The distance between prosthetic and real is shrinking. Thanks to advances in batteries, brain-controlled robotics, and AI, today’s mechanical limbs can do everything from twist and point to grab and lift. And this isn’t just good news for amputees. “For […]
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt heads to Capitol Hill Thursday for two separate hearings, ostensibly to answer questions about his agency’s budget. But House lawmakers—both Republican and Democrat—will instead focus on a series of scandals that have turned the agency upside […]
If I told you that flatworms had invaded France, you might say, c'est la vie. A worm is a worm, after all. But then I’d tell you they’re also known as land planarians, and you might think that sounds rather […]
This story originally appeared on Mother Jones and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Engineer Jim Southerland was hired by the US Environmental Protection Agency in 1971 to join the nascent war on air pollution. He came to relish the task, investigating orange […]
The Ebola virus kills half the people who get it, and it’s a tragically familiar disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since scientists first characterized the disease in 1976, Congo has had nine outbreaks. Now it’s happening again: To […]
Kay Dickersin knew she was leaping to the front lines of scholarly publication when she joined The Online Journal of Current Clinical Trials. Scientific print-publishing was—and still is—slow and cumbersome, and reading its results sometimes required researchers to go to […]
Rick Ostfeld lives in deep in the heart of Lyme disease country. An ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, Ostfeld has been studying the ticks that transmit Lyme to humans for decades. These days, […]
When it comes to space policy, reliving the glory days too often means pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into black holes. Preliminary budget plans suggest that the Trump Administration will provide funding for Space Policy Directive 1, which tasks NASA […]
Everyone knows I like to analyze the trailers of upcoming movies—in particular, movies that I'm excited about. In this case, it's Incredibles 2. I have high hopes for this one since the first Incredibles was really great. In the trailer, […]
Earth got a warning shot on January 25, 2016. On that day, Air Force engineers were scheduled to kill off a GPS satellite named SVN-23—the oldest in the navigation constellation. SVN-23 should have just gone to rest in peace. But […]