Peter Aldhous


bfEverything from BuzzFeed News. All articles, except where indicated, © BuzzFeed, Inc.





White Coast WasteThis Activist Group Tapped Into Partisan COVID Politics To Make Big Trouble For Anthony Fauci And The NIH. BuzzFeed News, May 2022. The White Coat Waste Project has pulled the “lab leak” strings and channeled right-wing anger over COVID to pursue its goal of defunding animal experiments backed by the federal government.




KyivHow Open-Source Intelligence Is Helping Clear The Fog Of War In Ukraine. BuzzFeed News, March 2022. From high-resolution satellite images to TikTok videos, governments no longer control information from the front lines. With Christopher Miller.




Missing deathsWe Don’t Know How Many People Are Killed By Extreme Weather. This Means Even More People Will Die. BuzzFeed News, December 2021. No one is accurately measuring how many people are dying from climate change and extreme weather. This is a fatal mistake that takes pressure off political leaders.



COVID disciplineDoctors Are Attacking COVID Vaccines And Promoting Bogus Cures — And Getting Away With It. BuzzFeed News, September 2021. As around 2,000 mostly unvaccinated Americans die of COVID-19 every day, BuzzFeed News could not find a single example of a doctor who has been disciplined for spreading vaccine disinformation.



vaccination mapThe Delta Variant Could Create “Two Americas” Of COVID, Experts Warn. BuzzFeed News, June 2021. If you are fully vaccinated, you are most likely to be safe. But in parts of the US where few people have gotten COVID vaccine shots, the Delta variant could trigger renewed deadly surges.



TX tollThe Texas Winter Storm And Power Outages Killed Hundreds More People Than The State Says. BuzzFeed News, May 2021. The catastrophic failure of Texas’s power grid in February killed hundreds of medically vulnerable people. Data and analysis. With Stephanie M. Lee and Zahra Hirji.



ballotTrump Was Expected To Lose Votes In Places Where More People Died Of COVID-19. He Didn’t. BuzzFeed News, November 2020. If anything, Trump did better in counties with higher COVID-19 death rates. Data and analysis. With Nidhi Prakash and Dan Vergano.




flag fuseThis Scary Statistic Predicts Growing US Political Violence — Whatever Happens On Election Day. BuzzFeed News, October 2020. Two researchers claim that a single number they call the “political stress indicator” can warn when societies are at risk of erupting into violence. It’s spiking in the US, just like it did before the Civil War.



fca fireClimate Scientists Have Warned It Was Coming, But Even They Are Freaked Out By The West Coast’s Inferno. BuzzFeed News, September 2020. “We have not reached the peak. In fact, no one knows where the peak is,” one expert said.




yulianaPregnant Women Have Received False Results From This DNA Paternity Test. BuzzFeed News, July 2020. After a decadelong battle, I won a libel suit filed by a Canadian company that has turned an untold number of pregnant women’s lives upside down.




dna decade10 Years Ago, DNA Tests Were The Future Of Medicine. Now They’re A Social Network — And A Data Privacy Mess. BuzzFeed News, December 2019. We were offered personalized medicine. Instead, we got Facebook for our DNA.




epsteinJeffrey Epstein’s Links To Scientists Are Even More Extensive Than We Thought. BuzzFeed News, August 2019. Scientists took Epstein’s money or associated with the financier after he was jailed for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.




warmingHere And Now: These Maps Show How Climate Change Has Already Transformed The Earth. BuzzFeed News, April 2019. Our planet is in the grip of rapid climate change. Explore how your city has already changed.




druI Tried To Track Down My Coworkers From Their DNA — Just Like Cops Did For The Golden State Killer. BuzzFeed News, April 2019. How hard is it to find people by sleuthing in their family trees?




casarezThe Cities Where The Cops See No Hate. BuzzFeed News, December 2018. The victims were beaten or threatened with deadly weapons. They were taunted with racist or anti-gay abuse. Yet the police decided these weren’t hate crimes.




