In the days leading up to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews has been celebrating the work of some of its own scientists. The centre is profiling several of its female scientists on its Facebook site this weekend. In the past, marine science seemed […]

Sunday, 11 February, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To mark the day, we asked female scientists from around the world to reflect on their experiences and offer their advice. The responses have been edited for clarity and brevity. Being a woman in physics has been challenging and lonely at times. I […]

The war on science has at least three fronts. First, there is the widely reported political war on science, widely and erroneously believed to be waged exclusively by conservatives, when in reality, progressives are just as eager to throw science under the bus when it suits their agenda. (ACSH President Hank Campbell and I wrote […]

Utrecht University (UU) in the Netherlands thought it had nothing to be ashamed of when it accepted a €360,000 research grant from Philip Morris International (PMI) last September. The tobacco giant had agreed to fund a study on cigarette smuggling that had obvious public health importance, and the lead researcher, law professor John Vervaele, would enjoy complete […]

Youngsters have probably been playing their way into cultural competence for at least tens of thousands of years. So why are signs of children largely absent from the archaeological record? A cartoon that Biblical scholar Kristine Garroway taped up in her college dorm helps to explain kids’ invisibility at ancient sites: Two men in business […]

Thirty years after nations banded together to phase out chemicals that destroy stratospheric ozone, the gaping hole in Earth’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation shield above Antarctica is shrinking. But new findings suggest that at midlatitudes, where most people live, the ozone layer in the lower stratosphere is growing more tenuous—for reasons that scientists are struggling to […]

It’s still too early to pack your bags for TRAPPIST-1. But two new studies probe the likely compositions of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the cool, dim star, and some are looking better and better as places to live (SN: 3/18/17, p. 6). New mass measurements suggest that the septet probably have rocky surfaces and possibly thin atmospheres, researchers report […]

President Donald Trump plans to withdraw his highly controversial nominee to chair a key White House environmental panel, according to media reports. Kathleen Hartnett White, who had been picked to chair the White House’s Commission on Environmental Quality (CEQ), came under fire from senators in both parties for what they characterized as her extremist views and disregard for […]

More than 60 researchers and technologists are running for federal office in 2018 as part of a historic wave of candidates with science backgrounds launching campaigns. At least 200 candidates with previous careers in science, technology, engineering and math announced bids for some of the nation’s roughly 7,000 state legislature seats as of Jan. 31, […]

Woodpeckers repeatedly whack their heads against trees with a force 10 times that of a concussion-inducing football tackle, yet they seem no worse for the wear. That has inspired some athletic companies to model helmets and neck collars on the head-banging birds. But woodpeckers may not be immune to head trauma after all. A new study […]