African researchers want more say in genomics data
Many human genome studies ask participants to sign a form that gives them little direct control over how their data will be used. But a panel of researchers in Africa says that this can fuel distrust between researchers and participants, and needs to change. This stark message comes in a...
Wildlife species diminish as trade shoots up even in protected areas
Wildlife trafficking is having a profound negative impact on biodiversity, a new analysis finds. Hunting and trapping to feed international and national trade networks threaten numerous species, the researchers report, even those living in protected areas. “This study adds to the growing body of evidence that commercial wildlife trade is...
Misinformation almost always contains kernels of truth in it
Implantable microchips in the Gates conspiracy can be traced to a Gates Foundation-funded paper published in 2019 by MIT researchers, who designed technology to record someone’s vaccination history in the skin like a tattoo. It turned out to be the well from where many falsehoods sprung. The tattoo ink would...
‘Ozone-depleting emissions have stopped since scientists raised alarm’
Illegal emissions of an ozone-destroying chemical once used in refrigerants and foam insulation have virtually come to a halt, scientists reported this week, nearly three years after the rogue emissions were first documented. Researchers say the result is a major win for the international treaty that protects the ozone layer....
WHO Covid origin search draws a blank, scientists want the mystery resolved
Scientists say that the hunt for the origins of the Coovid-19 pandemic must continue after a World Health Organisation (WHO) team’s visit to China produced no answers to key questions about how the coronavirus started infecting people. At a press briefing on February 9 in Wuhan, China, members of the...
Terrorism? Day hacker tried to poison water supply of a Florida city of 15,000
Around 8am last Friday, an employee of a water treatment plant in the 15,000-person city of Oldsmar, Florida, noticed that his mouse cursor was moving strangely on his computer screen, out of his control, as local police would later tell it. Initially, he was not concerned; the plant used the...
Grey market: Incentive to produce charcoal illicitly or legally set to rise in Kenya
Despite a longstanding moratorium on charcoal production and trade in Kenya, current high demand for the fuel that has been enforced by expansive alternatives such as liquified gas and kerosene has given rise to a booming ‘grey market’ that now threatens to exacerbate ecological degradation. Increased production and trade in...
There are spying eyes everywhere – and now they share a brain
One afternoon in the fall of 2019, in a grand old office building near the Arc de Triomphe, I was buzzed through an unmarked door into a showroom for the future of surveillance. The space on the other side was dark and sleek, with a look somewhere between an Apple...
Cocaine pipeline to Europe grows as drug peddlers target lucrative market
Europe has emerged as the world’s leading illicit drugs market over the past eight years for cocaine and heroin produced in Latin America, a new report by the Global Initiative Against Organised Crime shows. With the traditional market in the Untied States of America having either shrunk due to unending...
Forget blood, your skin is able to ‘know’ if you are sick
A river of biological information flows just beneath the outermost layers of your skin, in which a hodgepodge of proteins squeezes past each other through the interstitial fluid surrounding your cells. This “interstitium” is an expansive and structured space, making it, to some, a newfound “organ.” But its wealth of...
