Face masks like these, modeled by students from the Peltier Aerosol Lab, vary widely in effectiveness against fine particle pollution.
Richard E. Peltier
Inexpensive cloth face masks, worn by many people in heavily polluted countries, offer only partial protection. Instead governments should warn people to avoid exposure and work to clear the air.
Helmets like this that absorb impact are used in the NFL, but not in high school.
REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
As many as half a million concussions in youth go unreported each year. Finding a way to measure whether a hit has occurred on the field is an important way to address these injuries.
Some Americans are fearful of allowing Syrians to resettle in the U.S.
REUTERS/Drew Nash
The US has met its goal for resettling Syrian refugees in 2016, and will aim to take in 110,000 more in 2017. A migration expert examines whether fears of their arrival are well founded.
The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, is one of the few remnants of America’s mid-20th century motel boom.
Library of Congress
As deadlines loom large for Congress, is there any hope for avoiding gridlock? A political scientist examines one common, informal way members build relationships across the aisle.
Natural soaps without antibiotics may be better for you than ones with triclosan.
From www.shutterstock.com
The FDA banned the use of 19 antiseptics in hand soaps, saying that the soaps’ makers had not shown that the chemicals did any good. Here’s why the chemicals actually might have been doing harm.
Teams collaborate to attack each other’s systems, and simultaneously defend their own.
CSAW
By 2020, the cybersecurity industry will need 1.5 million more workers than will be qualified for jobs. What’s the solution? Getting high school and college students excited about the industry.
It’s not just you suffering from overcooled offices.
cold office worker from www.shutterstock.com
Researchers have found large achievement gaps in science in kindergarten. However, these can change significantly in subsequent years.
‘Feeling great!’ Clinton puts on a brave face for reporters a few hours after leaving a 9/11 commemoration because she felt ‘overheated.’
REUTERS/Brian Snyder
The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership has its share of boosters and bashers. But for those still uncertain what it’s all about and whether it’s worth it, here’s a primer.
Most cases of Zika are asymptomatic.
Airman Magazine/U.S. Air Force Photo/Tech. Sgt. Brandon Shapiro/Flickr
A computer model suggests that while more cases of Zika can be expected in the continental U.S. outbreaks will probably be small and are not projected to spread.
French policemen investigating the abandonment of a car packed with gas cylinders near Paris’s Notre Dame cathedral.
REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
The recent arrest of female terrorists in France brought attention to the role women play in IS. A group of American academics studied this issue – with a surprising result.
Smokers not only pay a lot of money for cigarettes but also for their health insurance.
www.shutterstock.com
To discourage smoking, insurance companies charge higher premiums for smokers. This is having an unexpected consequence: rather than quit smoking, poor people are quitting insurance.
Should a future parent consider the impact more people will have on the Earth?
child via www.shutterstock.com
A philosopher of ‘procreation ethics’ at the center of a controversy over having kids explains why we can’t ignore the population question in an era of climate change.
Public park in Manhattan, home to a rat population with over 100 visible burrows.
Dr. Michael H. Parsons
Rats foul our food, spread disease and damage property, but we know very little about them. A biologist explains how he tracks wild rats in New York City, and what he’s learned about them so far.
For decades, the Miss America pageant had excluded minorities while celebrating a very narrow definition of womanhood. Then two separate protests – a women’s liberation picket and the lesser-known Miss Black America pageant – said ‘enough is enough.’
Flashbulb memories of 9/11 are more vivid than ordinary memories, but no more accurate.
Shannon Stapleton
We may feel like flashbulb memories of dramatic events are more accurate than ordinary memories, but are they really? An experiment begun Sept. 12, 2001 sheds light.
Collective trauma: A boy walks among some of the 3,000 flags placed in memory of the lives lost in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Jim Young/Reuters