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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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.”.
Baring Teeth: The Long Battle Over Fluoride Comes to a Head
Mar 6, 2024 · Berridge retired from the agency in the spring of 2023, upset by the handling of the fluoride report. “That’s not the way I want to do science,” he said. “So I decided to do something different.”. Fluoride strengthens teeth because teeth are like living rocks: tissue sheathed in a mesh of crystals called enamel.
The Deep Toll of Tar Sands On Canada's Indigenous People
Nov 22, 2021 · Over the course of only a decade the mines began to multiply. Eight active tar sands mines now form a 40-mile chain along the Athabasca River, their giant shovels gobbling up the earth like an invasion of mechanical caterpillars. The town of Fort McKay, population 765, sits in the middle of all this.
For Forest Blazes Grown Wilder, an Alternative: The ‘Good Fire’
Oct 25, 2021 · Desautel and his community have been especially skilled fire-tree matchmakers, deliberately lighting the kind of a fire a pine forest craves through a practice called prescribed burning, also known as “good fire.”. And good fire actually helps protect forests, by giving trees like Ponderosas a sort of healthy pruning that allows them to ...
Survey Trolls, Opt-In Polls, and the New Era of Survey Science
By Teresa Carr. 06.26.2024. Last December, a joint survey by The Economist and the polling organization YouGov claimed to reveal a striking antisemitic streak among America’s youth. One in five young Americans thinks the Holocaust is a myth, according to the poll. And 28 percent think Jews in America have too much power.
If Insects Feel Pain, Should They Be Protected in Research?
Jul 25, 2022 · T he rationale to legally protect animals in scientific research typically rests on their presumed ability to feel pain and suffer — one facet of consciousness, or sentience. Nearly all animals are capable of physically detecting injuries and displaying reflexes to avoid a threat. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they experience pain, which is not just a …