After a decades-long decline, the global incidence of tuberculosis has risen since 2020, with cities around the world experiencing outbreaks. A nurse and TB survivor says governments must fulfill their commitments and provide the funding needed to combat this preventable and curable disease.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/30/opinion-tuberculosis-funding/

The Department of Defense is eager for new technology in the name of national security. But as the U.S. pours billions into development, some are raising questions about the ethical use of AI in the armed forces, prompting early efforts to put up guardrails on its applications.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/29/military-artificial-intelligence/

In 2021, China promised to dramatically reduce emissions of HFC-23, one of the world’s most potent greenhouse gases, by the end of that year. But air samples collected at a remote South Korean station off of China’s east coast indicate concentrations of the gas have remained elevated though June 2022.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/28/china-hfc-23/

It’s hard to plan for a tsunami, especially as tsunami science is practically in its infancy, having only emerged in the 1980s. Scientists in Alaska lack the technology required to forecast tsunamis before they hit the state because they simply happen too quickly.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/27/alaska-tsunami/

Medical anthropologist Michelle Parsons says the profound consequences of loneliness and perceived social isolation extend beyond relationships with loved ones and acquaintances, but also relationships between people and places, between people and practices, and even between people and their pets.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/24/interview-loneliness/

Last year, President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled a $50 billion wildfire prevention plan that emphasizes partially logging forests to reduce the amount of fuel that can burn. But an investigation reveals that this strategy ignores an important way that wildfires spread and set houses aflame.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/23/opinion-wildfire-plan/

Scientists across the Western United States are increasingly turning to the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, an accessible, low-cost radio-based technology, to answer key questions for the first time about bird migration in remote areas and how climate change is impacting their life cycles.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/22/bird-tracking-motus/

In 2015, Massachusetts launched its GameSense program, which employs advisors within casinos to help people who have spent too much money or time gambling. While the program is helpful for some, for those who need mental health treatment, therapists certified in problem gambling are few and far between.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/21/problem-gambling-massachusetts/

It’s a quirk of United States law that has long bedeviled bioethicists: Unlike in most other countries with lots of clinical research, U.S. regulations do not guarantee support for people who are harmed during clinical trials.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/20/clinical-trial-injury/

In “Free Agents” and “Determined,” authors Kevin J. Mitchell and Robert M. Sapolsky respectively undertake the expansive task of using the tools of science probe the question of whether we possess free will, an issue with stark moral and existential implications for the way we understand evolution and structure society.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/11/17/book-review-free-will/