SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " Science " 21,075 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Lilly’s $2.8 Billion Bet on Psychedelics Buys Science That Conventional Trial Infrastructure May Not Be Able to Run
Eli Lilly acquires AtaiBeckley for $2.8B, but the FDA's final psychedelic trial guidance reveals an operational crisis Big Pharma hasn't priced in.
Coffee may protect your heart but energy drinks could harm it
For most adults, a daily caffeine habit may be safer for the heart than many people assume. A new American Heart Association review found that up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day, roughly three to five cups of regular black coffee, is generally safe and may even be linked to lower risks of heart disease, stroke, heart failure, and Type 2 diabetes. But the source matters: highly concentrated energy drinks and shots can sharply raise blood pressure and trigger irregular heart rhythms.
Agentic AI in biomedical research: What is it and can it expedite science?
Researchers are venturing into a new area of collaboration that relies on agentic AI, co-scientists that can act independently and help humans ideate, hypothesize and speed up scientific exploration.
Experts from over 70 countries to contribute to eight edition of the
UNESCO has selected over 150 experts to contribute to the eighth edition of the UNESCO Science Report, marking an important milestone in the preparation of the Organization's flagship assessment of
SEMO Political Science Student Serves as Arcadia Alderman
SEMO political science student Will Erpenbach serves as an Arcadia alderman while earning his degree and preparing for law school and public service.
Behind the Science: Can IL-6 Improve Cardiovascular Risk Assessment? Findings From the CCC Study
Discover the socio-demographic impacts on cardiovascular mortality in our JACC webinar. Join experts as they share insights and strategies for better heart health.
Rice joins Department of Energy’s Quantum Science Center
Rice has joined the U.S. Department of Energy Quantum Science Center.
The World's Largest Dried Lakebed Is Leaking Vast Amounts of Carbon. But Scientists Say There's a Solution.
It will take a flood to fix this.
Neuroscience findings often can't be replicated — and it's a big problem for what we know about the brain
The findings in several foundational brain imaging studies don't hold up in follow-up research.
China’s Chang’e-6 reveals why solar wind hits the Moon’s two sides differently
China’s Chang’e-6 samples have uncovered a surprising difference between the Moon’s two hemispheres. Solar wind particles penetrated deeper into the far-side soil because Earth’s magnetosphere slows the particles that reach the near side. Noble gases locked inside the lunar regolith preserved evidence of this uneven bombardment. These gases may even help scientists reconstruct the ancient history of Earth’s magnetic shield.
SEMO Political Science Student Serves as Arcadia Alderman
SEMO political science student Will Erpenbach serves as an Arcadia alderman while earning his degree and preparing for law school and public service.
NASA’s nuclear Mars mission to cost over $2 billion
The price tag doesn't include the cost of the science mission the new spacecraft would ferry to the Red Planet.
Abdul El-Sayed Is an Epidemiologist Running for Senate. His State Is a Public Health Disaster
Michigan has been at the epicenter of the wildfire smoke and explosive diarrhea outbreaks. The progressive Democrat talks to WIRED about how he would tackle the forces behind them if he’s elected.
Advancing next-gen AI with materials science innovation
As artificial intelligence pushes semiconductors and data centers to new physical limits, advances in materials science are becoming essential to sustaining the pace of innovation.
Forest Service overhaul puts wildfire science on chopping block
A third of the research offices the agency is evaluating to possibly close works in climate adaptation and wildfire prevention.
Bristol Myers, NVIDIA join forces to build life science’s ‘most powerful’ AI factory
BMS enhances its AI computing power with NVIDIA's DGX SuperPOD as big pharma race to stay competitive within the shifting global landscape.
Amazon science meets rare disease innovation
A plant-derived therapy rooted in Amazonian medicine is advancing as a potential treatment for rare and life-threatening intestinal failure conditions
Pro-science PAC backs El-Sayed
314 Action, which has been criticized for ties to pro-Israel lobbying in the past, shows a shake-up in Michigan
New UK PM shuts down science and tech department
In the midst of appointing his Cabinet, new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has scrapped the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Beyond weight loss: Lilly aims for leadership in brain science
Lilly’s neuroscience chief discusses the large pharma’s aims in brain science, and how diagnostics and dosing are driving its next advancements in Alzheimer’s.
Science and the public are learning the wrong lessons from Covid
“Post-pandemic polarization threatens to lock our memories into attractive, untrue conclusions that will leave us unprotected next time,” write Marc Lipsitch and Sara Cody.
