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SCIENCE IS UNDER ATTACK. DROP OF LIGHT/SHUTTERSTOCK In case you missed it, scientists are running for Congress. Largely thanks to the actions of the political action group  314 Action , academics from fields as diverse as  cancer research  and  volcanology  are gearing up to take on the climate change-denying acolytes of the Trump administration. Back in June, we  spoke to the masterminds  behind this unprecedented drive to make American science great again. In the months since then, their efforts to get qualified scientists back into politics – precisely the opposite of what the current President is doing – has made giant strides forwards. 314 Action recently had a gathering in Washington DC of those on the frontline of the war on science, including researchers that are currently in power and those that were seeking office for the first time. We at IFLScience thought this was a good opportunity to ask them to do what scientists are exceedingly well practiced in: peer review. This time

A CAPTIVE RED WOLF AT POINT DEFIANCE ZOO AND AQUARIUM. USFWS The red wolf,  Canis rufus , currently exists only as a small population in one part of North Carolina. It’s listed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as  critically endangered , which means it’s one step away from being extinct in the wild. That’s why it strikes us as odd that,  hidden in a Senate report  related to funding for the Department of the Interior, is an order to end the red wolf recovery program that’s currently being run by the federal government. “The Committee acknowledges the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s request that the [Fish and Wildlife] Service end the Red Wolf recovery program and declare the Red Wolf extinct,” it said. It cites impacts on “landowners and other species” as being the reason, also noting that “the program has failed to meet population goals for the red wolf.” The text contains no citations to any research that backs up these claims. “The Commi

MYERS, SEEN HERE DURING HIS LATEST CONFIRMATION HEARING. MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES Back in October, Barry Myers, the CEO of AccuWeather, was nominated to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Considering that this is the government agency tasked with monitoring weather patterns and climatic extremes, we thought it was a shame that he  wasn’t a scientist , but a businessman and lawyer. Still, it had to be said that he had never once denied climate change’s anthropogenic link, unlike a  slew  of other key nominations. Now, during a recent confirmation hearing at the Senate, Myers was asked about that very issue, and remarkably, he agreed that humans are the primary drivers of the phenomenon. Admittedly, it took him some time to confirm that he agreed, but he got there in the end during a somewhat laborious back-and-forth with Democratic Senator Ed Markey. Senator Markey noted that NOAA scientists are “very fearful that they’re going to be punished” for doing the

BY HAVING CERTAIN NEURONS POSITIONED CLOSE TOGETHER, BATS CAN PROCESS SENSORY INFORMATION QUICKER. IVAN KUZMIN/SHUTTERSTOCK Catching flying insects is a tricky business, especially when you can only spot them using sound. Bats are masters of this, using echolocation to visualize their prey, and now researchers have found that a special structure in their brains lets them process this information extremely quickly. Echolocation  is a kind of biological sonar used by certain animals to navigate their surroundings and hunt prey. It involves emitting calls – generally clicking sounds – and then listening to how the calls are returned from the environment. Echolocation is famously used by bats and  dolphins , but it can also be observed in all other species of toothed whale, as well as shrews and swiftlets. Bats are known for lurking in low light, spending their days hanging upside down in caves, trees, and attics, but at night they come alive, heading off into the darkness in search of foo