Home DNA testing has made it easy and affordable for millions of people to learn about their ancestry. Now, police are using this genetic information to identify suspects in unsolved crimes.
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Despite privacy concerns over police use of DNA uploaded to ancestry websites, many people are just excited that their genetic material could get a killer off the streets.
Migrant agricultural workers kept out of the US by tough immigration laws are now being replaced by prison labor.
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Stian Rice, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Since Reconstruction, states have leased prisoners to US industries. That diminished in the 20th century, but now it’s resurging, with prisoners leased to harvest food for American consumers.
How many times do you hit snooze before getting out of bed?
DGLimages
You are tired. Would nine more minutes really hurt? Is hitting the snooze button a good idea? Should you just get out of bed? Or is snoozing a sign of a more serious medical issue?
D.C. would likely elect Democratic representatives and senators.
Fang Deng/shutterstock.com
Shobana Shankar, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Nigeria’s highly mobilized efforts to eliminate polio, and even tackle measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases along the way, may have lessons for the US.
Just another American abroad.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko
If headlines about bombings and airplane crashes are making you rethink your international travel plans this summer, a look at how many Americans actually die abroad should set your mind at ease.
Geminid meteors shower downward on a December night in a remote part of Virginia.
Genevieve de Messieres/Shutterstock.com
Every day about 50 tons of rocks from space fall on Earth. An examination of these meteorites has inspired a new theory about how exactly these rocks formed.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signing a bill that virtually outlaws abortion in the state.
Hal Yeager/Alabama Governor's Office via AP
Conservative Christian women have played key roles in the anti-abortion movement for decades, but their contributions are often overlooked in language that focuses on men.
Michael Bloomberg, Robert F. Smith and MacKenzie Bezos are among the big givers making headlines.
AP Photo/Elise Amendola; Reuters/Lucy Nicholson; AP Photo/Dennis Van Tine
David Campbell, Binghamton University, State University of New York
As the debate over what ails philanthropy heats up, the questions are going beyond whether massive charitable donations help or hurt society.
Plastic waste from Australia in Port Klang, Malaysia. Malaysia says it will send back some 3,300 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.
AP Photo/Vincent Thian
A year after China stopped accepting most scrap material exports, other Asian countries are following Beijing’s lead, forcing wealthy nations to find domestic solutions for managing their wastes.
Spider glue is actually a specialized silk protein.
Sarah Stellwagen
The glue that gives spider webs their stickiness is a form of spider silk protein. Researchers can imagine cool uses for a synthetic version – but had to wait for the tricky glue gene to be sequenced.
Antibiotic resistance can spread between microbes within hours.
Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
Ivan Erill, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Resistance to antibiotics is not a new trait, and it is impossible to prevent. But it is possible to avoid its spread.
Students at the Parana Federal University in Curitiba, Brazil, protest planned cuts to federal spending on higher education planned by President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing government, May 30, 2019. The banner reads ‘In defense of education.’
Reuters/Rodolfo Buhrer
Brazil’s new president was elected on promises to radically restructure Brazil. But proposed education spending cuts and curricular changes have students and teachers marching in the streets.
The U.S. Census struggles to accurately count the number of children under 5.
Syda Productions/shutterstock.com
In 2010, approximately 1 million children under the age of 5 were not counted in the census. That meant less state funding for critical services like Early Head Start and SNAP.
Mexican avocados may soon be more expensive in American supermarkets.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Ransomware has crippled governments and companies around the world, encrypting data and demanding payment for the decryption key – though that’s no guarantee of recovering the information.
Lee was able to communicate that disability is a part of humanity – not separate from it.
America's Got Talent/YouTube
Over the past 20 years, Great Lakes water levels have gone from sustained multiyear lows to multiyear highs. Climate change is accelerating the transition between dry phases and wet phases.
Some biologics can cost up to a million dollars for a year’s worth.
Tero Vesalainen
Biologics, therapies made inside or of living cells, are a growing share of pharmaceutical sales. But the cost of these miracle treatments makes them unaffordable for many. New FDA guidance may help.
A new slogan for an old problem.
Photo/Lynne Sladky
Half a century after the federal government voided Jim Crow laws, the criminal justice system still discriminates against African Americans.
Police protect a judicial complex where former FARC rebel leader Seuxis Hernandez was standing trial on May 20, 2019. The former peace negotiator has been arrested on drug charges and is now fighting extradition to the United States.
AP Photo/Ivan Valencia
Colombia’s new president opposes the 2016 peace deal with the FARC guerrillas. As trust between the government and militants erodes, at least 1,700 former insurgents have returned to armed struggle.
Former Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph looks on during an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame in February 2019.
AP Photo/Robert Franklin
Why do female college coaches seem to be held to a different standard than their male counterparts?
Muslim women at a prayer service at a mosque in Redmond, Washington, to mark the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid-al-Fitr in 2016.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Ken Chitwood, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Muslims throughout the world will celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, a celebration at the end of Ramadan. Here’s an introduction to this important feast and its partner, Eid al-Adha.
Archaeological visualization of Angkor Wat at sunset, with site map at upper right.
Tom Chandler, Mike Yeates, Chandara Ung and Brent McKee, Monash University, SensiLab, 2019
Many tourists hold an outdated romanticized image of an abandoned temple emerging from the jungle. But research around Angkor Wat suggests its collapse might be better described as a transformation.
Companies use data to make a portrait of their users.
ImageFlow/shutterstock.com
Big tech companies compete over who can gather the most intelligence on their users. Countries like Russia and China turn this information against their citizens.