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21,032 articles from ScienceNOW
Scientists in Antarctica track ‘baffling’ virus that could decimate penguins and other polar animals
A 23-meter-long sailboat set off last week from Argentina for Antarctica’s Weddell Sea with eight scientists, lots of cloacal swabs, and a genetic fingerprinting machine aboard. The
Australis
is headed for the southern continent’s teeming colonies of Adélie penguins, other seabirds, and marine mammals. The
goal
: to search for signs of a deadly virus...
MONDAY 18. MARCH 2024
NASA’s x-ray telescope faces a long goodbye
The end is nigh for NASA’s nearly 25-year-old Chandra X-ray Observatory. Funding for the space telescope was slashed last week in President Joe Biden’s budget request, which calls for winding the mission down over several years.
Astronomers are up in arms over the announcement. They argue that the telescope is as productive as ever and remains a cornerstone of U.S....
West Virginia opens the door to teaching intelligent design
In 2005, then–U.S. District Court Judge John Jones ruled that intelligent design (ID)—the idea that life is too complex to have evolved without nudging from supernatural forces—cannot be taught in public school biology courses because it is not a scientific theory. This month, the West Virginia legislature found a workaround, and passed a bill that doesn’t name ID but will...
Mystery illness among U.S. diplomats did not cause permanent brain damage
For several years, dozens of U.S. diplomats and intelligence agents have fallen ill with a perplexing array of symptoms that some politicians, intelligence analysts, and physicians have speculated may have been triggered by a so-called directed-energy weapon. Whatever caused these anomalous health incidents (AHIs), as the cases have been labeled by the U.S. government, it did not leave...
FRIDAY 15. MARCH 2024
‘Lab-leak’ proponents at Rutgers accused of defaming and intimidating COVID-19 origin researchers
Fraudsters. Liars. Perjurers. Felons. Grifters. Stooges. Imbeciles. Murderers. When it comes to describing scientists whose peer-reviewed studies suggest the COVID-19 virus made a natural jump from animals to humans, molecular biologist Richard Ebright and microbiologist Bryce Nickels have used some very harsh language. On X (formerly Twitter), where the two scientists from Rutgers...
A treaty to prepare the world for the next pandemic hangs in the balance
“Me first”—that’s how Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), described the wealthy world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic when he kicked off negotiations for a global “pandemic treaty” in December 2021. Even before vaccines had proved safe and effective, rich countries had purchased enough doses to cover their entire population several...
Department of Energy’s science chief announces her unexpected departure
After 22 months on the job, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science, is stepping down. Yesterday Berhe sent a letter to the office’s 815 employees saying her last day would be 28 March. With a budget of $8.2 billion, the office is the United States’s single largest funder of the physical sciences.
Berhe, who was born in...
Honesty researcher committed research misconduct, according to newly unsealed Harvard report
Honesty researcher Francesca Gino “committed research misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly,” according to an investigation completed last year by the Harvard Business School(HBS) that was publicly released this week as part of Gino’s ongoing lawsuit against the university.
On Tuesday, despite objections from Gino, a judge granted Harvard’s motion to unseal...
Canine peer review, stolen toxins, and more stories you might have missed this week
How did a single-celled yeast evolve to be as tough as wood? Could your next paper be reviewed by a dog? And is “biological sex” really a useful category for scientific research? Check out the answers below in some of our favorite selections from
Science
’s daily newsletter,
Science
Adviser
.
Autonomous swimming...
Watch out! This colorful bird raises a nest of cannibals
It might seem wasteful, but many birds lay more eggs than will successfully hatch. Scientists have long believed these extra eggs represent a form of insurance, ensuring that at least some offspring ultimately leave the nest. But for the Eurasian hoopoe—known for its showy orange crest and the whooping cry that gives the bird its name—a new study suggests these extra eggs exist for a...
THURSDAY 14. MARCH 2024
Men psychology researchers can’t seem to remember their women colleagues
Although men psychologists are aware of the work of their women peers, they don’t recall them off the top of their head, a new study suggests.
Rudzhan Nagiev/istock.com adapted by C. Smith/
Science
When asked who is an expert in their field, men psychology researchers name significantly fewer women than their women...
Analysis: How NSF’s budget got hammered
Two summers ago, officials at the National Science Foundation (NSF) had good reason to anticipate years of healthy budget increases for the basic research agency.
In August 2022, President Joe Biden had signed the CHIPS and Science Act, landmark legislation to revive the U.S. semiconductor industry that included a promise to more than double NSF’s budget, to $18.9 billion, by...
‘Cold blob’ of Arctic meltwater may be causing European heat waves
Global warming disrupts weather in many ways, but Europe’s string of record-breaking hot and dry summers has defied an easy link to climate change. Climate models do show
Europe warming faster than the rest of the planet
, but the recent scorchers were triggered by peculiar weather conditions: masses of
hot, dry air parked over the continent
, blocking...
‘We’re hurting.’ Trans scientists call for recognition and support from research community
“Rigorous science demands” it, authors write in landmark commentary
Are your earliest childhood memories still lurking in your mind—or gone forever?
Studies of “infantile amnesia” find that memory works differently in the developing brain