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A Northwestern University economist who has closely followed strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide has a new recommendation for frustrated climate activists: Buy coal. In a paper published in the current Journal of Political Economy, Bård Harstad, an associate professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, argues that the most effective strategies to combat climate change do not focus on demand-side solutions such as carbon taxes or emission caps....

The newest release for the PlayStation3 (PS3) will not give you a sore thumb, but it may help researchers come up with drugs for Alzheimer’s. Sony announced today that beginning March 23, PS3 users will be able to take part in simulations to study how proteins fold into the clumps that litter the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, speeding up those simulations dramatically—if enough gamers join in. Cells build proteins by linking amino acids into a chain, which spontaneously folds into a three-dimensional shape that lets the protein do its various jobs....

ANTISCIENCE ORIGINS If Shawn Lawrence Otto wants to stop the antiscience movement in the U.S., as he describes in “America’s Science Problem,” he needs to blame the people who are actually leading the movement. Otto’s article makes the ludicrous claim that Democrats ignore science as well as Republicans. Yet while Otto cites numerous examples of Republican legislatures enacting antiscience laws and major Republican leaders pushing policies attacking established scientific facts, he can only counterbalance that with the weak assertion that a few unnamed Democrats fear cell phones and vaccines....

DECEMBER 1957 SPUTNIK 2— “With the launching by the U.S.S.R. of its second artificial satellite, weighing half a ton and carrying the first living being into space—a little dog named Laika—scientists the world over were ready to accept the age of space travel as already born. A rocket shot to the moon seemed imminent. An official statement, issued through the Soviet news agency Tass, said that ‘the increase in the satellite’s size to provide for a large number of measuring and telemetering instruments, and even for an animal passenger, necessitated the development of improved new instruments and sources of power....

The most important shipping event in North Atlantic history was the creation of the International Mercantile Marine company (IMM) in 1902. This giant shipping trust was the brainchild of the Philadelphia Quaker shipping magnate Clement Acton Griscom and was made possible by the financial backing of the New York banker J. P. Morgan. Among the many U.S., Belgian, British, Dutch and German lines controlled by the IMM, certainly the most famous among the British-flag steamship lines was the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company—more commonly known as the White Star Line....

Of all the scientific accomplishments in 2019, one in particular stands out: an image of a flaming ring of starlight surrounding a dark circle. Black holes had long been theorized to exist but never directly observed, and scientists had until this year only guessed at what they might look like. But finally, it happened. After more than 10 years of data collection from 11 radio telescopes around the world, astronomers captured the shadow of the gargantuan black hole at the heart of the galaxy Messier 87 (above)....

It was around 9:30 P.M., hours past sunset, when a violent tornado leveled the town of Mayfield, Ky., on December 10. The exceptionally long-lasting twister was part of a rare December outbreak that raked through several Midwestern and Southern states that night. Though the storms were well forecast, and warnings were issued relatively early, at least 89 people have been confirmed dead, with some still unaccounted for. Nighttime tornadoes can be particularly deadly—and not just because more people are likely to be asleep....

If all the world’s a stage, Singapore has a captive audience. In about half the area of London, Singapore has built not just a city, but an entire country. In addition to land constraints, the island nation faces a steady stream of challenges, from rapid immigration to an aging population. Despite these obstacles, Singapore has upheld a reputation as an ideal place to do business and as one of the most livable cities....

Editor’s note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. In this presidential election season, one thing is certain: candidates will rarely – if ever – be asked what they would do to keep this nation at the forefront of science and innovation. That’s a shame. The public dialogue about science is perhaps the most vital and most fraught national conversation not taking place in our country, and the ramifications are profound....

So many cats, so little time to worship each one. I have just two cats. Well, “have” is a bit self-congratulatory. Let me put it this way: two cats have deigned to allow me the pleasure of their company in whatever manner they see fit. Each cat was abandoned by neighbors who moved and left the pet behind. (I know, right?) The first feline, long known to the children on the block as Patches, was already in the habit of visiting my house....

