If Democrat Joe Biden defeats President Trump this November, his EPA will have a blank slate for writing climate rules. Because the Trump administration spent three and a half years demolishing its predecessor’s Climate Action Plan, Biden’s team would have an opening to update rules for carbon, methane and hydrofluorocarbons that would exceed their Obama-era […]
Just as the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 approaches new highs in some parts of the country, hospital data in Kansas and Missouri is suddenly incomplete or missing. The Missouri Hospital Association reports that it no longer has access to the data it uses to guide state coronavirus mitigation efforts, and Kansas officials say […]
For years scientists have sought to create the ultimate cancer-screening test—one that can reliably detect a malignancy early, before tumor cells spread and when treatments are more effective. A new method reported today in Nature Communications brings researchers a step closer to that goal. By using a blood test, the international team was able to […]
There is no coronavirus vaccine. Medications for COVID-19 are still being tested. Across the U.S., states that once acted as if the pandemic was going away are setting new daily records for infections, hospitalizations and deaths. There is one proved tool that has helped other countries stem the pandemic, but in the U.S. it is […]
Originally published in February 1900 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Candidates for the Nobel prize for scientific achievements are now being considered by the Swedish Academy of Science, at Stockholm, which must award the prize this year for the first time. Among the names already proposed are Prof. Roentgen, Marconi, Baron Nordenskjöld, and Henri Dunant, the […]
Imagine waking up on Monday morning to an e-mail in your inbox that was written entirely in capital letters—an e-mail that jolts you awake far quicker than the cup of coffee in your hand: “IS THIS A JOKE??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” With the caps lock key and the stroke of an exclamation point, your […]
It takes a lot of effort and more than a little bit of luck for researchers like André Raine to get to the remote mountaintops of Kauai, where they’re working to save endangered Hawaiian seabirds from extinction. First you need a helicopter capable of reaching sites more than 4,600 feet above sea level. Then you […]
As COVID-19 continues its fateful march around the globe, researchers have seen patterns of characteristics tied to bad cases of the disease. Increased age, diabetes, heart disease and lifelong experiences of systemic racism have come into focus as risk factors. Now some connections to certain genes are also emerging, although the links are fuzzier. Combing […]
An extinct tree grows in India’s Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. Well, it’s not exactly extinct. But the small, flowering tree species, known only as Wendlandia angustifolia, has had a long history of going unnoticed. Scientists collected the first specimen of the plant in 1867, then didn’t observe it again until 1917. After that no one officially […]
Studies have repeatedly shown that Black patients’ experiences with the U.S. health care system are worse than those of white patients at almost every stage, from infancy to geriatric care. In surgical settings, Black patients experience more complications, receive fewer follow-up visits and are more likely to die. Conventional medical thinking has largely attributed such […]