Montclair State University Breaks Ground on $120 Million Interdisciplinary Science Building
State-of-the-art facility will create new science research and interdisciplinary collaboration spaces as Montclair continues momentum
Reynolds named science secretary as Dsit abolished
Jonathan Reynolds to lead Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade after Whitehall shakeup
Freedom, trust and the future of science: Nobel laureates reflect on the ideas shaping tomorrow
Behind every scientific discovery are years, sometimes decades, of fundamental research, failed experiments, uncertain funding, international collaboration and the freedom to pursue questions without knowing where they might lead. The Nobel laureates recently gathered at the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany argued that scientific breakthroughs depend on far more than brilliant ideas alone. Those conversations unfolded against the backdrop of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and growing geopolitical competition. The question running through the discussions was therefore broader than science itself: what conditions make discovery possible? ‘Europe is a space of freedom’
International Courts Against the Defunding of Climate Science? Revisiting the ICJ’s Climate Change Advisory Opinion
Introduction The first eighteen months of the second Trump administration have witnessed a sustained assault on scientific infrastructures enabling understanding of anthropogenic climate change. This has taken the form of cuts to national science agencies; freezes and dramatic reductions in grants to universities; and attempts to dismantle observation arrays and crucial monitoring stations. It has […]
Cyclosporiasis: the science, risks and red flags
What’s small, round and could give you explosive diarrhea? Cyclospora parasites. The diarrheal disease they cause is wreaking havoc on thousands this summer in what is the largest known flare up in the U.S. ever. What’s causing it and what can we do about it? NPR’s Joseph Kim joins host Nate Rott to talk about the outbreak – and how to protect yourself and your loved ones.Read more of Joseph’s reporting on cyclosporiasis here. Interested in more science in the news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. It includes perks like bonus episodes, early access, archive access, curated playlists and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Scientists Find a Way Around a 160-Year-Old Law of Physics to Create Programmable Heat
A 'smarter' way to manipulate heat.
Dimitri de Vreeze helped build DSM’s materials business. Then he had to sell it
After more than three decades at science-based firm DSM, Dimitri de Vreeze faced what he calls the hardest decision of his career: selling the materials business where he had grown up professionally. In this episode of "Executive Decisions," the DSM-Firmenich CEO reflects on why the decision made strategic sense, even as it felt deeply personal, and how it shaped his view that success is not a finish line.
Inhospitable climate: GOP's disdain of science helps foul air again
It requires a specific combination of stupidity, ignoring expertise and thinking that the voting public will fall for silly grandstanding.
SPAN Launches Refrigerant Working Group to Advance Science-Based PFAS Policies
The Sustainable PFAS Action Network (SPAN) announced on July 15, 2026, the formation of its Refrigerant Working Group, “a new initiative focused
Shanghai science forum photos show China's AI and robotics advances in rivalry with US
BEIJING (AP) — China's leading technology companies showcased hundreds of cutting-edge products at the World AI Conference in Shanghai — from advanced robotics to artificial intelligence systems.
Photos show Chinese companies showcasing AI technology and robots at science forum
BEIJING (AP) — China's leading technology companies showcased hundreds of cutting-edge products at the World AI Conference in Shanghai — from advanced robotics to artificial intelligence systems.
Shanghai science forum photos show China's AI and robotics advances in rivalry with US
BEIJING (AP) — China's leading technology companies showcased hundreds of cutting-edge products at the
Scientists Find a More Precise Way to Grow Artificial Blood Vessels, Using Magnets
Essential for lab-grown organs.
Changes to government science department
The new Prime Minister has merged the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. In response, Paul Nurse, the President of the Royal Society said: “The Prime Minister understands the transformative power of science, knowledge, innovation, and technology. They are all parts of an interlinked and interdependent system of research that drives economic growth, health care, security, education, prosperity and the public...
Science department abolished as UK’s new prime minister Andy ...
New business secretary Jonathan Reynolds given responsibility for science and innovation portfolio
Testimony to the US Senate Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness on Science, Standards, and Strategic Competition
The utopian vision of globally integrated, democratic, free-market economies working together in harmony has not materialized. Meanwhile, the belief that China could not innovate—and that America would continue to lead in advanced technologies—also has proven to be false. These new realities require bold reforms in the U.S. research system.
WHO marks 25 years of Research4Life, advancing access to scientific knowledge in more than 120 countries
The World Health Organization (WHO) today marks the 25th anniversary of Research4Life, a public-private partnership that provides researchers, educators, health professionals and policy-makers in low- and middle-income countries with affordable or free access to scientific knowledge.
Colossal Biosciences reportedly in talks to raise new capital at $20B–$30B valuation
The de-extinction startup is looking to double or triple its previous valuation, according to the report.
Trump Lashes Out at National Academies of Sciences Over Climate Guide For Judges
Trump claimed without evidence that the manual was “fraudulent, biased, and misleading.”
A science PhD can be completed within 18 months
Supervisors should involve doctoral students with conducting, writing up and publishing experiments straight away, says Adrian Furnham
Oregon Coast CC is fixing its aquarium science building, but first it had to find homes for 150 creatures
Oregon Coast Community College’s Aquarium Science building is undergoing a $2.3 million renovation, so some 150 animals had to be moved to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon Coast Aquarium.
PVAMU workshop prepares educators to teach the future of quantum science
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (July 20, 2026) – What if one of tomorrow's fastest-growing technologies could be introduced with spinning tops, flashlights, and hands-on activities? That was the idea behind QuanTime: Quantum Science Workshop for K-12 Educators, in which Prairie View A&M University partnered with Sandia National
Trump Attacks National Academies Over Climate Chapter in Judges’ Manual
The president joined Republican officials who slammed the National Academies of Sciences for a chapter about climate science in an educational guide for judges.
