Dark Data Project

Recycling Lead for U.S. Car Batteries Is Poisoning People We documented the toxic fallout of a green technology.

"Because the supply chain is opaque... [companies] are unlikely to know the precise origins of the lead they use," writes Peter S Goodman, Will Fitzgibbon and Samuel Granados in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/interactive/... #darkdata

These are the 20 most-studied bacteria — the majority have been ignored Model microbes such as Escherichia coli hog scientists’ attention, leaving most known bacteria with few publications devoted to them.

"Many organisms important to human health... haven't even been named, let alone studied," reports Ewen Callaway in @nature.com, citing Nicola Segata of @cibiocm.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/d41... #darkdata

Opinion | We Study Climate Change. We Can’t Explain What We’re Seeing. We need more timely updates in response to the rapid changes to the climate.

Current climate data "don’t reflect recent changes such as newer pollution controls, volcanic eruptions or even the effects of Covid," writes @climateofgavin.bsky.social and @hausfath.bsky.social in @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/o... #darkdata

NPR's Planet Money (@planetmoney.bsky.social) Don't just understand the economy – understand the world.

Data on items transiting US ports is ostensibly public, but "it's not free, and it's unusable in the format that it comes in," according to Michael Kanko at ImportGenius, interviewed by Amanda Aronczyk on planetmoney.bsky.social www.npr.org/2024/10/11/1... #darkdata

"Hidden debts accumulate when economies are booming, and are more likely to be exposed when growth slows," reports the Economist, citing the World Bank, the University of Duisburg-Essen and the University of Notre Dame www.economist.com/finance-and-... #darkdata

When Data Is Missing, Scientists Guess. Then Guess Again. | Quanta Magazine Across the social and biological sciences, statisticians use a technique that leverages randomness to deal with the unknown.

"We cannot calculate with missing data, just as we can't divide by zero,” says Stef van Buuren and reported by Matt von Hippel in @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/when-data-is... #darkdata

As reported in Nature, no bird flu outbreak has been found on Missouri dairy farms, arguably because the state "does not require farmers to test their cows" www.unmc.edu/healthsecuri... #darkdata

We’ve Hit Peak Denial. Here’s Why We Can’t Turn Away From Reality We are living through a terrible time in humanity. Here’s why we tend to stick our head in the sand and why we need to pull it out, fast

"A common strategy to neutralize a social problem is to make it difficult to know about," write Marianne Cooper & @drmaximvoronov.bsky.social in Scientific American. "If we don’t monitor or mention it, then things can feel back to normal." www.scientificamerican.com/article/weve... #darkdata

Most data breaches don't result from zero-days or Ocean's Eleven-style heists

"Data on mine production, waste, pollution and consumption of water and energy are widely lacking," which can obscure illegal extraction, writes Victor Maus & Tim Werner in Nature www.nature.com/articles/d41... #darkdata

Uncounted vertically migrating fish may play an important role in stabilizing the climate, writes Moira Donovan in Wired www.wired.com/story/all-th... #darkdata

Since 1990, FEMA "no longer publishes countrywide assessments of risks from nuclear attacks," thereby underappreciating alarming impacts of fallout, writes Sébastien Philippe in Scientific American www.scientificamerican.com/article/who-... #darkdata

Breaches of third party data, particularly that of vulnerable populations in conflict and refugee contexts, remain a risk because organizations fail to appreciate the unique challenges of anthroencryption darkdataproject.org/anthroencryp...