When manufacturing jobs disappear, what are the best ways to help unemployed workers?
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
A White House decision to take over collection of COVID-19 data from the CDC sparked worries over political interference. A public data expert talks about the importance of transparent public data.
Framing cats as responsible for declines in biodiversity is based on faulty scientific logic and fails to account for the real culprit – human activity.
Test positivity rates measure the success of a testing program. Even though the US performs a huge number of tests, high test positivity rates across the country show that that it still isn't enough.
Private mode browsing is a useful way to cover your online tracks. Just don't read too much into the word 'private.'
This insect's unique reproductive biology could lead to new ways to control the species in the environment – and prevent the deadly sleeping sickness it spreads to people.
This summer, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is taking the next giant leap in our search for signs of life beyond Earth.
Avoiding drones' prying eyes can be as complicated as donning a high-tech hoodie and as simple as ducking under a tree.
A Kentucky museum tells the history of the universe according to the Bible in an effort to debunk evolution. Its owner, the Christian group Answers in Genesis, promotes right-wing political causes.
Online sleuthing and deductive reasoning identifies what appears to be the only existent portrait painted of the celebrated scientist during his lifetime.
A new study estimates that $22 billion to $30 billion dollars per year needs to be spent to maintain forests and reduce the likelihood of a pathogen jumping from wildlife to humans.
EVs will have lower sticker prices than gas vehicles when batteries are cheaper. Getting there comes down to knowing where to cut costs.
Visualizations can help you understand data better – but they can also confuse or mislead. Here, some tips on what to watch out for.
COVID-19
Some viruses can hide out in the body and reemerge at later times. Which viruses do this, and can the new coronavirus do this too?
A new study not only shows that the malarial drug chloroquine doesn't block SARS-CoV-2 from infecting lung cells, but also explains why.
Curious Kids
Your faithful friend's view of the world is different than yours, but maybe not in the way you imagine.
Physicists can use bright, hot lasers to slow atoms down so much that they measure -459 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gene-editing people
Scientists worldwide are calling for a moratorium on gene editing in germline cells. But what is a germline cell? How does it differ from other cells in our body? Why does it matter if we edit them?
Kinases are cellular control switches. When they malfunction, they can cause cancer. The coronavirus hijacks these kinases to replicate, and cancer drugs that target them could fight COVID-19.
Duckweed is the perfect space food: small, fast-growing and nutritious. By studying how light levels changed the production of radiation-fighting antioxidants, researchers made it even better.
Seventy-five years after the first nuclear detonation and nearly 30 years since testing was banned, the US is considering resuming live nuclear testing.
Gene drive guarantees that a trait will be passed to the next generation. But should society use this tool to control insect populations?
A new country launches a mission to Mars. A space expert explains what this means for the Middle East and the African continent.
Why are scientists trying to grow organs at the International Space Station? People live on Earth not in zero-gravity. A stem cell expert explains why it is useful to do these experiments in space.
Inventors in states with more socially liberal laws on the books end up with more diverse collaborators – and more higher-impact patents.
The COVID-19 death toll in the US is now over 130,000. What do 130,000 fatalities look like? A biostatistician provides some perspective.
Brains recognize a smell based on which cells fire, in what order – the same way you recognize a song based on its pattern of notes. How much can you change the 'tune' and still know the smell?
Effective national leadership and trust in government appear to be prerequisites for countries to achieve widespread digital contact tracing.
Is it possible that people who recover from COVID-19 will be plagued with long term side effects from the infection? An infectious disease physician reviews the evidence so far.
There's no scientific definition for a wave of disease – and no evidence that the original onslaught of coronavirus in the US has receded much at all.
Eyewitness testimony can hold a lot of weight with jurors. But eyewitnesses aren't always right, and poor investigative practices can make matters worse.
The success of the smallpox vaccine was far from guaranteed when Edward Jenner first published his treatise in late 18th century. A curator of the book talks about what we can learn from it today.
Wild dolphins are fast, smart and hard to study, but it is important to understand how human actions affect their health. So we are building a drone to sample hormones from the blowholes of dolphins.
Most Read past week
- Does coronavirus linger in the body? What we know about how viruses in general hang on in the brain and testicles
- Why hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine don’t block coronavirus infection of human lung cells
- Apollo 11 brought a message of peace to the Moon - but Neil and Buzz almost forgot to leave it behind
- Don’t blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic
- How to hide from a drone – the subtle art of ‘ghosting’ in the age of surveillance
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