This Radical Plan to Make Roads Greener Actually Works
Yet this enhanced connectivity often comes at a high social and ecological price. In the Amazon, Laurance has found, the vast majority of deforestation occurs near roadways; in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park, researchers have cautioned that roads stand to “cause…
Your Money Is Funding Fossil Fuels Without You Knowing It
When you drop money in the bank, it looks like it’s just sitting there, ready for you to withdraw. In reality, your institution makes money on your money by lending it elsewhere, including to the fossil fuel companies driving climate…
A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry
The early 1970s were the real heyday of beef in the US. It was the era of stroganoff, stews, and casseroles, steak lunches and 60-cent hamburgers. It was also the beginning of a long decline for the all-American meat. In…
Don’t Worry, It’s Just ‘Fire Ice’
The finding suggests that far more fire ice is vulnerable to climate-induced melt than scientists realized, and it could be a significant source of planet-warming gas in the future. “It’s a very, very, very large source of carbon,” says Davies….
Snow Sports Are Getting More Dangerous
Many people meet Dale Atkins for the first time on their worst days—ice climbers who are stranded and injured, skiers that have been swallowed by an avalanche. Atkins, a skilled mountaineer as well as a climatologist and former weather and…
You Know It’s a Placebo. So Why Does It Still Work?
You booked this doctor’s appointment weeks in advance. You took off work, endured the trip here, filled out paperwork while a cooking show blared from a TV on the wall, and now you’re finally in the inner sanctum, awkwardly perched…
The Age of Crispr Medicine Is Here
So far, only nine centers across the US are currently offering Casgevy, which may limit who gets access to it. Vertex says the number of participating sites will grow in the coming weeks and months. And despite the promise of…
This Pill Tracks Your Vitals From the Inside
Digital health company Celero Systems is developing an electronic pill that can measure heart rate, breathing rate, and core temperature—from inside the human stomach. As a first step, the company envisions people with ongoing conditions using the digital capsule to…
Oh Good, Hurricanes Are Now Made of Microplastics
As Hurricane Larry curved north in the Atlantic in 2021, sparing the eastern seaboard of the United States, a special instrument was waiting for it on the coast of Newfoundland. Because hurricanes feed on warm ocean water, scientists wondered whether…
The First Crispr Medicine Is Now Approved in the US
“This is a terrible disease,” says Samarth Kulkarni, president and CEO of Crispr Therapeutics. “Every day feels like a big burden. Patients have this constant specter of mortality hanging over them.” The culprit is abnormal hemoglobin, the protein that carries…
A Brilliant COP Agreement? It Depends Who You Ask
After tense and protracted negotiations, delegates at the United Nations climate conference COP28 have agreed on a deal that calls on countries to transition away from fossil fuels. It is the first time that nations have agreed to such a…
Energy Drinks Are Out of Control
In the US, the FDA has not imposed specific restrictions or requirements on the sale or labeling of energy drinks, but the American Beverage Association’s Guidance for the Responsible Labeling and Marketing of Energy Drinks does lay out some rules,…
The Toxic Truth About Your Christmas Tree
This story originally appeared on High Country News and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Perhaps no single Christmas custom is more ubiquitous than putting up the Christmas tree. It originated in eastern Europe more than 500 years ago,…
In a World First, a Patient’s Antibody Cells Were Just Genetically Engineered
Our B cells help prevent us from getting sick. Their job is to make antibodies, immune system proteins that fight off viruses and other foreign invaders. And they make a lot of antibodies—thousands of them every second. What if these…
School of Rock: The Physics of Waves on Guitar Strings
The rubber band example does indeed have two nodes—they are at the ends of the rubber band where your fingers hold it. We only have half a wavelength in the standing wave, but there is indeed a relationship between the…
Stop Planting Trees, Says Guy Who Inspired World to Plant a Trillion Trees
In a cavernous theater lit up with the green shapes of camels and palms at COP28 in Dubai, ecologist Thomas Crowther, former chief scientific adviser for the United Nations’ Trillion Trees Campaign, was doing something he never would have expected…
Why Deleting Carbon From the Atmosphere Is So Controversial
Carbon removal techniques come in two main flavors—the technological and the natural—but also increasingly a melding of the two. The dominant technology at the moment is direct air capture, or DAC. This involves giant machines sucking in air and filtering…
The US Supreme Court Will Decide the Fate of Medication Abortion
The US Supreme Court decided Wednesday to hear a case challenging access to abortion pills in the United States, including in states where abortion is legal. This will be the most consequential case for access to reproductive health care since…
Elon Musk’s New Monkey Death Claims Spur Fresh Demands for an SEC Investigation
In October 2018, a UC Davis veterinarian approved Animal 13 for use in a Neuralink experiment. She was six years old when she received her Neuralink implants. According to her pre-project physical exam and echocardiogram, Davis staff did not observe…
Here’s Scientific Proof Your Cat Will Eat Almost Anything
Don’t let their fluff fool you: Your cat was built for murder. Felines, no matter how chonky, eepy, or boopable, are remarkably adaptable obligate carnivores, down to eat just about anything that fits in their mouth. Well-intentioned (or … threatening?)…
All the Fish We Cannot See
The destination for this yet-untargeted bounty? Livestock feed, says Payne. This exploitation of the mesopelagic required a huge harvesting effort in the southwest Indian Ocean and southern Atlantic, including employing boats with helicopters and fish-processing facilities to support a fleet…
Biophysicists Uncover Powerful Symmetries in Living Tissue
“It was pretty amazing how well the experimental data and numerical simulation matched,” Eckert said. In fact, it matched so closely that Carenza’s first response was that it must be wrong. The team jokingly worried that a peer reviewer might…