Cameron University to host ‘MIGHT Night’ science fair for area youth
Dozens of students will soon get the chance to show off their science skills at Cameron University in Lawton.
Amendment 64: New Opportunity: A.15 Biosphere
NASA's Biosphere research area focuses on research that provides foundational knowledge on interactions between and within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems,
New NASA Earth Missions Gear Up to Start Science Flights
The first of six new airborne campaigns will hit the skies this summer.
Scientists Were Wrong About Fireflies’s Light. The Impact Could Ripple Across All of Science.
For more than a century, an overestimation of a firefly’s brightness has persisted.
EPA Requests Comments on Draft Science NOx Science Assessment
What: On July 17, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a document titled “Integrated Science Assessment for Oxides of Nitrogen—Health Criteria, External Review Draft” (“draft ISA”) for public comment.Why: Under the Clean Air
Forest Service overhaul puts wildfire science on chopping block
A third of the research offices the agency is evaluating to possibly close work in climate adaptation and wildfire prevention.
Science Under the Sword of Damocles
By Sam Halpern, M.D. I have spent my working life in medicine as a clinician and a medical scientist. I have watched with awe as basic and applied medical science placed new and effective tools in…
Science Under the Sword of Damocles
By Sam Halpern, M.D. I have spent my working life in medicine as a clinician and a medical scientist. I have watched with awe as basic and applied medical science placed new and effective tools in…
Amendment 63: New Opportunity: A.14 Atmosphere
The Atmosphere research program is soliciting proposals for data analysis and modeling of NASA supported airborne campaign data. NASA’s Earth Science Division
Will a new Trump rule kill the US edge in science?
Grantmaking would be decided by political appointees instead of experts
Anthropic's life sciences plans: Mystery programs, Nobel hires, M&A and big ambition
Anthropic pushes into life sciences with a $400M Coefficient Bio deal, Nobel hire John Jumper, Claude Science launch and its own drug pipeline.
Where science meets the shoreline, Iowa Lakeside Laboratory builds for the future
Construction is underway on a new Innovation and Discovery Lab at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory that will expand hands-on learning for students of all ages. The new space will also support research to better understand and protect the water quality of the Iowa Great Lakes.
NOC Brings Marine Science and Ocean Innovation to UK Parliament
The NOC hosted a Westminster drop-in event bringing together MPs, ministers, and government officials to explore how marine science and ocean innovation can advance the UK's renewable energy goals, coastal resilience, and national security.
Omnicom to merge Mediahub and Hearts & Science
Hearts & Science's Garrett O'Reilly will become UK chief executive of the merged global entity.
Bored Kids? Try These Easy At-Home Science Experiments
Science expert Kate Biberdorf, better known as Kate the Chemist, joins TODAY to share fun experiments to keep your kids entertained during the dog days of summer.
Why do some people who trust in science also believe in scientific conspiracy theories?
Trust in science seems compatible with believing almost anything, so long as it is expressed in plausibly scientific terms.
Impression 5 Science Center
Impression 5 presents When I Grow Up - Career Exploration Series
Pittsburgh jobs for 7/20/26: Kamin Science Center, Mt. Lebanon School District, Aramark and more
Check the NEXT Job Board every Monday for the latest job openings in a variety of industries across the Pittsburgh area.
New grant to improve discovery of potential diagnostic, therapeutic molecules
Carly Schissel, assistant professor of chemistry, is part of a multi-institution team that has been selected to receive funding from the Scialog: Automating Chemical Laboratories initiative. The initiative supports teams of early-career scientists doing fundamental science to accelerate advances in laboratory technologies using automation and artificial intelligence.
The Science of Moonshots: Using Evidence to Design Transformative Initiatives
We’ve identified the key ingredients of successful moonshots that meet the moment, and developed recommendations about what future efforts can and should look like.
