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Some experts say the online abuse of children is rampant, and that police and lawmakers need more tools to catch perpetrators. Now, researchers in several countries are training artificial intelligence systems to help prevent predatory conversations. Will the tools work?

In “Ends of the Earth,” popular science writer and paleontologist Neil Shubin travels north and south to explore the frontiers of polar research, as well as the extraordinary biological adaptations of plants and animals and what today’s rapidly changing arctic environment can tell us about the planet’s future.

A recent drop in the number of opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. has puzzled researchers. But results from a recent study on drug addiction suggest how to keep that downward trend going: by engaging diverse local coalitions to take the lead in addressing the challenges in their communities.

Researchers are, by and large, dubious of efforts to demonstrate a genetic basis for racial or ancestral-group differences in intelligence. The current tools, they say, simply aren’t equipped to explain such complex traits. But there’s no guarantee that this state of affairs will hold forever.

Though the fungi await FDA approval, state regulators are issuing licenses for providing psychedelic mushrooms in mental health treatment and are planning to authorize “healing centers.” These are some of the first locations in the U.S. to administer mushrooms outside of clinical, religious, or illicit settings.

Recent lawsuits against the American Chemical Society and the University of Pennsylvania join a recent uptick in legal action against programs intended to promote diversity in academia. Many legal scholars and scientists say that such cases will hurt the scientific community.

In “The Power of Nuclear,” Dutch journalist Marco Visscher lays out the reasons why widespread fears and hesitations about atomic energy are misguided, illogical, and propelled by unscientific thinking, offering instead “the incredible story of a technology that was misunderstood from the beginning.”

Herbicides pose risks to the environment and to human health, but they are also the best tool land managers have for controlling invasive plants, which themselves can cause harm to ecosystems. One Mississippi State University graduate student in forestry looks toward potential solutions to this conundrum.

Norway may not be the first country that comes to mind when thinking of the space industry. But it has quietly emerged as a ground-station powerhouse, supporting some of the world’s most important science-seeking satellites. Experts, though, worry about its proximity to Russia.

When foreign aid was halted in February, diplomats in Vietnam warned that defunding the clean up of a massive deposit of postwar pesticides would be a catastrophe for public health. Now, companies in charge of remediation are scrambling to secure the site before torrential rains flood nearby communities with contaminated soil.

For years, scientists have explored ways to cool the planet through geoengineering. Now a little-known, well-financed startup, Stardust, is aiming to develop a proprietary geoengineering technology, seemingly for government clients.

Technology writer Nicholas Carr contends in “Superbloom” that our obsession with digital technology is causing us to live in a perpetual state of sensory and communication overload. In the process, our devices are exacting a large toll, altering how we think, act, and communicate with one another.

In February, the White House issued an executive order meant to protect access to in vitro fertilization and reduce costs for IVF treatments. But it doesn’t address the emotional burden often interwoven with fertility challenges. Clinics should provide more mental health support to their patients.

With crumbling public health infrastructure, county health departments in Texas face steep challenges. Aging infrastructure, a dearth of primary care providers, and long distances between testing sites and laboratories plague many rural areas in the state, where the measles outbreak has concentrated.

Elon Musk’s agency froze most spending above $1 on federal credit cards. Now, officials and researchers at science agencies are struggling to order basic supplies and carry out the main functions of their jobs. “The longer this disruption lasts, the more the system will break,” said one USDA official.

When the National Institutes of Health announced on social media that it would reduce funding for biomedical research grants, the agency pointed to elite universities and their hefty endowments. But less-wealthy institutions may be particularly hard hit by the proposed changes.

Is it possible that many scientists and the news media got the Covid-19 response all wrong? Political scientists Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee, the authors of “In Covid’s Wake,” argue that many pandemic-era policies were not grounded in evidence and did not properly weigh their potential to cause harm.

Layoffs and funding freezes have struck a blow to the U.S. scientific enterprise. Selective Pressure columnist C. Brandon Ogbunu argues that to mitigate the damage, scientists need to swiftly adopt a harm reduction model and build a different profession — one still capable of defending and practicing science.

The existing legal framework over who owns genetic resources was not designed for the digital age. And although international negotiators have wrangled over digital sequence information for many years, they have yet to reach a consensus.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said the Trump administration would liberate Americans from the FDA’s “aggressive suppression” of vitamins, dietary supplements, and other substances. The $70 billion industry is now likely to push for bolder health claims, government and insurance payments for unproven products, and looser restrictions.

Since the 1990s, more than two dozen drugs have been approved to treat multiple sclerosis. But a question looms: For older adults — who are less likely to suffer the disease’s hallmark flare-ups, and more likely to experience troublesome side effects from the drugs themselves — does there come a time to quit?

Historian Rebecca Charbonneau, in “Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain,” examines an unusual alliance of interests during the Cold War, when Soviet and American scientists worked together to search for extraterrestrial life despite the gaping political divide on Earth.

In early 20th century, public health had great success in preventing disease and death. But in the decades that followed, progress stalled when its attempts to integrate with medicine failed. One public health official writes that we need to understand this past to find the way toward a healthier nation.

Over the last few decades, there’s been a shift in the types of diseases causing the most harm around the world: Chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and metabolic disorders have overtaken infectious diseases. Scientists at a new research center say the trend is due to corporate-produced risk factors.

Investigative journalist Charles Piller, in “Doctored: Fraud, Arrogance, and Tragedy in the Quest to Cure Alzheimer’s,” examines compelling evidence that dozens of renowned neuroscientists appear to be responsible for problematic images used in their published studies into the disease.

