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A recent paper makes an upsetting claim about the state of science: nonreplicable studies are cited more often than replicable ones. In other words, according to the report in Science Advances, bad science seems to get more attention than good science. The paper follows up on reports of a “replication crisis” in psychology, wherein large numbers of academic papers present results that other researchers are unable to reproduce—as well as claims that the problem is not limited to psychology....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Sexting is known as the sharing of sexually explicit images and videos through the internet or via electronic devices such as smartphones. One in seven teens report that they are sending sexts, and one in four are receiving sexts, according to our study of over 110,000 teens from around the world published today, Monday Feb....

Up to 40 percent of people with depression do not respond to antidepressant medication. For these patients, hope may come in the form of transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, a technique that activates neurons by sending pulses of magnetic energy into the brain. Although researchers have been studying the effects of TMS on depression for more than 10 years, it has been largely viewed as an experimental procedure because of concerns about safety issues, such as seizures....

At the Thai Elephant Conservation Center, tucked away in the trees near Chiang Mai, a pair of Asian elephants gazes at two bowls of corn on the other side of a net. The corn is attached to a sliding platform, through which researchers have threaded a rope. The rope’s ends lie on the elephants’ side of the net. If only one elephant pulls an end, the rope slides out of the contraption....

A new art installation by British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah that focuses on climate change will open in the Boston Harbor next spring. “Purple” is an immersive six-channel video installation that sheds light on climate change’s effects on human communities, biodiversity and the wilderness, according to a news release. The film will be shown from May 26 through Sept. 2, 2019, at the Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina in East Boston....

Driving home after a visit with a relative, you suddenly realize you have no specific memory of how you got there. Well, you’ve taken that trip so many times, you tell yourself, that you could just about do in your sleep. Tying a shoe later, you reflect again on how often you accomplish things while your conscious mind is barely paying attention. Of course, you’re not wrong. We all have those moments....

▪ Low doses of aspirin help to prevent heart attacks in men but, for unknown reasons, not in women. The therapy lowers the risk of stroke for women, however. New England Journal of Medicine, March 31 ▪ In sonoluminescence, sound waves fired at a fluid can generate superhot flashes inside collapsing bubbles. New experiments with sulfuric acid bubbles find that the temperature hits about 20,000 degrees Celsius—four times hotter than the sun’s surface....

Nine Northeastern states and the District of Columbia committed yesterday to forming a cap-and-trade system for the transportation sector, embarking on one of the most ambitious regional programs ever undertaken to cut carbon dioxide. The move underlined liberal-state frustration with the Trump administration, which has committed to rolling back fuel economy standards. It also marked a new chapter in state climate action. Up to now, states have mostly focused their climate efforts on power plants....

Tim Pinkston has built a massive chemistry set in the middle of a longleaf pine forest in eastern Mississippi. “I’m so happy to see it come to fruition,” says Pinkston, a rangy engineer with owlish eyes, during a tour of the Kemper County Energy Facility on a warm summer morning. Standing on a large expanse of flat land that has been clear-cut and paved with concrete, he is pointing to a vast complex of twisting, turning pipes, hundreds of miles in all, that surges skyward....

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Water deliveries have no proven benefits for mothers and may lead to serious health problems for babies, U.S. doctors advise. For mothers, laboring in water may help ease pain, lower the need for anesthesia and potentially speed up the first stage of labor before the cervix is fully dilated, according to new recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). But women should get out of the water before the second stage, when it’s time to push....

The idea that some ‘bad’ habits might be beneficial isn’t new. Resveratrol, found in red wine and chocolate, was once touted as an antioxidant that lowered the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Red wine drinkers rejoiced, but later studies showed that wine drinkers didn’t live longer—at least not because of resveratrol. Kidney cancer is different. Large-scale studies have shown that the link between moderate alcohol use and a lower risk of kidney cancer is real: 20–30% lower, depending on gender, age and the amount of alcohol consumed....

In 2012, cows overtook the oil and gas industry as the largest methane emitters (EnergyWire, Feb. 25, 2014). Now, bovine emissions have fallen back to second place. In 2013, emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and the primary component of natural gas, from the oil and gas sector rose to the top spot. That’s despite fewer wells being drilled that year, according to U.S. EPA’s greenhouse gas inventory released yesterday....

LINCOLN, Nebraska/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nebraska regulators voted on Monday to approve TransCanada Corp’s Keystone XL pipeline route through the state, lifting the last big regulatory obstacle for the long-delayed project that U.S. President Donald Trump wants built. The 3-2 decision by the Nebraska Public Service Commission helps clear the way for the proposed 1,179-mile (1,897-km) pipeline linking Canada’s Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries, but is likely to be challenged in court by the project’s opponents who say it poses an environmental risk....

The first fluorescent probe for measuring fat levels in milk is poised to enhance milk quality control processes, particularly in resource-limited regions. Across the globe, milk is consumed on a regular basis by over six billion people. Fat content is a recognised indicator of milk quality as it correlates well with protein, vitamin and nutrient levels. And fat content is often a primary consideration when household consumers select milk in a shop....

Name that smell—if you can’t, it could be an indicator of a problem somewhere in your brain. New research suggests that scratch-and-sniff smell tests could become an easy and cheap way to detect signs of traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative ailments. Recent research found that a diminished sense of smell predicted frontal lobe damage in 231 soldiers who had suffered blast-related injuries on the battlefield. In the Department of Defense study led by Michael Xydakis of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, subjects with low scores on a smell test were three times as likely to show evidence of frontal lobe damage during brain imaging than those whose sense of smell was normal....

The solid, 20-kilogram block of hardened snow and ice somehow slides free from my rubber-gloved grasp and drops back down into the long ditch I am excavating in deep snow, landing with a crunch. On my knees at the edge of the trench, I straighten up to catch my breath and arch my sore lower back, protected with a weight-lifting belt. On this bright, cold day in interior Alaska, five scientists and I are digging out tons of snow along the fourth of six snow fences positioned on a gradual hill on the tundra, hauling it away on sleds....

We all need sleep. It’s a core part of being human, consuming up to a third or more of each day. Without sleep, basic brain processes like attention and memory, the ability to learn, and our overall well-being go haywire. But over the past century, the average amount of sleep for American school-aged children and adolescents has dropped by about 1 hour to just under 7 hours. This lost hour hits teenagers the hardest, and the detrimental effect of sleep deprivation on the physical and mental health of teenagers has been extensively studied....

An experimental vaccine against Ebola virus seems to be safe and commands a strong immune response against the virus, according to tests in 20 healthy people in the United States. The results of the phase 1 trial are published in the New England Journal of Medicine. “All in all, I would say it was a successful phase 1 study,” says Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Bethesda, Maryland, which co-developed the drug with the London-based drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)....

Hair stylist Natalija Josimov combed the straightening solution through her client’s hair. She snapped on the blow dryer, and the heated hair sent up a plume of white vapor that wrapped them in a toxic cloud. Next came the 450-degree flat iron, letting loose another sharp stink of embalming fluid that burned her eyes and made her nauseous. Every day for months, Josimov performed three or four chemical straightening treatments at a New York City salon until she fell so ill she couldn’t even stay in the same room....

Watching a wildfire from within—seeing the flames fly above, below, and for 360 degrees all around—can offer scientists and firefighters valuable information about how these increasingly threatening blazes behave and spread. But the average forest fire sends temperatures rocketing up past 800 degrees Celsius (1,472 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to cremate a human or melt a camera. So, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently surrounded their equipment with a coolant that also happens to filter damaging infrared light: water....