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What's in that wildfire smoke, and why is it so bad for your lungs?

  • Written by: Luke Montrose, Assistant Professor of Community and Environmental Health, Boise State University
imageThe health impact of wildfire exposure depends in part on the fire itself and how much smoke a person breathes in, how often and for how long.AP Photos/Noah Berger

If I dare to give the coronavirus credit for anything, I would say it has made people more conscious of the air they breathe.

A friend texted me this week after going for a jog in the...

Read more: What's in that wildfire smoke, and why is it so bad for your lungs?

9 reasons you can be optimistic that a vaccine for COVID-19 will be widely available in 2021

  • Written by: William Petri, Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia
imageExperts are confident that there will be a vaccine next year. PenWin /iStock / Getty Images Plus

As fall approaches rapidly, many are wondering if the race for a vaccine will bear fruit as early as January 2021.

I am a physician-scientist and infectious diseases specialist at the University of Virginia, where I care for patients and conduct...

Read more: 9 reasons you can be optimistic that a vaccine for COVID-19 will be widely available in 2021

Belarus, explained: How Europe's last dictator could fall

  • Written by: Tatsiana Kulakevich, Lecturer and Research Fellow at USF Institute on Russia, University of South Florida
imageDeploying riot police to suppress peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Belarus turned more people against the country's autocratic leader. AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File

Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko has a reputation as a master tactician. It is well-earned: Since 1994, he has balanced the former Soviet state’s relations with...

Read more: Belarus, explained: How Europe's last dictator could fall

Police solve just 2% of all major crimes

  • Written by: Shima Baughman, Professor of Criminal Law, University of Utah
imageResearch shows that arrests for serious crimes are quite rare.Blake Nissen for The Boston Globe via Getty Images

As Americans across the nation protest police violence, people have begun to call for cutsor changes in public spending on police. But neither these nor otherproposed reforms address a key problem with solving crimes.

My recent review of...

Read more: Police solve just 2% of all major crimes

A potential new weapon in the fight against COVID-19: Food coloring

  • Written by: Young Kim, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University
imageOrdinary food coloring suspended in tiny droplets in the air can generate oxygen free radicals that collide with airborne virus particles.wwing/iStock/Getty Images Plus

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

The big idea

Our biomedical engineering lab has developed a way to potentially neutralize viruses lingering in the...

Read more: A potential new weapon in the fight against COVID-19: Food coloring

Yes, God can be hurt, but not in the way Trump claims, according to theologians

  • Written by: Sameer Yadav, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Westmont College
imageGod creating night and day.Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

President Trump claimed recently that the prospect of a Biden presidency would “hurt God.”

More specifically, he said, Biden would be “following the radical left agenda, take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt...

Read more: Yes, God can be hurt, but not in the way Trump claims, according to theologians

I prepare aspiring teachers to educate kids of color – here's how I help them root out their own biases

  • Written by: Lasana D. Kazembe, Assistant Professor, IUPUI
imageThe vast majority of K-12 teachers are white. SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images

I’m a professor who has spent the last 10 years preparing new teachers to enter the workforce. I also study how race, culture and power influence education and childhood development at a time when more than half of the roughly 50 million children who attend U.S....

Read more: I prepare aspiring teachers to educate kids of color – here's how I help them root out their own...

Schools looking for space could turn to churches to host classes – doing so has a rich history

  • Written by: Andrew Barnes, Professor of History and Religious Studies, Arizona State University
imageChildren evacuated from U.K. cities in WWII were taught in churches.Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Could places of worship ease the burden of schools looking to reopen while giving students space to social distance? It might not be such an outlandish suggestion.

With space at a premium and places of worship still empty amid concerns of coronavirus...

Read more: Schools looking for space could turn to churches to host classes – doing so has a rich history

Here's how to talk to vaccine skeptics so they might actually hear you

  • Written by: Erica Weintraub Austin, Professor and Director, Edward R. Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research, Washington State University
imageAnti-vaccination supporters in Olympia, Wash., protesting the state's stay-at-home orders. Jason Redmond/Getty Images

An estimated 24,000 to 62,000 people died from the flu in the United States during the 2019-20 flu season. And that was a relatively mild flu season, which typically starts in October and peaks between December and February.

The lat...

