The Conversation

The impulse to garden in hard times has deep roots

Written by Jennifer Atkinson, Senior Lecturer, Environmental Studies, University of Washington

During coronavirus lockdowns, gardens have served as an escape from feelings of alienation.Richard Bord/Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic has set off a global gardening boom.

In the early days of lockdown, seed suppliers were depleted of inventory and reported “unprecedented” demand. Within the U.S., the trend has been compared to...

Why the WHO, often under fire, has a tough balance to strike in its efforts to address health emergencies

Written by Andrew Lakoff, Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, right, has his temperature taken as he arrives at Ruhenda airport in Butembo in eastern Congo, June 15, 2019. AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro

The Trump administration recently declared, in the midst of the coronavirus emergency, that it would suspend the United...

Spring signals female bees to lay the next generation of pollinators

Written by Lila Westreich, Ph.D. Candidate, School of Environment and Forest Sciences, University of Washington

Northern amber bumble bee queen (_Bombus borealis_) on a dandelion flower.Sarah A. Johnson, CC BY-ND

The first days of spring – brighter and warmer – are a biological trigger for female bees to wake up from hibernation and begin to build future colonies.

These enormous bees, sometimes two to three times larger than a worker bee, are...

The 'first scientist's 800-year-old tonic for what ails us: The truth

Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

English scientist Roger Bacon believed everyone has a responsibility to think for themselves. Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé, CC BY

It seems that science has been taking a beating lately. From decades of denial by the tobacco industry that smoking causes cancer to more recent attempts to use the COVID-19 pandemic to score pol...

Why are kids asking such big questions during the pandemic?

Written by Jana Mohr Lone, Director of the Center for Philosophy for Children; Affiliate Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Washington

All children harbor intense curiosity.Erdark/Getty Images

Why do people have to die?

Are mistakes always bad?

Can you be happy and sad at the same time?

Kids often ask questions like these that are hard if not impossible to answer. When children raise uncomfortable questions or questions that seem to have no answers, adults tend to respond with...

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

Written by Nevan Krogan, Professor and Director of Quantitative Biosciences Institute & Senior Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, University of California, San Francisco

Testing in cells is an important and exciting first step.elkor/E+ via Getty Images

The more researchers know about how the coronavirus attaches, invades and hijacks human cells, the more effective the search for drugs to fight it. That was the idea my colleagues and I hoped to be true when we began building a map of the coronavirus two months ago....

Why apparel brands' efforts to police their supply chains aren't working

Written by Jason Judd, Executive Director, Cornell Univeristy ILR School New Conversations Project, Cornell University

Consumers don't always know what's behind a label.Wachiwit/Getty Images

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

The big idea

For years, apparel brands have promised to police their supply chains to root out unsafe conditions and worker abuse. But new research from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor...

Coronavirus: Why is it so hard to aid small businesses hurt by a disaster?

Written by Maria K. Watson, Research Assistant Professor in Urban Planning, Texas A&M University

Eric Wang of Burmese Restaurant Thamee in Washington, D.C., was among the millions of small business owners hoping to get SBA aid.Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. government has committed hundreds of billions of dollars to help small businesses weather the coronavirus pandemic. But early reports suggest larger companies are gobbling up...

Infected with the coronavirus but not showing symptoms? A physician answers 5 questions about asymptomatic COVID-19

Written by William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia

Even if you're feeling fine, you might be infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.John Lamparski/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

Blood tests that check for exposure to the coronavirus are starting to come online, and preliminary findings suggest that many people have been infected without knowing it. Even people who do...

Language differences spark fear amid the coronavirus pandemic

Written by Stanley Dubinsky, Professor of Linguistics, University of South Carolina

A Rhode Island National Guardsman and a police officer speak with a man whose car has a New York license plate as part of coronavirus lockdown efforts.AP Photo/David Goldman

As the coronavirus spreads around the globe, it’s being characterized by media and politicians alike as an “invisible enemy.” People are afraid others may...