National Geographic collects photos representative of humanity’s impact on the environment, which is so pervasive that the term “anthropocene” is now being used to describe the current geological epoch.
Public controversy is erupting again over the nearly exclusive use of male mice as a model organism for medical research, especially since they are still used, more often than not, to conduct research into diseases disproportionately affecting women.
NASA’s 30-year-long space shuttle program wraps up this summer. To pre-empt expected upcoming patriotic retrospectives, The Mark’s Jordan Bimm explores the shuttle’s checkered past.
Forbes reports that J. Craig Venter’s team was sued by the estate of James Joyce for encoding “To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life” into their synthetic DNA; their inclusion of a Richard Feynman quote, on the other hand, merely earned them a correction from Caltech (via Marginal Revolution).
Errol Morris responds to some of the criticisms of his New York Times “Ashtray” blog.
Chris Mooney at Discover Magazine asks if scientists have “public literacy“.
Judy Sebba asks, What can academic researchers learn from think tanks?
