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The permanence of frozen ground in the Arctic is no longer guaranteed as Earth’s temperatures continue to climb. But how much the degradation of so-called permafrost will worsen climate change is still unclear, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Sixth Assessment Report, released this week. The uncertainty leaves researchers with a frustrating hole in their climate projections. Permafrost covers a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere’s land and stores around 1....

You know those no-guilt diet drinks you chug by the gallon, and the fake sugar you dump in your coffee to stay trim? Bad news: a new study suggests that artificial sweeteners may actually make it harder to control your weight. Psychologists at Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center report that nine rats given yogurt sweetened with no-cal saccharin ended up eating more and gaining more weight and body fat than eight fellow rodents given yogurt containing plain old glucose (a simple sugar with about 15 calories per teaspoon, the same as table sugar)....

This time, for “Adam and Eve” knowledge is not forbidden—it’s their mission. Working with computers and robots in the lab, scientists have been able to generate exponentially increasing amounts of data as the technology improves. Concerned they lack the manpower to translate the deluge of raw information into results, researchers are programming their mechanical lab assistants to share more of the workload. A prime example of this is “Adam,” an autonomous mini laboratory that uses computers, robotics and lab equipment to conduct scientific experiments, automatically generate hypotheses to explain the resulting data, test these hypotheses, and then interpret the results....

The work of these brilliant scientists has led to fundamental changes in the way we understand the world. Ewine van Dishoeck has illuminated the mechanism behind the birth of stars and solar systems. Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer A. Doudna, and Virginijus Siksnys led the way to a powerful new gene editing technique. And A. James Hudspeth, Robert Fettiplace, and Christine Petit have transformed what we know about hearing and hearing loss. Each field will receive a USD $1 million prize and the winners will be celebrated at an upcoming banquet and award ceremony in Oslo, Norway....

Merck & Co Inc Chief Executive Kenneth Frazier resigned from U.S. President Donald Trump’s American Manufacturing Council on Monday, saying he was taking a stand against intolerance and extremism. A gathering of hundreds of white nationalists in Virginia took a deadly turn on Saturday when a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed at least one person. Trump had said “many sides” were involved, drawing fire from across the political spectrum for not specifically denouncing the far right....

The Omicron family of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, has some new menacing members. At the end of the week ending October 29, data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that two variants—BQ.1 and BQ.1.1—account for nearly 17 percent of viral samples genetically sequenced in the country. That was a huge increase over a month earlier when the variants were practically invisible in the data and suggests they will soon outcompete BA....

Jan 19 (Reuters) - Bridger Pipeline LLC said on Monday it has shut the 42,000 barrel per day Poplar pipeline system after a weekend breach that sent as much as 1,200 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River near Glendive, Montana. The company said crews are now cleaning up the site after the leak on Saturday morning. Bridger estimates between 300 and 1,200 barrels spilled but could not say how much of the light crude flowed into the river....

Although most people probably don’t consider narcissism or psychopathy desirable qualities in either their friends or romantic partners, many of us are mysteriously drawn toward people with these personality traits. Mean girls are often the most popular ones at school and vampires are sex symbols. Recent research has found that people with so-called “dark” personality traits are more physically attractive than others. What is it about dark personalities that make them so appealing?...

By Anna PetherickOccasionally, researchers stumble across something extraordinary in a system that has been studied for decades.Ryan Kerney of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, did just that while looking closely at a clutch of emerald-green balls–embryos of the spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum). He noticed that their bright green color comes from within the embryos themselves, as well as from the jelly capsule that encases them.This viridescence is caused by the single-celled alga Oophila amblystomatis....

Social change—from evolving attitudes toward gender and marijuana to the rise of Donald Trump to the emergence of the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements—is a constant. It is also mysterious, or so it can seem. For example, “How exactly did we get here?” might be asked by anyone who lived through decades of fierce prohibition and now buys pot at one of the more than 2,000 licensed dispensaries across the U....