A list compiled by a group of Senate Republicans last fall, and released to the public earlier this month, identifies thousands of federally-funded projects as “woke DEI” research driven by “far-left” agendas. Many researchers are baffled by their inclusion — and concerned about what the report portends.

Despite containing language about scientific progress and the pursuit of truth, several of the White House’s recent executive orders contradict biological evidence on sex, gender, and race. One geneticist writes that these false claims serve to worsen inequity and cause harm to marginalized groups.

The Plan Nacional de Búsqueda, or National Search Plan, is a highly anticipated initiative harnessing new technologies and scientific techniques to uncover the remains of Chileans abducted and likely killed as part of Pinochet’s infamous, post-coup purge. But the project is plagued by decades of missteps.

In nearly a dozen states with abortion bans, government officials claimed that zero or very few abortions occurred in 2023, the first full year after the Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion rights. For some data scientists, these statistics suggest a troubling trend: the politicization of vital statistics.

In recent years, media coverage has suggested that attacks on science eroded confidence in institutions. But did they? According to the latest research, public trust in scientists mostly survived the first Trump administration — though did take a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. What will happen to it now?

In an interview with Undark, legal expert Ari Cohn says we are heading into uncharted waters in regard to First Amendment rights as social media giants expand their reach and the distinction between public and private actors becomes blurrier on our tech-mediated town squares.

Bird flu has been spreading through U.S. farms, prompting public health departments to prepare for a potential pandemic. Transforming animal agriculture could reduce the risk of such emergencies and align with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s pledge to “Make America Healthy Again,” writes one county official.

A recent survey found that one in eight U.S. adults has tried a GLP-1 drug. (Think Wegovy or Zepbound.) The drugs can be effective against obesity and other indications, but high prices and patchy insurance coverage have left them out of reach for many. What would it take to expand access?

The fusion industry is small but expanding. Over the past few years, nearly 50 fusion companies have sprung up, supported by billions of dollars from investors. But it remains to be seen whether these startups will be able to build a reactors the near future capable of generating hundreds of megawatts.

Researchers and scientists are increasingly worried about the fate of federal government health data after the Trump administration took databases and surveys offline in late January, and they fear other federally maintained databases could be the next to vanish.

In “Seven Deadly Sins,” neurologist and sleep doctor Guy Leschziner combs through the science underlying the greatest transgressions in Dante’s Inferno: wrath, lust, pride, greed, envy, sloth, and gluttony. His goal is to “to gain insights into why we do what we do: the biology of being human.”

The president’s executive orders to freeze federal funding and communications have thrown U.S. scientists into uncertainty, signaling the start of a major conflict around the practice of science. C. Brandon Ogbunu writes that defending that practice will require dealing with some uncomfortable truths.

In January, the FDA released new draft guidance for makers of medical devices that measure blood oxygen levels. This data can help determine whether a patient needs treatment, but the devices are not as reliable when used on people with dark skin tones. The new guidance calls for more inclusive clinical trials.

An executive order signed last week intends to limit insurance coverage for trans youth and threatens to withhold funding from hospitals. Transgender people and their advocates are concerned it will discourage prescriptions and medical procedures they consider, in some cases, to be lifesaving.

India extracts more groundwater than any other country worldwide, and more than the U.S. and China combined. Decades of intense monocropping of wheat and rice, encouraged by the country’s Green Revolution, are driving this demand. The impact is coming to the fore in depleted aquifers and rising rates of cancer.

Stefan Kertesz, a physician and longtime critic of overaggressive cutbacks in opioid prescribing for those with chronic pain, says doctors need flexibility in how they treat their patients. “People deserve individualized care,” he told Undark. “I pray for the day when we stop looking for quick fixes.”

Farming kelp has been endorsed as a strategy for removing and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. But the practice has many pitfalls and could shift the delicate nutrient balance of the ocean. One environmental chemist discusses why kelp farming is just a temporary solution for addressing climate change.

Human diets have long included relatively small quantities of microbes — think of the live bacteria in yogurt. But now researchers at universities and dozens of startups across the globe are investigating whether some microbes could serve as a caloric substitute for eggs, milk, flour, and other ingredients.

President Donald Trump issued a flurry of executive orders and other actions on health care soon after reentering office. Other than signaling he intends to reverse many of Joe Biden’s moves, the orders will have little immediate impact.

PFAS are known as forever chemicals because of their environmental persistence, but as a mother, I also see their multigenerational persistence. Once a person is exposed to the toxicants, they bioaccumulate, and future generations will also be affected.

The danger from large-scale asteroid impacts is not the stuff of science fiction. As new space technologies evolve to detect, deflect, or obliterate asteroids entirely, polls show that funding for planetary defense has long had strong bipartisan support both inside and outside of Congress.

For centuries, colonists have set their sights on Greenland because of its strategic location and unique mineral resources. But according to one geoscientist, this antiquated view misses the Arctic island’s real value: its ice. Preserving that ice by cooling the climate is imperative to our collective future.

NASA has plans to launch the first space station in deep space. Some experts say it’s an important steppingstone to long-term human space habitation, and NASA’s eventual goal of reaching the red planet. But others say it’s an expensive and risky step that engineers could skip.

After the devastation of the Los Angeles fires, officials are ready to rebuild. But as the risk of devastating wildfires increases with climate change, the calls to rebuild Los Angeles raise a series of tricky questions: How and where to rebuild — and whether to rebuild at all.

Only about 20 percent of Americans have followed current CDC guidance and gotten the latest Covid vaccine. The rest, experts say, may be experiencing vaccine fatigue or feeling distrustful about potential side effects. But are they missing out on important protection?