In the early 2000s, a coronavirus infecting bats jumped into raccoon dogs and other wild mammals in southwestern China. Some of those animals were sold in markets, where the coronavirus jumped again, into humans. The result was the SARS pandemic, which spread to 33 countries and claimed 774 lives. A few months into it, scientists discovered the coronavirus in mammals known as palm civets sold in a market at the center of the outbreak.

Continue reading “Genetic Study Retraces the Origins of Coronaviruses in Bats” →

President Trump signed an executive order on Monday evening to further restrict experiments on pathogens and toxins that could make them more harmful.

For over a decade, scientists have debated the risks and benefits of so-called “gain of function” research. They’ve long tinkered with viruses and bacteria to endow them with new functions like producing insulin for people with diabetes. Some researchers have modified bird flu viruses in order to figure out which mutations might be crucial for producing pandemic strains that could spread among people.

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Consciousness may be a mystery, but that doesn’t mean that neuroscientists don’t have any explanations for it. Far from it.

“In the field of consciousness, there are already so many theories that we don’t need more theories,” said Oscar Ferrante, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham.

Continue reading “Two Theories of Consciousness Faced Off. The Ref Took a Beating.” →

Casey Fiesler, an information science professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, learned late on Friday evening that one of the three grants she had been awarded by the National Science Foundation was being terminated.

“It was a total surprise,” Dr. Fiesler said. “This is the one that I thought was totally safe.”

The grant supported Dr. Fiesler’s research on building A.I. literacy. She received no official explanation for why the grant was being terminated more than a year ahead of its scheduled end. But Dr. Fiesler speculated that it had something to do with the word “misinformation” in the award’s abstract.

Continue reading “National Science Foundation Terminates Hundreds of Active Research Awards” →