It is a truism among scientists that our enterprise benefits humanity because of the technological breakthroughs that follow in discovery’s wake. And it is a truism among historians that the relation between science and technology is far more complex and much less linear than people often assume. Before the 19th century, invention and innovation emerged primarily from craft traditions among people who were not scientists and who were typically unaware of pertinent scientific developments....

Citizens thoughtfully weigh the pros and cons of arguments before choosing their leaders–or so political science has traditionally assumed. Now experiments and computer models are challenging this notion, suggesting that voters tend to make emotional decisions that they rationalize afterward. Such is the conclusion of political scientist Charles Taber of Stony Brook University and his colleagues, who have examined during the past 10 years how people decide whom they vote for....

Dear EarthTalk: I don’t understand why there are many European diesel cars with very high mileage ratings that are not available in the U.S. Can you enlighten? – John Healy, Fairfield, CT Different countries do have differing standards in regard to how much pollution gasoline and diesel automobile engines are allowed to emit, but the reason you see so fewer diesel cars in the U.S. is more of a choice by automakers than the product of a decree by regulators on either side of the Atlantic....

A high-profile paper that reported what was thought to be the remains of the smallest-known bird-like dinosaur has been retracted. New evidence suggests that the specimen, trapped in amber in what is now Myanmar nearly 100 million years ago, might actually be a lizard — part of a different group of reptiles. The authors of the paper, published in Nature on March 11, say that their original description of the fossil — a bird-like skull less than 2 centimetres long, its mouth packed with dozens of teeth — is still accurate....

For the second time, doctors appear to have put HIV into “sustained remission” with a stem cell transplant—effectively curing the recipient. Their work, which was published in Nature and will be presented at the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle on Tuesday, may encourage scientists working on new gene therapies based on similar principles and give hope to those living with the infection. The case comes nearly 10 years after Timothy Ray Brown announced he was the so-called “Berlin Patient”—the first person who was functionally cured of HIV and able to stop taking antiretroviral drugs after an intensive round of chemotherapy and radiation and two bone marrow transplants....

BEIJING (Reuters) - China will be “flexible” in U.N. talks for a new global climate change deal, but the key to progress is getting rich nations to keep pledges to fund mitigation steps by poorer countries, the country’s top climate change official said on Tuesday.Representatives of more than 190 nations gather in the Polish capital of Warsaw from Nov 11 to 22 to push towards a new global deal to cut climate-warming greenhouse gases that is set to take effect by 2020....

James Hansen says his new study released today shows that “all coastal cities” could be lost to rising oceans if people fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The controversial scientist released a draft study a year ago that found sea levels could rise by several meters within decades, triggering catastrophe and superstorms. Many scientists criticized the findings as unrealistic and questioned whether Hansen should have released a draft study that has not undergone peer review....

Editor’s Note (9/20/21): Hospitals in Idaho and one in Alaska, filled with COVID patients, have begun to restrict care given to sick people because they do not have enough staff or equipment to treat everyone. Scientific American explained how hospitals make these difficult and heartbreaking rationing decisions in this story, published earlier this year. The first Monday of 2021, Nancy Blake says, “was the worst day I’ve ever seen.” Blake is the chief nursing officer at Harbor–University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center....

If President Trump is to revive coal, America will need to build coal plants again. Power companies have plans to shutter roughly 13,500 megawatts of coal capacity this year. A single 17-MW plant being built in Alaska is all the industry can point to as a replacement. Now enter EPA’s move to relax greenhouse gas standards for new and modified coal plants. The agency said in a court filing this week that it expects to send its proposal for revamping the Obama-era rules to the Office of Budget and Management in August for review (Greenwire, July 25)....

We’re all familiar with the following scenario: You use the last pat of butter at breakfast and make a mental note to go to the store after work. Next morning, you realize your best intentions weren’t enough to put butter on the table. When was the last time you forgot something? Posing the question makes it clear our memory often leaves us in the lurch. We forgot to buy something, call someone, take a medication, send a letter or attach a file to an e-mail....