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University of Kansas

Since its founding, the University of Kansas has embodied the aspirations and determination of the abolitionists who settled on the curve of the Kaw River in August 1854. Their first goal was to ensure that the new Kansas Territory entered the union as a free state. Another was to establish a university.

Nearly 150 years later, KU has become a major public research and teaching institution of 28,000 students and 2,600 faculty on five campuses (Lawrence, Kansas City, Overland Park, Wichita, and Salina). Its diverse elements are united by their mission to educate leaders, build healthy communities, and make discoveries that change the world.

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Museum specimens are like time capsules from where and when the organisms and their pathogens lived. Ed Maker/The Denver Post via Getty Images

Leprosy-causing bacteria found in armadillo specimens highlight value of museum collections for tracking pathogens

Museum archives hold biological specimens that have been collected over years or even decades. Modern molecular analysis of these collections can reveal information about pathogens and their spread.
The pandemic has made the affordable housing crisis a lot worse, in part by increasing the rate of evictions. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Why building more homes won’t solve the affordable housing problem for the millions of people who need it most

California and other states plan to build more homes in an effort to fix America’s affordable housing problem. But that’s not the main reason housing remains unaffordable for millions of people.
Voting rights activists protest voter restriction laws being passed in states across the country, in Washington, D.C., July 15, 2021. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The first battle in the culture wars: The quality of diversity

Americans tend to think of diversity in demographic terms, but it has a qualitative element to it that reflects a fundamental battle between segregation and integration.
Behind the scenes, natural history museums store biological samples from the field. Ryan Stephens

Museum specimens could help fight the next pandemic – why preserving collections is crucial to future scientific discoveries

Specimen preservation means researchers don’t need to reinvent the wheel each time they ask a new question, making it critical for the advancement of science. But many specimens are discarded or lost.
Small rural hospitals across the country are struggling to find enough space, staff and supplies. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

Rural hospitals are under siege from COVID-19 – here’s what doctors are facing, in their own words

Hospitals are losing staff to quarantines as rural COVID-19 cases rise, and administrators fear flu season will make it worse. And then there’s the politics.
Big education tests come with serious side effects, research shows. YanLev/Shutterstock.com

Large-scale education tests often come with side effects

While large-scale education assessments, such as the PISA, are meant to show how education systems are faring around the world, evidence shows these assessments come with a host of problems.
Dinosaurs had some bad luck, but sooner or later extinction comes for all of us. rawpixel/Unsplash.com

What makes some species more likely to go extinct?

Death is inevitable for individuals and also for species. With help from the fossil record, paleontologists are piecing together what might make one creature more vulnerable than another.
Women protest against child marriage in Albany, New York. AP Photo/Anna Gronewold

Child marriage is still legal in the US

It is possible for minors in all 50 states to get married. A scholar explains the long history of child marriage, mostly of young girls, in the US.

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