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The SETAC Multibrief features aggregated news on environmental toxicology and chemistry, providing a glimpse of how these issues are being covered in the popular press. The following information is meant to promote discussion but DOES NOT reflect the views or imply endorsement of SETAC. We'd love to hear your feedback, including suggestions for alternate articles.
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Why we need the EPA
NRDC
"Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions," said Richard Nixon, the founder of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in his 1970 State of the Union speech.
If only. While there was clearly a time when support for environmental regulations transcended politics, the GOP's broad support for EPA antagonist and Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the agency he so maligns tells us that day has passed.
When Canadian scientists were muzzled by their government
The New York Times
Less than a month into the Trump presidency, and the forecast for science seems ominous.
Scientists at federal agencies have been hit with gag orders preventing them from communicating their findings, or in some cases, attending scientific conferences. Social media accounts and websites have been censored, and at least one agency was asked to identify personnel who worked on climate policies.
In studying sick fish, scientists trace history of fevers
NPR
Each year, fish farms produce a massive amount of carp — so much that if you put all that fish on one side of a scale, and all the people living in the U.S. on the other side, they'd pretty much balance each other out by weight.
But for the past couple of decades, carp have been plagued by a type of herpes virus, known as Koi herpesvirus.
Now, as researchers report in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, there's a simple way to prevent fish from dying of the virus.
How to see America's coldest major city without stepping foot outside
Travel+Leisure
Minneapolis is home to one of the largest continuous skyway systems in the world, which is convenient considering it’s also one of the coldest major cities in the United States in winter months.
Skyways are enclosed walkways usually located one or two stories above street level. The original Minneapolis skyway in particular was built in the 1960s to separate walkers from the traffic below.
Because of its length — over eight miles or 72 blocks — the skyway has also become a tourist attraction in its own right, offering visitors a (warm!) look at Minneapolis's architecture and everyday activity.
Scholarly and scientific societies defend science
Wiley
A couple of days after the release of the executive order banning travel to the U.S. from people living in seven Muslim-majority countries, I was sitting in a meeting with some society leaders. We were talking about publication strategy for the society's journals, and, while the agenda didn't directly address the political landscape, it was impossible to have a conversation about the future of the society's research communication efforts without touching on it. At one point in the meeting, one of the participants said something like, "We just need to spend some time thinking through how to respond. It does feel like there is an attack on science that’s sharpening, and we need to find our voice to defend it."
How can researchers solve the issue of reproducibility?
By Suzanne Mason
At SLAS 2017, the annual international conference and exhibition from the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, the topic of reproducibility was center stage. Panelists in a special session discussed the challenges and solutions that both industry and academia have when it comes to reproducibility. "This really isn't an industry vs. academia issue. It's an issue for science and how we do science," said panelist Cathy Tralau-Stewart.
Why environmental protections are important to Black History Month
The Huffington Post
If Black history is indeed American history, the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency as it relates to Black people should resonate to all people.
In 1992, civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis introduced the Environmental Justice Act to remove racial disparities in environmental decisions.
Mexico City, parched and sinking, faces a water crisis
The New York Times
On bad days, you can smell the stench from a mile away, drifting over a nowhere sprawl of highways and office parks.
When the Grand Canal was completed, at the end of the 1800s, it was Mexico City's Brooklyn Bridge, a major feat of engineering and a symbol of civic pride: 29 miles long, with the ability to move tens of thousands of gallons of wastewater per second. It promised to solve the flooding and sewage problems that had plagued the city for centuries.
Only it didn't, pretty much from the start. The canal was based on gravity. And Mexico City, a mile and a half above sea level, was sinking, collapsing in on itself.
Aging gracefully as a scientist: An idiot's guide
The Guardian
A vivid memory of my own first week as a Ph.D. student: overhearing the senior members of the lab talk about the scientist in charge — a frighteningly brilliant woman they joked was "out of touch" in the lab.
I was shown — somewhat reverentially, with a warning to steer clear — a tidy, approximately two-foot square section at the end of one lab bench dedicated to her infrequent forays to the coal face. The boss reserved a few hours a month from writing successful grants and high-profile papers for risky, exploratory experiments that allowed her to keep her hand in, generate new lines of enquiry, and keep an eye on our wayward exploits.
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