All Stories by Laurel Hamers
- Environment
Wildfires are making extreme air pollution even worse in the northwest U.S.
America’s air is getting cleaner — except in places that are prone to wildfires.
- Health & Medicine
Cancer cells engineered with CRISPR slay their own kin
Scientists can program the stealth cells to die before creating new tumors.
- Health & Medicine
Air pollution is triggering diabetes in 3.2 million people each year
A new study quantifies the link between smoggy air and diabetes.
- Animals
Soaring spiders may get cues from electric charges in the air
Spiders can sense atmospheric electric fields, which might give them cues to take to the air.
- Earth
Earth’s rivers cover 44 percent more land than we thought
A global survey of rivers and streams based on satellite data suggests that these waterways traverse about 773,000 square kilometers.
- Neuroscience
A brain chemical tied to narcolepsy may play a role in opioid addiction
Long-term use of opioids such as heroin is linked to having more brain cells that release a chemical that regulates wakefulness and arousal.
- Health & Medicine
How to make CAR-T cell therapies for cancer safer and more effective
CAR-T cell therapy was approved by the FDA in late 2017. Now, scientists are working to tame the cancer treatment’s side effects.
- Climate
Antarctica has lost about 3 trillion metric tons of ice since 1992
Antarctica’s rate of ice loss has sped up since 1992 — mostly in the last five years, raising global sea level by almost 8 millimeters on average.
- Environment
Sunshine is making Deepwater Horizon oil stick around
Sunlight created oxygen-rich oil by-products that are still hanging around eight years after the Deepwater Horizon spill.
- Health & Medicine
‘Outbreak’ puts the life cycle of an epidemic on display
At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the exhibit “Outbreak” highlights how infectious diseases shape our world.
- Environment
Treating roads with oil and gas wastewater may spread harmful pollution
When spread on roads, wastewater from oil and gas production can leach radium and other contaminants into the environment, a new study finds.
- Paleontology
The Chicxulub asteroid impact might have set off 100,000 years of global warming
About 66 million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid impact set off 100,000 years of global warming, an analysis of oxygen in fish fossils suggests.
