Possible TikTok ban has U.S. science communicators on edge
For biologist Brooke Fitzwater, a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, the social media platform TikTok has become a key tool for
sharing her knowledge of marine biology
with some 250,000 followers. Her short, humorous videos on everything from whale sharks to zombie worms have attracted up to 2.1 million views. “TikTok has been an unparalleled way for me to communicate science to the public,” Fitzwater says.
Last week, however, Fitzwater and many other science communicators who rely on TikTok got some worrying news: The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve legislation...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 19, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 nevertheless allow public school teachers there to discuss it in the classroom.
The bill, which the state’s governor is expected to sign before the end of the month, is the latest example of what evolution educator at the University of Au...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 18, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘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 University are a constant presence, they have even compared fellow researchers to Nazi war criminals and the genocidal Cambodian dictator Pol Pot.
But now, their targets have had enough. A dozen scientists filed a
formal complaint
...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 15, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 Eritrea and is the first person of color to direct the office, says in her letter that the job has been “the honor of my lifetime” and that she’s leaving with “pride in what we have accomplished, and a heavy heart filled with profound sadn...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 15, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 times, whereas lower and middle-income countries had little or no vaccine. The pandemic treaty would address that searing inequity, Tedros vowed, along with many other problems identified during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the world bette...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 15, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 gruesome reason: to feed the youngest nestlings to older chicks.
The “exceptional” study shows how sibling cannibalism can provide evolutionary benefits, says Michael Schaub, an ornithologist at the Swiss Ornithological Institute...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 15, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘We’re hurting.’ Trans scientists call for recognition and support from research community
Twenty-four scientists from around the globe—all of whom either identify as trans or have trans family members—have an urgent message for the scientific community: Sexual and gender minorities in science fields
face various systemic barriers, and all members of the research community must strive to address them
, the group writes today in
Cell
.
“It will be tempting for people with prejudices—unexamined or not—toward trans people to dismiss this piece as ‘woke,’” says author Fátima Sancheznieto (she/her/ella), a biomedical and social scientist at the University of Wisconsin...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 14, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 colleagues do, a new study found. The results, reflecting men’s implicit bias, help explain why women are less likely than men to receive citations to their work or to be invited to speak at meetings and apply for jobs—even as more than 70% of Ph.D.s in the field were aw...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 14, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
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 2027. And that December, Congress made a down payment on that promise by adding $1 billion in so-called emergency spending to the agency’s base budget, boosting it to nearly $9.9 billion. In March 2023, Biden added to the momentum by asking ...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 14, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘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 any incursions of cool or moist relief.
A new study suggests global warming could be responsible after all. It proposes a chain of events that starts with an infusion of meltwater from shrinking Arctic ice, which ultimately alters massive ocean cu...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 14, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Should doctors screen all kids for type 1 diabetes?
Millions worldwide live with type 1 diabetes, and for most the diagnosis came as a shock, following mysterious symptoms such as thirst and weight loss. But diabetes specialists have long known that certain blood tests can foretell the disease years earlier. That has left the field wrestling with a difficult question: Should healthy children get these blood tests, and would knowing about incipient diabetes help them?
Now, as a first wave of studies indicates such testing can
prevent life-threatening complications at diagnosis
, and with a new treatment to delay disease onset, the answers are tipping toward ...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 13, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
‘Smart’ fiber-optic cables on the sea floor will detect earthquakes, tsunamis, and global warming
Everybody in Portugal knows the date: 1 November 1755. It was All Saints’ Day, with candles lit in homes to honor ancestors. Then the earthquake struck, cracking the streets of Lisbon open and sparking a firestorm. A tsunami engulfed the port, and tens of thousands died. Even now people are aware of the threat— from a nearby seafloor junction where the grinding tectonic plates of North America, Eurasia, and Africa meet—says José Barros, who retired recently from a senior role at ANACOM, Portugal’s telecom regulator. “We are always having those thoughts—and fears.”
Soon Lisbonites may be able to count o...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 13, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Ladybug becomes powerful foe after ‘stealing’ toxins from invasive insect
In a thicket of prickly pear cacti near Valencia, Spain, a troop of predatory ants moves in for the kill. But their target—the white, shaggy-coated larva of a ladybug known as the mealybug ladybird (
Cryptolaemus montrouzieri
)—is far from defenseless. As the ants mount their attack, the juvenile beetle tenses its muscles and expels a drop of bright red fluid. Called hemolymph, the substance is chock-full of carminic acid, a toxic chemical that grants the liquid a bloodlike hue and prompts the ants to abandon their assault.
Now, new research has shown that
C. montrouzieri
larvae
“steal...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 12, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Biden ’s lean science budget could mean tough choices for agencies
President Joe Biden today sent the U.S. Congress a $7.3 trillion spending blueprint that includes his
priorities for research
. But in an era of flat budgets, being on the White House’s priority list—which ranges from promoting the ethical use of artificial intelligence to finding a cure for cancer—may not mean getting more money.
That’s the hard reality facing U.S. scientists as they pore over Biden’s budget request for the 2025 fiscal year, which begins on 1 October. With the slice of the U.S. budget that funds domestic research essentially capped under an earlier budget agreement with Republica...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 12, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
Flirting female frogs blink to beckon potential princes
The female concave-eared torrent frog (
Odorrana tormota
) may not have eyelashes, but that doesn’t stop her from batting her lubricous lids at potential mates. These beady-eyed amphibians can be found on the banks of noisy streams throughout China, where the rapids would drown out ordinary croaks and chirps. So, males and females of this species have both evolved to produce and hear high-pitched mating calls that can be heard over the rushing din to signal that they’re seeking a suitor. But how does one jumping Juliet single out a ribbiting Romeo know to let him know she’s interested? In a study published ...
Source: ScienceNOW - March 11, 2024 Category: Science Source Type: news
