This time last year I wrote(1,2) about a Swedish company called Emotra. Emotra make a device that is supposed to measure suicide risk in people with mental illness. The test is called EDOR® and according to Emotra's website and materials, it has been shown to be highly effective. Last year, I explained why I disagree with that assessment. Now, a year later, I'm revisting the EDOR® story, because there have been a number of developments that I find quite disturbing. It seems that EDOR& ...read more

The Surfrider Foundation is pleased to announce its participation in the first ever open data standard for the automated exchange of recreational water quality data. Recreational waters at ocean and freshwater beaches, lakes and rivers are monitored for harmful bacteria and pathogens that can threaten human health. Agencies and volunteer organizations alike have always found it challenging, however, to get water quality information into the hands of the public. An estimated 90 milli ...read more

When we think of Apollo astronauts, we think of hot-shot pilots who dared to ride rockets to the Moon! But who, at their core, were straight-laced military men who followed the rules. So it might come as a surprise that most Apollo astronauts had tattoos.  This wasn’t something I expected to find. It’s also something that I came across pretty recently. Which in itself was a shock — I’ve spent the better part of my adult life digging into every aspect of the Apollo e ...read more

The Jedi in Star Wars is all about the force, but NASA’s GEDI is all about the forest. On December 5, the space agency launched their tree-tracking Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument to the International Space Station (ISS), where it will use laser light to create 3D maps of Earth’s forests and estimate their carbon emissions. Unlike most mappers, GEDI is able to peer below tree canopies and see the vegetation that lies beneath — giving insight into carb ...read more

A telephone ringing. A car horn blaring. Fluorescent lighting overhead. These are everyday sights and sounds that most people don’t give a second thought to. But for a person with autism, being around ordinary sensory stimuli can be uncomfortable or even unbearable. Autism, typically thought of as a disorder affecting social functioning, can also have a profound effect on sensory processing. Although no two cases of autism are alike, it’s estimated that up to 90 percent of children ...read more

Juno's Flight NASA’s solar-powered Juno spacecraft is about to fly past Jupiter yet again to gather more data on the gas giant. On Dec. 21, at 11:49:48 a.m. EST, Juno will pass just 3,140 miles (5,053 km) from Jupiter's cloud tops at 128,802 miles per hour. This will be the spacecraft’s 16th science pass of the planet, meaning that Juno's prime mission will be halfway complete. With this 16th flyby, the Juno mission will have observed the entire planet, Jack Connerney,& ...read more

Absent serious action on climate change, we'll continue careening toward a climatic cliff. And modern civilization will be hard-pressed to survive the plunge. This is the essential take-away from new research probing Earth's climatic past to yield insights into our future. The research finds that if our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continue unabated, Earth's climate will warm by the year 2150 to levels not seen since the largely ice-free Eocene Epoc ...read more

Exercise is good for us in a lot of ways. It helps cut the pounds, increases cardiovascular health, adds muscle mass and can boost our mood. What it also does, though, is help keep our bones strong. Studies have shown that regular exercise, especially involving weights, ups bone mass and maintains the health of our skeletal system. For us spring chickens, having strong bones might not sound all that critical, as our skeleton seems to get by just fine no matter what we do. But in the elder ...read more

Supernovae are the explosive end stages of massive stars. About 2.6 million years ago, one such supernova lit up Earth’s sky from about 150 light-years away. A few hundred years later, after the new star had long since faded from the sky, cosmic rays from the event finally reached Earth, slamming into our planet. Now, a group of researchers led by Adrian Melott at the University of Kansas believes this cosmic onslaught is linked to a mass extinction of ocean animals roaming Earth’s w ...read more

Monitoring the well-being of Antarctica’s delicate ecosystem just got a little bit easier thanks to a very unlikely source: penguin poop. By analyzing over 40 years of Antarctic images gathered by seven satellites as part of the Landsat program, a NASA-funded team of researchers recently uncovered new details about the lives of Antarctica's Adélie penguins — a species that may help reveal past and future threats to one of the most unspoiled regions in the world ...read more