Along with COVID-19, something else is spreading across America: conspiracy theories. In the dark alleys of the internet, people have concocted a dizzying array of unfounded explanations for the pandemic. The phenomenon doesn’t surprise John Cook, a cognitive scientist at George Mason University: “When people feel threatened, when they feel out of control, when they […]
The world was gaslit by misreporting about George Floyd’s initial autopsy report. As concerned physicians, we write to deconstruct the misinformation and condemn the ways this weaponization of medical language reinforced white supremacy at the torment of Black Americans. Gaslighting is a method of psychological manipulation employed to make a victim question their own sanity, […]
The items below are highlights from the newsletter, “Smart, useful, science stuff about COVID-19.” To receive newsletter issues daily in your inbox, sign-up here. Here’s an illustrated primer on how to hug in ways that reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, featuring the insights of Virginia Tech aerosol scientist Linsey Marr. Marr reportedly thinks that […]
Disclaimer: We are publishing this piece as 500 Women Scientists Leadership to protect the authors, members of 500 Women Scientists, from the career repercussions of authoring an anti-racism piece. That in itself speaks to the very issues we highlight in this article. Amidst #BlackLivesMatter protests and resounding calls for justice, many scientists, academic institutions and […]
Social distancing worries Americans. Yale professor Nicholas Christakis warns that it asks us “to suppress our profoundly human and evolutionarily hard-wired impulses for connection,”for example. And journalist Greg Miller and others cite possible ramifications that include “heart disease, depression, dementia, and even death.” In striking contrast, there has been little talk along these lines in mainland […]
No Man’s Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain’s Most Extraordinary Military Hospital during World War I by Wendy Moore Basic Books, 2020 ($30) When World War I began, the relatively few English women who had medical degrees were effectively blocked from practicing in prominent hospitals and were relegated to low-paying and low-profile positions. Doctors Louisa […]
Since the pandemic began, the question of where the coronavirus came from has been one of the biggest puzzles. It almost certainly originated in bats, and a new study out this week—the most comprehensive analysis of coronaviruses in China—adds further weight to that theory. But the lack of clarity around how the virus passed to […]
The rapid spread of COVID-19 in early 2020 caught many governments unaware and forced them to move rapidly into a crude form of lockdown to curb the spread of the virus, with little time to consider the merits of variants on these basic lockdown strategies. The major concern now, as we “open up” and emerge […]
Communities of color will have fewer ways to protect themselves from pollution and climate change under President Trump’s decision to curtail environmental reviews for infrastructure projects. Citing an economic emergency associated with the coronavirus, Trump yesterday signed an executive order waiving reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act. The law is often used by […]
Originally published in November 1945 Credit: Scientific American Advertisement “War trends as foreseen by General H. H. Arnold include: One, airplanes traveling at supersonic speeds; at such speeds, aerial combat as it is known today would be impossible. Two, development of guided missiles; refinement of their controls could enable exact hits on targets of a […]