As noted by Spiked reporter Matt Ridley,1 “It is completely normal to start inquiries into mass deaths by asking how they happened — so that you can stop them happening again …” Yet in the case of the COVID pandemic, all questioning and discussion about the origin of the virus have been dismissed as more… Read More »
A taphonomic perspective on the archaeology of human origins. Focusing on a single point in our evolution would be futile. No one is arguing that diet is less than extremely important to health and well-being, but seemingly everyone is arguing as to what constitutes the best diet. Different studies in different settings with different methodologies… Read More »
Since childhood, Rachael Petersen had lived with an unexplainable sense of grief that no drug or talk therapy could entirely ease. So in 2017 she volunteered for a small clinical trial at Johns Hopkins University that was testing psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, for chronic depression. “I was so depressed,” Petersen, 29, said… Read More »
Viruses are masterful invaders. They cannibalize host cells by injecting their genetic material, often making thousands of copies of themselves in a single cell to ensure their replication and survival. Some RNA viruses — viruses whose RNA, not DNA, carries their genetic information — insert their genetic material into cells as a single piece, while… Read More »
Underrepresentation of women scientists in the public sphere perpetuates the stereotype of the white male scientist and fails both to reflect the true diversity of people practicing science today and to encourage more diversity. In a new article publishing April 23 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, Dr. Elizabeth McCullagh and colleagues from the grassroots… Read More »