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Theo Whitcomb Sixty-Thousand Evictions in the Name of Environmentalism
The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is relocating whole slums to help restore polluted rivers. Is it doing more harm than good?
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Undark Americans Are Spending Billions on Unnecessary Dental Treatments
The evidence that braces make you healthier is shaky at best.
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Wir0man / Getty How NASA Launched a Revolution in Biology
The space agency was conceived as an answer to Sputnik, but it quickly became much more.
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Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty The Ripple Effects of a Space Skirmish
If a conflict breaks out between countries with weapons in orbit, it could threaten space access for everyone.
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Wakil Kohsar / AFP /Getty There’s No Playbook for Treating Gunshot Wounds in Babies
Doctors in Afghanistan are scrambling to address the country’s wave of infant war injuries.
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Getty / The Atlantic Coronavirus Researchers Tried to Warn Us
Before the pandemic hit, they struggled to get funding that might have hastened treatments for COVID-19.
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Frankie Schembri It Was Supposed to Detect Fraud. It Wrongfully Accused Thousands Instead.
How Michigan’s attempt to automate its unemployment system went horribly wrong
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Ye Aung Thu /AFP / Getty How Bats Might Have Tamed the Coronavirus
The animals have a remarkable resilience to all sorts of diseases that afflict humans.
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Hetherington / IWM / Magnum Photos The Rwandans Offering Themselves as Mosquito Bait
In the fight against malaria, sometimes bed nets and pesticides just aren’t enough.
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Dai Mar Tamarack / Shutterstock Hawaiian Birds Are Losing Their Songs
Three species of honeycreeper now sing much more similar songs, as their populations decline.
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Cesar Manso / Stringer / Getty ‘Pure Poison’ for a Scholarly Career
Researchers have spent centuries failing to decipher a medieval manuscript’s baffling drawings of plants, naked women, and astrological symbols. Is it worth the effort?
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Ute Grabowsky / Photothek via Getty The Problem That Psychology Can’t Shake
Ten years after a seminal paper laid bare psychology’s white, affluent, Western skew, not much has changed.
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Towfiqu Photography / Getty What Doctors Can Learn From the Dark Web
Opioid addicts are turning to online forums for advice about quitting. Their conversations have a lot to teach us about drug use and public health.
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James Gathany / AP Why There’s Still No Lyme Vaccine for Humans
False starts and fear have kept such a drug off the market for two decades.
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Din Aharoni / El HaLev What Self-Defense Can Do for Mental Health
Evidence suggests that classes can be like therapy for sexual-assault survivors, but some researchers fear that they could cause new trauma instead.
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Enrique Castro-Mendivil / Reuters A Tiny, 25-Year-Old Study Still Drives Opinion on Pregnancy and Pot
The “Jamaica study” has garnered more attention online than 99 percent of scientific research.
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MB Photography / Getty Dingoes Have Created a Scientific Rift
Is classifying the wild dog as a species good strategy or bad practice?
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Peter Andrews / Reuters A Promising Resource for Cancer Breakthroughs Is Dying Out
As humans drive vulnerable mammals closer to extinction, valuable mutations hidden in their DNA could be bred out of existence.
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Alex Sanz / AP Computer Scientists Make the Case Against an Expensive New Voting System
Georgia is preparing to spend $150 million on election technology. Experts worry it will be a security nightmare.
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Ryan McGinnis / Getty Images The Lost Nurdles Polluting Texas Beaches
Tiny plastic building blocks are spilled into oceans and waterways before they’re even made into plastic goods.
