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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Particle Physics
How matter’s hidden complexity unleashed the power of nuclear physics
In the last century, physicists learned to split atomic nuclei and revealed a complex world of fundamental particles.
- Health & Medicine
How 5 universities tried to handle COVID-19 on campus
U.S. colleges opened in the fall with a patchwork of control measures to keep COVID-19 at bay.
- Physics
Explore every gravitational wave event spotted so far
This interactive visualization reveals the diversity of smashups that generate gravitational waves.
- Science & Society
These 6 graphs show that Black scientists are underrepresented at every level
In the U.S., Black people are underrepresented in STEM fields, both as students and in the workforce.
- Health & Medicine
Coronavirus shutdowns don’t need to be all or nothing
Governments are implementing more targeted restrictions like limiting restaurant capacity to slow a fall surge. Research suggests they could work.
- Animals
Cheap, innovative venom treatments could save tens of thousands of snakebite victims
Momentum is building to finally tackle a neglected health problem that strikes poor, rural communities.
- Health & Medicine
Five big questions about when and how to open schools amid COVID-19
Researchers weigh in on how to get children back into classrooms in a low-risk way.
- Health & Medicine
COVID-19 case clusters offer lessons and warnings for reopening
As restaurants, offices and other businesses open, trends in where and how COVID-19 transmission is happening could help guide re-entry strategies.
- 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.
- Science & Society
How the U.S. census has measured race over 230 years
As the U.S. census gets under way, a review of historical data shows the difficulties in measuring race
- Science & Society
To fight discrimination, the U.S. census needs a different race question
Asking about race on the U.S. census can help identify discrimination against minority groups. But sociologists say the question needs a makeover.
- Planetary Science
Apollo astronauts left trash, mementos and experiments on the moon
Here’s what planetary scientists are learning from the remains of Apollo outposts, and how archeologists hope to preserve it.