socalIs Your Home At Risk From Wildfire? Check These Maps. BuzzFeed News, December 2018. We don’t know exactly when and where wildfires will strike, but almost two decades of fire history show the areas at highest risk.




flood riskIs Your Home At Risk Of Flooding From Rising Seas By 2050? Check This Map. BuzzFeed News, November 2018. Homeowners in these areas will need to get used to flooding year after year as sea levels rise. With Zahra Hirji.




firesHow A Booming Population And Climate Change Made California’s Wildfires Worse Than Ever. BuzzFeed News, July 2018. Across most of California, human activities and infrastructure start the vast majority of fires. Data and analysis.




kraussThe Unbeliever: Lawrence Krauss. BuzzFeed News, February 2018. Lawrence Krauss is a famous atheist and liberal crusader. With women alleging sexual harassment, will his “skeptic” fanbase believe the evidence? With Azeen Ghorayshi and Virginia Hughes.




trump_tweetsAll The President’s Tweets — And Every Lawmaker’s Too. BuzzFeed News, January 2018. Here’s how Congressional Democrats and Republicans dealt with Donald Trump’s early morning bully pulpit. Data and analysis.




planesThese Maps Show What The Busiest Day For Air Travel Actually Looks Like — And It’s Beautiful. BuzzFeed News, August 2017. As you go through vacation airline hell, you’re part of a huge global dance.




busiestBuzzFeed News Trained A Computer To Search For Hidden Spy Planes. This Is What We Found. BuzzFeed News, August 2017. From planes tracking drug traffickers to those testing new spying technology, US airspace is buzzing with surveillance aircraft. Data and analysis.




eyeThese Women Went Blind After A Florida Clinic Injected Fat Cells Into Their Eyeballs. BuzzFeed News, March 2017. They learned about the procedure on a US government website. It seemed scientifically legitimate. Then disaster struck.




warmest2016 Was The Warmest Year, But This Is How Deniers Will Spin It. BuzzFeed News, December 2016. When opponents of the scientific consensus on climate tell you that global temperatures are plummeting, this is how they are cherry-picking the data. Data and analysis.




planesSpies In The Skies: See Maps Showing Where FBI Planes Are Watching From Above. BuzzFeed News, April 2016. Government surveillance planes routinely circle over most major cities — but usually take the weekends off. With Charles Seife. Data and analysis.




trumpDonald Trump Vs. Sea Level Rise. BuzzFeed News, January 2016. The Republican presidential frontrunner dismisses climate change as a hoax. Here’s what rising sea levels could do to the buildings that bear his name.



terror5 Charts That Show What Terrorism In America Looks Like. BuzzFeed News, November 2015. Violent extremism in the U.S. has many faces — mostly American faces. Many are not jihadis.




bftwitterHere’s What Actually Reduces Gun Violence. BuzzFeed News, October 2015. Guns aren’t going away in America. But there are ways to reduce the annual toll of 30,000 gun deaths — from universal background checks to smart policing.




arrowHere’s What Gets Terrorists To Tell The Truth — And It’s Not Torture. BuzzFeed News, August 2015. Over the past five years, psychological research — some involving real terrorist suspects — has shown how to get information from people who don’t want to talk.




arrigoHow Six Rebel Psychologists Fought A Decade-Long War On Torture — And Won. BuzzFeed News, August 2015. They were ridiculed and sidelined by the leadership of the American Psychological Association, which they accused of complicity in human rights abuses.




arrowThe Silent Monkey Victims Of The War On Terror. BuzzFeed News, July 2015. They have been exposed to deadly pathogens, chemicals and radiation to develop drugs to protect Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Was all this suffering really necessary? Data and analysis.




lelaindThese 10 Questions Can Mean Life Behind Bars. BuzzFeed News, April 2015. A checklist called the Static-99 weighs facts about a sex offender’s past in order to predict the likelihood of future crimes. Many experts worry that the way the test is often used is critically flawed.




smartsPeople Are Animals, Too: The Truth About Animal Intelligence. BuzzFeed News, February 2015. The human brain is special — just not that special. Republished from Mosaic under a Creative Commons license.