“A Book of Noises: Notes on the Auraculous,” Caspar Henderson’s rich and revealing exploration of the planet’s sonic landscape, canvases both natural and human-made sounds, from the Big Bang and sperm whales to amorous hedgehogs and musical genres, as well as the destructive effects of noise pollution.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/29/book-review-noises/

In the rugged Upper Peninsula of northern Michigan, a massive mining waste site has festered for decades along Lake Superior. Now, that waste is pushing its way onto a critical spawning ground for lake trout and whitefish — staple foods of local Ojibwe tribes, and highly valuable to commercial fisheries.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/28/lake-superior-toxic-sand/

Despite expanded accessibility, interest in direct-to-consumer hearing devices has lagged — in part, experts suggest, due to physician inattention to adult hearing health, inadequate insurance coverage for hearing aids, and lingering stigma around the issue.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/27/otc-hearing-aids/

New draft guidance on infection control from the CDC’s advisory committee has workplace safety officials worried that protections will be weakened. The guidance pays little attention to ventilation and air filtration, and advises N95 masks only for new diseases or those that spread over long distances.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/26/n95-regulatory-rift/

Figuring out the origins of Covid is of utmost importance, given the pandemic’s toll. The U.S. alone has suffered more than a million Covid-19 deaths and hundreds of millions of infections. Given this, one would expect an army of journalists to be digging for the truth, and a bipartisan commission with subpoena powers to be in full force to find the origin of Covid-19. To date, neither have really happened.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/22/why-are-so-few-people-investigating-covids-origins/

There is a natural tension between public health recommendations and a public wary of a “nanny state” bent on meddling in their lives, Sandro Galea argues in “Within Reason.” But as the Covid-19 pandemic showed, a paternalistic approach can be effective only if it is informed by pragmatism and moderation.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/22/book-excerpt-within-reason/

The drug Paxlovid has been shown to prevent severe Covid-19 in high-risk patients. But evidence on other outcomes such as illness duration, transmission risk, and long Covid is weak. One physician says companies must do new studies to fill this knowledge gap and maintain approval for these critical drugs.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/21/opinion-paxlovid-studies/

As soon as this year, legal scholars anticipate a more consequential role in climate litigation for science, and particularly attribution science, which links climate change to extreme weather. A mock courtroom in Minnesota hints at how it may play out.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/20/climate-litigation-evidence/

Since October, the health system in Gaza has been collapsing, and pregnant mothers — more than 50,000 in the region — are especially hard-hit. While 180 babies are born in Gaza every day, without electricity, running water, and basic supplies like blood and sutures, childbirth can become a crisis.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/19/giving-birth-gaza/

Fire dynamics and forensic anthropology are rapidly evolving scientific fields, and their real-world connection happens when human remains are found at a fire scene. A week-long course in Texas introduces practitioners to that rare event — and the science that contextualizes it.

via Undark Magazine https://undark.org/2023/12/18/fire-deaths-science/