The fancy spines of African shrews (CNN)
by Ashley Strickland
Hero shrews of Central Africa might look sort of like mice, but they have wildly complicated, incredibly strong spines. In biological terms, that’s an expensive feature to have. Scientists are still trying to figure out why it’s so important to the shrews.

The endless mysteries of COVID-19 (The Atlantic)
by Ed Yong
Should we wear masks or not? Are ventilators really helping? Who’s in the most danger? How does this virus even kill people? There are reasons why every question about the pandemic seems so difficult to answer.

An economic pandemic (The New York Times)
by Maria Abi-Habib
Over the past two decades, a huge number of people in the world have risen out of poverty. The impact of COVID-19 is throwing many of them back into destitution.

When the war came home (The New Yorker)
by Jill Lepore
Fifty years ago, colleges shut down to prevent rioting. The nation was bitterly divided. On campuses across the country, government troops shot students down. Today we remember Kent State. But what about Jackson State?

Kindness in the face of terror (Forge)
by Ashley Abramson
What do you do when you’re in a panic? We all know about “fight or flight,” but there’s another human tendency called “tend and befriend” that can be more useful in addressing the sort of dangers we’re likely to really be facing.

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