NewsPronto

 
Times Advertising


.

The Conversation

Why we didn't get a vaccine by Election Day – but why we may get one soon

  • Written by William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia
imagePfizer stock surged higher on Nov. 9 after the company announced its vaccine is "90% effective" against COVID-19 infections. KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images

A COVID-19 vaccine was not ready before the general election, as many people, including the president, had hoped. But there are promising signs that one may be available soon.

A sparse press...

Read more: Why we didn't get a vaccine by Election Day – but why we may get one soon

Who are patron saints and why do Catholics venerate them?

  • Written by Joanne M. Pierce, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
imageAn image of 15-year-old Carlo Acutis during his beatification ceremony in Assisi, Italy.AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

On Oct. 10, 2020, Carlo Acutis, a computer enthusiast, was beatified and given the title of “Blessed,” in the town of Assisi in Italy. Already, Catholics are calling this 15-year-old video gamer and computer programmer the...

Read more: Who are patron saints and why do Catholics venerate them?

Flaws emerge in modeling human genetic diseases in animals

  • Written by Gage Crump, Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, University of Southern California
imageThis confocal microscope image shows the face of a week-old zebrafish.Peter Fabian and Gage Crump, CC BY-NC

My lab, based at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, uses zebrafish to model human birth defects affecting the face. When I tell people this, they are often skeptical that fish biology has any relevance to human...

Read more: Flaws emerge in modeling human genetic diseases in animals

What the California vote to keep the ban on affirmative action means for higher education

  • Written by Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law and Henry Weihofen Professor, University of New Mexico
imagePublic universities in California cannot consider race in admissions.Mark Ralston / Getty

Editor’s note: On Nov. 3, California voters rejected Proposition 16, a proposed amendment to the California Constitution which would have reinstated affirmative action in the state’s public institutions. Here, Vinay Harpalani, an expert on...

Read more: What the California vote to keep the ban on affirmative action means for higher education

Choosing health insurance is so complicated, 23% of workers with only two choices picked the worse one

  • Written by Trevor Collier, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Dayton
imageEven a binary choice can be hard.rhyman007/E+ via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Almost a quarter of employees faced with the choice of two employer-sponsored health care plans picked the one that left them worse off financially, even though they offered the same non-cost benefits,...

Read more: Choosing health insurance is so complicated, 23% of workers with only two choices picked the worse...

How children with lethal cancers and other incurable illnesses have benefited from the Affordable Care Act – and why they'll suffer if the Supreme Court overturns it

  • Written by Lisa C. Lindley, Associate Professor of Nursing, University of Tennessee
imageRachel Goldman and a child with cancer participate in a fundraiser for childhood cancer research on Nov. 17, 2019 in New York City. Children with cancer face many challenges even when they are not in hospice care.Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Runway Heroes

The Affordable Care Act once again is headed for a date with the Supreme Court, with...

Read more: How children with lethal cancers and other incurable illnesses have benefited from the Affordable...

Before Kamala Harris, many Black women aimed for the White House

  • Written by Sharon Austin, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida
imageHarris isn't actually the first Black woman to run for vice president of the United States.Photo Illustration by Pavlo Conchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The vice president-elect of the United States is the American daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants.

With Joe Biden’s projected presidential win over Donald Trump, Sen....

Read more: Before Kamala Harris, many Black women aimed for the White House

Exoplanets are still out there -- a new model tells astronomers where to look for more using 4 simple variables

  • Written by Daniel Apai, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences, University of Arizona
imageA starchart by Alexander Jamieson from 1822 showing the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster. Cetus is located in the region of the sky known as the Water, along with other watery constellations such as Aquarius, Pisces and Eridanus.Buyenlarge/Getty Images

Only 12 light years from Earth, Tau Ceti is the closest single star similar to the Sun and an...

Read more: Exoplanets are still out there -- a new model tells astronomers where to look for more using 4...

Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence

  • Written by Randy Stein, Assistant Professor of Marketing, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
imageWhen science and anecdote share a podium, you must decide how to value each.Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Conservatives tend to see expert evidence and personal experience as more equally legitimate than liberals, who put a lot more weight on the scientific...

