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Facing Unbearable Heat, Qatar Has Begun to Air-Condition the Outdoors
Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors"><meta name="description" content="For Qatar, global warming is an engineering problem. But while it may be able to cool outdoor malls and stadiums, it cannot cool the entire country.
A Doctoral Student Wore a Skirt Made of Rejection Letters to Defend Her Dissertation
A Doctoral Student Wore a Skirt Made of Rejection Letters to Defend Her Dissertation
In the spirit of acknowledging and normalizing failure in the process, a doctoral student defended her dissertation in a skirt made of rejection letters from the course of her PhD.
Industry Dominates Trump’s New Council of Science Advisers
President Trump revived the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology on Tuesday after nearly two years without it.
Connecting fractured habitats has long-lasting ecological benefits
A decades-long ecological experiment in South Carolina has shown the power of a straightforward way to improve wildlife habitats: connect them. Scientists say the study’s results, published Thursday in the journal Science, offer the most compelling evidence yet that connected habitats flourish for years.
Harvard and MIT Leaders Acknowledge Deeper Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Than Previously Known
Harvard and MIT Leaders Acknowledge Deeper Ties to Jeffrey Epstein Than Previously Known
Presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology acknowledged in separate announcements this week that their connections to financier Jeffrey Epstein went deeper than previously revealed, further entangling the elite institutions with a donor who was a convicted sex offender.
NOAA Staff Warned in Sept. 1 Directive Against Contradicting Trump
Nearly a week before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration publicly backed President Trump over its own scientists, a top NOAA official warned its staff against contradicting the president. This happened hours after Trump asserted, with no evidence, that Alabama "would most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated" by hurricane Dorian, and days before he showed a hurricane map modified with a hand-drawn, half-circle around Alabama.
How the Trump Administration Limited the Scope of the USDA's 2020 Dietary Guidelines
How the Trump Administration Limited the Scope of the USDA's 2020 Dietary Guidelines
The Trump administration is limiting scientific input to the 2020 dietary guidelines, raising concerns among nutrition advocates and independent experts about industry influence over healthy eating recommendations for all Americans.
2°C: Beyond the Limit
New Jersey may seem an unlikely place to measure climate change, but it is one of the fastest-warming states in the nation. Its average temperature has climbed by close to 2 degrees Celsius since 1895 — double the average for the Lower 48 states.
Why We Shouldn’t Take Peer Review as the ‘Gold Standard’
Targeting a general audience, this opinion piece argues that with more transparency about the publication process, we might have a more nuanced understanding of how knowledge is built - and fewer people taking “peer-reviewed” to mean settled truth.
Pfizer Had Clues Its Blockbuster Drug Could Prevent Alzheimer’s. Why Didn’t It Tell the World?
Pfizer Had Clues Its Blockbuster Drug Could Prevent Alzheimer’s. Why Didn’t It Tell the World?
A team of researchers inside Pfizer made a startling find in 2015: The company’s blockbuster rheumatoid arthritis therapy Enbrel, a powerful anti-inflammatory drug, appeared to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 64 percent.
It Matters Who We Champion in Science
Science is never the work of one person; it is the collaborative effort of students, technicians, professors, librarians and the support networks around them. This week, millions of girls and women around the world who have been told science is not for them found a new role model in Bouman - a new data point that told them yes you can.
Shell Quits Trade Group over Climate-Change Positions
Shell, citing its positions on climate change, quits an industry trade group. But critics say the oil giant should leave other trade groups as well. Shell said it used four markers in evaluating its trade group memberships: support for the Paris climate agreement, support for carbon taxes, policies encouraging low-carbon technologies and a continuing role for natural gas, which now makes up more than half of Shell’s business.
An HIV Treatment Cost Taxpayers Millions. The Government Patented It. But a Pharma Giant Is Making Billions.
An HIV Treatment Cost Taxpayers Millions. The Government Patented It. But a Pharma Giant Is Making Billions.
The extraordinary standoff between the CDC and a drug company over patent rights raises a big question for the Trump administration: How aggressively should the government attempt to enforce its patents against an industry partner?
White House to Set up Panel to Counter Climate Change Consensus, Officials Say
White House to Set up Panel to Counter Climate Change Consensus, Officials Say
White House Prepares to Scrutinize Intelligence Agencies’ Finding That Climate Change Threatens National Security
White House Prepares to Scrutinize Intelligence Agencies’ Finding That Climate Change Threatens National Security
The White House is working to assemble a panel to assess whether climate change poses a national security threat, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post, a conclusion that federal intelligence agencies have affirmed several times since President Trump took office.
More science than you think is retracted. Even more should be.
More science than you think is retracted. Even more should be.
While 18,000 retractions may sound like a lot, that amount is clearly just a fraction of the total number of papers that are a problem, as surveys indicate.
Even Progressive Academics Can Be Racist. I've Experienced It Firsthand.
They refuse to see me as a member of the professional and intellectual community.
Russia Is Building a New Napster - but for Academic Research
Over the last decade, Russian academics and activists have built free, remarkably comprehensive online archives of scholarly works.
Red-hot Planet: All-time Heat Records Have Been Set All Over the World During the Past Week
Red-hot Planet: All-time Heat Records Have Been Set All Over the World During the Past Week
From the normally mild summer climes of Ireland, Scotland and Canada to the scorching Middle East, numerous locations in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest weather ever recorded over the past week.
NIH Seeks Health Data of 1 Million People, with Genetic Privacy Suddenly an Issue
NIH Seeks Health Data of 1 Million People, with Genetic Privacy Suddenly an Issue
Information about participants in the unprecedented “All of Us” study is protected from inquiries by law enforcement, officials said.
Battle over College Course Material Is a Textbook Example of Technological Change
Battle over College Course Material Is a Textbook Example of Technological Change
A revolution in college course materials is raising questions about cost, access, and fairness. Publishers say their high-tech courseware - electronic books glowing with videos and interactive study guides - can improve the quality of learning at a small fraction of the cost of traditional textbooks. But student advocates call for adoption of open-source textbooks that can be downloaded for free and worry that the same companies that drove up the price of print textbooks are dominating the digital space and will ultimately introduce higher costs there.
CDC Gets List of Forbidden Words
Agency analysts are told to avoid these 7 banned words and phrases in budget documents.
Promising to ‘Make Our Planet Great Again,’ Macron lures 13 U.S. climate scientists to France
Promising to ‘Make Our Planet Great Again,’ Macron lures 13 U.S. climate scientists to France
The awarding of the grants comes as the Trump administration has proposed slashing federal science budgets and has dropped out of the Paris climate accord.
A Prestigious Research Publisher Gives in to China's Censorship
The Financial Times disclosed that Springer Nature has blocked access in China to at least 1,000 articles from the websites of two of its journals in response to Beijing’s censorship demands.
In Reversal, Cambridge University Press Restores Articles After China Censorship Row
In Reversal, Cambridge University Press Restores Articles After China Censorship Row
The Cambridge University Press faced academic outrage after agreeing to remove articles about Tibet, Tiananmen Square and China's Cultural Revolution.
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