Tag: Scientific Method

July 21, 2017

In my younger days—about the time that Erik the Red was making a name for himself—I was really into electronics. Countless never-quite-working-as-expected circuits should have taught me the futility of telling electrons what to do. Yet my interest in electronics […]

July 21, 2017

Yesterday, the Trump administration formally named its candidate for the Department of Agriculture’s undersecretary of research, education, and economics, a post that serves as the agency’s chief scientist. Its choice? Sam Clovis, who has no scientific background but is notable […]

July 19, 2017

California lawmakers voted to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program another 10 years on Monday night. The bill includes language that would gradually tighten restrictions on businesses, reducing the amount of greenhouse gases they’re allowed to put in the atmosphere by […]

June 28, 2017

Energy Secretary Rick Perry spoke briefly this afternoon to a group of reporters to address topics in energy. The Trump administration has deemed this week “Energy Week” and tasked its appointees, including Perry, to pitch what an “energy-dominant America” looks […]

June 14, 2017

Following pressure from the food and beverage industry, the Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would indefinitely delay the rollout of new nutrition labels that were designed to help consumers better evaluate the contents and of packaged foods. […]

June 14, 2017

Nonprofit consumer and environmental groups as well as 11 states sued the Department of Energy (DOE) today for failing to enact energy efficiency standards (PDF) promulgated by the Obama administration. The standards apply to portable air conditioners, uninterruptible power supplies, […]

May 30, 2017

Researchers from Bochum, Germany, and San Diego, California, say they’ve found the precise mechanisms that allowed diesel Volkswagens and Audis to engage or disengage emissions controls depending on whether the cars were being driven in a lab or driven under […]

May 29, 2017

Back when I was doing research, one of my advisors once joked that, if you wait long enough, you can produce an old result using new methods, manage to get it published, and everyone will be impressed. I think his […]

May 19, 2017

As part of rocket development, aerospace engineers extensively test booster components before they are assembled into a larger launch vehicle. To that end, NASA has built two big test stands at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to test its […]

March 31, 2017

In recent years, funding for research provided by the National Institutes of Health has struggled to keep up with inflation. A recent paper published in Science suggests this could mean bad things for the overall economy. Ana analysis of 27 years of […]

March 3, 2017

On Tuesday the US senate confirmed former Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke to lead the Department of the Interior, and on Wednesday it confirmed former Texas governor Rick Perry to lead the Department of Energy. Both men will have considerable influence […]

January 31, 2017

Last week was a busy one for controversial executive orders, and this week started with another. On Monday, President Trump signed a far-reaching Executive Order directing federal agencies to get rid of two existing regulations for every new regulation added—regardless […]

January 18, 2017

Republican legislation that guts the Affordable Care Act would cause 18 million people to lose their insurance and would increase premiums of individual plans by about 20 to 25 percent, all within a year of being enacted, a report released […]

January 10, 2017

“Why, why, why… ?” In a speech Monday at the National Press Club, US Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell puzzled over the GOP’s plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without having replacement legislation at the ready. […]

December 28, 2016

For rocket company SpaceX, 2016 was both the best of times and the worst of times. The company landed its orbital Falcon 9 rocket in April on an autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean—a captivating, unprecedented spectacle that promised a […]

December 21, 2016

According to an indictment filed in Chicago federal court (PDF) late last week, 45-year-old Brian Brundage cut some serious corners while running his e-recycling businesses. He was arrested on Monday on charges of income tax evasion, mail fraud, and wire […]

December 8, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump made his choice for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency today, and that choice is fossil-fuel-friendly Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt. Pruitt was trained as a lawyer before becoming a state senator in 1998 and attorney general […]

December 5, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of six-term Congress member Tom Price (R-Ga.) for secretary of health and human services has inflamed the medical community bigly this week, causing widespread and bitter infighting. Price is not a particularly shocking pick by Trump—the […]

November 18, 2016

The stated goal of recent international climate negotiations includes keeping global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial conditions. The Paris climate agreement included emissions limits that everyone recognized would be insufficient to meet that goal, but […]

September 7, 2016

On Tuesday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his office is investigating Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc, the maker of EpiPen, for potentially using anticompetitive terms in contracts it had with many school systems. Those terms allowed schools to receive […]