Will we be surprised again this November the way Americans were on Nov. 9, 2016 when they awoke to learn that reality TV star Donald Trump had been elected president? That outcome defied prognosticators and polls, and even Trump’s own expectation. “Oh, this is gonna be embarrassing,” Trump later recalled he had said at the […]
One of the most impressive, disturbing works of science journalism I’ve encountered is Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, published in 2010. In the book, which I review here, award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker presents evidence that medications for mental illness, over time and in […]
1970 Sweet Suburbia “Massive movement from central cities to their suburbs, a population boom in the West and Southwest, and a lower rate of population growth in the 1960’s than in the 1950’s are the findings that stand out in the preliminary results of the 1970 Census as issued by the U.S. Bureau of the […]
Every time I log onto Facebook, I brace myself. My newsfeed—like everyone else’s I know—is filled with friends, relatives and acquaintances arguing about COVID-19, masks and Trump. Facebook has become a battleground among partisan “echo chambers.” But what is it about social media that makes people so polarized? To find out, my colleagues and I […]
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett raised a remarkable question among legal experts when she declined to affirm the presence of rising temperatures and their human-driven causes. Would acknowledging climate change jeopardize her ability to appear impartial when overseeing cases involving global warming? The facts of climate change are well-established, and some experts note that […]
Wild animals are equipped with a variety of techniques to avoid becoming lunch for a bigger, toothier animal. The most well-known methods include the classic “fight” and “flight,” as well as “freeze”. A team of researchers wondered how proximity to people might impact those survival strategies. “We often see that animals are more tolerant around […]
In this time-lapse video, mathematicians at New York University immersed a block of blue candy in water and filmed it as it dissolved. The candy surface sunk unevenly as some areas melted faster than others, creating ever sharper and longer shards. Eventually the forest of candy spikes toppled as each “tree” fell. The researchers were […]
The items below are highlights from the free newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here. Are you in need of a “dose of optimism” about the pandemic, at least in the U.S.? Check out this 10/12/20 story at The New York Times by by Donald […]
During a press conference in early September, President Donald Trump was asked when he thought a vaccine for COVID-19 might become available. His prediction was upbeat: “We’re going to have a vaccine very soon,” Trump said. “Maybe even before a very special day—you know what day I’m talking about.” Trump was referring, of course, to […]
The state of Maine has the nation’s oldest population, with an average age of 45.1 versus 38.5 for the U.S. overall. It is also among the country’s poorest. Fewer than one third of residents hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. Yet despite these risk factors, Maine has a remarkably low prevalence of COVID-19: at last […]