Last spring, scientists learned of plans to scale back a government database that’s widely used in pesticide research. Now, following months of advocacy, USGS appears set to restore the beloved public resource, slowing what some experts see as an ongoing erosion of public access to environmental data.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/29/usgs-pesticide-database/

A young nonprofit has created a voting machine that’s built with off-the-shelf parts. Every single line of code that powers the technology is posted on GitHub, for anyone to read and review. Can VotingWorks bring an open-source future to U.S. elections — and restore trust in election technology along the way?

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/28/open-source-voting/

Many psychiatrists have been seeing more children wind up in their offices and emergency rooms, pushed into psychiatric evaluations by their schools. But when schools offload the responsibility of evaluation and intervention onto outside clinicians, it can keep students out of school for weeks or even months.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/27/schools-kids-psychiatrists/

Although Institutional Review Boards play an important role in protecting trial participants, critics say that the boards can also be overly cautious and protective of their institution, with consent processes that are intended more for shielding institutions from litigation or liability.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/26/institutional-review-board-slow/

Nell Greenfieldboyce deftly weaves science and memoir in a collection of deeply personal essays, breaking out of the objective, impersonal writing mode that has characterized her career as a journalist at NPR to plumb what the field of science has meant to her as an individual.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/23/book-review-transient-and-strange/

The film “Oppenheimer” portrays the nuclear physicist’s ambivalence toward the weapon he helped create — an uneasiness now reflected in worries over the potential destructive power of AI. Society must face the moral obligation to agree on clear guidelines for AI’s use, writes Nicholas B. Dirks.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/22/opinion-confronting-ai-ambivalence/

Over the past 30 years, evidence-based medicine has transformed the practice of medicine worldwide. Whether it can transform the practice of public health — which focuses not on individuals, but on keeping the broader community healthy — is a thornier question.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/21/evidence-based-medicine/

Generative artificial intelligence uses massive amounts of energy for computation and data storage and millions of gallons of water to cool the equipment at data centers. Now, legislators and regulators — in the U.S. and the EU — are starting to demand accountability.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/20/ai-environmental-footprint/

Researchers are exploring the possibility of injecting excess carbon dioxide into the ocean floor to remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere on an enormous scale. It’s a controversial idea, but “It’s so important to get this started as soon as possible, because time is so limited,” one expert says.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/19/carbon-seafloor/

According to climate expert Rob Bellamy, large-scale technological interventions like solar geoengineering that seek to change the Earth’s environment or atmosphere to counter the effects of global warming carry enormous potential, but the risks and challenges are equally daunting.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2024/02/16/interview-rob-bellamy/