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Workers are looking for direction from management – and any map is better than no map

  • Written by Scott F. Latham, Associate Professor of Strategic Management, University of Massachusetts Lowell
imageWorkers need a map to lead them through the crisis. PeopleImages/E+ via Getty Images

Over eight months ago, with haste and necessity, workers and organizations across the globe were thrown into “the great remote work experiment.”

What was arguably an adequate short-term solution is now showing signs of wear and tear: Remote workers are...

Read more: Workers are looking for direction from management – and any map is better than no map

Bitter battles between stinkbugs and carnivorous mice could hold clues for controlling human pain

  • Written by Lauren Koenig, PhD Candidate in Integrative Biology, Michigan State University
imageSmall but fierce: Grasshopper mice can eat prey that are toxic to other mice. Lauren Koenig, CC BY-ND

It’s hard to appreciate the value of pain when we feel it, but most living things would not survive without it. Pain is a signal that something is causing harm to your body and that you need to take action.

One way to learn about pain...

Read more: Bitter battles between stinkbugs and carnivorous mice could hold clues for controlling human pain

Fragments of energy – not waves or particles – may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe

  • Written by Larry M. Silverberg, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, North Carolina State University
imageNew mathematics have shown that lines of energy can be used to describe the universe. zf L/Moment via Getty Images

Matter is what makes up the universe, but what makes up matter? This question has long been tricky for those who think about it – especially for the physicists. Reflecting recent trends in physics, my colleague Jeffrey Eischenand...

Read more: Fragments of energy – not waves or particles – may be the fundamental building blocks of the...

The Electoral College system isn't 'one person, one vote'

  • Written by John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College
imageFlorida voters, like these on Nov. 3, have less influence over the Electoral College than their fellow voters in any other state.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell

When it became clear that President Donald Trump would lose the popular vote in November’s election, questions again arose about the Electoral College, and whether it is fair.

A...

Read more: The Electoral College system isn't 'one person, one vote'

Daily DIY sniff checks could catch many cases of COVID-19

  • Written by John E. Hayes, Professor of Food Science, Penn State
imageSuddenly unable to smell your morning coffee? You likely have COVID-19. Kseniya Ovchinnikova/Moment via Getty Images

Smell loss – called anosmia – is a common symptom of COVID-19. For the past nine months, the two of us – a sensory scientist and an infectious disease epidemiologist – have applied our respective expertise to...

Read more: Daily DIY sniff checks could catch many cases of COVID-19

4 ways to close the COVID-19 racial health gap

  • Written by Tamra Burns Loeb, Adjunct Associate Professor - Interim, UCLA School of Medicine
imageNew strategies are needed to help people of color battle the COVID-19 virus.dmbaker via Getty Images

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the reality that health in the U.S. has glaring racial inequities. Since March, people of color have been more likely to get sick and more likely to die from COVID-19 infection because they have been living and...

Read more: 4 ways to close the COVID-19 racial health gap

Computer science jobs pay well and are growing fast. Why are they out of reach for so many of America's students?

  • Written by Tamara Pearson, Director, Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, Spelman College
imageBlack and Hispanic students are underrepresented in Advanced Placement courses in computer science.Maskot/Getty Images

When it comes to the digital divide, often the focus is on how lack of internet service and basic technology will hurt students’ academic performance. This is particularly true during the pandemic, when most schools are...

Read more: Computer science jobs pay well and are growing fast. Why are they out of reach for so many of...

When can children get the COVID-19 vaccine? 5 questions parents are asking

  • Written by Wesley Kufel, Clinical Assistant Professor, Pharmacy Practice, Binghamton University, State University of New York
imageVaccine testing in children will take several more months.FatCamera via Getty Images

The first U.S. COVID-19 vaccines are expected in clinics in mid-December, and states are drawing up plans for who should get vaccinated first.

But one important group is absent: children.

While two vaccines are expected to be cleared soon for adult use in the U.S.,...

Read more: When can children get the COVID-19 vaccine? 5 questions parents are asking

Can Joe Biden win the transition?

  • Written by John M. Murphy, Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
imagePresident-elect Joe Biden introduces his foreign policy and national security team on Nov. 24 in Wilmington, Del. Mark Makela/Getty Images

Joe Biden won the election, but whether he wins the transition is another question. The peaceful transfer of power always tests an incoming president, but this time promises to be particularly perilous.

The...

Read more: Can Joe Biden win the transition?

