Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images Students are still unsure how (and where) they’ll finish their semester On March 11th, the University of Southern California sent an email to its students, faculty, and staff. “Students who are leaving campus for Spring Recess may not return until at least Monday, April 13.” The university had previously planned…
Category: Science and Nature
Will Apple Watch sleep tracking in watchOS 7 Sherlock third party apps?
Although we have no idea if Apple plans on holding a Spring hardware event or even its annual summer WWDC developer’s conference, we are starting to have a clearer idea of what’s coming than we did a couple weeks ago. That’s because 9to5Mac has been posting a series of stories based on information gleaned from…
Why Is Courtroom Science So Unscientific?
Illustration: Elena Scotti (Gizmodo)May 15, 1989, 83-year-old Modine Wise was found naked and beaten in her home. The perpetrator left evidence scattered around her: a bloody handprint, a jacket, a pack of cigarettes, and two hairs. In February of 1991, the court sentenced 23-year-old Timothy Bridges to life in prison for the crime. The conviction…
The EPA’s Proposal to Restrict Science Somehow Gets Worse
EPA Administrator Andrew WheelerPhoto: GettyThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new draft of one of its most controversial plans, somehow taking it from bad to worse. The new draft revises a rule first proposed by then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in 2018 that would require the agency to only use scientific research based on data…
Latest Science on Covid-19: First U.S. Transmission, China’s Elusive Patient Zero, and More
Workers in protective gear operate a drive through COVID-19 mobile testing center on March 13, 2020 in New Rochelle, New York.Photo: Getty ImagesOur scientific knowledge of covid-19 and the coronavirus that causes it, SARS-CoV-2, is fast expanding. And while much of this research is preliminary, released on preprint servers not yet peer reviewed, it nonetheless…
Ice-Locked Arctic Science Expedition Faces Challenges After Team Member Tests Positive for COVID-19
Participants of the MOSAIC expedition walk towards Polartstern.Image: Michael GutscheAn individual involved with an international expedition to study the effects of climate change in the Arctic has tested positive for the coronavirus, in a development that could interrupt this important science mission.A team member of the expedition known as MOSAiC has tested positive for COVID-19,…
This New Species Is Named After the Plastic Inside It
Some species are named after beloved teen activists or Lady Gaga. Others are named after plastic. Before science even discovered this deep-sea crustacean, plastic had infiltrated its stomach. So scientists named it accordingly. Meet Eurythenes plasticus.This newly discovered species lives some 22,637 feet underwater in the depths of the Mariana Trench. It’s a shrimp-like creature,…
There Is Only One Right Plan for Fracking
The face-off.Photo: GettySolving the climate crisis will require politicians to aspire to new levels of ambition, free themselves from the fossil fuel industry, and listen to the science. At the moment, the Democratic establishment is doing none of the above. Its failure was made clear during Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate. And this is exactly…
Famed DIY Rocketeer “Mad” Mike Hughes Dies While Trying to Launch Another Homemade Rocket
A picture from “Mad” Mike Hughes’ successful rocket launch in 2018. “I’m tired of people saying I chickened out and didn’t build a rocket,” he said then.Photo: Matt Hartman (AP)The famed DIY rocketeer “Mad” Mike Hughes, who in 2018 successfully launched himself more than 1,800 feet into the sky in a homemade rocket, died on…
Here’s the Pro-Bernie Climate Scientist Op-Ed the Washington Post Wouldn’t Run
Photo: GettyOn Sunday, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by Fred Hiatt, the opinion page’s editor, entitled “How Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders Both Reject the Reality of Climate Change.” This false equivalence is, to put it bluntly, absolutely one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen.Hiatt’s piece inexplicably attacks the climate…