Shaky political "science": breakdown of the peer review process
[This article is the latest in our “Shaky Political Science” series. In our 38 page report, “Shaky political ‘science’ misses mark on ranked choice voting,” released in December 2025, we examined over 40 studies focused on ranked choice voting (RCV). Many of these studies suffered from puzzling research methodologies, poorly constructed surveys, unrealistic simulated elections, cherry picked data and faulty analyses that often were contradicted by results from real-world elections (a link to our full paper is here). Here are links to the first four articles in our series: the first one summarizing the overall results of our report; the second one analyzed a study co-authored by University of Minnesota academic Larry Jacobs, which was one of the most error-prone of all the research we reviewed in our report; a third article showing an admirable example of two political scientists holding two other political scientists accountable for their flawed, sloppy research; and a fourth article that analyzed seven studies sponsored by New America’s political reform program that deployed flawed methodology based on “simulated” elections instead of real-world elections, which when combined with some basic misunderstandings of RCV, produced odd and misleading results]. In this fifth article in our “Shaky Political Science” series, we examine two flawed studies on the impact of RCV on voter turnout authored by San Francisco State University professor Jason McDaniel. McDaniel’s research in these two papers stands out for its puzzling methodology, inadequate and cherry-picked data, and faulty analyses that not only misunderstands ranked choice voting but reflects a basic misunderstanding of politics in general. The first of the McDaniel studies actually passed through a peer review process and then was subsequently published by the Journal of Urban Affairs, despite its obvious errors. It is perplexing that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the errors and send it back to McDaniel for a rewrite or outright rejection. This calls into question the credibility of the peer review process itself. The peer review process is supposed to represent the intellectual pinnacle of the profession – a way for academics to certify the quality of each other’s work, and to act as a check against sloppy research. In the case of the McDaniel study, the peer review process failed. Yet his flawed study has been cited dozens of times by other political scientists in their own flawed works — an unvirtuous circle of academic research. Here is the first Jason McDaniel study that we analyzed: “Writing the Rules to Rank the Candidates: Examining the Impact of Instant-Runoff Voting on Racial Group Turnout in San Francisco Mayoral Elections,” by Jason McDaniel, 2016, Journal of Urban Affairs. This study covered San Francisco’s use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in mayoral elections, purporting to show that RCV reduces voter turnout overall, increases voter errors, and has a negative impact on “marginal populations,” i.e. racial minorities, mainly as the result of the alleged complexity of RCV asking voters to rank candidates and having to be familiar with multiple candidates and related dynamics. McDaniel reached these conclusions by examining five San Francisco mayoral elections taking place in odd years (i.e. where there are no federal or state races on the ballot) from 1995 to 2011, comparing three earlier non-RCV races (in 1995, 1999 and 2003) with the later two RCV races (in 2007 and 2011). Only two RCV races were studied, and as McDaniel acknowledged, only the contest in 2011 was “competitive” (that contest in 2007 was the first mayoral election using RCV, and incumbent mayor Gavin Newsom won easily in the first round of counting, earning 74% of first choices and far ahead of the second place candidate who had just 6.3% of first choices). Yet even the allegedly competitive contest in 2011was won by an incumbent with a landslide margin of nearly 20 points. No other elections were studied by McDaniel, even though San Francisco elects 17 other offices besides mayor with RCV, including the 11 seats on the Board of Supervisors (the name for the city council) in even years, and six other citywide offices in odd years. Previous academic research has found that competitive elections can stimulate greater voter involvement and higher turnout. For unexplained reasons, this study ignored at least 34 other RCV races between the years 2004 to 2011, many of which were very competitive and had high voter turnout. Instead, McDaniel’s analysis based its conclusions on data from only a single, marginally-competitive mayor’s race using RCV. These 2007 and 2011 mayoral elections were the only two RCV elections that McDaniel used as the sole basis for his small data set to determine the impact of RCV on voter turnout. Despite having no meaningful data to inform his study, McDaniel nonetheless concluded that RCV lowered turnout when compared to the previous three mayoral non-RCV elections using two-round runoffs. Then, using the same inadequate database of San Francisco elections, McDaniel also found that “Instant-runoff voting is associated with a significant decline in Black voter turnout and White voter turnout…On average, Black voter turnout decreases by 18 points and White voter turnout decreases by 16 points …” But how could he credibly arrive at that conclusion when his study was based on voter turnout in two RCV contests that were not even remotely competitive? Beyond that, McDaniel tacitly admits that the key determining factor driving Black voter turnout was not RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable Black candidate. McDaniel wrote, “Black voter turnout was about 17 percentage points higher for the two elections that featured an African American candidate compared to the three elections that did not” — but one of those three elections did not use RCV. The same dynamic was present for White voter turnout, in which higher turnout was not correlated with RCV vs non-RCV elections, but the presence of a viable White candidate. Beyond that, McDaniel’s voter turnout results, whether correlated with the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections, showed no clear patterns. In his Figure 1, he shows low Asian voter turnout in the non-RCV elections in 1999 and 2003 when there was no viable Asian candidate running, but in the 2007 mayoral election using RCV, there is still no viable Asian candidate, yet Asian turnout increases