People with COVID-19 who arrive at the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City to search for treatment can choose from a menu of clinical trials, carefully presented by a worker trained to offer an unbiased portrait of the potential risks and benefits. But neurologist Sergio Iván Valdés-Ferrer already knows […]
The role of technology in tracking the spread of COVID-19 continues to expand, along with global efforts to flatten the curve and arrive at solutions. But some question if technology will go too far in keeping us safe. Many tout tracking apps as successful and critical in stemming the tide in countries like China, South […]
Originally published in December 1958 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “Can teaching be mechanized? B. F. Skinner, professor of psychology at Harvard University, believes that it must be, if the rising worldwide demand for education is to be met. He has designed and built a number of ‘teaching machines’ which not only present material to the […]
We know how the COVID-19 pandemic began: Bats near Wuhan, China, hold a mix of coronavirus strains, and sometime last fall one of the strains, opportunistic enough to cross species lines, left its host or hosts and ended up in a person. Then it was on the loose. What no one knows yet is how […]
In an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, schools around the country have closed. We’ve experienced expected consequences: students falling behind academically, and parents who can’t get work done because of screaming kids. But there’s a scarier issue at play here. When kids are at home, they go online, and online child predators are going […]
In late February, when the stock market was beginning to fall over coronavirus fears, President Donald Trump held a briefing at the White House to reassure people that there was little chance of the virus causing significant disruption in the United States. “I want you to understand something that shocked me when I saw it,” […]
Guest host Wayt Gibbs talks with Jason Wright, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University’s Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds about what’s known as the Fermi Paradox: in a universe of trillions of planets, where is everybody? Source link
The U.S. could save more than $1 trillion over the long term by removing roughly 1 million homes from flood-prone areas and relocating residents to higher ground, according to a massive new study funded by the government. The 658-page report suggests that modest government programs to buy and raze houses in flood zones should be greatly expanded […]
Here’s what I’ve learned as an oceangoing research scientist — Read more on ScientificAmerican.com Source link
In the pitch-black darkness, sitting on the forest floor with our bodies so close that we touch, we sing, each voice producing a different yodeled melody to create a densely overlapping harmony. As the hours pass, individual melodies melt into one another, and we begin to lose ourselves in the human and acoustic tapestry we […]