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Dear EarthTalk: Are sunscreens safe? Which ones do you recommend that will protect my skin from the sun and not cause other issues? – Bettina E., New York, NY Getting a little sunshine is important for helping our bodies generate Vitamin D, an important supplement for strong bones, and for regulating our levels of serotonin and tryptamine, neurotransmitters that keep our moods and sleep/wake cycles in order. Like anything, though, too much sun can cause health issues, from sunburns to skin cancer....

Thirty years ago James R. Flynn, a researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, discovered a phenomenon that social scientists still struggle to explain: IQ scores have been increasing steadily since the beginning of the 20th century. Flynn went on to examine intelligence-test data from more than two dozen countries and found that scores were rising by 0.3 point a year—three full points per decade. Nearly three decades of follow-up studies have confirmed the statistical reality of the global uptick, now known as the Flynn effect....

Chicago is taking a climate beating from Lake Michigan. City beaches and parks are disappearing under record-high water levels. Autumn gales are landing 12-foot waves against Lake Shore Drive. Federal, state and city agencies are scrambling to armor the shore, and infrastructure repair is taxing an already cash-strapped city. Like other major coastal cities, Chicago can’t afford to lose the fight. Lake Michigan’s shoreline is the city’s raison d’être, giving meaning to its title as capital of the “Third Coast....

“There’s no space left this term,” the administrator declared dismissively, annoyed. “The regular faculty have taken everything.” “I understand,” Claudia persisted, “but what are my students to do? This is part of their training.” “Couldn’t you meet them in the cafeteria? Or the hallway? There are a couple of lounge chairs by the ladies’ room.” That stunned her. Was this person actually suggesting that Claudia confer with her students south of a toilet?...

The human population has swelled so much that people alive today outnumber all those who have ever lived, says a factoid whose roots stretch back to the 1970s. Some versions of this widely circulating rumor claim that 75 percent of all people ever born are currently alive. Yet, despite a quadrupling of the population in the past century, the number of people alive today is still dwarfed by the number of people who have ever lived....

Jonah is inching upward in the glass-walled exterior elevator of a 70-story skyscraper. For each story he ascends, he rates his fear on a 100-point scale. At the top, he peers out over a microcosm of office towers, streets and gas stations–that are not really there. While donning a headset that produces three-dimensional images, Jonah is receiving an experimental therapy for a debilitating fear of heights. The goal of the treatment is habituation, a form of learning in which a response to a stimulus diminishes with repeated exposure....

Paying a woman for her eggs to use in stem cell research has been a bioethical no-no for years. But this past June, New York State decided to allow just that, becoming the first state to permit public money to be used in this way. The decision, which allows payment of up to $10,000, will likely jump-start donations—and thereby research. Many bioethicists, however, worry that the financial incentive could exploit women and compromise their health....

Counting cards at the casino may pay out more than counting candies in a jar, although a close goodie guesstimate could still win you a sweet prize at the county fair. But just how do you estimate a figure for all the candies you can’t see in the inner part of the jar, especially if they vary in size? Researchers at New York University (N.Y.U.) may finally have the answer to this classic mathematical puzzle....

A 64-year-old class of antibiotics that has been a cornerstone of medical treatment has been dramatically refreshed by dogged chemists searching for ways to overcome antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In work described on May 18, 2016 in Nature, a team of chemists built molecules similar to the drug erythromycin, a key member of the macrolide class, from scratch. In doing so, they were able to generate more than 300 variations on erythromycin that would not have been feasible by merely modifying the original drug—the way that scientists would normally search for new variants of existing antibiotics....

Take the next five minutes and imagine yourself in the future. This future self is doing wonderfully. You have worked hard and it is really paying off. You’re achieving all you set out to do. Everything has turned out in the best way possible. Now, how do you feel? Regardless of how bright you think the future actually will be, there are plenty of practical reasons to be optimistic. First, your positive perspective on the future will pay off in the present, which you are more likely to enjoy....

When we visit a zoo and peer at our closest living relatives, the great apes, two things reliably captivate us. One: they look so very much like people. The expressive faces and the grasping hands of chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas are eerily similar to our own. The other: these creatures are so clearly not us. Our upright walking, capacious and clever brains, and a list of other traits sharply set us apart....

Unusually warm ocean temperatures this year have led to mass devastation of the world’s corals, and prospects for their long-term survival are grim, a top government scientist said yesterday. “Right now, coral reefs around the world are either bleached, dead from bleaching or trying to recover from bleaching,” said C. Mark Eakin, who coordinates the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch. “2010 has been a major, major year of coral bleaching in all of the oceans around the world....

The disappearance this past weekend of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, remains a mystery for now. Despite a search effort involving ships and aircraft from multiple countries, all potential leads as to the fate of the craft—including a long oil slick and a floating object thought to be a door of the plane—have failed to pan out. How does a jetliner simply disappear? Conventional tracking systems performed well; civilian and military radar tracked the plane until it vanished....

Back in the early 2000s, evolution deniers were fond of publishing lists of scientists who doubted Charles Darwin’s discovery. Hey, you can always find a few dozen Ph.D.s who, like the Scarecrow at the end of The Wizard of Oz, have a diploma instead of an education. So in 2003 the National Center for Science Education, which champions evolution instruction in public schools, published a statement with its own list of 220 Ph....

Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and U.S. scientists published Monday. The study of Swedish children is among the first to find an apparent connection between an environmental chemical and autism. The scientists were surprised by their finding, calling it “far from conclusive.” Because their research was not designed to focus on autism, they recommend further study of larger numbers of children to see whether the link can be confirmed....

Considering the threats to the wildlife that roams vast swaths of Africa, it’s almost surprising that any of the creatures are still alive today. Poachers collecting coveted body parts and farmers targeting animals that disrupt their livelihood pick off lions, elephants, giraffes and cheetahs one by one. The spread of agriculture chips away at grassy savannas, depriving animals of space and contact with others of their kind. Meanwhile climate change might dry up grasses and water the wildlife relies on, increasing the odds that desperate animals will venture closer to humans and put themselves at higher risk of attack....

Despite long-standing public concern about the safety of nuclear energy, more and more people are realizing that it may be the most environmentally friendly way to generate large amounts of electricity. Several nations, including Brazil, China, Egypt, Finland, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam, are building or planning nuclear plants. But this global trend has not as yet extended to the U.S., where work on the last such facility began some 30 years ago....

South Africa’s government has announced that it will expand the country’s existing demographic studies to create a project that will be the largest of its kind in Africa—tracking the health, income, and educational attainment of around 1% of South Africa’s population. The Department of Science and Technology estimates that it will put 264 million rand (US$19 million) into the demographic project over the next five years, which will eventually cover at least half a million people....

As he approached the security checkpoint at Washington Dulles International Airport one afternoon last April, Jon Pratt felt on edge. Stuffed in his camera bag were four solid-metal cylinders, the sorts of objects guaranteed to draw the scrutiny of wary Homeland Security TSA staff. Each cylinder weighed exactly one kilogram. One of them—a gleaming platinum-iridium alloy about half the size of a can of tuna—was worth at least $40,000. (The price of platinum currently hovers around $1,000 per troy ounce, a common unit for precious metals....

Living near a toxic waste site can be a recipe for poor health. And scientists know that the problem is widespread in developing countries where there are few cleanup programs. A pair of new studies adds a level of much-needed detail about exactly how widespread and harmful the problem can be. One study led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City looked at 373 sites across India, the Philippines and Indonesia, and calculated how much damage elevated levels of lead, chromium and other chemicals imparted to human health....