TV News LIES

Standing in his laboratory, Harvard professor Sean Eddy gazes at a row of vacant work stations. More than a year ago, this lab was filled with over a dozen researchers. On a given day they might be working independently on analyzing genomic sequencing or gathered around the group table, drinking coffee and helping each other troubleshoot questions about genomic data from different species.

Now, after his funding was terminated under the Trump administration, the computer screens are gone and the room is silent. He's one of the last people left.

" Seeing these labs empty — this is not the way it's supposed to be," he says. "This was a very vibrant lab."

Eddy is a computational biologist. He has devoted his career to one fundamental question. " I'm really interested in the origin of life," he says. "I want to know where it all came from."

He and his colleagues spent years developing software that could be used to seek out an answer. Scientists around the world now use the tools his team created to compare DNA and protein sequences, identify genes, and predict what they do. Their work underpins countless studies, including research related to cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders.

More...

Brilliant splashes of green, purple and pink will streak the night sky for many stargazers in North America on Saturday and Sunday night, as energized particles from space collide with the Earth's atmosphere to create the dazzling effect, known as the Northern Lights or aurora borealis.

The northern United States and much of Canada will have the best view of the natural aurora phenomenon, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The best sightings will come from where the aurora is directly overhead, but hopefuls can catch sight of the light show from up to 1000 km away.

The best time to catch the streaks of light will be just after sunset or just before sunrise; the aurora is not visible during the day.

The beautiful display of lights results from a form of space weather, according to NASA, when high-energy space particles violently collide with atoms of gas in a planet's atmosphere, close to its magnetic pole.

The geomagnetic storm causing this latest aurora is expected to be at its strongest on Saturday night, and will provide onlookers with their best chance to see the show, according to the NOAA.

More...

Officials are investigating whether a huge fire that destroyed a top marine science laboratory at the University of South Florida may have been caused by a lightning strike.

Despite a massive response from local fire crews the Marine Science Laboratory building was completely destroyed after the blaze began on Saturday.

Moez Limayem, the USF president, said that lightning storms in the area were being looked at as a possible cause of the enormous and devastating blaze at the advanced scientific institute.

“St Pete Fire and Rescue said there was lightning reported in the area around at the time the fire started, but the cause remains under investigation,” Limayem said in a statement.

More...

The highest levels of the federal government are paying attention to a list of people who have gone missing or died, citing concerns about their connections to scientific research, some of it potentially classified.

The list includes multiple scientists, spans several years and involves a patchwork of people from different backgrounds and circumstances. The White House, multiple federal agencies and members of Congress have said they are taking a closer look at whether there are connections between the list of about 10 cases.

The cases range from a retired Air Force general missing (authorities previously said there was no evidence of foul play) to an astrophysicist shot outside his home. It also includes a construction foreman at Los Alamos National Laboratory who vanished.

Congressmen James Comer and Eric Burlison, Republicans who chair the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs, respectively, said they are investigating the cases of missing or deceased people with "access to sensitive U.S. scientific information." It's not clear how many of the people on a list put out by the congressmen had such access.

More...

The US military said it killed four more people in a boat strike in the eastern Pacific ocean on Tuesday, marking the third deadly attack on vessels in the region in four days.

The US Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the killings in a social media post, claiming, without providing evidence, that the men killed were “narco-terrorists”.

The US military’s boat strikes have now killed at least 174 people since September.

Military officials have consistently alleged that the targets of its lethal boat strikes were “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” but have not presented intelligence or specific details about the individuals to support those assertions.

Legal experts and human rights advocates have repeatedly condemned the strikes as extrajudicial killings that violate US and international law, saying the military cannot execute civilians whom it accuses of crimes.

More...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making some of its staffers relocate and reassigning an even larger share of employees as part of its efforts to reorganize its scientific research.

The agency is reassigning a total of 124 staffers, 35 of whom are being asked to relocate.

The move comes as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate its Office of Research and Development and instead conduct scientific research in a new office housed within the office of the administrator.

An EPA spokesperson said via email Thursday that as part of the restructure, the agency “has issued reassignment notices to those employees who remain in the Office of Research and Development.”

More...