Science & Society

  1. Health & Medicine

    Florence Nightingale understood the power of visualizing science

    Florence Nightingale showed simple sanitation measures could stop infectious diseases’ spread, a timely message given the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

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  2. Psychology

    A simple exercise on belonging helps black college students years later

    Black college freshmen who did a one-hour training on belonging reported higher professional and personal satisfaction years later.

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  3. Humans

    It’s time to stop debating how to teach kids to read and follow the evidence

    Most children need help learning to read, but there’s long-standing disagreement on how best to help them. Decades of research have identified the most effective approaches.

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  4. Environment

    50 years ago, American waterways were getting more protections

    A 1970 bill that became the Clean Water Act helped to double the number of U.S. waterbodies clean enough for swimming and fishing. In January, the U.S. administration changed how waters were defined, effectively removing those protections for half the country’s wetlands.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Why African-Americans may be especially vulnerable to COVID-19

    African-Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19 than white Americans, data show. Experts blame long-standing health disparities.

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  6. Science & Society

    How materials science has changed humankind — for better and worse

    As people began wielding new materials, the technologies fundamentally changed humankind, the new book ‘The Alchemy of Us’ argues.

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  7. Science & Society

    The U.S. has resisted the metric system for more than 50 years

    Australia adopted the metric system 50 years ago. The United States tried by passing legislation for a voluntary conversion that was largely ignored.

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  8. Health & Medicine

    How coronavirus control measures could affect its global death toll

    Slowing the virus’ spread will save millions of lives, but differences among countries could vary the pandemic’s toll in different places.

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  9. Climate

    These women endured a winter in the high Arctic for citizen science

    Two women have spent the winter on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to collect data for climate scientists around the world.

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  10. Physics

    Einstein’s letters illuminate a mind grappling with quantum mechanics

    The latest volume of Einstein’s papers covers the infancy of quantum mechanics and new challenges to the theory of relativity.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Face mask shortages have sparked creative solutions. Will they work?

    Homemade masks, reusing masks and even scuba gear are some of the ideas for dealing with health care workers’ lack of supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    When will the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing end?

    Social distancing may have to continue for months to prevent a resurgence of COVID-19. Wider testing and isolation of cases could ease such measures.

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