Has the BLM Movement Influenced Police Use of Lethal Force?
For decades, researchers have studied the influence of social movements on broader society. Yet nearly nine...
Online Data Could Pose Risks in a Post-Roe v. Wade World
If the Supreme Court overturns the landmark decision, women in states where abortion becomes illegal could...
India’s 'Man-Eating' Tigers Entangled in a Blame Game
In recent decades, India’s tigers have rebounded, reclaiming some of their historic range. At the same...
Book Review: The Toxic Legacy of DDT
In “How to Sell a Poison,” medical historian Elena Conis chronicles the history of the infamous...
Space Is an Ecosystem Like Any Other. And It’s in Peril.
The band of orbital space just above our atmosphere can be thought of as a critical...
The Race to Produce Green Steel
In a push to dramatically reduce its carbon footprint, the steel industry is testing new manufacturing...
Automated Medication Dispensing May Cause Drug Mix-ups
Computerized cabinets are used to dispense medications in nearly all hospitals in the United States. But...
Pandemic Brings New Hardships to India's Domestic Workers
In India, live-in domestic workers — who often come from marginalized communities — toil in conditions...
Book Review: Anatomy of an Environmental Tragedy
Keith O’Brien’s “Paradise Falls” is the deeply reported tale of how a group of neighborhood mothers...
Trolling Is Taking a Toll on Science Journalism
In a series of interviews conducted last year, science journalists described being targeted with online hate....
In Farming, a Constant Drive For Technology
As farmers face changing weather patterns, environmental degradation, labor shortages, and the rising cost of key...
For Thousands of Nursing Home Workers, Dubious Vaccine Exemptions
While 89 percent of nursing home workers are now vaccinated against Covid-19, tens of thousands have...
In India, Digital Snooping on Sanitation Workers
Many sanitation workers in India must wear GPS trackers, and some say taking off the device...
Book Review: Unlocking the Mysteries of Pain
In “Song of Our Scars,” physician Haider Warraich surveys the scientific, historical, and cultural dimensions of...
Podcast: Cascading Effects of Pollution in Lebanon's Litani River
This month: Residents of Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley say pollution in the Litani River is responsible for...
Risk Aversion Is Ruining Science
An incrementalist approach to science may pay off in the short run, but big advances require...
In Rural India, Extreme Covid Vaccine Hesitancy
A tribal belt in India has low Covid-19 vaccination rates: 82 percent of the population hasn’t...
Shaky Science Instruction Pervades Middle School Classrooms
Early adolescence is a time of huge cognitive change and a critical time to build students’...
Book Excerpt: What Elephant Seals Tell Us About Power Dynamics
Every year, a complex and chaotic struggle for power plays out among 4,000-pound male elephant seals,...
I Helped Pen the UN Climate Report. Here’s Why It Gives Me Hope.
The latest and final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report paints...
In a Cold Winter, Afghans Struggle to Keep Warm
In the Charahi Qambar camp for internally displaced people, at the tail end of winter, nighttime...
The Virus Years: A U.S. Covid Retrospective
Although its worst impacts have been unevenly distributed, the Covid-19 pandemic has indelibly touched every corner...
Despite Scrutiny, High C-Section Rates Persist in the South
Cesarean sections can be necessary and even lifesaving, but public health experts have long contended that...
Why Researchers Want Broader Access to Social Media Data
Within days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, tech companies took steps to reduce the circulation of...
Book Review: An Urgent Plea for Mental Health Care Reform
In “Healing,” former director of the National Institute of Mental Health Thomas Insel argues for a...
Biden’s Plan to ‘End Cancer’ Borrows From an Old, Flawed Playbook
The President’s new research enterprise, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, is eerily reminiscent of...
Environmentalists Target Mountains of Fertilizer Waste
Industry officials maintain that existing environmental standards for phosphogypsum are already strict enough. But environmental advocates...
To Curb Smuggling, Norway Has Been Killing Confiscated Wildlife
Norwegian authorities have seized and killed smuggled animals, raising questions about how the country handles endangered...
Dire Climate Warning Issued in New IPCC Report: 'Now or Never'
The latest IPCC mitigation report, released last week, outlines economic and political choices society can make...
Interview: Whitney Phillips on Making Sense of Misinformation
Whitney Phillips’ research has taken her to some of the internet’s darkest corners. As a media...
The Careless Display of Ill-Gotten Human Remains
For more than 200 years, London’s Hunterian Museum has shown off the monumental skeleton of Charles...
The Fractious Evolution of Pediatric Transgender Medicine
Pediatric transgender medicine was pioneered at a Dutch clinic where practitioners developed a protocol and published...
Climate Collaborations in the Arctic Are Frozen Amid War
Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental group of Arctic states and...
Decolonizing the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Sixty years after President Kennedy described space as a new frontier, scholars are calling for greater...
Book Review: Elegy to a Rapidly Vanishing Lake
In “Troubling the Water,” Abby Seiff reveals how dams, overfishing, and climate change are threatening a...
Facts Haven’t Spurred Us to Climate Action. Can Fiction?
What will it take to jolt the world into action against climate change? By dragging us...
Podcast: Water Cremation Ignites Debate Over Dignified Death
This month: Alkaline hydrolysis is an end-of-life option that’s gaining popularity in Canada and the U.S....
Under the Sea, a Hidden Climate Variable: Thawing Permafrost
Not only on land, permafrost is also thawing under the sea, emitting greenhouse gases and leaving...
How Radar Is Helping Track Down Lost Indigenous Grave Sites
Ground penetrating radar is being used by Indigenous groups in Canada and the U.S. to identify...
The Parable of the World's Largest Bee
If it wasn’t the world’s largest bee and therefore a sort of holy grail for a...
Universities Are Failing the Next Generation of Scientists
Many science Ph.D. recipients don’t obtain tenure-track academic research positions, and may wind up working outside...
How the Hoopa Valley Tribe Monitors a Rare Carnivore
Since 2005, the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s wildlife division has run one of the longest, most detailed...
Sharing Accurate Covid Vaccine Information Inside ICE Detention
In the two years since the pandemic took hold, Covid outbreaks have plagued detainees in recurring...
The Subtle Psychology of 'Nudging' During a Pandemic
The 2008 book “Nudge” outlined the concept of a nudge: a subtle prompt that can alter...
Book Review: A Doctor's Impassioned Critique of Big Pharma
In John Abramson’s “Sickening,” a Harvard professor and family physician chronicles the deceptive marketing practices of...
To Prevent Future Variants, We Must Protect Those Most At Risk
As mask mandates expire and social distancing measures are curbed across the U.S., the threat of...
The Worrying Murkiness of Institutional Biosafety Committees
Experts say IBCs are a crucial tool for ensuring the safety of biomedical research. But evidence...
Lacking Mental Health Support, First Responders Turn to Peers
Peer support for first responders has resonated broadly in the medical community, but because so much...
Fossil-Fueled War: Ukraine’s Top Climate Scientist Speaks Out
As Western governments untangle themselves from Russian oil and gas, Ukrainian climate scientist Svitlana Krakovska notes...
Book Review: Healing from Heartbreak, According to Science
Recovering from her divorce, Florence Williams explores the many effects heartache and trauma can have on...