Election Day in the United States is a little more than a month away, and scientists are watching the outcome of the presidential race closely. President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, actions to downplay climate change and perpetuation of misinformation have horrified many scientists. “We face a national crisis unlike any we have […]
Democracy is currently under threat in the United States. Some scientists have joined in efforts to counter this threat, but most of us have not. We are understandably focused on our pressing professional and family responsibilities, particularly during the current COVID-19 pandemic. But in this time of crisis for our nation we need to sound […]
On September 18 Orianna Carvalho woke up at 3 A.M. with a sore throat and the sniffles. At first she thought her symptoms were caused by allergies. But as the minutes ticked by, she began to worry they were caused by COVID-19. The following morning, Carvalho got tested at the University of Rhode Island, where […]
Small objects bob on either side of a levitating layer of water Sailboat floats on the underside of water. Credit: From “Floating under a Levitating Liquid,” by Benjamin Apffel et al., in Nature, Vol. 585; September 3, 2020 Advertisement In this digitally colorized image, one of two small sailboats floats on the underside of a […]
With the way this year is going, the idea of living under a rock has become—possibly for the first time in our lives—alluring. But it turns out there’s a plant that beat us to it. That plant is moss. Yes, moss. The fuzzy green stuff famed for its love of waterfalls, rainforests, glades filled with […]
The vast Greenland ice sheet is melting at some of its fastest rates in the past 12,000 years. And it could quadruple over the next 80 years if greenhouse gas emissions don’t decline dramatically in the coming decades. Research published yesterday in the journal Nature warns that the ice sheet’s future losses depend heavily on how quickly humans […]
Earlier this month scientists announced the surprising discovery of phosphine on Venus. This compound of phosphorus and hydrogen could be associated with life. While efforts to confirm the finding via observations from Earth or even fortuitously planned spacecraft flybys are underway, archived data from a decades-old NASA mission to Venus may have been hiding much […]
Earlier this month scientists announced the surprising discovery of phosphine on Venus. This compound of phosphorus and hydrogen could be associated with life. While efforts to confirm the finding via observations from Earth or even fortuitously planned spacecraft flybys are underway, archived data from a decades-old NASA mission to Venus may have been hiding much […]
Four years ago, Jacob Abel cast his first presidential vote for Donald Trump. As a young conservative from Concord, North Carolina, the choice felt natural. But this November, he plans to cast a “protest vote” for a write-in candidate or abstain from casting a ballot for president. A determining factor in his 180-degree turn? Climate […]
This feels like a lopsided fight. In one corner, we have scientists, epidemiologists, infectious-disease physicians, clinicians, engineers—many different experts in the medical community, that is—arguing that the spread of COVID-19 by aerosols (that is, tiny droplets that can remain airborne long enough to travel significantly farther than the six-foot separation we’ve been told to observe) […]