dramatically. For Latinos, voter turnout is virtually the same in 1999 (no viable Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2003 (leading Latino candidate, non-RCV elections), 2007 (no viable Latino candidate, RCV elections) and 2011 (leading Latino candidate, RCV elections). Meanwhile White voter turnout increased dramatically from a low in the 2007 mayoral election, in which the leading candidate was a white incumbent, to the 2011 election in which there were no leading white candidates that finished any higher than sixth place with 5.6% of the vote. Clearly other factors were determining voter turnout than either the race of the candidates or RCV vs non-RCV elections. Despite these inconsistent findings, McDaniel boldly marches forth to render conclusions about the impact of RCV on different groups of racial voters, even though his conclusions are not remotely supported by his data. This looks like the worst kind of “data cherry picking” to cover up a puzzling conclusion based on a poor data set involving only two RCV elections, neither of which were remotely competitive. McDaniel’s cherry picking didn’t stop there. In calculating voter turnout for the three non-RCV mayoral elections in 1995, 1999 and 2003, he failed to mention that in each of these years there was a two-round runoff election, with a first round election in November in which no candidate garnered a winning majority of the vote, followed by the decisive runoff in December. So there were two non-RCV elections in each election year. But McDaniel only decided to include one of the two elections in his data set, apparently the December runoff in each year (which had higher turnout in two out of the three mayor’s races, and lower turnout in the third). So he ignored the November 1995 election, the November 1999 election when turnout was only 45 percent, and the November 2003 election when turnout was only 45.7 percent. This is flawed methodology based on blatant cherry picking, since McDaniel simply omitted three elections worth of data that did not fit within his frame. His study should never have made it through a peer review process, and it is an embarrassment to political science that not only was it approved for publication, but it has been uncritically cited by dozens of other political scientists. Share A “study” without wider context or credible data Lacking a data set that included even a single competitive RCV mayoral race, McDaniel declared that RCV lowered voter turnout in 2011, when turnout was 42.5 percent. But he also ignored -- or did not realize -- that voter turnout in mayoral elections during 2011 had sharply declined in all big cities, including far more steeply in nearby Los Angeles and other cities. In fact, San Francisco’s election in 2011 had the second highest turnout of any mayoral election in the nation’s 22 largest cities from 2008-2011. Was 2011 just a particularly low turnout year all across the country, perhaps because the country was still reeling from the aftermath of the housing market collapse in 2008-2010? McDaniel ignored this factor and did not search for alternative explanations beyond his flawed thesis. Furthermore, while McDaniel suggested that RCV leads to more “overvotes” – which is an invalidated ballot in which a voter, in either a non-RCV or RCV race, makes a mistake and selects two candidates for a single choice – he failed to address that in the June 2012 US Senate primary contest, which used the typical “one-choice” plurality method and did not use RCV, there was more than five times as many overvotes in San Francisco and Oakland than in the RCV mayoral elections in those cities. Additionally, turnout had been significantly higher and more representative in RCV elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors races -- that McDaniel didn’t even bother to study -- as compared to previous “delayed two-round runoffs” for those offices, often higher by as much as 40% in the RCV races. Perhaps the most surprising irony was that an earlier study co-authored by McDaniel (Overvoting and the Equality of Voice under Instant-Runoff Voting in San Francisco by Francis Neely and Jason McDaniel, 2015, California Journal of Politics and Policy) found that overvotes are often more common in lower-income precincts, but that the pattern of overvoting is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. Wrote Neely and McDaniel: “[Overvote] errors appear to be a function of complexity in general and not IRV per se…. the pattern of overvoting is similar in both IRV and non-IRV contests…Even among votes cast in a top-of-the-ticket race like U.S. Senate, overvoting occurs in an uneven fashion” (IRV, or ‘instant runoff voting,’ is another name for ranked choice voting in single-winner contests). So McDaniel not only contradicted his own conclusion in his earlier study with Neely, but the earlier study had been an important corrective for one of the most frequently made mistakes made by anti-RCV political scientists – a continual failure to provide crucial context by pairing a comparative analysis of real world RCV elections with an analysis of real world plurality or other electoral methods. Unfortunately McDaniel’s earlier study does not get cited much by other researchers, and McDaniel did not even cite it in his own flawed study analyzed above. Incredibly, McDaniel cherrypicked McDaniel, even as his flawed study has been cited dozens of times. Despite being a textbook example of poor political “science,” featuring both inadequate as well as cherrypicked data, the shelf life of McDaniel’s study has been extended endlessly by other political scientists and media outlets who have cited it uncritically. Equally troubling, the Journal of Urban Affairs put this paper through its peer review process and published it despite its numerous flaws. McDaniel gets it wrong, Part II Not content with producing one shoddy, confused paper, McDaniel produced another one a few years later, here is the link: Electoral Rules and Voter Turnout in Mayoral Elections: An Analysis of Ranked-Choice Voting by Jason McDaniel. San Francisco State Univ. (McDaniel, 2019). In this paper, McDaniel extended his previous flawed research focused on San Francisco, about voter turnout and voter impact, to multiple RCV cities through the 2018 elections. In his data set he included San Francisco, Minneapolis, St Paul, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro and Santa Fe. He then compared their turnout in mayoral elections to non-RCV cities, and to mayoral elections in those cities held before first RCV usage, and concluded “a significant decrease in voter turnout of approximately 3–5 percentage points in RCV cities after the implementation of RCV.” But he replicated many of the same mistakes as his first study presented above. While in this study McDaniel attempted to distinguish between various factors, such as odd year vs. even year elections, competitive races vs. noncompetitive, contests with open seats and other factors, the analysis is superficial and inadequate. He attempts to incorporate so many often-conflicting variables that his conclusions are once again unsupported by the actual data, and ultimately unconvincing (this second study never underwent a peer review process). For example, McDaniel declared that for RCV cities “in elections that are more competitive than average (margin of victory less than 20%), there is no significant RCV effect on voter turnout.” Yet McDaniel is a professor in a city, San Francisco, in which the 2018 special election using RCV to fill a mayoral vacancy was exceedingly close, decided by a margin of only one percentage point, and resulted in the second highest turnout in San Francisco history for a mayoral election. Illustrating the complexity involved in assessing the critical factors in turnout, that special election was held on the same election day as federal and state offices, which tends to boost turnout. Yet more voters participated in that RCV mayoral election than voted on the same day in the non-RCV primary for governor in which former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom was running. Even more puzzling, in this study McDaniel inaccurately cited his own previous study from 2015 with Neely. McDaniel wrote, “Neely and McDaniel (2015) examine individual ballot image files within a natural experiment, and find higher rates of ballot errors in RCV elections compared to non-RCV elections” (emphasis added). However, we quoted from that 2015 study several paragraphs above, and in actual fact Neely and McDaniel actually concluded the opposite -- that the pattern of overvoting – which is the most common form of ballot error – is similar in both RCV and non-RCV contests. McDaniel also ignored the fact that in Bay Area RCV elections held in even years – at the same time as federal and state elections, when turnout is highest -- the “undervote” (that is, the dropoff in ballots cast for governor or mayor) has declined, which contradicts his thesis that the act of ranking ballots in RCV elections is too complex and presents a barrier for certain demographics of voters. To his credit, McDaniel actually acknowledged another contradiction in his own paper, which found a negative RCV turnout effect in some odd-year elections but not others, admitting that “may present a challenge to the theory that increased complexity [from RCV] will have a marginal negative effect on voter turnout.” But he tried to wallpaper over that contradiction by blaming it on an unlikely source -- bad election administration. McDaniels wrote, “This would suggest that the negative impact of RCV on voter participation may be alleviated by high quality election administration,” without presenting any data or even anecdotes to support such an unfounded theory. While competent election administration of any election, whether RCV or non-RCV, is crucially important, there is no credible research that supports the far-fetched notion that the quality of election administration has much of an impact on voter turnout in US elections, whether using RCV or otherwise. Upgrade to a $5 subscription The unvirtuous circle of academic research It is puzzling how McDaniel’s first study could have survived the peer review process for the Journal of Urban Affairs. The mistakes in McDaniel’s first study above should have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of ranked choice voting as well as elections in general, and elections in San Francisco specifically. It undermines faith in the credibility of the peer review process to think that a jury of peer political scientists did not catch the egregious errors and reject McDaniel’s sloppy research and paper. And it remains a black mark on political science that this thoroughly discredited study has been cited dozens of times by other researchers. Indeed, in our research paper it became apparent that many political scientists cite each other’s flawed research to pad their list of citations and to legitimize their own flawed research, creating an unvirtuous circle of political science. More broadly, McDaniel’s voter turnout studies, like other studies evaluating RCV’s impact on turnout, lacked a recognition that no credible opinion or research can claim that RCV increases voter turnout merely because so many voters are excited to vote for their favorite candidates instead of “lesser evil” candidates without worrying about spoilers. Instead, with respect to turnout, the advantage of RCV has always been that, in most places where it has been used, it has eliminated a pre-November primary or post-November runoff, which usually saw about half the turnout of the November general election. This is especially true during even years when there are state and federal elections on the ballot which substantially drive turnout more than local contests. Any study that does not adequately account for this non-November primary/runoff vs November general election dynamic, or odd year vs even year election factors, is simply not credible. Both of McDaniel’s studies largely failed on those grounds. Steven Hill and Paul Haughey Share Upgrade to a $5 subscription Thanks for reading DemocracySOS…your digital portal for the pro-democracy movement. Subscribe for only $5 per month to receive full benefits and to support our work. Subscribe
Trump calls for review after climate manual for judges withdrawn
President Trump called for a “review” on Sunday of an updated judges’ manual that he claims the left improperly influenced. It follows the removal of a controversial climate science chapter from th…
Still Awaiting Full Permit, Work Below Grade Continues At Loyola's Sciences Building
Progress is starting to rise from below grade at Loyola University’s Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the College of Arts and Sciences building at 1144 West Loyola Avenue on the Rogers Park campus.
Anthropic's $1M gift expands Memphis nonprofit's AI and computer science education efforts
The AI research and development company Anthropic is investing $1 million to help expand computer science and AI education in the Mid-South through a gift to Memphis-based nonprofit Code Crew. Accord...
