Long Division: The Persistence of Race Science
Dec 12, 2022 · LONG DIVISION is an ongoing journalistic project by Undark Magazine, published by the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, that examines the fraught legacy of race science.The multipart series, supported in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, grew out of a workshop held in June 2022 at Harvard University, which brought together journalists, science historians, and other ...
As Offshore Wind Ramps Up, Scientists Flag Potential Impacts
Aug 21, 2023 · L ast year, the Biden administration announced an ambitious goal: enough offshore wind to power 10 million homes by 2030. The move would reduce carbon emissions, create jobs, and strengthen energy security. It would also help the United States — which was responsible for just 0.1 percent of the world’s offshore wind capacity last year — catch up with renewable energy leaders like China ...
For Some Survivors, Polio Casts a Long Shadow - Undark Magazine
Jan 2, 2023 · Brad Fuller was a toddler when he contracted polio in 1952 and was sent to a hospital miles from his northeast Pennsylvania home. He stayed there for nine months, enduring long stints in an iron lung, a large metallic ventilator that helped him breathe. Fuller’s parents were allowed only rare visits.
Down on the Body Farm: The Forensics of Decaying Corpses
Nov 11, 2019 · In the early hours and days after death, medical examiners rely on three hallmark measurements: algor mortis (body temperature), rigor mortis (stiffness), and livor mortis (the settling of the blood). But those signs fade quickly. As decomposition gets rolling, forensic anthropologists mark five physical stages of decay: “fresh,” during ...
The Scramble to Defuse the ‘Feral Swine Bomb’ - Undark Magazine
Sep 14, 2020 · Relocation of feral swine has resulted in extensive cross-breeding with domestic pigs, producing “super pigs” that vary in color, can survive winter months, and multiply rapidly. Clint Turnage / USDA. Ontario has moved more slowly to deal with pigs in the 400,000-square-mile province. “We’re not talking in the thousands,” Downe says ...
Maybe She’s Just Tired, Maybe It’s Undiagnosed Iron Deficiency
Aug 26, 2024 · Iron deficiency is rare in men — estimated to affect about 2 percent of U.S. men — but when it develops, similarly to menopausal women, it can signal an underlying condition such as an ulcer or cancer. As Weyand put it: “It’s more of a red flag in terms of figuring out why they’re iron deficient.”.
In the Great Lakes, the Pandemic Disrupted Sea Lamprey Control
Sep 5, 2022 · In order to protect the Great Lakes’ $7 billion fishery, the two countries spend about $25 million annually on sea lamprey control, according to Gaden, with the U.S. contributing nearly 70 percent of the funding. Though there are over 180 invasive species in the Great Lakes, none are more destructive than the sea lamprey, Gaden said.
The Weight of Numbers: Air Pollution and PM2.5 - Undark Magazine
It is a leading driver of heart disease and stroke, lung cancer, and respiratory infections the world over. Exposure to such pollution, the most deadly of which scientists call PM2.5, is the sixth highest risk factor for death around the world, claiming more than 4 million lives annually, according to recent global morbidity data.
Opinion: Feminist Science Is Not an Oxymoron - Undark Magazine
Sep 15, 2022 · It isn’t hard to see why. Among mainstream scientists, the word feminist has often been viewed with disdain, hostility, and an implicit belief that feminist ideals are incompatible with true science — that the former is about ideology; the latter, objective authority.. In reality, feminist science offers a powerful set of tools for examining the history, context, and power structures in ...
Mexican Farmers and Scientists Share a Mission: Saving a Wetland
08.01.2022. On the southern edge of Mexico City, on a patch of land surrounded by water, a farmer and a scientist recently inspected rows of small cubes of mud that had sprouted seedlings. They were crouching on a chinampa, an island that appears to float in Lake Xochimilco, part of a complex ecosystem where the Aztec Empire once flourished.