The medical mystery of airborne viruses (Wired)
by Megan Molteni
Why did it take so long for authorities to recognize that COVID-19 is airborne? The answer involves a sixty-year-old mistake and an intrepid team of researchers who sussed it out.

The danger of a lost summer (Vox)
by Anna North
Worries about a “lost year” in education have some educators scrambling to teach kids over the summer. But a traditional summer school experience might keep them from some of the most important things summer vacation has to offer.

What Richard Wright means to us now (The New Yorker)
by Lauren Michele Jackson
A newly published “lost” novel by Richard Wright depicts brutal police violence that might seem ripped from today’s headlines. But it also reveals how Wright’s thought failed to fit into the neat “race author” box he was placed in during his life.

Why feed the animals? (The New York Times)
by James Gorman
From monks sharing fish with cats to ladies throwing tea parties for chimps at the zoo, humans just love feeding animals. But scientists have never spent much time trying to figure out why—until now.

Pipeline hacks and grid hacks (Gizmodo)
by Brian Kahn
The disruption of the Colonial Pipeline by hackers might convince some people that electric cars are a safer bet than relying on gas. But electric charging stations, and the whole electric grid, need to be ready to handle disruptions of their own.

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