Science & Society
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
50 years ago, Mauna Kea opened for astronomy. Controversy continues
Current plans to build a new telescope on the volcano sparked the latest conflict.
- 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.
- Life
Wild bees add about $1.5 billion to yields for just six U.S. crops
Native bees help pollinate blueberries, cherries and other crops on commercial farms.
- Plants
This parasitic plant consists of just flashy flowers and creepy suckers
With only four known species, Langsdorffia are thieves stripped down to their essentials.
- Animals
How Yellowstone wolves got their own Ancestry.com page
Since the wolves’ reintroduction to the park, 25 years of devoted watching has chronicled bold moves, big fights and lots of puppies.
- Science & Society
College biology textbooks still portray a world of white scientists
Despite recent efforts to include more women and people of color, it will be decades — or even centuries — before textbooks reflect student diversity.
- Humans
Competitive hot dog eaters may be nearing humans’ max eating speed
Just how many hot dogs can one human eat in 10 minutes? New research suggests the answer is 83.
- 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.
- Science & Society
All kinds of outbreaks, from COVID-19 to violence, share the same principles
Adam Kucharski talks about his new book ‘The Rules of Contagion,’ a timely read during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Space
Self-destructive civilizations may doom our search for alien intelligence
A lack of signals from space may also be bad news for Earthlings.
- Science & Society
The U.S. largely wasted time bought by COVID-19 lockdowns. Now what?
As states reopen, most don’t have adequate systems in place to test, trace and isolate new COVID-19 cases, setting the stage for future outbreaks.
- 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.
