Soapbox
- Health & Medicine
Infecting people with COVID-19 could speed vaccine trials. Is it worth it?
To accelerate vaccine development, some experts argue we should purposefully infect volunteers with the coronavirus. Others warn of the risks.
- Science & Society
New electrodes can better capture brain waves of people with natural hair
Electrodes weren’t designed for people with thick, curly hair. A redesign is needed, says engineer Pulkit Grover.
- Health & Medicine
A bioethicist says scientists owe clinical trial volunteers support
Researchers should be aware that many insurance policies do not cover experimental procedures, including side effects that may happen afterward.
- Earth
Climate misinformation may be thriving on YouTube, a social scientist warns
Analyzing 200 climate-related videos on YouTube shows that a majority challenge widely accepted views about climate change and climate engineering.
- Neuroscience
Plants don’t have feelings and aren’t conscious, a biologist argues
The rise of the field of “plant neurobiology” has this scientist and his colleagues pushing back.
- Health & Medicine
Climate change could raise the risk of deadly fungal infections in humans
The rise of Candida auris, a deadly fungus spurring outbreaks in the United States and worldwide, may have been aided by climate change.
- 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.
