Ashley Yeager

Chapel Hill

Science writer/editor | Author of Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter & Beyond/The Lamb Chop Fan Club newsletter | Associate news editor @ScienceNews | ❤️Tx 2022

Articles

Tech billionaires’ vision of an AI-dominated future is flawed - and dangerous

1 week ago | sciencenews.org | Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.
Ancient black holes might solve the mystery of dark matter

2 months ago | snexplores.org | Elizabeth Quill |Emily Conover |Stephen Ornes |Ashley Yeager

A yet-unseen population of ancient black holes may be lurking throughout the universe. If they exist, these bottomless cosmic pits would have a lot in common with known types of black holes. But unlike known black holes, the mysterious kind would have formed right after the Big Bang — before stars and galaxies even existed. Such early-blooming black holes would be primordial black holes. Scientists have wondered for decades if such exotic objects exist.
Novartis Paid More than $1 Million to Firm Linked to Trump Lawyer

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

The drug company had an agreement with Essential Consultants, run by the president’s former attorney Michael Cohen. ISTOCK/HOHLNovartis reportedly paid Essential Consultants, a company run by President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, $1.2 million, but has since ended a contract with the firm, according to Reuters.
“Minibrains” May Soon Include Neanderthal DNA

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

ISTOCK, HALAMKAHuman stem cells edited to contain Neanderthal DNA will soon be grown into “miniature brains,” The Guardian reports. “We’re seeing if we can find basic differences in how nerve cells function that may be a basis for why humans seem to be cognitively so special,” Svante Pääbo, who directs the genetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, where the experiments are being performed, tells the publication.
Sweden Cancels Agreement With Elsevier Over Open Access

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

WIKIMEDIA, MARCUS HANSSONA collection of Swedish universities and research institutions will not renew its current contract with Elsevier that expires at the end of June, Times Higher Education reports today (May 16). The move comes not long after academic institutions in other countries have let publishers’ subscriptions lapse when fee negotiations come to an impasse.
Zoo Pregnancy Raises Hopes of Preserving White Rhinos

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

FLICKR, IIP PHOTO ARCHIVEA southern white rhino at the San Diego Zoo named Victoria is pregnant, the zoo announced yesterday (May 17). “The confirmation of this pregnancy through artificial insemination represents an historic event for our organization but also a critical step in our effort to save the northern white rhino,” Barbara Durrant, the director of reproductive sciences at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, says in a statement.
Slowing Global Warming Could Save a Majority of Earth’s Species

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

WIKIMEDIA, HARALD ZIMMERIf global warming is kept in check, with only a 1.5 °C increase in temperatures by the end of the century, a vast majority of plants and animals will be spared extinction, researchers report today (May 17) in Science.
Chair of Chemical Safety Board to Step Down

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

Vanessa Allen Sutherland will resign next month, leaving the agency with just three members of what should be a five-person board. ISTOCK, DSZCVanessa Allen Sutherland will resign next month as chair of the US Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board. With the vacancy, the board will drop to having only three members—two short of the standard five, C&EN reported earlier this week (May 22).
What Made Human Brains So Big?

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

Ecological challenges such as finding food and creating fire may have led the organ to become abnormally large, a new computer model suggests. FLICKR, _DJ_Finding food and lighting fires might explain why humans have such big brains, researchers report yesterday (May 23) in Nature. Humans’ brains are six times as large as those of similarly sized mammals, an observation that has led scientists to ponder for decades what led to such big noodles.
Life Reemerged Just Years After Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact

Feb 12, 2024 | the-scientist.com | Ashley Yeager

Nutrient-rich water helped marine organisms reinhabit Chicxulub crater relatively quickly after the mass-extinction event. ISTOCK, SOLARSEVENLess than a decade after a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid wiped out 75 percent of life on Earth, including some dinosaur species, sea creatures started to call the impact crater home, researchers report today (May 30) in Nature. The result offers clues to how marine life may respond to a changing climate, the scientists suggest.