Deeply divided Supreme Court lets NIH grant terminations continue

The ruling also blocks the policy behind their termination. Shortly after the Trump Administration took office, it started cancelling grants for things it had disagreements with: funding for pandemic preparation, efforts to diversify the scientific workforce, those that targeted minority health issues, and more. These terminations were challenged in…

Neolithic people took gruesome trophies from invading tribes

Brutal treatment may have been part of “public theater of violence” celebrating victory in battle. A local Neolithic community in northeastern France may have clashed with foreign invaders, cutting off limbs as war trophies and otherwise brutalizing their prisoners of war, according to a new paper published in the…

At the top of the market, EV hypercars are a disappearing breed

​Seven-figure EV hypercars are struggling to make an emotional connection with buyers.  Ford provided flights from Albany to San Francisco and accommodation so Ars could attend Monterey Car Week. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. Monterey Car Week is an annual celebration of automotive culture at the extremes:…

Humans intervened every 9 minutes in AAA test of driver assists

​AAA tested a number of different systems in Los Angeles highway traffic.  Advanced driver assistance systems—also known as ADAS—come in a few variations. Blind spot monitoring, collision warnings, and emergency braking act like a second pair of eyes and ears, monitoring the car’s environment to warn the driver, or…

Using pollen to make paper, sponges, and more

Reengineered, pollen could become a range of eco-friendly objects. At first glance, Nam-Joon Cho’s lab at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University looks like your typical research facility—scientists toiling away, crowded workbenches, a hum of machinery in the background. But the orange-yellow stains on the lab coats slung on hooks hint…