Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the mission of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on December 7, 2017 in Washington, DC.
Credit: Pete Marovich

Imagine if a company offered to sell you a new car without seatbelts. Whether you wear seatbelts or not, you know why they are required: to stop you from flying through the windshield in an accident. You also know that cars and trucks without them aren’t allowed on the road. You’d probably think the company was some sort of fly-by-night scam operation that was going to be shut down before they could even deliver your vehicle.

And yet, companies are selling vehicles with a similarly fatal flaw. The Tennessee-based manufacturer Fitzgerald Glider Kits, for instance, is in the business of buying up wrecked or otherwise not roadworthy old 18-wheelers, rebuilding the outdated engines and other drive train components, and then installing them in brand new vehicle bodies, or “gliders,” as vehicles without powertrains are called. Fitzgerald and other smaller manufacturers like […]

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Credit: imagedepotpro / iStock

While future economic growth, social development and environmental conditions are difficult to predict, future demographic trends are considerably more certain, especially in the near term. Understanding and anticipating likely future demographic trends for the 21st century, 10 of which are highlighted below, can provide instructive insights to help guide sound policymaking, meaningful socio-economic development and environmental sustainability.

Larger world population: The world’s population of 7.6 billion is growing at 1.1 percent annually, or approximately 83 million people. Although this rate is half the peak level of 2.1 percent in the late 1960s, the world’s population has more than doubled since then and substantial demographic growth is expected in the coming decades.

World population, for example, is projected to reach 8 billion by 2023, 9 billion by 2037, 10 billion by 2055 and 11 billion by 2087. Even if the rate of growth were to decline more rapidly than currently expected, world population would reach nearly 9 billion by midcentury.

Population growth concentrated in developing regions: Nearly all of the world’s annual population […]

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This image obtained March 31, 2016 courtesy of Purdue University/ Kuhn and Rossmann research groups shows a representation of a near-atomic level map of Zika virus.
Credit: AFP

Some horror movie tropes just come off as unbelievable, they’re so ridiculous and overused. Like, “Girl who falls down for no apparent reason while being chased by a killer.” Or, “Group of friends that decides to split up when it’s obvious being alone will get you murdered.” And then there’s this one: “Science laboratory creates horrible disease that will inevitably escape and kill all of humanity,” which might be the most unbelievable, since it defies both logic and actual laws. Or rather, it did until Tuesday, when the U.S. government announced it was lifting a three-year ban on federal funding for experiments that alter viruses to make them even deadlier.

“Gain-of-function” research, in which scientists make pathogens more powerful or easily transmissible, is aimed at preventing disease outbreaks by better understanding how they might occur. The studies allow scientists, working in a highly controlled […]

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Trump golfing at one of his courses

President Donald Trump has spent nearly one-third of his time in office this year at one of the properties that either bear his name or that his family company owns, according to CNN’s count.

Trump arrived in Florida on Friday for a prolonged visit at Mar-a-Lago, his private club that sits on this tony spit of land in southern Florida. The visit comes after Trump signed his signature tax legislation, putting an exclamation point on a tumultuous first year for the President.

With Trump comes a host of White House aides, an abundance of Secret Service agents and the ongoing controversy around the President boosting his private businesses by making frequent visits to properties that bear the Trump name.

Trump has so far spent 110 days as president at one of his properties, a fact that critics argue helps the businessman-turned-politician boost the bottom line at The Trump Organization. Trump transferred his business holdings to a trust run by his sons before taking office earlier […]

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