Science in the News
- Health & Medicine
A COVID-19 vaccine may come soon. Will the blistering pace backfire?
Speed is essential, but not at the expense of safety and efficacy, experts warn. Sacrificing either could damage public trust.
- Science & Society
There’s little evidence showing which police reforms work
When stories of police violence against civilians capture public attention, reforms follow despite a dearth of hard data quantifying their impact.
By Sujata Gupta - Health & Medicine
What you need to know about the airborne transmission of COVID-19
More than 200 experts have implored the World Health Organization to acknowledge that the coronavirus can spread through the air.
- Health & Medicine
How making a COVID-19 vaccine confronts thorny ethical issues
COVID-19 vaccines will face plenty of ethical questions. Concerns arise long before anything is loaded into a syringe.
- Health & Medicine
Why COVID-19 is both startlingly unique and painfully familiar
As doctors and patients learn more about the wide range of COVID-19 symptoms, the coronavirus is proving both novel and recognizable.
- Health & Medicine
Why scientists say wearing masks shouldn’t be controversial
New data suggest that cloth masks work to reduce coronavirus cases, though less well than medical masks.
- Health & Medicine
Preventing dangerous blood clots from COVID-19 is proving tricky
Clinical trials of blood-clotting drugs have begun in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, as excessive clotting remains a complication of the disease.
- Health & Medicine
How often do asymptomatic people spread the coronavirus? It’s unclear
A WHO official said people without COVID-19 symptoms rarely spread the virus, but there’s a lot that researchers don’t yet understand.
- Science & Society
What the 1960s civil rights protests can teach us about fighting racism today
Princeton political scientist Omar Wasow talks about how his research into violent versus nonviolent protests applies to the current moment.
By Sujata Gupta - Health & Medicine
What parents need to know about kids in the summer of COVID-19
So far, evidence suggests children don’t often get severely ill from COVID-19, but there’s more to learn about their role in its spread.
- Life
More ‘murder hornets’ are turning up. Here’s what you need to know
Two more specimens of the world’s largest hornet have just been found in North America.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
Is the coronavirus mutating? Yes. But here’s why you don’t need to panic
Some studies claim there are new strains of the coronavirus, but lab experiments are needed to see if mutations are changing how it infects cells.