~podcast-25-lead-and | Bookmarks (89)

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.