Undark Magazine
Non-profit & editorially independent. Exploring science as a frequently wondrous, sometimes contentious, and occasionally troubling byproduct of human culture.
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As Election Day Nears, Taking Stock of an Expertise Exodus
Eight former government scientists reflect on the circumstances that drove them to leave the Trump administration — and on what was lost.
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Undark Magazine
During the first two years of Trump's presidency, 1,600 government scientists left their posts — many of them long-tenured and with high-responsibility roles. Some have cited efforts to undermine or suppress their work as a reason for their departure.
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Amid Deadly Virus, Advocates Push for Nursing Home Alternatives
Nursing home deaths have critics saying it's time to rethink the institutional model for elder care. Is that possible?
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Undark Magazine
Years before Covid-19, researchers warned that norovirus, influenza, and other infections can spread rapidly in nursing facilities. Those risks have increased in recent years, as nursing homes take in more short-term residents after hospital visits.
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Autopsy Rates Were Falling for Years. Then Covid-19 Came Along.
Advances in medical imaging have reduced the need for autopsies. But the procedure is proving vital amid Covid-19.
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“What you see at autopsy represents an effective catalogue of the injury that occurs in patients who have Covid and it gives you an understanding and a basis to try and forecast forward what we’re going to see in post-Covid syndrome.” - Dr. Stephen Hewitt
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Sixteen States Still Don't Mandate Mask Use. Why?
The political fight over face coverings rages, playing out everywhere from the grocery store to the debate stage.
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Undark Magazine
At a time when experts believe the U.S. needs to unite around a strategy to curb a potentially catastrophic winter, the cheapest, best option — masks — have become increasingly politicized.
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Is the Trump Administration Eroding Trust in the FDA?
Experts worry that politically-motivated acts by the Trump administration will undermine Covid-19 therapies.
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Undark Magazine
Experts say they're concerned about the Trump administration’s influence on FDA decision making — not just in encouraging the agency to promote unproven treatments, but also in curbing its rule-making authority and trying to rush approval of a vaccine.
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Ignored by Doctors, Transgender People Turn to DIY Treatments
Many trans people resort to black market hormones and surgeries when they can't find gender-affirming health care.
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Undark Magazine
Despite the growing evidence that medical intervention can help, some trans people are wary of the health care system. According to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, a third of trans people who saw a health care provider experienced mistreatment.
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Book Review: The Remarkable Adaptability of the Human Brain
In "Livewired," neuroscientist David Eagleman shows how the brain shapes itself by interacting with the outside world.
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Undark Magazine
"You are a different person than you were at this time last year," writes neuroscientist David Eagleman, "because the gargantuan tapestry of your brain has woven itself into something new."
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Why It’s Premature to Declare Africa Free of Wild Polio
Opinion | The rush to claim victory reflects the chasm between high-level rhetoric and the day-to-day realities on the ground.
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Undark Magazine
Opinion | A four-year absence of reported polio cases from Borno is insufficient evidence that wild poliovirus has been eliminated in Africa, argues Jordan Schermerhorn.
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What Can Body Language Analysis Really Tell Us?
Some analysts say that nonverbal cues reveal important truths about people in high-stakes situations. Are they right?
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Undark Magazine
While many experts caution that body language is complex and context-dependent, consultants and specialists have been applying body language research in myriad scenarios, including career coaching, work presentations, and airport screenings.
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In Montana, Tracking Long-Term Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke
A Northern Rockies town was inundated with dangerous smoke levels for 49 days. It's now a case study for smoke exposure.
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While it’s long been known that smoke can be dangerous when in the thick of it — triggering asthma attacks, cardiac arrests, and more — the research confirmed what public health experts feared: Wildfire haze can have consequences long after it’s gone.
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The Undark Interview: A Conversation with Rita Colwell
An eminent microbiologist recounts her long struggle as a woman breaking through sexism to succeed in the sciences.