Science can serve dark as well as light
I’m not sure how many of you are watching “Star City,” Apple TV’s spin-off of its “For All Mankind” program (2019-present), but it’s one of the better sci-fi series I’ve seen in a while, with an impressively dark political message. (Some light spoilers below.) For the uninitiated, “For All Mankind” presented a slightly tweaked history of the U.S. space program in which it was the USSR that landed on the Moon first in 1969, and shortly thereafter put a woman cosmonaut on the lunar surface. This sparks an ongoing space race that, in the original series, yields a lot of benefits for humanity. President Nixon’s insistence on a female astronaut corps to compete with the Soviets boosts the feminist movement of the 1970s and the ERA passes. New fuels generated for the space program create clean and cheap energy around Earth. There are also some darker changes — the USSR is thriving well into the 2000s, there are terrorist counter-technology movements around the globe, laborers on Mars work in nightmarish conditions and organize strikes and riots, etc. the @smotus report is a reader-supported publication. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. Subscribe That show offers glimpses into the subtle ways this Earth is different. Teddy Kennedy never went to Chappaquidick because he was racing back to Washington to deal with the space program crisis; he gets elected President in 1972. John Lennon survives his early 1980s shooting but Pope John Paul II does not. The Apple Newton succeeded. Pretty much the whole of season 4 is a setup for an Al Gore joke. Again, mostly, the vision that “For All Mankind” presents is a positive one, with technology advancing many human interests. “Star City” goes in a very different direction. This spin-off show is about the same set of events but from the Soviet perspective. As we meet them, the team of scientists and cosmonauts responsible for the lunar landing are still basking in their hero status, but their program is embedded deep in the Soviet security state of the late 1960s. Everyone’s apartment is bugged. Whole teams of clerical staff spend their days transcribing recordings of people’s lives. People in the program, including respected cosmonauts, are regularly arrested. An incredibly menacing Colonel Lyudmilla Raskova (Anna Maxwell Martin) forces confessions and tortures and kills, expressing little more than annoyance in the process. Meanwhile, the space program’s highly respected Chief Designer (Rhys Ifans) has a vision for the program that he knows the government will not approve. He insists that they need to think past the Moon to focus on colonizing the solar system, starting with Venus. (This is a rough parallel to the Americans’ pivot to Mars in the original show.) He essentially builds a secret space program within the space program, calculating that the government will embrace the mission after it has succeeded. (As an aside, I’m not sure why the Venus obsession, as a successful mission can’t produce the biggest public relations payoff: a cosmonaut standing on the surface holding the Soviet flag. Anyone standing on Venus would be immediately crushed by the 92-bar atmosphere and then cremated in the 900°F temperatures. But in a country with no free press perhaps the visual payoff was less valued.) But the overall vision is that the technological advances have only amplified the most fearsome aspects of the Soviet system. The state is paranoid (but not incorrect) about American spies and does monstrous things to protect its secrets. People are terrified to trust each other. Classic banality-of-evil figures order people to harm those they care about; those people comply rather than get shot. Others are forced into criminal behavior to protect loved ones. We’re reminded all the time these days of what happens when a government despises science. It manifests in the defunding of schools, the elevation of fossil fuels as the rest of the world pivots to solar, outbreaks of measles and diarrhea, etc. But “Star City” offers a vision of a bad government that likes science. It’s not encouraging. It’s not yet clear if there will be a season two of this show. But I strongly recommend season one. It’s both thoughtful and gripping. Share
What 110,000 Rejected Papers Reveal About Science's Biggest Journals
A 110,303-paper study finds prestige, and team size sway acceptance at top science journals more than gender.
Using Citizen Science to ID Southern Right Whales in Patagonia
Learn about how MCAF Fellow Florencia Vilches is working with local whale-watching guides off the Argentinian coast.
New NASA Earth Missions Gear Up to Start Science Flights
The first of six new venture-class missions will hit the skies this summer to chase dangerous and little understood pyrocumulonimbus storms out West.
AI Researcher Receives $745K Bits to Bytes Award from Massachusetts Life Sciences Center to Create the World’s Largest Annotated Spleen Ultrasound Dataset
Principal Investigator (PI) Daniel Haehn, PhD, director of UMass Boston’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Core Facility and an associate professor of computer science, will lead SPLEEN-US: Open Annotated Spleen Ultrasound Dataset for Precision Neuromodulation.
Science that spans borders
Argonne welcomes three Japanese students through the U.S.-Japan MEXT pilot program, which builds the next generation of the STEM workforce through international partnership and mentorship, expands discovery and fosters collaboration.
Some dinosaurs could rise like giants until they grew too big
Two elephant-sized South American sauropods were unusually well built for standing on their hind legs. Digital tests showed that their robust femurs handled the enormous forces better than those of larger species, especially while the dinosaurs were young. The upright pose may have helped them reach treetops, frighten predators, or impress potential mates.
Computer science takes flight in bird conservation effort
Computer science and environmental science may seem worlds apart, but at Susquehanna University, one project is showing how closely connected they can be.
Ray Veeraraghavan joins L7 Informatics as VP science and AI
Indian American health executive to advance agentic AI platform across scientific workflows at life sciences firm.