In 'The Queen's Gambit' and beyond, chess holds up a mirror to life

  • Written by Jenny Adams, Associate Professor of English, University of Massachusetts Amherst

In the closing sequence of “The Queen’s Gambit,” the chess-playing heroine, Beth Harmon, defeats her archrival Vasily Borgov at the Moscow Invitational. The next day she impulsively skips her flight home to join a group of adoring chess players in what appears to be Moscow’s famous Sokolniki Park. The symbolism of this...

Read more: In 'The Queen's Gambit' and beyond, chess holds up a mirror to life

More Articles ...

  1. The iconic American inventor is still a white male – and that's an obstacle to race and gender inclusion
  2. Nigerians got their abusive SARS police force abolished – but elation soon turned to frustration
  3. The Taliban are megarich – here's where they get the money they use to wage war in Afghanistan
  4. How remote learning is making educational inequities worse
  5. Peatlands keep a lot of carbon out of Earth's atmosphere, but that could end with warming and development
  6. Genetic engineering transformed stem cells into working mini-livers that extended the life of mice with liver disease
  7. We scanned the DNA of 8,000 people to see how facial features are controlled by genes
  8. From permafrost microbes to survivor songbirds – research projects are also victims of COVID-19 pandemic
  9. Substack isn't a new model for journalism – it’s a very old one
  10. New electoral districts are coming – an old approach can show if they're fair
  11. Racism at the county level associated with increased COVID-19 cases and deaths
  12. How sensors monitor and measure our bodies and the world around us
  13. Donors grow more generous when they support nonprofits facing hostile environments abroad
  14. Brazil's president rejects COVID-19 vaccine, undermining a century of progress toward universal inoculation
  15. The Atlantic: The driving force behind ocean circulation and our taste for cod
  16. Why Biden will find it hard to undo Trump's costly 'America first' trade policy
  17. Intimate partner violence has increased during pandemic, emerging evidence suggests
  18. How do archaeologists know where to dig?
  19. I'm an astronomer and I think aliens may be out there – but UFO sightings aren't persuasive
  20. How Hanukkah came to be an annual White House celebration
  21. This DIY contact tracing app helps people exposed to COVID-19 remember who they met
  22. Wisconsin's not so white anymore – and in some rapidly diversifying cities like Kenosha there's fear and unrest
  23. As the pandemic rages, the US could use a little bit more 'samfundssind'
  24. How COVID-19 vaccines will get from the factory to your local pharmacy
  25. How to fight Holocaust denial in social media – with the evidence of what really happened
  26. Trump plan to revive the gallows, electric chair, gas chamber and firing squad recalls a troubled history
  27. What are emergency use authorizations, and do they guarantee that a vaccine or drug is safe?
  28. How TikTok is upending workplace social media policies – and giving us rebel nurses and dancing cops
  29. In a year of Black Lives Matter protests, Dutch wrestle (again) with the tradition of Black Pete
  30. Tiny treetop flowers foster incredible beetle biodiversity
  31. How a flu virus shut down the US economy in 1872 – by infecting horses
  32. What makes the world's biggest surfable waves?
  33. The chattering classes got the 'Hillbilly Elegy' book wrong – and they're getting the movie wrong, too
  34. Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 will have side effects – that's a good thing
  35. How a troop drawdown in Afghanistan signals American weakness and could send Afghan allies into the Taliban's arms
  36. A better way for billionaires who want to make massive donations to benefit society
  37. Cicely was young, Black and enslaved – her death during an epidemic in 1714 has lessons that resonate in today's pandemic
  38. Tribes mount organized responses to COVID-19, in contrast to state and federal governments
  39. AI makes huge progress predicting how proteins fold – one of biology's greatest challenges – promising rapid drug development
  40. The morality of canceling student debt
  41. Global disabilities map visualizes the strength and power of millions of athletes around the world
  42. Socialism is a trigger word on social media – but real discussion is going on amid the screaming
  43. Your brain's built-in biases insulate your beliefs from contradictory facts
  44. Peru's democracy faces greatest trial since Fujimori dictatorship after two presidents are ousted in one week
  45. Rapid COVID-19 tests can be useful – but there are far too few to put a dent in the pandemic
  46. Reckoning with slavery: What a revolt's archives tell us about who owns the past
  47. James Baker's masterful legal strategies won George W. Bush a contested election – unlike Rudy Giuliani's string of losses
  48. NCAA amateurism appears immune to COVID-19 – despite tide in public support for paying athletes having turned
  49. Fences have big effects on land and wildlife around the world that are rarely measured
  50. Nonprofits are struggling to do more with less money, but donors and volunteers can help: 5 questions answered