Read more: Conservatives value personal stories more than liberals do when evaluating scientific evidence

Farmers are depleting the Ogallala Aquifer because the government pays them to do it

  • Written by Matthew R Sanderson, Professor of Sociology and Professor of Geography and Geospatial Sciences, Kansas State University
imageA center-pivot sprinkler with precision application drop nozzles irrigates cotton in Texas.USDA NRCS/Wikipedia

A slow-moving crisis threatens the U.S. Central Plains, which grow a quarter of the nation’s crops. Underground, the region’s lifeblood – water – is disappearing, placing one of the world’s major...

Read more: Farmers are depleting the Ogallala Aquifer because the government pays them to do it

More Articles ...

  1. So-called 'Latino vote' is 32 million Americans with diverse political opinions and national origins
  2. The complicated origin of the expression 'peanut gallery'
  3. Why Republicans and others concerned about the economy have reason to celebrate Biden in the White House
  4. Georgia's political shift – a tale of urban and suburban change
  5. Biden wins – experts on what it means for race relations, US foreign policy and the Supreme Court
  6. How votes are counted in Pennsylvania: Changing numbers are a sign of transparency, not fraud, during an ongoing process
  7. Has Donald Trump had his Joe McCarthy moment?
  8. Is democracy sacred?
  9. Job policies that offer generous unemployment benefits create more happiness – for everyone
  10. A skin-eating fungus from Europe could decimate Appalachia's salamanders – but researchers are working to prevent an outbreak
  11. Keep calm and carry on – but how? A psychologist offers 10 tips to manage the uncertainty and stress of election aftermath
  12. COVID-19 reveals how obesity harms the body in real time, not just over a lifetime
  13. Delinquent electric bills from the pandemic are coming due – who will pay them?
  14. How Reagan's notions of a 'good society' resonate with Trump supporters today
  15. Remote education is rife with threats to student privacy
  16. 5 types of misinformation to watch out for while ballots are being counted – and after
  17. Congress could select the president in a disputed election
  18. Trump's Pennsylvania lawsuits invoke Bush v. Gore – but the Supreme Court probably won't decide the 2020 election
  19. 3 scholars explain Senate results in South Carolina, Iowa and Arizona - and what they say about voters
  20. A disputed election delivered 3 governors to Georgia – at the same time
  21. Post-election grief is real, and here are 5 coping strategies – including getting back into politics
  22. Although now required by California law, ethnic studies courses likely to be met with resistance
  23. California voters decide Uber and Lyft drivers are 'contractors' as gig workers continue search for a livable wage
  24. The International Space Station at 20 offers hope and a template for future cooperation
  25. Even if you're asymptomatic, COVID-19 can harm your heart, study shows – here's what student athletes need to know
  26. An embarrassing failure for election pollsters
  27. History tells us that a contested election won't destroy American democracy
  28. Who invented the Electoral College?
  29. 'Rainbow wave' of LGBTQ candidates run and win in 2020 election
  30. A Q A with a historian of presidential polls
  31. 'Wait and see' is an unsatisfying – but accurate – way to present election results
  32. A history of contested presidential elections, from Samuel Tilden to Al Gore
  33. Election night has been a big media event since electric lights first announced the winner in 1892
  34. Death rates have fallen by 18% for hospitalized COVID–19 patients as treatments improve
  35. In supporting same-sex civil unions, Pope Francis is showing how the Catholic definition of what constitutes a family is changing
  36. Only the richest ancient Athenians paid taxes – and they bragged about it
  37. Poor US pandemic response will reverberate in health care politics for years, health scholars warn
  38. In supporting civil unions for same sex couples, Pope Francis is moving Catholics toward a more expansive understanding of family
  39. How schools can reduce parents' anxiety during the pandemic
  40. Magnetism of Himalayan rocks reveals the mountains' complex tectonic history
  41. Feeling disoriented by the election, pandemic and everything else? It's called 'zozobra,' and Mexican philosophers have some advice
  42. The pitfalls of hospitals seeking donations from their rich patients
  43. Why questions (good and bad) matter
  44. Why graduates of elite universities dominate the Time 100 – and what it means for the rest of us
  45. On screen and on stage, disability continues to be depicted in outdated, cliched ways
  46. How tech firms have tried to stop disinformation and voter intimidation – and come up short
  47. A few heavy storms cause a big chunk of nitrogen pollution from Midwest farms
  48. What Day of the Dead tells us about the Aztec philosophy of happiness
  49. What it's like to lose a presidential election
  50. You have rights when you go to vote - and many people are there to help if there's trouble at the polls