The EPA’s Proposal to Restrict Science Somehow Gets Worse
EPA Administrator Andrew WheelerPhoto: GettyThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new draft of one of its most controversial plans, somehow taking it from bad to worse. The new draft revises a rule first proposed by then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2018 that would require the agency to only use scientific research based on data…
Latest Science on Covid-19: First U.S. Transmission, China’s Elusive Patient Zero, and More
Workers in protective gear operate a drive through COVID-19 mobile testing center on March 13, 2020 in New Rochelle, New York.Photo: Getty ImagesOur scientific knowledge of covid-19 and the coronavirus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2, is fast expanding. And while much of this research is preliminary, released on preprint servers not yet peer reviewed, it nonetheless…
Ice-Locked Arctic Science Expedition Faces Challenges After Team Member Tests Positive for COVID-19
Participants of the MOSAIC expedition walk towards Polartstern.Image: Michael GutscheAn individual involved with an international expedition to study the effects of climate change in the Arctic has tested positive for the coronavirus, in a development that could interrupt this important science mission.A team member of the expedition known as MOSAiC has tested positive for COVID-19,…
This New Species Is Named After the Plastic Inside It
Some species are named after beloved teen activists or Lady Gaga. Others are named after plastic. Before science even discovered this deep-sea crustacean, plastic had infiltrated its stomach. So scientists named it accordingly. Meet Eurythenes plasticus.This newly discovered species lives some 22,637 feet underwater in the depths of the Mariana Trench. It’s a shrimp-like creature,…
There Is Only One Right Plan for Fracking
The face-off.Photo: GettySolving the climate crisis will require politicians to aspire to new levels of ambition, free themselves from the fossil fuel industry, and listen to the science. At the moment, the Democratic establishment is doing none of the above. Its failure was made clear during Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate. And this is exactly…
Famed DIY Rocketeer “Mad” Mike Hughes Dies While Trying to Launch Another Homemade Rocket
A picture from “Mad” Mike Hughes’ successful rocket launch in 2018. “I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket,” he said then.Photo: Matt Hartman (AP)The famed DIY rocketeer “Mad” Mike Hughes, who in 2018 successfully launched himself more than 1,800 feet into the sky in a homemade rocket, died on…
Here’s the Pro-Bernie Climate Scientist Op-Ed the Washington Post Wouldn’t Run
Photo: GettyOn Sunday, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Fred Hiatt, the opinion page’s editor, entitled “How Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Both Reject the Reality of Climate Change.” This false equivalence is, to put it bluntly, absolutely one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen.Hiatt’s piece inexplicably attacks the climate…
Student Scientists Worry About Their Futures as Universities Shut Down Over Covid-19
Towson University students move out of the dorms as the school shut down days before the start of the scheduled spring break on March 11, 2020 in Towson, Maryland. Photo: Rob Carr (Getty Images)Research institutions around the United States and abroad are reacting to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by moving classes online, sending students and…
Black Hole Photobombs Asteroid
X-ray outburst from the black hole MAXI J0637-043. Image: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/MIT/HarvardThe OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set out on September 8, 2016 to study the asteroid Bennu. But last fall, one of its experiments detected something surprising: a flare from a black hole.OSIRIS-REx launched with a suite of instruments, including the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer, or REXIS.…
A Quarter of All Climate Tweets Come From Bots—and They’re More Likely to Peddle Denial
Arguably, this is the most famous climate denier on Twitter.Photo: GettyThe bots are taking over, man. Researchers have found that bots are largely fueling climate denial propaganda on Twitter. In a draft research paper, scientists at Brown University found that a quarter of all tweets about climate change come from bots on an average day.…
World’s Biggest Fossil Fuel Funder Notes Climate Change Could End ‘Human Life as We Know it’
Photo: GettyThe finance industry is issuing some of the direst warnings about climate change while funding the industry most responsible for it. Today’s example: JP Morgan.The bank is the single biggest funder of fossil fuels in the world. But its economists wrote an internal report leaked to Extinction Rebellion on Friday stating that they “cannot…
The Best Sources for COVID-19 Information
Times Square on March 7, 2020.Photo: Kena Betancur ((AFP via Getty Images)The reality of covid-19 has finally started to hit the U.S. hard. Just yesterday, the World Health Organization decided to describe the outbreak of a novel coronavirus that’s reached over 100 countries as a pandemic. Following that decision, U.S. states around the country canceled…
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BBC Sport’s five things to do today
Read this...We all dream of representing our country on the international stage, right? Meet the team competing as 'England' in 2020... by chanceWatch this...Kids interrupting work was something of a novelty two weeks ago but now it is part of our daily routine, as Olympic gold medallist Greg Rutherford knows all too well... Media playback…
Elizabeth Warren campaign open sources its organizing tools
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The campaign will have "more to say" in the weeks ahead about what it did with technology.It isn't unheard of for American candidates to rely on software for election runs, but developing open source tools is relatively rare. It may become more common, mind you. The Warren team noted that Spoke alone saved the campaign…
Some Tesla factory employees still had to work after the production shutdown
Local officials have confirmed that Tesla stopped making electric cars in California on Monday, March 23rd, in compliance with a shelter-in-place order brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic. But dozens of workers had to report to the company’s automotive factory to finish processing the final batches of cars this week, according to an email…
Apple updates Safari’s anti-tracking tech with full third-party cookie blocking
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Apple on Tuesday released a major update to its Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), the privacy feature that allows the company’s web browser to block cookies and prevent advertisers from snooping on your web habits. According to Apple’s John Wilander, the WebKit engineer behind the feature, Safari now blocks all third-party cookies. That means that,…