Tag: science
New Tennessee law: encouraging creationism or academic freedom?
A new law in Tennessee will allow public school teachers to discuss alternatives to such scientific topics as evolution and climate change. The bill, known as the "academic freedom" law by its supporters and the "monkey bill," by its detractors, went into effect Friday....
New research points to big changes, not necessarily disappearance, for coral reefs
Scientists who study climate change and ocean environments have made several recent discoveries. Their findings have challenged the conventional wisdom that climate change could eliminate coral reefs. What they've found is that they probably won't disappear, but they will see major changes....
Powerful computer models help researchers react to pandemic spread
Researchers at Virginia Tech University have created a high-tech computer model that will allow them to model that effects of a pandemic outbreak on the American population. It's a new tool that can help scientists and doctors plan a counter-attack on the disease....
Advocates say FDA should ban all non-medical use of antibiotics in animals
Farmers often use low doses of antibiotics on their large farms to keep disease at bay. But critics say that's leading to drug resistant bugs that are killing people. A new court ruling will require the FDA to stop the use of two specific antibiotics, but activists are targeting the whole range of antibiotics used in animals....
New NOAA data shows more than 15,000 weather records set in March
Across the country, an early 2012 heat wave broke into the record books in a big way. According to government data, some 25 states east of the Rocky Mountains had their hottest months ever....
Researcher looks for new ways to repel sharks
Scientist Eric Stroud spent years as a pharmaceutical chemist. But, after an unpleasant cruise the Bermuda, he gave that up in order to pursue research in ways to protect humans from sharks. But his work has also shifted to ways to protect sharks from humans. And he's made fascinating findings....
MIT professor explores planets for signs of life
Professor Sara Seager is certain life has evolved on another planet. Seager, a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at M.I.T., is one of the leaders of the hunt for new planets that demonstrate evidence of life. ...
Canada moves to regulate antibacterial chemical triclosan while FDA continues lengthy review
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is in the middle of a lengthy review of the chemical triclosan -- a product that's in countless consumer products like toothpaste and soap. There's a movement to try and get the product more stringently regulated in the United States -- or banned outright. And they might have just gotten a boost from Canada....
Study discovers humans have been using fire for perhaps 1 million years
Humans have used fire for hundreds of thousands of years -- and used it in myriad ways. But a new study out this week, based on research in South Africa, shows that humans — or more precisely, their ancestors -- may have been using fire as much as a million years ago....
Genetic testing opens doors -- but doesn't always lead to solutions
Genetic tests allow doctors to diagnose disease and patients to glimpse their medical future, but the knowledge of what's in your DNA doesn't always help. One English man discovered that the tests didn't change his life -- and in fact left him with a tough question....
