By Paul Caine Producer, WTTW’s Chicago Tonight

Originally published at: https://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/03/21/exploring-science-addiction

Rising rates of addiction to heroin and prescription drugs have been making headlines across the country. People suffering with addiction have often been stigmatized and viewed as being too weak to address either moral or personal failings. But the reality is that addiction is one of the most common forms of mental illness that impacts tens of millions of Americans every year.

Recent advances in neuroscience have transformed our understanding of addiction and paved the way for new treatments.

Continue reading “Exploring the Science of Addiction”

By Valerie Lapointe, Medill Reports, video by Chencheng Zhao

Originally published at: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/climate-disruption-what-do-we-do-now/

Global warming sounds too cozy, says Seth B. Darling, a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Molecular Engineering. He prefers the term “climate disruption” for the kinds of threats to coastlines, weather, food and water that the world faces. His recent talk, sponsored by the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, tackled looked at “Climate Disruption: What We Can Do Now.”

Darling and most other scientists link the cause of climate change to burning fossil fuels such as gasoline. They emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to heating up the Earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide levels have increased 40 percent in the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Continue reading “Climate Disruption: What Do We Do Now?”

Originally published at: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chicago-council-science-technology-welcomes-144700118.html

By Jeff McMahon, Opinion, Forbes

Originally published at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2016/03/10/argonne-scientist-urges-next-generation-solar-we-have-no-choice/#75524ebc35e3

Only next-generation solar technology can offset humanity’s use of fossil fuels, meet our energy needs, and do so with the urgency dictated by climate change, an Argonne National Laboratory scientist said in Chicago last night.

Argonne materials scientist Seth Darling told about 50 people that next generation technologies—like organic solar modules and perovskite solar voltaics—just need more research and development.

Continue reading “Argonne Scientist Urges Next Generation Solar: ‘We Have No Choice,’”