From Quanta Magazine (find original story here). In a lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, physicists run experiments with robots that look as though they came from the dollar store. The robots can’t move through space. They can’t communicate. Mostly they flap their little arms, like beetles stuck on their backs. But put a lot of these objects together and you get something from nothing: They hit each other, nudge each other and tangle with each other....

Millions of Americans turn to acupuncture each year to treat chronic pains and even depression. Recently, researchers at Rutgers University reported that combining the acupuncturist’s needle with an electric current could yield a new treatment for severe inflammation. Yet many scientists look skeptically at the practice. There may not be a clear verdict yet but Scientific American MIND has brought together several experts to share their views. These include acupuncturist Hugh MacPherson, senior research fellow at the University of York in England; Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicineat the University of Exeter; Shu-Ming Wang of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Care at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine; pharmacologist David Colquhoun at University College London, also author of the blog DC’s Improbable Science; and Harriet Hall, a retired family physician and U....

Throughout U.S. history there have been leaders, both Republicans and Democrats, who have supported the advancement of science and the protection of health and the environment and who have taken care to inform their policy decisions with the best scientific advice. After the midterm elections in November, it looked as though this tradition might take a backseat in the new Congress. For example, Representative-elect Jon Runyan, Republican of New Jersey, said in the aftermath of the election that to balance the federal budget one could cut “all the money we spend on frivolous research projects … studying mating tendencies of fruit flies, stuff like that—is that really necessary?...

One day in early 1995 a man named bob massie walked into my office at the outpatient clinic of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Massie told me he had been infected with HIV—the virus that causes AIDS—for 16 years and yet had never shown any symptoms. My physical examination confirmed he was healthy, in stark contrast to all other patients I saw that day. At that time, a new combination of drugs was being tested that would eventually slow the progressive decline in immune function that HIV caused....

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazineAmateur historians and astronomers are buzzing with intrigue over allegations that the legendary US astronomer Edwin Hubble, after whom NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is named, may have actively censored the work of a competitor to advance his own career.Professional historians are demanding further evidence, but advocates of the position are already urging NASA to name a future space mission after the slighted researcher.Hubble is credited with a discovery that paved the way for modern astronomy....

Corn is king in the U.S. Midwest, and few companies in the field are larger than Archer Daniels Midland. The agribusiness giant runs a corn processing plant in Decatur, Ill. that turns tons of golden kernels into thousands of liters of alcohol, food chemicals, even syrup. All that industrial fermentation produces millions of tons of carbon dioxide—each liter of ethanol generates nearly 800 grams of CO2—the primary greenhouse gas contributing to global warming and the key ingredient in the photosynthesis that made those corn kernels possible....

An Australian zookeeper on Tuesday urged people to catch and donate deadly funnel-web spiders, to help replenish stocks of antidote running low after a spate of spider bites. The Australian Reptile Park, the country’s sole supplier of funnel-web venom to antidote producers since 1981, relies on the public to hand in spiders that are milked for the venom used to produce an antidote. The anti-venom program was now at risk after too few spiders were donated last year and a recent heatwave encouraged more spider activity and bites, the park’s general manager, Tim Faulkner, said on Tuesday....

Think of a holiday road trip’s effect on the climate this way: The amount of heat a car contributes to the atmosphere because of its carbon emissions may be 100,000 times greater than the actual heat given off by its engine. That’s the conclusion of a Carnegie Institution for Science study published Tuesday that shows two things: Emissions from burning a lump of coal or a gallon of gas has an effect on the climate 100,000 times greater than the heat given off by burning the fossil fuel itself....

BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday that Japan’s agreeing to turn over sensitive nuclear material of potential use in bombs to the United States was a step in the right direction, but that it had other material it still needed to hand over. The leaders of Japan and the United States, meeting at a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands, said that hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of material of potential use would be downgraded and disposed of....

Whether you subscribe to the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule or some instinctive moral code, society functions largely because most of its denizens adhere to a set of norms that allow them to live together in relative tranquility. But, why is it that we put a vast amount of social resources into keeping stealing, murdering and other unfair (not to mention violent and illegal) acts to a minimum? Seems it all comes down to the fact that most of us don’t cotton to being punished by our peers....