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Skipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better alternatives

  • Written by James D. Kirylo, Professor of Education, University of South Carolina
Not in 2020.Compassionate Eye Foundation/Robert Daly/OJO Images/Getty Images

The Education Department is letting states cancel standardized tests. The move is a practical one: School buildings across the nation are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, even though distance learning efforts are widespread.

As a result, 2020 is the first year...

Read more: Skipping standardized tests in 2020 may offer a chance to find better alternatives

Virtual reality campus visits let students connect with colleges during COVID-19

  • Written by Carol Cutler White, Assistant Professor of Community College Leadership, Mississippi State University
Goggles let students visit college campuses without having to travel.Person County Schools, CC BY-ND

When I first envisioned a phone app to replace the physical college campus tour, it was a way to enable rural students and those who aren’t wealthy to visit campuses without having to travel to get there. As state director of a federally...

Read more: Virtual reality campus visits let students connect with colleges during COVID-19

Coronavirus tests are pretty accurate, but far from perfect

  • Written by Maureen Ferran, Associate Professor of Biology, Rochester Institute of Technology
Rapid blood tests for coronavirus could fill a large gap in knowledge. Taechit Taechamanodom/Moment via Getty Images

Widespread testing for the SARS-CoV-2 virus is important to both slow the virus and gain information about how widespread it is in the U.S. But a second aspect of testing has gotten less attention: accuracy.

It’s surprisingly...

Read more: Coronavirus tests are pretty accurate, but far from perfect

Yes, websites really are starting to look more similar

  • Written by Sam Goree, PhD Student in Informatics, Indiana University
There's a creeping conformity taking place on the web.Mint Images via Getty Images

Over the past few years, articles and blog posts have started to ask some version of the same question: “Why are all websites starting to look the same?”

These posts usually point out some common design elements, from large images with superimposed text,...

Read more: Yes, websites really are starting to look more similar

How does a baby 'breathe' while inside its mom?

  • Written by Julie Pollock, Associate Professor of Chemistry, University of Richmond
Her deep breath has to get to the baby.electravk/Moment via Getty Images

“Mothering” is synonymous with “nurturing,” probably because moms start providing for their kids even before they’re born.

A fetus relies on its mother to provide all the essentials. The placenta is key here; this organ develops in the uterus and...

Read more: How does a baby 'breathe' while inside its mom?

Teenagers reveal what they really think of Donald Trump

  • Written by Aaron Metzger, Associate Professor of Psychology, West Virginia University
President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally in February.Mario Tama/Getty Images

Teenagers in the United States are informed about their political world and capable of effectively evaluating political leaders, including President Donald Trump.

This statement runs counter to stereotypes that adults tend to hold about teens. Ask most adults to...

Read more: Teenagers reveal what they really think of Donald Trump

Both conservatives and liberals want a green energy future, but for different reasons

  • Written by Deidra Miniard, PhD Student in Environmental Science, Indiana University
Wind turbines in the first rays of sunlight at the Saddleback Ridge Wind Project in Carthage, Maine, March 20, 2019.AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Political divisions are a growing fixture in the United States today, whether the topic is marriage across party lines, responding to climate change or concern about coronavirus exposure. Especially in a...

Read more: Both conservatives and liberals want a green energy future, but for different reasons

It’s Hurricane Preparedness Week, and communities aren't ready for both coronavirus and a disaster

  • Written by Mark Abkowitz, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies, Vanderbilt University
It's hard to avoid close contact during a hurricane evacuation and recovery.Mehdi Taamallah/AFP/Getty Images

Hurricane season is only weeks away, and many communities are only now considering how to handle a large-scale disaster on top of the coronavirus pandemic.

Forecasters are warning of a more active than usual Atlantic hurricane season, which...

Read more: It’s Hurricane Preparedness Week, and communities aren't ready for both coronavirus and a disaster

Your genes could determine whether the coronavirus puts you in the hospital – and we're starting to unravel which ones matter

  • Written by Austin Nguyen, PhD Candidate in Computational Biology and Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health & Science University
The relationship between the coronavirus and human genetics is murky. fatido/E+ via Getty Images

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

The big idea

When some people become infected with the coronavirus, they only develop mild or undetectable cases of COVID-19. Others suffer severe symptoms, fighting to breathe on a...

Read more: Your genes could determine whether the coronavirus puts you in the hospital – and we're starting...

