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Editor's note
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Have you ridden in a Lyft or Uber this week? If so, you’re not alone: Ride-hailing apps are disrupting transportation patterns in many U.S. cities. Some analysts see ride-hailing as a disaster for public transit, since it can draw riders (and fares) away from buses and subways. But three scholars at the University of California, Davis explain how ride-hailing can actually improve public transportation – if cities adopt smart rules and pricing systems.
Forty-five years ago – the year of the landmark decision on abortion Roe v. Wade – the average American woman married at age 21 and only 8 percent of adult women had completed four years of college. Those statistics and others have changed drastically in the intervening decades, writes University of Florida sociologist Constance Shehan. But with Justice Anthony Kennedy stepping down from the Supreme Court and abortion laws still hotly debated, could the situation change again?
And if you stayed out a bit too late last night watching fireworks, you might be fighting off the yawns today. Mississippi State’s Christine Calder explains what scientists do and don’t know about why people and animals yawn – and how they’re just so dang contagious.
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Jennifer Weeks
Environment + Energy Editor
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Top stories
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Friend or foe?
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Daniel Sperling, University of California, Davis; Austin Brown, University of California, Davis; Mollie D'Agostino, University of California, Davis
In many US cities, ride-hailing apps are luring riders away from public transit and increasing traffic congestion. But with the right rules, they could enhance public transit instead.
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Pro-life and pro-choice protesters rallied outside the U.S. Supreme Court in June.
REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan
Constance Shehan, University of Florida
Over the past 45 years, women have married later, attained higher education and joined the workforce in record numbers. Could it all be turned back?
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You can’t resist the yawn.
Chayanin Wongpracha/Shutterstock.com
Christine Calder, Mississippi State University
Everybody does it, but why? Scientists aren't really sure if exhaustion, stress or some other social factor is at the root of yawning – and how it can be so contagious.
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Politics + Society
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Jill Pable, Florida State University
Studies show that people's environments influence their mood. The same is true of homeless shelters, which can either help or hurt residents' psychological well-being — and, possibly, their futures.
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Paul Toro, Wayne State University
Are most homeless mentally ill? Is it inevitable that a society will have homeless people? A researcher digs into the real data on homelessness.
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Steven Lubet, Northwestern University
Two men were convicted in 1859 of violating the Fugitive Slave Act. They had rescued a runaway slave from slave hunters in Ohio, one of the small acts of resistance that led to the Civil War.
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David Pyrooz, University of Colorado; James Densley, Metropolitan State University
How city and state governments identify and keep records of suspected gang members can be problematic. Good data are essential to addressing violent crime across the US.
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Trending on site
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Luís Fernando Tófoli, Universidade Estadual de Campinas; Dráulio Barros de Araújo, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil); Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil)
Ayahuasca has long been used for indigenous healing and spiritual rituals. Now, a Brazilian clinical trial has confirmed that this psychoactive drink can help those with even severe depression.
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David Levari, Harvard University
It's a psychological quirk that when something becomes rarer, people may spot it in more places than ever. What is the 'concept creep' that lets context change how we categorize the world around us?
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Samuel Putnam, Bowdoin College; Masha A. Gartstein, Washington State University
In the US, smiling is a reflexive gesture of goodwill, but Russians view it as a sign of stupidity. Social psychology research could help explain this cultural contrast.
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