"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

"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

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

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

"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

"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