A Science Reader for COVID-19
Covering concepts from spillover to virus mutation, this collection of free-to-access readings provides scientific context around the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s the Difference between Pandemic, Epidemic, and Outbreak?
The World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a pandemic. What exactly does that mean?
Is It Ethical to Grow a Brain in a Petri Dish?
Brain organoids could be the key to understanding brain diseases, which is why we should think carefully about how far we are prepared to take them.
Richard Prum: How Does Beauty Evolve?
Prum speaks on Darwin’s idea of sexual selection, the importance of arbitrary traits, and why he could never choose a favorite species of bird.
Should the Moon Landing Site Be a National Historic Landmark?
Some archaeologists argue it’s essential to preserve the history of lunar exploration. But would it represent a claim of U.S. sovereignty over the moon?
Chinese Peasants Taught the USDA to Farm Organically in 1909
A hundred years later, we are still learning.
The Rise and Fall of Hologram Art
Major artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Louise Bourgeois have experimented with holography, but it has yet to be taken seriously as an art form.
How Women Helped to Develop the First Spacesuit
NASA recently cancelled an all-female spacewalk, citing a lack of spacesuits. Ironically, women played a key role in creating the very first spacesuits.
How Far Does the Periodic Table Go?
Efforts to fill the periodic table raise questions of special relativity that “strike at the very heart of chemistry as a discipline.”
The Great Seaweed Invasion
In the Caribbean, sargassum deposits have grown to unprecedented sizes, obscuring the sand and turning nearshore waters into seething sargassum soup.