Are umpires biased? There has been sociological woo produced trying to prove they are racist in baseball but a paper has found that if a cricket team has home umpires, some bias does get introduced, at least in Test cricket, the longest form of the sport .

Though drugs spend years in development and hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars are spent in increasingly demanding clinical trials before approval, a lot of prescription drugs get added warning labels - or can even be withdrawn - after release to the public because of hidden toxicity that clinical trials did not find. 

A new toxicity test invented at the University of Utah could make it possible to uncover dangerous side effects earlier in pharmaceutical development.

In the United States in the 1930s, climate change and droughts and excessive agricultural practices combined to give the country a 'Dust Bowl' - as farmers became more stressed during the Depression they farmed harder, so ancient agricultural practices got left behind.

Modern agricultural science is a little smarter. Scientists make sure farmers know the right application for pesticides and when it comes to biotech crops, they make sure pests don't develop 'herd immunity'.

Though some see snowstorms and believe global warming has been exaggerated, a new study using predictions of Greenland ice loss and its impact on rising sea levels instead finds that other models may be greatly underestimating it.  

The new estimate simulates future distribution of lakes that form on the ice sheet surface from melted snow and ice, called supraglacial lakes. Previously, the impact of supraglacial lakes on Greenland ice loss had been assumed to be small, but the new research has shown that they will migrate farther inland over the next half century, potentially altering the ice sheet flow in dramatic ways.

A new study says that delaying the cutting of the umbilical cord in newborns by two minutes leads to a better development of the baby during the first days of life - by influencing the resistance to oxidative stress in newborns. 

How much science is in pop music? Can pop culture enhance science communication?

A sociology duo recently explored the occurrence of science in the lyrics of Taiwanese pop music. Their results revealed that expressions from the field of astronomy and space research are notably prominent in the lyrics. Most texts address emotional states, while the latest scientific topics are only rarely mentioned.

“In many countries, and that includes Austria in particular, there is a distinct gap between the sciences and the population, which must be bridged. Popular culture and the entertainment media, amongst others, could play a valuable part as intermediaries,” says co-author Joachim Allgaier.