Soapbox
- Health & Medicine
A cognitive neuroscientist warns that the U.S. justice system harms teen brains
The U.S. justice system holds adolescents to adult standards, and puts young people in situations that harm their development, a researcher argues.
- Neuroscience
Our brains sculpt each other. So why do we study them in isolation?
Studying individual brains may not be the way to figure out the human mind, a social neuroscientist argues.
- Artificial Intelligence
Why a data scientist warns against always trusting AI’s scientific discoveries
Artificial intelligence that helps make scientific discoveries needs to get better at admitting its uncertainty, Genevera Allen says.
- Space
It’s time to start taking the search for E.T. seriously, astronomers say
Astronomers are hoping to make looking for alien technology an official science goal of NASA.
- Astronomy
Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins big physics prize for 1967 pulsar discovery
Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell speaks about winning the Breakthrough Prize, impostor syndrome and giving back.
- Health & Medicine
At-home telomere testing is not a reliable marker of aging, researcher says
Telomere testing for consumers offers a poor measure of “biological age,” says Johns Hopkins oncologist Mary Armanios.
- Math
Real numbers don’t cut it in the real world, this physicist argues
Physicist Nicolas Gisin argues that real numbers don’t properly represent the natural world, which is a good thing for free will.
- Health & Medicine
The man flu struggle might be real, says one researcher
A researcher reviews the evidence for gender bias among flu viruses in the BMJ’s lighthearted holiday edition.
- Science & Society
Trauma surgeon studies gun violence stats — and was one
Joseph Sakran is trying to help counter the U.S. epidemic of gun violence with data.
- Climate
Radical idea could restore ice in the Arctic Ocean
Windmill-powered pumps on buoys throughout the Arctic Ocean could help bring back shrinking sea ice, researchers say.
- Planetary Science
It’s time to redefine what qualifies as a planet, scientists propose
Astronomers can have their definition of a planet, but some planetary scientists plan to stick to the long-held meaning of the word.
- Health & Medicine
Penicillin allergy? Think again.
Most people are either mislabeled with a penicillin allergy or get over it with time, and doctors don’t always think to check.
