Soapbox

Humans

An ancient bone recasts how Indigenous Australians treated megafauna

A new look at cuts on a giant kangaroo bone reveal First Peoples as fossil collectors, not hunters who helped drive species extinct, some scientists argue.

Health & Medicine

These scientists have a plan to demystify the vaginal microbiome

Vaginal microbes play a huge role in overall health, but researchers know relatively little about them. Citizen science could help change that.

Psychology

Breaking negative thought patterns could ward off anxiety, depression

Getting stuck in a negative loop is part of many mental health disorders. A new therapy focuses more on these thought patterns than the thoughts themselves.

Ecosystems

Like flyways for birds, we need to map swimways for fish

Mapping fish migration routes and identifying threats is crucial to protecting freshwater species and their habitats, ecologists argue.

Health & Medicine

Obesity needs a new definition beyond BMI, health experts argue

Experts say clinical obesity is more than a high BMI and instead is a disease in which excess body fat harms tissues, organs or doing daily activities.

Health & Medicine

Dengue is classified as an urban disease. Mosquitoes don’t care

Infectious diseases are often labeled “urban” or “rural.” Applying political labels to public health misses who is at risk, experts argue.

Quantum Physics

A maverick physicist is building a case for scrapping quantum gravity

To merge quantum physics and general relativity, physicists aim to quantize gravity. But what if gravity isn’t quantum at all?

Astronomy

Astronomers call for renaming the Magellanic Clouds

Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is not a fitting namesake for the pair of satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, a group of scientists argues.

Health & Medicine

Iron deficiency goes unnoticed in too many U.S. female adolescents

Low iron causes problems from dizziness to severe anemia. It’s time to reevaluate screening guidelines to catch the problem earlier, an expert argues.

Science & Society

Deliberate ignorance is useful in certain circumstances, researchers say

The former East German secret police, the Stasi, spied on people for years. But when given access to the Stasi files, most people didn’t want to read them, researchers found.

Climate

There’s good and bad news with California’s electric vehicle program

The electric vehicle program is reducing carbon dioxide emissions but also shifting the pollution burden to the state’s most disadvantaged communities.

Neuroscience

‘Mommy brain’ doesn’t capture how the brain transforms during pregnancy

During the transition to motherhood, there's more going on than “momnesia,” neuroscientists argue. The brain changes to prep for the job of caregiving