Most States Lack Warnings for PFAS Found in Freshwater Fish
According to a recent study, eating a single serving of freshwater fish can be the equivalent of drinking water contaminated with high levels of PFAS for a month. But with no federal guidance, what is...
View ArticleAt the OB-GYN, Pain Control Is Possible — But Often Overlooked
It’s no secret that outpatient gynecological procedures, such as IUD insertions, can be excruciating for some patients. But medical authorities have not systematically addressed the problem, even...
View ArticleKeep Capitalism Out of Conservation
Conservationists draw attention to the economic value of ecosystem services — natural processes that in some way benefit humans — as a way of garnering support for their causes. Writer Louise Fabiani...
View ArticleInterview: The Threat of Self-Censorship in Science
Behavioral scientist Cory Clark is one of a number of scientists who argue in a recent paper that scholars are often afraid of offending the political or moral views of their peers, particularly if...
View ArticleSlow Burn: The Emerging Science of Fire Deaths
Fire dynamics and forensic anthropology are rapidly evolving scientific fields, and their real-world connection happens when human remains are found at a fire scene. A week-long course in Texas...
View ArticleIn Gaza, Palestinian Maternal Health Is Hard-Hit
Since October, the health system in Gaza has been collapsing, and pregnant mothers — more than 50,000 in the region — are especially hard-hit. While 180 babies are born in Gaza every day, without...
View ArticleClimate Scientists Occupy the Hot Seat in Mock Trial Training
As soon as this year, legal scholars anticipate a more consequential role in climate litigation for science, and particularly attribution science, which links climate change to extreme weather. A mock...
View ArticleDrug Companies Must Update Their Evidence for Covid-19 Treatments
The drug Paxlovid has been shown to prevent severe Covid-19 in high-risk patients. But evidence on other outcomes such as illness duration, transmission risk, and long Covid is weak. One physician says...
View ArticleBook Excerpt: The Limits of ‘Paternalistic’ Public Health
There is a natural tension between public health recommendations and a public wary of a “nanny state” bent on meddling in their lives, Sandro Galea argues in “Within Reason.” But as the Covid-19...
View ArticleWhy Are So Few People Investigating Covid’s Origins?
Figuring out the origins of Covid is of utmost importance, given the pandemic’s toll. The U.S. alone has suffered more than a million Covid-19 deaths and hundreds of millions of infections. Given this,...
View ArticleThe Regulatory Rift Over When to Use N95s in Health Care
New draft guidance on infection control from the CDC’s advisory committee has workplace safety officials worried that protections will be weakened. The guidance pays little attention to ventilation and...
View ArticleWhy Aren’t More People Buying Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids?
Despite expanded accessibility, interest in direct-to-consumer hearing devices has lagged — in part, experts suggest, due to physician inattention to adult hearing health, inadequate insurance coverage...
View ArticleThe Toxic Sands Threatening Fish in Lake Superior
In the rugged Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan, a massive mining waste site has festered for decades along Lake Superior. Now, that waste is pushing its way onto a critical spawning ground for lake...
View ArticleBook Review: Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Earthly Sounds
“A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous,” Caspar Henderson’s rich and revealing exploration of the planet’s sonic landscape, canvases both natural and human-made sounds, from the Big Bang and sperm...
View ArticleSnip or Skip? The Complicated Debate Over Circumcision.
In the U.S., circumcision is a common surgery. But the procedure’s medical benefits are not clear-cut. And for many men, being circumcised — or, for that matter, being uncircumcised — is not merely a...
View ArticleIn Developing Nations, ‘Green Roads’ Buffer Drought and Floods
As the developing world witnesses a boom in road building, a movement to retrofit existing roads is gathering steam. Using embankments, channels, and dikes, so-called “green roads” help control floods,...
View ArticleAdvances in Mind-Decoding Technologies Raise Hopes (and Worries)
As brain-computer interface technology advances at a dizzying clip, the possibility that machines might someday read people’s minds, alter human identities, or hinder free will have begun to seem less...
View ArticleRestricting Obese Women From IVF Is Discriminatory
As more people postpone parenthood to older ages, demand for assisted reproduction has grown. Many fertility clinics bar women categorized as obese from in vitro fertilization, but critics argue that...
View ArticleInterview: Retracted Papers and Collateral Damage
Materials scientist Eva Zurek says there are reasons why superconductivity research has drawn both hype and intense scrutiny, including a flurry of high-profile retractions of papers in leading...
View ArticleDid the Battle Against ‘Misinformation’ Go Too Far?
The Covid-19 pandemic brought an unprecedented effort to limit the spread of false or misleading health misinformation online. But some experts are questioning whether those efforts did much to improve...
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