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Wildfires have recently devastated regions across the world, and their severity is increasing. Hoping to reduce harm, researchers led by Yapei Wang, a chemist at Renmin University of China, say they have developed an inexpensive sensor to detect such blazes earlier and with less effort. Current detection methods rely heavily on human watchfulness, which can delay an effective response. Most wildfires are reported by the general public, and other alerts come from routine foot patrols and watchtower observers....

By Jane Qiu China is betting that an ambitious program of applied research will help to secure its future as an economic superpower. Innovation 2020, unveiled last week by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), maintains support for basic research. But the plan will place a new emphasis on translating the research into technologies that can power economic growth and address pressing national needs such as clean energy, said Bai Chunli, vice-president of the CAS, at the academy’s annual conference in Beijing, where the plan was announced....

Iesha White is so fed up with the U.S. response to covid-19 that she’s seriously considering moving to Europe. “I’m that disgusted. The lack of care for each other, to me, it’s too much,” said White, 30, of Los Angeles. She has multiple sclerosis and takes a medicine that suppresses her immune system. “As a Black disabled person, I feel like nobody gives a [expletive] about me or my safety.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a strict definition of who is considered moderately or severely immunocompromised, such as cancer patients undergoing active treatment and organ transplant recipients....

Dark clouds of soot and gases spewed by tractors, bulldozers and backhoes are becoming a thing of the past under new federal standards that have forced cleaner diesel engines this year. While trucks and buses have been cleaned up, it’s taken years longer for farm and construction equipment to keep pace. That’s because these diesel-powered vehicles come in many shapes and sizes, all with different workload demands, and there aren’t always convenient places to slap a filter on their engines....

By Ben Klayman DETROIT (Reuters) - Just like raw tuna is a favorite of foodies everywhere, Robert Nathan Allen foresees a day when crickets will make their way onto consumers’ plates. A growing need for more food sources as well as a desire to treat animals more humanely have proponents predicting entomophagy, or eating insects, will eventually spread more heavily to western and developed countries. They envision pancakes made with cricket flour or falafel chocked full of mealworm goodness will be just as desirable as sushi....

The Trump administration is tweaking how it measures the costs of emitting a potent greenhouse gas, a move that will have major impacts for climate rules. Known as the social cost of methane, this obscure metric is a younger counterpart to the better-known social cost of carbon. Economists and scientists developed the calculation to give policymakers a better idea of the economic benefits of cutting methane emissions. Its revision by the Trump administration is part of a broader shift within the federal government to downplay the impacts of climate change and will have important implications for how U....

By Erika Check Hayden of Nature magazineNEW YORKShould people be told about any nasty surprises that scientists discover in their DNA during research projects?The question is becoming increasingly pertinent, as thousands of people sign up for studies in which their genomes will be sequenced. But, at present, federal laws in the United States prohibit researchers from telling patients about mutations that might affect them or their families unless a certified clinical lab has confirmed the results–something that is not done in most research projects....

Paleo-pests about 10 times bigger than today’s fleas may have sneaked up on a huge dinosaur, crawled onto its soft underbelly and taken a bite, likely a painful one, say researchers who have discovered fossils of the flealike organisms. “It would have felt about like a hypodermic needle going in, a flea shot, if not a flu shot,” George Poinar Jr., a professor emeritus of zoology at Oregon State University, said in a statement....

The Fourth of July, only a day ago as I write, features interesting science. For example, fireworks and cookouts involve fascinating chemistry and physics. Some of that hard science leads to nearly 7,000 fireworks-related emergency room visits on and around the Fourth, not to mention cookout-related ER visits (burns, bug bites, food poisoning, ad nauseam) each Independence Day. The charming Long Island village of East Hampton, N.Y., was spared any potential fireworks mishaps this past Fourth when the local display was canceled thanks to the discovery of plover nests on the beach....

