Politicized science drove lunar exploration and Stalinist pseudoscience – but polarized scientific views are worse than ever

Politics always influences what questions scientists ask. Their intertwined relationship becomes a problem when politics dictates what answers science is allowed to find.

Liv Grjebine, Postdoctoral Fellow in History of Science, Harvard University • conversation
May 26, 2021 • ~8 min

Environmental DNA – how a tool used to detect endangered wildlife ended up helping fight the COVID-19 pandemic

Technology that can identify stray bits of genetic material in the environment can help scientists monitor human and animal health.

Liam Whitmore, PhD Candidate, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Limerick • conversation
April 21, 2021 • ~8 min

Viking DNA and the pitfalls of genetic ancestry tests

Genetic ancestry tests may sound like a bit of fun, but in an era marked by increasing xenophobia, it's important to be aware of the interplay between genetics and ideas of race.

Daniel Strand, Ph.D. in History of Ideas at Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism, Uppsala University • conversation
April 9, 2021 • ~6 min

Scientists need to become better communicators, but it's hard to measure whether training works

#Scicomm is a hashtag, and there are many programs that claim to teach scientists how to be better communicators. But it's hard to show exactly what they're accomplishing.

Robert Capers, Researcher in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut • conversation
April 7, 2021 • ~9 min

Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland's ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change

This ancient ecosystem showed that the ice sheet had melted to the ground in northern Greenland within the past million years.

Paul Bierman, Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, Professor of Geology and Natural Resources, University of Vermont • conversation
March 15, 2021 • ~10 min

Pollen can raise your risk of COVID-19 – and the season is getting longer thanks to climate change

As climate change drives pollen counts upward, that could potentially result in greater human susceptibility to other viruses, as well.

Lewis Ziska, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University • conversation
March 9, 2021 • ~5 min

Pollen can raise your risk of getting COVID-19, whether you have allergies or not

Recent studies also suggest that climate change is driving pollen counts upward. That could result in greater human susceptibility to viruses.

Lewis Ziska, Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University • conversation
March 9, 2021 • ~5 min

In mice, a mother’s love comes from the gut

Microbes can alter the minds of mouse mothers and disrupt their natural instinct to nurture their young.

Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology; author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are, Indiana University • conversation
Feb. 8, 2021 • ~8 min

Of microbes and mothers – certain gut bacteria in mice can disrupt the mother-child relationship

Microbes can alter the minds of mouse mothers and disrupt their natural instinct to nurture their young.

Bill Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology; author of Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are, Indiana University • conversation
Feb. 8, 2021 • ~8 min

We need hard science, not software, to power our post-pandemic recovery

The Fourth Industrial Revolution failed to deliver; it's time that we put our faith once again in hard science.

Wim Naudé, Professor of Economics, University College Cork • conversation
Jan. 19, 2021 • ~8 min

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