Members of the House of Representative Committee on Science, Space & Technology—including representative Don Beyer (VA), Jacky Rosen (NV), Mark Takano (CA), and a number of other Democrats—have signed and submitted a letter to President Trump expressing concern over the President's methods of receiving scientific information. The letter states that by failing to appoint a qualified director to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy or adequately staff the department, the President has left himself vulnerable to “misinformation and fake news,” noting that Trump has, “a tool at your disposal in this regard, should you wish to make use of it, in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) which, under your administration, has been left largely unstaffed and without a director.”

It is incredibly hard to observe an orangutan nursing its baby. Even without dedicated nursing rooms, these already reclusive animals manage to find privacy in trees and at night to nurse their young, making it difficult for biologists to tell how long and how often orangutan mothers breastfeed their offspring.

Google I/O is the company's annual developers' conference. It's meant for people who work to create things inside the Google infrastructure, but the keynote typically includes a few juicy bits that appeal to the general public. Last year we met Google Home for the first time, and there's no telling what we'll see here in 2017. So, follow along and we'll break down the important developments (get it? developers?).

Anyone who's watched Jurassic Park has seen the imagined horrors of what a Tyrannosaurus rex jaw can do. (Love ya, Rexy.)

Trees were supposed to be the urban jungle's salvation. After all, trees provide sweet, beautiful shade which helps cool the metropolis, a place prone to overheating thanks to a proliferation of surfaces like asphalt and concrete. And by pumping oxygen into the air—the same oxygen humans need to breathe— while also filtering out harmful air pollution, trees were supposed to help the eighty percent of Americans who live in urban areas breathe easy. But a new study out today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology has found that planting trees while doing nothing about underlying air pollution is a bit like putting spinach on your double bacon donut burger: you're still going to die of a heart attack.

Here's an excerpt from Miracle Cure: The creation of antibiotics and the birth of modern medicine. by William Rosen, about how antibiotics began to save the world...

A large diet Mountain Dew, a cafe latte, and some kind of energy drink—that's the caffeine cocktail that apparently killed 16-year-old Davis Allan Cripe last month in South Carolina, according to news reports. 

Location is everything, for both homeowners and dinosaurs. When you're buying a house, it's better for your long term happiness to find a neighborhood you like that's close to work instead of having that extra living room. And when you're a Cretaceous period dinosaur, it's better for your long term survival to have a giant asteroid hit in the middle of the ocean instead of just off the coast of Mexico.

Recently, some hospitals in the United Kingdom were struck with a peculiar attack: computers taken over, data inside encrypted and held ransom, all for the measly payment of just $300. The attack spread rapidly, hitting 150 countries and shutting down everything from telecoms in Spain to the Interior Ministry in Russia. And then, through a stroke of luck, the WanaCryptor attack was stalled in its tracks, a killswitch discovered by happenstance just in time for the weekend. What, exactly are we to make of the largest ransomware attack in history?

Lava lakes on Earth are vast cauldrons of molten rock that you should definitely not throw your trash into. (PSA: You should also not jump into a lava lake. You would die.)

In preparation for war in 1940s, U.S. Army tanks crunched across the wild deserts of Southern California, leaving tracks that will remain for thousands of years. Jeffrey Lovich, a U.S. Geologic Survey research ecologist, has trekked through these harsh desert environs for decades, and sometimes comes across the tank- imprinted past. “It's a consequence of history,” he says.

BO is a nearly universal human experience. As such, we as a species put a lot of time, money, and effort into finding ways to eliminate unpleasant natural stenches. But most of us put less time, if any, into understanding what actually causes our malodorous condition. But understanding the processes that create b.o. is the first step to creating a less smelly future.

By now, we've grown accustomed to our devices listening to us. Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, and every other disembodied virtual taskrabbit has been hearing our commands—and who knows what else—for years. But, with its last two smart hub devices, Amazon has pushed one step beyond the microphone, asking users to install cameras in their homes. Yesterday, with the announcement of the Echo Show, Amazon reaffirmed its plan to have Alexa see you in addition to hear you. It's a small step forward in terms of usability, but a major can of worms when it comes to our security and privacy.

It's summer in the northern hemisphere, and you know what that means: clouds of methane. Temperatures will soar to a balmy -292°F, a full six degrees warmer than the south pole, and lakes will swell with hydrocarbon rain. Welcome to summer on Titan. You better like it, because it'll last 7.5 years.