Read more: Here's how to talk to vaccine skeptics so they might actually hear you

The risk of preterm birth rises near gas flaring, reflecting deep-rooted environmental injustices in rural America

  • Written by: Jill Johnston, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California
imageNew research found a significantly higher risk of preterm births near gas flaring in Texas, particularly among Latinas. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Through the southern reaches of Texas, communities are scattered across a flat landscape of dry brush lands, ranches and agricultural fields. This large rural region near the U.S.-Mexico border is known...

Read more: The risk of preterm birth rises near gas flaring, reflecting deep-rooted environmental injustices...

More Articles …

  1. How to talk to vaccine skeptics so they might actually hear you
  2. What happens when COVID-19 and influenza collide? Can hospitals handle the strain?
  3. Before 'Coup 53,' the US and Iran were old friends
  4. Families can support kids' mental health whether they're learning remotely or at school – here's how
  5. Getting a flu shot this year is more important than ever because of COVID-19
  6. Sketchy darknet websites are taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic – buyer beware
  7. Cloth masks do protect the wearer – breathing in less coronavirus means you get less sick
  8. What will student protests look like when classes are online?
  9. A little-known technology change will make video streaming cheaper and pave the way for higher quality
  10. Ancient cancel cultures: The defacement of statues in America replicates a tradition going back millennia
  11. Suffragists used hunger strikes as a powerful tool of resistance – a tactic still employed by protesters 100 years on
  12. Biden's long foreign-policy record signals how he'll reverse Trump, rebuild old alliances and lead the pandemic response
  13. Las pruebas de detección rápida del COVID-19 pueden ayudar a frenar la pandemia
  14. How dangerous heat waves can kill
  15. How to make sure your vote counts in November
  16. A dismantled post office destroys more than mail service
  17. Kids are bigger coronavirus spreaders than many doctors realized – here’s how schools can lower the risk
  18. Oleandrin is a deadly plant poison, not a COVID-19 cure
  19. Nature and nurture both contribute to gender inequality in leadership – but that doesn't mean patriarchy is forever
  20. Hagia Sophia has been converted back into a mosque, but the veiling of its figural icons is not a Muslim tradition
  21. Black and Latino essential workers experience greater safety concerns than their white counterparts
  22. Amid partisan fight over Postal Service's future, its past reveals a common bond that helped stamp an identity on America
  23. 'Historic' Israel deal won't likely bring peace to the Middle East
  24. Pandemic alters political conventions – which have always changed with the times
  25. 3 ways to get kids to tune in and pay attention when schools go virtual
  26. The ethical case for allowing medical trials that deliberately infect humans with COVID-19
  27. In the work-from-home battle for space, women are the reluctant nomads
  28. Changing the Federal Reserve mandate could provide a down payment to ending racial inequality
  29. Poets and novelists have been writing about life under COVID-19 for more than a century
  30. 5 reasons to let students keep their cameras off during Zoom classes
  31. Racism linked to cognitive decline in African American women
  32. Hit ’em where it hurts – how economic threats are a potent tool for changing people's minds about the Confederate flag
  33. A rush is on to mine the deep seabed, with effects on ocean life that aren't well understood
  34. Diversity pledges alone won't change corporate workplaces – here's what will
  35. How one community improved COVID-19 nursing home care with collaboration and communication
  36. Rapid screening tests that prioritize speed over accuracy could be key to ending the coronavirus pandemic
  37. Political forecast models aren't necessarily more accurate than polls – or the weather
  38. Tweets show what hinders reports of sexual assault and harassment on campus – and why the new federal Title IX rules may be a step back
  39. The COVID-19 virus can spread through the air – here's what it'll take to detect the airborne particles
  40. Honey bees can't practice social distancing, so they stay healthy in close quarters by working together
  41. Israel suspends formal annexation of the West Bank, but its controversial settlements continue
  42. The US economy is reliant on consumer spending – can it survive a pandemic?
  43. Almost half of US teens who date experience stalking and harassment
  44. La venta callejera hace más vivas, seguras y justas las ciudades, por eso pertenece a la escena urbana post-COVID-19
  45. After the civil rights era, white Americans failed to support systemic change to end racism. Will they now?
  46. What should replace Confederate statues?
  47. The pandemic has affected millions with other illnesses – here's how it affected a health professor's struggle with bulimia
  48. Political trolls adapt, create material to deceive and confuse the public
  49. Why does some rain fall harder than other rain?
  50. Up to 204,691 extra deaths in the US so far in this pandemic year