Toxicology

Gas masks

Why it’s a bad idea to make sarin gas in your kitchen

Environment

Syria’s President Assad has called sarin, a “kitchen gas.” He claims that Syrian rebel groups were responsible for the sarin gas attack in his country, and that it’s not that tough to make. He’s wrong.

States struggle with highway shoulders as resistance to herbicides mounts

Environment

Scientists urge CDC to revise lead exposure level deemed safe in children

Environment

Research discovers link between industrial cleaning chemicals, Parkinson’s

Health & Medicine

Federal authorities thwart alleged ricin attack planned in Georgia

Global Politics

The Dose Doesn’t Always Make the Poison

A very small dose of some chemicals can have a very large effect.

Freezing the Arsenic in Giant Mine

Arsenic is seeping from a closed gold mine in the arctic north, and the Canadian Government’s solution is to freeze the mine forever.

How Do We Avoid Exposure to Toxic Chemicals?

Health & Medicine

McKay Jenkins is the author of “What’s Gotten into Us? Staying Healthy in a Toxic World.” He says the responsibility lies in our political and economic will to make more informed choices from how we regulate chemicals to the choices we make.

The World

Emerging Science Note/Nanorust

Tiny magnetic particles of rust may clean dirty drinking water in developing countries.

The World

Emerging Science Note/Weed-Killing Robots

Watch out! Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created a solar-powered robot capable of searching out and destroying- hopefully just- weeds in crop fields.