The tap water we drink, cook with, and bathe in typically comes from either surface water sources like streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, or from underground sources like aquifers, permeable rocks that can store and transmit water. A range of dangerous pollutants have been found in this water, including bacteria like e. coli, toxic algae, lead, sulfur, excess iron, and general dirt and grit, that are known to lead to a host of health issues from gastrointestinal problems to neurological disorders, as well as reproductive issues....

Many people who meditate believe that the practice makes them healthier and happier, and a growing number of studies suggest the same. Yet some scientists have argued that much of this research has been poorly designed. To address this issue, Johns Hopkins University researchers carefully reviewed published clinical trials and found that although meditation seems to provide modest relief for anxiety, depression and pain, more high-quality work is needed before the effect of meditation on other ailments can be judged....

The Porcupine herd of caribou (named for the Porcupine River) in Alaska travel 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) throughout the year from feeding ground to breeding ground—one of the longest overland migrations in the world. But planned development to extract oil could block a portion of this great herd’s annual trek. The threat to caribou is just one of many detailed in the 2008-2009 edition of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) State of the Wild: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans, which assesses “where we think we are and where we think we can be,” says Steven Sanderson, WCS president and CEO....

An amazing fraction–roughly half–of all the medicines prescribed today have a striking commonality. At the molecular level, they act on the same type of target: a serpentine protein that weaves seven times through the membrane that envelops the cell. External parts of each serpent serve as an antenna for molecular signals approaching the cell, and internal parts trigger the cell’s responses to such cues, beginning with the activation of a signal processor called a G-protein....

The Y chromosome is definitely the runt of our chromosome litter. Among our 23 pairs of these precious genetic bundles, pairs one through 22 are basically equal in size. But the Y—which holds genes that determine whether a mammal will be a male—is paired with the much larger X chromosome, and pales in size by comparison. Indeed the Y has only 19 of the approximately 600 genes it once shared with the X, 200 to 300 million years ago....

Ever since Hurricane Sandy’s 3.3-meter sea surge drowned parts of New York City on October 29, 2012, scientists and engineers have been scrambling to devise a plan to protect the city against future storms. Two reports are due within a week, as the 2013 hurricane season gets rolling. One report, to be released this week, is from the New York City Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, created by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to figure out how the city should bolster itself against climate change....

On a snowy day in Princeton, N.J., in March 1956, a short, owlish-looking man named Kurt Gödel wrote his last letter to a dying friend. Gödel addressed John von Neumann formally even though the two had known each other for decades as colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Both men were mathematical geniuses, instrumental in establishing the U.S.’s scientific and military supremacy in the years after World War II....

People who have suffered severe burns are known to be at risk for a host of complications, but there may be other consequences lurking deeper within the body: A new study finds that a burn may change the community of bacteria within a person’s gut, and possibly lead to an increased risk of infection. In the study, researchers analyzed fecal bacteria from four patients with severe burns over at least 30 percent of their body, and compared these bacteria with fecal bacteria of people with minor burns....

Look at a map of the world. Where North America and South America connect there is only a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. That skinny piece of land is called the Isthmus of Panama. For the past 400 years people have wanted to dig a canal through it. If ships sailing between East and West could go through a canal right there, they would not have to go all the way around the end of South America....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA should consider flying crew on the debut test flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule to better support the overall goals of U.S. space exploration, the former Trump administration liaison to NASA said on Sunday. “While nobody wants to do anything unduly dangerous, SLS/Orion must be produced and operated as cost effectively as possible and demonstrate tangible achievements to the public in order to avoid the fate of Constellation,” Greg Autry, who resigned from NASA on Thursday, wrote in an email....

England’s badgers are once again in the firing line, as pilot culls to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis begin. As protesters descended on the nation’s capital last week, the chief scientific adviser of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Ian Boyd, talked to Nature about why he thinks the cull is scientifically sound, what else will be needed to control this disease and what happened when he got the country’s leading experts together for a workshop meeting on this subject at the end of April....