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NASA has plans to launch the first space station in deep space. Some experts say it’s an important steppingstone to long-term human space habitation, and NASA’s eventual goal of reaching the red planet. But others say it’s an expensive and risky step that engineers could skip.

After the devastation of the Los Angeles fires, officials are ready to rebuild. But as the risk of devastating wildfires increases with climate change, the calls to rebuild Los Angeles raise a series of tricky questions: How and where to rebuild — and whether to rebuild at all.

Only about 20 percent of Americans have followed current CDC guidance and gotten the latest Covid vaccine. The rest, experts say, may be experiencing vaccine fatigue or feeling distrustful about potential side effects. But are they missing out on important protection?

An energy company’s novel project spawned in the late 1980s helped set the stage for planting trees as a means to sequester carbon emissions. In the process, it resulted in a lot of lessons that are still relevant today in terms of the potential benefits, risks, and failures of forest carbon offsets.

Mirror molecules — synthesized chemical inverse images of natural counterparts — have potential as drugs for hard-to-treat diseases. But extending such work to create entire mirror organisms could pose serious biosafety risks. One researcher who studies mirror-image peptides considers where to draw the line.

The Netherlands allows medically assisted euthanasia for extreme mental suffering, and, in recent years, Dutch doctors have seen a steep rise in requests. Some clinicians are concerned and want more guardrails in place. But others argue euthanasia is sometimes the most humane option and should be easier to obtain.

Despite continued opposition, the World Bank has approved the first of five big dam projects expected to get its support in the coming months. Climate change has upped the need for renewable energy, but the environmental and social costs of building such massive projects remain.

As community violence intervention efforts have gained unprecedented funding, policymakers are asking a deceptively difficult question: Do these programs work? One sociologist says the problem lies in the definition of success and the research methods being used to determine it.

What if everyone could participate in the formal enterprise of research, publishing in journals and attending scientific conferences? C. Brandon Ogbunu argues that making both the consumption and production of research more accessible would help remedy the public’s decreasing trust in scientists.

Biostatistician Jeffrey Morris believes that to productively discuss vaccines and public health with a politically polarized public, scientists must maintain respect, transparency, a willingness to acknowledge uncertainty — and an awareness of how politics and partisanship can shape a person’s beliefs.

In 2021, the CDC recommended the state launch syringe exchange programs to help curb the spread of HIV. But state and local policymakers placed restrictions on such programs due to concerns about illegal drug use. Researchers and health workers say this has been a large contributor to the spread of disease, despite attention and other resources directed toward the outbreak.

Scientists have long posited that the disease is driven by build-up of a certain protein in the brain. Although this idea has recently been mired in controversies, data suggest the hypothesis is not wrong, so much as incomplete.

In 2023, wind energy had the second-highest employment numbers of any electricity generation sector — 131,327 jobs, over twice as many as coal. But the work is inherently risky, with varying oversight across the country. Workers aim to make changes through unions and stronger OSHA standards.

From ants to apes, animals perceive and process mortality in a number of surprising ways, Spanish philosopher Susana Monsó argues in “Playing Possum.” Drawing on a variety of scientific disciplines, she explores both the nuances of animal behavior and the potential biases at play in understanding them.

Around the world, thousands of high-containment labs work with dangerous pathogens, some with little oversight — and the pandemic prompted a global boom to build yet more. Perhaps nowhere are those tensions more apparent than in India, the world’s most populous nation and a global biotechnology powerhouse.

Carefully dosing people with SARS-CoV-2 in a controlled setting — what’s known as a challenge trial — can help researchers understand early immune responses. But the studies are controversial, and some skeptics still doubt that the potential benefits have been worth the risks.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, many U.S. hospitals struggled with the crush of patients who needed intensive care while federal and state-run Covid care sites ended up largely unneeded. Now, experts are asking: How can we accurately predict the ebb and flow of infectious disease?

This week on Entanglements: What did we learn from our first season? What’s on deck for the future? Our hosts explore these questions and more in conversations with a special guest.

“Vanishing Treasures,” by Katherine Rundell, is a collection of short paeans to threatened or overlooked animals, from narwhals and Hawaiian crows to coconut crabs and hedgehogs, as well as a passionate plea to save the planet’s living cabinet of curiosities before they disappear.

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season saw several major storms, including Helene and Milton. Newly deployed sensors showed the importance of real-time monitoring of water levels during these events. One scientist behind the effort says such hyperlocal data can help communities better prepare for the future.

While the work done to develop the atomic bomb unfolded mostly in secret, scientific research with the potential, however small, to cause a global catastrophe seems to be proceeding more openly. And yet, in many cases the public still has little opportunity to consent to the march of scientific progress.

Dairy experts, raw milk producers and raw milk consumers say standards are important for the raw milk industry because they help ensure that only high-quality and safe raw milk products make it to the market. But is it possible to create standards that make raw milk verifiably and reliably safe at a national level? Some experts say “no.”

Gain-of-function experiments are meant to uncover genetic changes in pathogens that could make them more transmissible or virulent. But such research incurs the risk of a dangerous microbe escaping the lab and potentially causing a pandemic. What does such work reveal, and are the benefits worth the risks?

This week on Entanglements: Is fluoride toxic at low levels? Our hosts explore this question in conversations with a professor from the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry and a neuropsychologist and professor at York University.