A pilot program in North Carolina show what’s possible when we address the social determinants of health | STAT News

Traders in Bangladesh used lead chromate to enhance the spice’s appearance. Then scientists and policymakers stepped in. | Undark

Cryptocurrency aims to revolutionize finance, but its mines are destroying communities across America. (Photo credit: Juan Diego Reyes) | Popular Mechanics

I unpack the latest findings on solitude and the outdoors | Sierra Magazine

A Q&A with the co-founders of an environmental nonprofit dedicated to getting BIPOC youth involved in marine sciences. | High Country News.

To bring abalone back from the edge of extinction, scientists need to find improved ways of coaxing the snails into reproducing. | New York Times

Making journalism part of our identities justifies the passion and purpose that brought us to the profession. It also makes us supremely exploitable. | Poynter

The company has been shamed by health regulators, lost revenue and is the center of hundreds of US lawsuits. Now it has thrown in a last-ditch effort to continue sales | The Guardian

An entrepreneur shares what happened when she set out to try and solve some of the problems she experienced firsthand in the tech industry. | MIT Technology Review [PDF]

Dr. Wu Lien-Teh helped change the course of a plague epidemic in the early 20th century and promoted the use of masks as a public health tool. | The New York Times

How Covid changed five people’s lives | New York

With the right partners, scientists don’t have to visit their study sites to get good data | The Atlantic

A freezer containing Covid-19 vaccines failed in the middle of the night. I explored the ethics of getting a rapidly expiring vaccine. | MIT Tech Review

I wrote a profile of Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR. | Elemental

Uranium mining has been banned in Navajo country—could it come back? | SIERRA Magazine

Finding homes for the waste that will (probably) outlive humanity | MIT Tech Review (links to PDF)

New algorithms can police whether people are complying with public health guidance. The practice raises familiar questions about data privacy. | National Geographic

South Korea’s response to Covid-19 has been widely praised. Will Americans ever be willing to adopt a similar approach? | Undark

Science explains why there’s a loss of human compassion during pandemics | Elemental

In cities across the U.S. — from Seattle to Austin, Asheville, and Denver — medics say they are dealing with police altercations while trying to render aid | Elemental

Bureaucratic roadblocks mean ‘apology’ payouts are hard to access for Indigenous communities exposed to nuclear tests. | High Country News

Where other species succumbed, the killifish survived contaminated habitats. It’s a finding that could help researchers understand environmental risk factors for humans. | Knowable Magazine

Thanks to coronavirus, more folks care about scientific research. Preprint servers & publishers are seeing a surge in readership, with many new readers not well versed in the limitations of the latest research findings. | The New York Times

Can the plant microbiome help clean up contaminated land? | The New York Times

In Seattle, the center of the US outbreak, one medical center has begun screening workers for the new virus by setting up a mobile clinic in a parking lot where cars serve as isolated waiting rooms. | The New York Times.

I contributed reporting to The New York Times’ coverage of the shortage of coronavirus tests from Seattle, WA.

Cody Dalton Eyre, a 20-year-old Alaskan Native, was having a mental health crisis on Christmas Eve, 2017 when his mother called 911 for help. So why did police officers end up shooting and killing him? | Longreads

For The New York Times.

For Columbia Journalism Review.

In an effort to protect visitors and rare plants, the park is relocating the hoofed animals. | High Country News