The mysterious disappearance of the first SARS virus, and why we need a vaccine for the current one but didn't for the other

  • Written by Marilyn J. Roossinck, Professor of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, Pennsylvania State University
Visitors look at new anti-SARS outfits for medical workers on display Thursday Nov. 6, 2003 in Shanghai, China, as the country braced for a resurgence. The disease never made a comeback.AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

Some people question why the current coronavirus has brought the world to standstill while a previous deadly coronavirus, SARS, did not.

Othe...

Read more: The mysterious disappearance of the first SARS virus, and why we need a vaccine for the current...

More Articles ...

  1. Coronavirus is giving smokers incentive to quit, and social distancing could help them do it
  2. Exercise may help reduce risk of deadly COVID-19 complication: ARDS
  3. Global sea piracy ticks upward, and the coronavirus may make it worse
  4. Activist farmers in Brazil feed the hungry and aid the sick as president downplays coronavirus crisis
  5. Everyday ethics: When should we lift the lockdown?
  6. Coronavirus could revolutionize work opportunities for people with disabilities
  7. A majority of vaccine skeptics plan to refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, a study suggests, and that could be a big problem
  8. Coronavirus medical costs could soar into hundreds of billions as more Americans become infected
  9. We call workers 'essential' – but is that just referring to the work, not the people?
  10. Will we ever be able to shrink and grow stuff?
  11. How people react to the threat of disease could mean COVID-19 is reshaping personalities
  12. How using music to parent can liven up everyday tasks, build family bonds
  13. Leaders' empathy matters in the midst of a pandemic
  14. Pants or no pants? Tips for virtual job interviews from home
  15. EPA decides to reject the latest science, endanger public health and ignore the law by keeping an outdated fine particle air pollution standard
  16. How cafes, bars, gyms, barbershops and other 'third places' create our social fabric
  17. Why offering businesses immunity from coronavirus liability is a bad idea
  18. What are the 'reopen' protesters really saying?
  19. Your guide to the 2020 census questionnaire
  20. The impulse to garden in hard times has deep roots
  21. Why the WHO, often under fire, has a tough balance to strike in its efforts to address health emergencies
  22. Spring signals female bees to lay the next generation of pollinators
  23. The 'first scientist's 800-year-old tonic for what ails us: The truth
  24. Why are kids asking such big questions during the pandemic?
  25. We found and tested 47 old drugs that might treat the coronavirus: Results show promising leads and a whole new way to fight COVID-19
  26. Why apparel brands' efforts to police their supply chains aren't working
  27. Coronavirus: Why is it so hard to aid small businesses hurt by a disaster?
  28. Infected with the coronavirus but not showing symptoms? A physician answers 5 questions about asymptomatic COVID-19
  29. Language differences spark fear amid the coronavirus pandemic
  30. Refugees tell stories of problems – and unity – in facing the coronavirus
  31. How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?
  32. How Apple and Google will let your phone warn you if you've been exposed to the coronavirus
  33. Masks and distancing make it tough for the hard-of-hearing, but here's how to help
  34. Can your community handle a natural disaster and coronavirus at the same time?
  35. Brazilian mystics say they're sent by aliens to 'jump-start human evolution' – but their vision for a more just society is not totally crazy
  36. Endangered tigers face growing threats from an Asian road-building boom
  37. Archaeologists have a lot of dates wrong for North American indigenous history – but we're using new techniques to get it right
  38. Empty pews take a financial toll on many US congregations
  39. I was a nurse on the front lines of Ebola, and I saw that nurses need support for the trauma and pain they experience
  40. Wait times remain stubbornly long in hospital emergency rooms
  41. Top football recruits bring in big money for colleges – COVID-19 could threaten revenue
  42. Are we living in a dystopia?
  43. What does 'survival of the fittest' mean in the coronavirus pandemic? Look to the immune system
  44. As states weigh human lives versus the economy, history suggests the economy often wins
  45. Scientist at work: Trapping urban coyotes to see if they can be 'hazed' away from human neighborhoods
  46. Very good dogs don't necessarily make very good co-workers
  47. Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes
  48. Why are white supremacists protesting to 'reopen' the US economy?
  49. Kids have a right to a basic education, according to a new legal milestone
  50. COVID-19 is a dress rehearsal for entrepreneurial approaches to climate change