This super-tough beetle has lessons for humans (BBC News)
by Helen Briggs
The wonderfully named diabolical ironclad beetle can get run over by a car and still scuttle away. Insect collectors can’t pin it to a board with an ordinary pin. Now, scientists are studying the beetle for ideas on how to make new uncrushable materials.

Where the bois are (Slate)
by Evan Urquhart
From ’90s hip-hop to online spaces for gender-nonconforming people of color, “boi” has had many meanings in many places. Lately, though, it’s been picked up by racist memers. What does it mean to use the word now?

The silent message of a presidential debate (The Conversation)
by Patrick Stewart
From closed eyes to the “lip funneler,” facial expressions during the latest presidential debate can tell us something about the candidates even with the sound turned down.

Why is U.S. midwifery so white? (Nursing Clio)
by P. Mimi Niles and Michelle Drew
For much of U.S. history, midwives, not doctors, were the experts on childbirth—and many of them were Black or immigrant women. So why are 90 percent of the nation’s midwives now white?

Nigerians are fighting for real democracy (The New York Times)
by Eniola Anuoluwapo Soyemi
What’s happening with the uprising against police violence in Nigeria? It’s all about what it really means to have a democratic government, a political theorist writes.

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