29 Jul, 2019
Fracking Companies Lost on Trespassing, but a Court Just Gave Them a Different Win
A week after the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the property rights of landowners battling one natural gas giant, the same court tossed out a challenge filed by another group of landowners against a different natural gas company. …
25 Jul, 2019
Four steps to make your lawn a wildlife haven – from green desert to miniature rainforest
If you could ask British insects about the habitats they prefer, they’d probably tell you that you can’t improve on grassland that’s rich with wildflowers. For farmers, though, grassland is said to be “improved” if it has been treated with fertiliser and sown with fast growing grasses. …
22 Jul, 2019
Q&A: AWaRe tool targets smart antibiotic use
Inappropriate use of antibiotics is one of the leading drivers of drug resistance, so what can doctors do to ensure they don’t perpetuate the problem? In June, the World Health Organization launched its AWaRe tool, a simple system that classifies antibiotics into three categories. These categories — Access, Watch and Reserve — are meant to help healthcare providers and policymakers to decide which antibiotics they should prescribe freely, and which ones they should restrict.…
18 Jul, 2019
Ill Nuclear Workers’ Benefits Petitions Have to Be Reviewed Within 6 Months. Some Have Languished About a Decade.
Ten years ago, a security guard at Los Alamos National Laboratory submitted a petition to the federal government seeking compensation and benefits for his fellow lab workers who were sick with cancer and believed that radiation at the lab was to blame. …
15 Jul, 2019
Total eclipse, partial failure: Scientific expeditions don’t always go as planned
For centuries, astronomers have realized that total solar eclipses offer a valuable scientific opportunity. During what’s called totality, the opaque moon completely hides the bright photosphere of the sun – its thin surface layer that emits most of the sun’s light. …
11 Jul, 2019
Q&A: ‘Put patients before profits’ to beat drug resistance
As bacteria become increasingly resistant to the world’s existing armoury of antibiotics, effective new drugs are desperately needed. But an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies are abandoning the unprofitable quest to develop novel antimicrobials. …
08 Jul, 2019
In Montana, a Tough Negotiator Proved Employers Don’t Have to Pay So Much for Health Care
Marilyn Bartlett took a deep breath, drew herself up to her full 5 feet and a smidge, and told the handful of Montana officials that she had a radical strategy to bail out the state’s foundering benefit plan for its 30,000 employees and their families. …
04 Jul, 2019
Early days, but we’ve found a way to lift the IQ and resilience of Australia’s most vulnerable children
What happens in our first three years profoundly influences the rest of our lives. Children who encounter extreme adversity in those early years – including prolonged exposure to physical or sexual abuse and living in a highly stressful family environment – are likely to suffer major impairments to their development that can lead to lower educational achievement and workforce participation, involvement in risky behaviours including criminal activity, and lifelong health problems. …
01 Jul, 2019
In Pennsylvania, It’s Open Season on Undocumented Immigrants
QUAKERTOWN, PA — From the time they first flirted at a party, Anne and Ludvin Franco were inseparable. It did not matter that Anne, a waitress, was Pennsylvania Dutch going back generations, while Ludvin, a cook, had grown up in the scrublands of eastern Guatemala. …
28 Jun, 2019
Biodiversity helps coral reefs thrive – and could be part of strategies to save them
Coral reefs are home to so many species that they often are called “the rainforests of the seas.” Today they face a daunting range of threats, including ocean warming and acidification, overfishing and pollution. Worldwide, more than one-third of all coral species are at risk of extinction. …
25 Jun, 2019
How complexity science can get aid working
Ben Ramalingam’s new book, Aid on the Edge of Chaos, challenges development practitioners to step back and ask: “Is there a better way to deliver aid and humanitarian assistance?” My answer is simple — there has to be! …
19 Jun, 2019
Meet the ocean creatures that use a mesh of mucus to catch their food
All animals must eat to survive. If you’ve heard the term “grazer” before, it may bring to mind familiar farm animals, such as cows or sheep munching on pastureland. But the ocean has its own suite of grazers, with very different — even bizarre — body forms and feeding techniques. Instead of teeth, one group of these invertebrates uses sheets of mucus to consume huge quantities of tiny plant-like particles. …
17 Jun, 2019
Court to Big Fracking Company: Trespassing Still Exists — Even For You
Seven years ago this month, Beth Crowder and David Wentz told natural gas giant EQT Corp. that it did not have permission to come onto their West Virginia farm to drill for the natural gas beneath neighboring properties. …
13 Jun, 2019
Why suburban parks offer an antidote to helicopter parenting
Well-designed suburban parks could be an antidote to helicopter parenting. As well as giving kids much-needed time outdoors being active, suburban parks offer kids opportunities to decide what activities they do, new research shows. It’s an ideal opportunity for parents to let go of their task-focused daily agendas, even if just for a little while. …
10 Jun, 2019
Q&A: ‘There is a silent rejection’ of large health interventions
A community organisation in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is challenging how health organisations typically go about their work in poor parts of the world. “The dominant paradigm has been that we need to develop these solutions [in] elite environments and then transport them into the communities,” says Vishwajeet Kumar, founder of the Community Empowerment Lab. “I have a very different take.” …
06 Jun, 2019
Chicken Farmers Thought Trump Was Going to Help Them. Then His Administration Did the Opposite.
By late 2016, many of the nation’s 25,000 chicken farmers said they had grown bitterly frustrated by the administration of President Barack Obama. Under Obama, top officials had promised to help farmers by tightening regulations on meat processing companies, which for decades had been growing bigger and more powerful. The industry consolidation extended to beef, dairy and pork as well as poultry, but the Obama administration was particularly concerned about the effects on farmers who raise chickens on contract for giants such as Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride. …
03 Jun, 2019
Friday essay: virgin mothers and miracle babies
At the centre of the annual Christian festival of Christmas, particularly among those of the Catholic faith, is the sacred narrative of the Virgin Birth. In the New Testament Gospels of Matthew (1:18-25) and Luke (1:26-38), Mary, The Mother of God, is described as a virgin who miraculously conceived her son by the Holy Spirit. …
30 May, 2019
Yemen’s forests another casualty of war amid fuel crisis
The four-year conflict in Yemen which has pushed huge swathes of the population close to famine has also left the country with a severe fuel crisis. Now environment officials are warning that millions of trees are likely being lost as a result of excessive firewood gathering by communities facing an acute shortage of natural gas. …
27 May, 2019
Separated by Design: How Some of America’s Richest Towns Fight Affordable Housing
WESTPORT, Conn. — A dirt field overgrown with weeds is the incongruous entrance to one of America’s wealthiest towns, a short walk to a Rodeo Drive-like stretch replete with upscale stores such as Tiffany & Co. …
23 May, 2019