Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”

Internal TigerSwan documents provide a detailed picture of how the mercenary firm surveilled Dakota Access Pipeline opponents and infiltrated protest camps. By Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, Alice Speri.

Continue reading...

Waves Rippled Through Greenland’s Ice. That’s Ominous

A previously unobserved phenomenon has roiled the interior of one of Greenland’s glaciers. By Brian Kahn.

Continue reading...

The Promised Land

Canada’s thirst for oil pitted against its commitment to First Nations. By Patrick Michels.

Continue reading...

Testing the myth that global warming is leveling off

Has the Earth already reached peak warming? Has climate change leveled off, leaving us to adjust to a new, warmer normal? Not according to satellite measurements, say the authors of a paper published yesterday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Continue reading...

Do probiotics actually do anything?

The supplement aisles of most grocery stores and pharmacies in the United States are bursting with probiotics. These billions of bacteria stuffed into once-a-day capsules claim to provide digestive relief, among other benefits. They're extremely popular, with sales of $36.6 billion in 2015. And for good reason. For many people, various gastrointestinal issues come and go pretty much forever, causing chronic discomfort or worse. But according to gastroenterologists and other scientists, these tiny bugs might not be doing the jobs they claim to do.

Continue reading...

New Hair Growth Mechanism Discovered

In experiments in mice, UC San Francisco researchers have discovered that regulatory T cells (Tregs; pronounced “tee-regs”), a type of immune cell generally associated with controlling inflammation, directly trigger stem cells in the skin to promote healthy hair growth. Without these immune cells as partners, the researchers found, the stem cells cannot regenerate hair follicles, leading to baldness.

Continue reading...

Wolves need space to roam to control expanding coyote populations

Wolves and other top predators need large ranges to be able to control smaller predators whose populations have expanded to the detriment of a balanced ecosystem. That’s the main finding of a study appearing May 23 in Nature Communications that analyzed the relationship between top predators on three different continents and the next-in-line predators they eat and compete with. The results were similar across continents, showing that as top predators’ ranges were cut back and fragmented, they were no longer able to control smaller predators.

Continue reading...