Podcast: Is Fluoride Toxic at Low Levels?
This week on Entanglements: Is fluoride toxic at low levels? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a professor from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry and a...
View ArticleThe Elusive Payoff of Gain of Function Research
Gain-of-function experiments are meant to uncover genetic changes in pathogens that could make them more transmissible or virulent. But such research incurs the risk of a dangerous microbe escaping the...
View ArticleCan the Federal Government Make Raw Milk Safe?
Dairy experts, raw milk producers and raw milk consumers say standards are important for the raw milk industry because they help ensure that only high-quality and safe raw milk products make it to the...
View ArticleFor Science That Comes With Risks, a Key Question: Who Decides?
While the work done to develop the atomic bomb unfolded mostly in secret, scientific research with the potential, however small, to cause a global catastrophe seems to be proceeding more openly. And...
View ArticleWe Need Better Data to Assess Hurricane and Flooding Risk
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season saw several major storms, including Helene and Milton. Newly deployed sensors showed the importance of real-time monitoring of water levels during these events. One...
View ArticleBook Review: A Reverent Tribute to Disappearing Creatures
“Vanishing Treasures,” by Katherine Rundell, is a collection of short paeans to threatened or overlooked animals, from narwhals and Hawaiian crows to coconut crabs and hedgehogs, as well as a...
View ArticlePodcast: Wrapping Up Season 1
This week on Entanglements: What did we learn from our first season? What’s on deck for the future? Our hosts explore these questions and more in conversations with a special guest.
View ArticleThe Elusive Goal of Nationwide Disease Prediction
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many U.S. hospitals struggled with the crush of patients who needed intensive care while federal and state-run Covid care sites ended up largely unneeded....
View ArticleMixed Lessons from Intentionally Infecting People with Covid-19
Carefully dosing people with SARS-CoV-2 in a controlled setting — what’s known as a challenge trial — can help researchers understand early immune responses. But the studies are controversial, and some...
View ArticleAs Biolabs Multiply Globally, Some Experts Worry About Oversight
Around the world, thousands of high-containment labs work with dangerous pathogens, some with little oversight — and the pandemic prompted a global boom to build yet more. Perhaps nowhere are those...
View ArticleBook Review: How Much Do Animals Think About Death?
From ants to apes, animals perceive and process mortality in a number of surprising ways, Spanish philosopher Susana Monsó argues in “Playing Possum.” Drawing on a variety of scientific disciplines,...
View ArticleWorking On Wind Turbines: How a Growing Industry Is Handling Risk
In 2023, wind energy had the second-highest employment numbers of any electricity generation sector — 131,327 jobs, over twice as many as coal. But the work is inherently risky, with varying oversight...
View ArticleWhy Alzheimer’s Scientists Are Re-thinking the Amyloid Hypothesis
Scientists have long posited that the disease is driven by build-up of a certain protein in the brain. Although this idea has recently been mired in controversies, data suggest the hypothesis is not...
View ArticleThree Years On, West Virginia HIV Outbreak Lingers
In 2021, the CDC recommended the state launch syringe exchange programs to help curb the spread of HIV. But state and local policymakers placed restrictions on such programs due to concerns about...
View ArticleInterview: How to Discuss Vaccines Amid the Partisan Divide
Biostatistician Jeffrey Morris believes that to productively discuss vaccines and public health with a politically polarized public, scientists must maintain respect, transparency, a willingness to...
View ArticleHow Do We Democratize Scientific Research?
What if everyone could participate in the formal enterprise of research, publishing in journals and attending scientific conferences? C. Brandon Ogbunu argues that making both the consumption and...
View ArticleFixating on Experimentation Could Hinder Gun Violence Prevention
As community violence intervention efforts have gained unprecedented funding, policymakers are asking a deceptively difficult question: Do these programs work? One sociologist says the problem lies in...
View ArticleWorld Bank Reverses Course to Back Mega Dams
Despite continued opposition, the World Bank has approved the first of five big dam projects expected to get its support in the coming months. Climate change has upped the need for renewable energy,...
View ArticleThe Pursuit of Death on Psychiatric Grounds
The Netherlands allows medically assisted euthanasia for extreme mental suffering, and, in recent years, Dutch doctors have seen a steep rise in requests. Some clinicians are concerned and want more...
View ArticleReflecting on the Risks of ‘Mirror Life’
Mirror molecules — synthesized chemical inverse images of natural counterparts — have potential as drugs for hard-to-treat diseases. But extending such work to create entire mirror organisms could pose...
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