Champions Of Potomac River Mussels Summon A ‘Science Barge’
The Potomac Riverkeeper Network has expanded its mussel-growing operation on the Potomac River with what the group is calling a “science barge.” The 80-foot-by-30-foot vessel serves as a floating platform for specially designed cages used to raise mussels. A pair of “floating upwellers” holds up to 4,000 mussels at any one time in the river […]
Kansas Health Science University Granted Accreditation by the WASC Senior College and University Commission, Meeting Rigorous Quality Assurance Standards
Wichita, Kan., July 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kansas Health Science University (KHSU) has been granted accreditation by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), a significant milestone in the school’s mission to produce forward-thinking, empathetic healthcare leaders. WSCUC is an institutional accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. The agency’s outcomes-focused accreditation supports institutions in building and sustaining innovative educational programs
Bristol Myers Squibb Building Life Science Industry’s Most Advanced AI Factory on NVIDIA Vera Rubin
The pharmaceutical company has demonstrated how AI can transform how drugs discovery and is now scaling AI across R&D to accelerate the discovery of next-generation medicines.
Kraken Robotics Announces $35 Million in New Orders and Business Update
Year-to-Date the Company has Announced $327 Million in Combined Product OrdersTORONTO, July 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kraken Robotics Inc. (“Kraken” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF) is pleased to announce continued momentum with $35 million in new product orders from customers in maritime defense, offshore energy, and ocean science. By technology solution, these orders are across navigation and positioning systems, multi-aperture sonar, positioning, and monitoring systems from Cov
Connecting Monsoon Science and Services
In July 2022, Pakistan experienced one of the most devastating monsoon seasons in its history. A single weather station in Sindh province recorded more than 1 600 millimetres of rain in a single day. By the end of the season, the country had received 175% of its normal annual rainfall, severely disrupting the lives of around 12 million people.
Milana ‘Mim’ Bizic of Aleppo honored by Tesla Science Foundation
Milana “Mim” Karlo Bizic took her then-11-year-old son Nick on vacation on July 1, 1981, for his birthday. There were two sites she wanted him to see — Niagara Falls and the statue of Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla. “I wanted him to experience the world’s wonder of Niagara Falls but
WAIC explainer: What is AI for Science?
What if artificial intelligence (AI) could help scientists make discoveries never before imagined?That's one of the themes at this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. It's called AI for Science. Simply put, it means using
The Best Genetic Risk Tools Don’t Work Equally for Everyone
Genetic prediction models are poised to revolutionize medicine. But because they have been trained on European DNA, they threaten to widen health care disparities.
New Review From American Heart Association Reveals The Optimal Daily Cups of Coffee For Your Health
Put the kettle on.
SDSU@Comic-Con: Brain science suggests Baby Yoda might not be a baby a
Neurobiologist Elena Blanco-Suárez applies her expertise on brain development and repair to "The Mandalorian" series. See our complete list of other SDSU participants.
Kaneka pitches “mitoceuticals” as mechanism-led mitochondrial health supplements
Cellular health is becoming increasingly important as industry and science reveal that health systems are interconnected. The mitochondria are especially central in this understanding, as it addresses healthy aging, healthspan, and lifestage demands. Nutrition Insight speaks with Kaneka Corporation and Kaneka Ubiquinol’s consultant to learn about how nutrition is evolving on an industry and consumer level. “Over the past decade, we’ve seen nutrition evolve from addressing nutrient deficiencies to supporting specific conditions and now toward supporting healthspan — the health and well-being across life stages,” says Tsuyoshi Takakuwa, head of Marketing and Sales Team (APAC), Supplemental Nutrition Business Division at Kaneka Corporation.
Are Fish Oil Supplements Good for Brain Health? Here’s What the Science Says
Known as a sports supplement, creatine is drawing attention for its potential effects on cognition, mood and healthy brain aging.
Researcher receives NSF CAREER Award to advance insect biology and strengthen South Texas agriculture
The UT San Antonio research project will also support the training of undergraduate students and expand K-12 science education.
DOE Advances Domestic Silicon and Germanium Isotope Supply Chains For Quantum Information Science
ORNL and PNNL have developed domestic technologies to produce ultra-high-purity silicon and germanium precursor materials.
Colorado Commission prioritizes feelings over science
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted Thursday and prioritized feelings over science-based management. Meanwhile, Rancher X is the beneficiary of those feelings-driven decisions. Well played, Governor. The newest appointees to the CPW Commission are just the parting gift you had in mind for rural Colorado. The Commission voted Thursday 6-5 to reject CPW staff […]
Colorado Commission prioritizes feelings over science
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted Thursday and prioritized feelings over science-based management. Meanwhile, Rancher X is the beneficiary of those feelings-driven decisions. Well played, Governor. The newest appointees to the CPW Commission are just the parting gift you had in mind for rural Colorado. The Commission voted Thursday 6-5 to reject CPW staff […]
Alliance influx ‘reflects growing relevance of science diplomacy’
EU Science Diplomacy Alliance adds 26 members and partners, aiming for “sustainable, inclusive community”
Rebuilding the Innovation Engine: How We Got Here And What Comes Next
Federal investment in basic science built America’s innovation engine, but declining support is threatening U.S. leadership, writes Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D.
Qubit error mitigation technique delivers million-fold speedup
Post-processing corrects qubit errors in quantum annealers, dramatically accelerating solution optimization for complex, real-world problems.