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Undark Magazine
Rita Colwell's new book, "A Lab of One's Own," co-authored with writer Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, documents much of what she has seen and heard over the years, from sexual harassment to the structural obstacles placed in the way of women in the sciences.
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"At the University of Washington, I wrote a computer program — the first in the country, for bacteriology — using the old IBM 650, which has less power than the chip in your microwave oven."
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In California, Public Health Workers Given New Privacy Protection
In response to threats aimed at public health officers enforcing Covid-19 regulations, California expands a privacy law.
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Undark Magazine
California will allow public health officials to participate in a program to keep their home addresses confidential, a protection previously reserved for victims of violence, abuse and stalking, and reproductive health care workers.
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Experts Raise Questions Over 'Scary' Covid Heart Studies
Two studies sparked fear that Covid-19 causes heart inflammation in people without symptoms. Some experts are questioning those findings.
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Undark Magazine
While the experts agreed that Covid-19 can harm the heart, the severity and frequency of the outcomes, as well as how to test for myocarditis, is under fierce debate.
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Book Review: The Search for the World’s Largest Owl
In “Owls of the Eastern Ice,” conservationist Jonathan Slaght chronicles his daunting field work in Russia's Far East.
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Undark Magazine
In “Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owls,” Jonathan C. Slaght transports readers to the remote wilds of Primorye to join him on his quest to study one of the world’s least-known owls.
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Over the course of 20 total months spent in the field — much of it in the subzero Russian winter — Jonathan C. Slaght painstakingly built his study from scratch, first by finding fish owl pairs, then by learning to trap the birds through trial and error.
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In Social Insects, Researchers Find Hints for Controlling Disease
Can the ability of some social insects to contain pathogens help human societies battling pandemics of their own?
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Undark Magazine
As some ants clean each other, they transfer small amounts of pathogens to their nestmates. Those mini-exposures, biologist Sylvia Cremer writes in a recent paper, cause "non-lethal, low-level infections" that "trigger a protective immunization."
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Biotechnology Could Change the Cattle Industry. Will it Succeed?
Gene editing could help scientists produce cows that are meatier and better for the planet. But many hurdles remain.
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Undark Magazine
To many of the cattle industry’s critics, including environmental and animal rights activists, the very nature of the practice of rearing livestock for human consumption erodes the noble goal of sustainable food production.
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With Covid-19, Vaccine Messaging Faces an Unprecedented Test
A Covid-19 vaccine is coming. Will public health messaging be enough to convince Americans to get it?
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Undark Magazine
Sometimes overlooked, vaccine messages — from brochures in doctor’s offices to Instagram posts — are as vital to a vaccine campaign as the vaccine itself, some experts say.
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The Unlikely Endurance of the Rubik's Cube
Nearly half a century after its humble invention, the cube continues to be a global sensation. What's the secret?
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Ernő Rubik initially believed the cube would appeal to those with science, math, or engineering backgrounds — and was shocked when "it found its way to people whom nobody would ever have thought might be attracted to it," he writes.
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In 1974, a young Hungarian architect named Ernő Rubik became obsessed with finding a way to model three-dimensional movement to his students. His invention would go on to become the most popular puzzle toy in the world.
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America's Homes Need to Go on an Energy Diet
Opinion | U.S. households use almost twice as much energy as those in Europe. A new study shows how to lower that footprint.
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Undark Magazine
Opinion | The median age of a U.S. home is 37 years, and it’s not getting any younger, writes Tim De Chant. Many of our houses and apartments are still heated and powered by fossil fuels.
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Police Caused At Least 115 Head Injuries During Recent Protests
The data, considered an undercount, was amassed by Physicians for Human Rights. Experts worry the problem is systemic.
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Demonstrators in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, San Jose, Denver and Dallas told USA Today they were shot with less-lethal projectiles even though those departments don’t allow the weapons to be used against nonviolent people.
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