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Book Review: The Mind-Boggling Science of Enormous Numbers
3+ day, 5+ hour ago (173+ words) Visual: Moment via Getty Images BOOK REVIEW " "Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, From 4" to Fish 7," by Richard Elwes (Basic Books, 368 pages). The highest numbers contemplated by humans come not from physics but from pure mathematics and computer science....
When Scientific Arguments Obscure Moral Ones, Democracy Suffers
4+ day, 5+ hour ago (144+ words) Visual: Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images The policy change surfaces a set of questions that Americans have had to grapple with before, most notably during the Covid-19 pandemic: Should we stick up for the rights of the individual above…...
Book Review: The Life and Struggles of a Conservation Pioneer
1+ week, 3+ day ago (382+ words) Top: Khunjerab National Park in Pakistan, which was established in 1975 on the recommendation of George Schaller in order to conserve Marco Polo sheep, as well as snow leopard and brown bear. Visual: Muzaffar Bukhari/Flickr The pioneering field biologist George…...
Medicine's Move Toward Race-Neutral Risk Assessments
1+ week, 4+ day ago (164+ words) Visual: Maskot via Getty Images Today, cardiovascular disease remains the number one cause of death in the United States. It's a largely preventable illness, and much of it can be mitigated by addressing high cholesterol and other risk factors that…...
In Coal Country, Black Lung Surges as Federal Protections Stall
1+ week, 5+ day ago (1047+ words) Top: A mound of coal in Charleston, West Virginia. Visual: i Stock / Getty Images Plus Justin Smarsh and his family used to kayak a few times a year on the rivers and creeks near their home in Cherry Tree, Pennsylvania....
Prediction Markets Aren't Likely to Replace Polling
1+ week, 6+ day ago (288+ words) That election alone pulled in more than $3. 5 billion in bets on Polymarket. Polymarket and Kalshi, another sizeable market, have facilitated a wide-ranging gambling economy in which users bet on everything from geopolitical events to interest rates to the price of…...
Book Review: The Case for Hope in Saving the World's Birds
2+ week, 3+ day ago (273+ words) BOOK REVIEW " "The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet," by Scott Weidensaul (W. W. Norton & Company, 368 pages). All around the world, "people are mapping avenues to recovery if we choose to follow them, making progress for birds," Weidensaul…...
How AI May Reshape Humanitarian Decisions About Refugees
2+ week, 4+ day ago (722+ words) Opinion: How AI May Reshape Humanitarian Decisions About Refugees'Undark Magazine Join the Discussion Cancel reply For people seeking asylum, the process usually involves registration, an interview, and review by government caseworkers. Decisions on granting asylum have traditionally been made by…...
A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Comes Into View
3+ week, 5+ day ago (1304+ words) I do not even understand how I ended up here, but I assumed this used to be great Sea levels are much higher than we thought. Real-world oceans are making a mockery of flood-risk forecasts based on crude global modeling....
A 2022 Law May Be Quietly Helping People Stay on Their Meds
2+ week, 4+ day ago (362+ words) Visual: i Stock via Getty Images CROSS SECTIONS: "Dissecting the contentious and the controversial " with science at the core. In an email to Undark, one of the authors, Benjamin Rome, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, noted…...