Remember.” In fact, your brain is doing what it evolved to do: prioritize and store important information and let nonessential details slip away, an essential trait for the survival for our ancestors.

Many psychiatrists have been seeing more children wind up in their offices and emergency rooms, pushed into psychiatric evaluations by their schools. But when schools offload the responsibility of evaluation and intervention onto outside clinicians, it can keep students out of school for weeks or even months.

Although Institutional Review Boards play an important role in protecting trial participants, critics say that the boards can also be overly cautious and protective of their institution, with consent processes that are intended more for shielding institutions from litigation or liability.

Nell Greenfieldboyce deftly weaves science and memoir in a collection of deeply personal essays, breaking out of the objective, impersonal writing mode that has characterized her career as a journalist at NPR to plumb what the field of science has meant to her as an individual.

The film “Oppenheimer” portrays the nuclear physicist’s ambivalence toward the weapon he helped create — an uneasiness now reflected in worries over the potential destructive power of AI. Society must face the moral obligation to agree on clear guidelines for AI’s use, writes Nicholas B. Dirks.

Over the past 30 years, evidence-based medicine has transformed the practice of medicine worldwide. Whether it can transform the practice of public health — which focuses not on individuals, but on keeping the broader community healthy — is a thornier question.

Generative artificial intelligence uses massive amounts of energy for computation and data storage and millions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers. Now, legislators and regulators — in the U.S. and the EU — are starting to demand accountability.