100s of cases of serious lung diseases or deaths, and numerous lawsuits, in the kitchen countertop industry: debates over a ban on lawsuits or a ban on cutting "quartz" engineered stone... #construction #manufacturing #jobs #labor #health #medicine #publichealth #OSHA www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

Deaths and cases of serious lung disease in the kitchen countertop industry continue to rise. In Calif., workplace health experts are now calling for a ban on cutting a popular material called quartz. But some companies instead want Congress to ban workers' lawsuits. www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...

What happened on January 6: apps.npr.org/jan-6-archive/

Today in honor of Susan Stamberg, RIP, I will be making her famous cranberry relish and stashing it in the freezer for tomorrow: www.npr.org/2024/11/21/n...

James Watson has died. www.npr.org/2025/11/07/n...

This hit me really hard today. She was a beautiful person and a real role model of a life well lived. www.npr.org/2025/10/16/1...

TIL that for some people with irreparably damaged corneas, you can pull one of their teeth, drill a hole in it, install an artificial lens, sew it into their cheek (so tissue attaches), then pull it out and stick it in their damaged eye, and ... it works fine!?! www.nbcboston.com/news/health/...

Farewell to the world's largest iceberg... www.npr.org/2025/09/05/n...

New study uses millions of bird audio recordings to look at the effect of light pollution on hundreds of bird species around the globe: www.npr.org/2025/08/21/n...

Are you a fan of the Avatar movies? Well, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have just made a possible discovery that is right up your alley: a possible gas giant planet orbiting the nearby Sun-like star Alpha Centauri A www.npr.org/2025/08/07/n...

Plans are being made to shut down the only two federal satellite missions that were designed and built specifically to monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases -- new reporting from my colleague Rebecca Hersher ‪@rhersher.bsky.social‬ www.npr.org/2025/08/04/n...

It was 10 years ago today that NASA's New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto, marking the first visit to the beloved dwarf planet. Here it is with its buddy Charon. It's a good day to reread my friend Tim Kreider's NYT essay "I❤️Pluto" www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/o...

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has just released some of its first images. Its powerful new telescope will be able to quickly spot previously unseen astronomical objects. https://n.pr/405DN8P

NEWS: NPR and three Colorado public radio stations sue Trump White House over effort to ban federal funding for NPR & PBS The lawsuit calls Trump's executive order "textbook retaliation" for protected free speech - threatening public radio My story: www.npr.org/2025/05/27/n...

The debate over possible signs of life on planet K2-18b continues, with independent groups coming out with their own interpretations of the James Webb Space Telescope data....which do not support the original claims....

What a disturbing series of inter-species kidnappings says about boredom, innovation, and the role of randomness in culture: www.npr.org/2025/05/19/n...

One scientist "learned her two-year fellowship was being canceled in an email from NSF that she said misspelled the word "priorities." Her work no longer served those priorities, it said." @ngreenfieldboyce.bsky.social on the latest at NSF www.npr.org/2025/05/02/n...

President Trump's "skinny" budget request absolutely eviscerates scientific research funding. The @aaas.org estimates the request would constitute an 82.5% reduction in research spending (and that's just the agencies named in the request).

White House budget request "phases out the grossly expensive and delayed Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule after three flights" in favor of commercial systems. Also proposes killing lunar Gateway and Mars Sample Return. www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...

Preliminary white House Budget request is out: www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u... Just looking at NSF, if I'm doing my math right, it's a proposed $4.7 billion cut to the $9 billion agency. Also, an agency spokesperson said they axed another 344 awards

NSF spokesperson offers up "no comment" on Nature reporting that has agency has stopped funding new grants and existing ones. Today another 344 grants were terminated "that were not aligned with agency priorities"

Nature reports that the National Science Foundation has stopped awarding new grants and allotting funds to existing ones. All of them. @colincarlson.bsky.social says that unless the freeze is lifted, it “is going to destroy people's labs.” 2/10 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

When 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, the fate of its vast genetic database became unclear. In today’s episode, we look at what might happen to the genetic data of 15 million 23andMe customers as the bankruptcy process unfolds.

More NSF grants got the axe--over 700 cancellations today, on top of the numerous cancellations about a week ago. This comes the day after NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan abruptly departed, as the agency reportedly faces the possibility of losing half of its budget to cuts

After a week of studying claims of possible signs of life on planet K2-18b, the "overwhelming consensus" of astronomers: it was way over hyped. One re-analysis suggests there's too much noise in the data to really find anything. The original researchers seem unconcerned www.npr.org/2025/04/25/g...

My story breaking this news exclusively was 7K+ words and had almost all of this in it, and more: www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...

Several U.S. regional climate centers shut down Thursday — including those in the Midwest, Great Plains and South — after their federal funding from NOAA ran out. Here's why you should care:

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

#BREAKING: NIH said to have halted awarding of new grants to more top universities www.statnews.com/2025/04/18/n...

NSF now cutting grants it says are "are not aligned with agency priorities": ending projects specifically aimed at boosting DEI in STEM...also projects on combatting "misinformation". www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p... Know of an award that's cut? I'm on signal nellgfb.11

My latest @npr.org story: A brain drain at the Census Bureau is roiling the federal agency in charge of producing #2030Census results, job numbers and other key statistics as the Trump administration continues to slash the federal government

Things are getting really real down at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory....

Here's NPR's take on the news about planet K2-18b and what folks in the astronomy community have to say about it. www.npr.org/2025/04/16/n...