When Brad Bernstein first looked at cancer tumors cell by cell in 2014, what he found dismayed him: he realized that in any single tumor, there is not one type of cancer cell at work but many. “I was a little depressed when I saw it,” says Bernstein, a pathologist at the Broad Institute of […]
Front line health care professionals, particularly nurses, physician assistants and doctors, are experiencing a range of complex emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic. They risk their lives to save others. They place their loved ones at risk because of their exposure. This makes them fearful. They are forced to make hard decisions concerning life and death, […]
“And with this coronavirus, the hopeful thing is how communities and individuals have gotten together by helping each other.” That is Jane Goodall, during a teleconference last week. Wednesday, April 22nd, is the 50th Earth Day. And on Wednesday, Goodall will take part in day-long programming on the National Geographic Channel. During the teleconference last […]
Solar panels perched on the roofs of houses and other buildings are an increasingly common sight in the U.S., but rooftop wind systems have never caught on. Past efforts to scale down the towering turbines that generate wind power to something that might sit on a home have been plagued by too many technical problems […]
Fifty years ago, on April 22, 1970, millions took to the streets on the first Earth Day, demanding clean air and environmental protection. Massive citizen participation, some 10 percent of the U.S. population at the time, led to the Clean Air Act, and other landmark environmental protection laws. Now, President Trump has “commemorated” the 50th […]
A joke is going around on social media that has the climate crisis talking to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Hey,” says climate, “Congratulations on all your success. Can I get the name of your publicist?” The wry humor plays up one of the troubling ironies of celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day amidst the global […]
A survey of more than 4,000 researchers in the United States suggests that better coordination at an institutional and national level could make hundreds of thousands more tests for coronavirus available. The survey was prompted by a Nature investigation published on 9 April, revealing that several top university laboratories that have received regulatory approval to process tests for SARS-CoV-2 […]
Gravitational-wave astronomers have for the first time detected a collision between two black holes of substantially different masses—opening up a new vista on astrophysics and on the physics of gravity. The event offers the first unmistakable evidence from these faint space-time ripples that at least one black hole was spinning before merging, giving astronomers rare […]
In the aftermath of disasters like 9/11, Katrina and the 2008 financial crisis, Americans had the opportunity to judge the response from the federal government and evaluate how the past had prepared us for 21st-century emergencies. These whole-country hardships presented the United States with fuel for change in public sentiment towards the relatively familiar issues […]
Experts see a way to help cities prepare for tropical storms that will likely be larger, less predictable and more damaging than hurricanes of the past. One focus is on inland areas that have recently come within reach of stronger climate-driven hurricanes and stand to benefit from improved emergency planning and stronger building codes. The […]