A note from...
Maggie Villiger
Senior Science + Technology Editor
Millions of children around the world aren’t vaccinated, partly because it’s expensive and challenging to get vaccines to kids and keep them safely refrigerated on their long journey. Pharmacist Maria Croyle and her team took inspiration from the sweets in her grandma’s candy dish to figure out a new way to stabilize and store vaccines’ live viruses and other biological medicines. They hope their invention can revolutionize how vaccines are shipped and administered – making it far easier, cheaper and less wasteful to vaccinate people just as the race to stave off the COVID-19 virus gets underway.
Inspired by amber and hard candy, researchers figured out a new, needle-free, shelf-stable way to preserve vaccines, making them easier to ship and administer around the world.
What can you do to keep yourself and your family safe from the coronavirus? A public health scholar explains antiseptics – and emphasizes the importance of good hand-washing.
Ellen Peters, University of Oregon; Brittany Shoots-Reinhard, The Ohio State University; Michael Silverstein, University of Oregon; Raleigh Goodwin, University of Oregon
In a survey, a majority of liberals and conservatives reported that they trust doctors and the CDC to reduce US risk of a coronavirus epidemic.
Katie A. Cahill, University of Tennessee; Andrea Kent, West Virginia University; Rey Junco, Tufts University
As the race for the Democratic nomination narrows to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, what does it all mean for November? We asked three scholars to closely analyze the Super Tuesday results.
Robert Shrum, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Joe Biden's swift return as a strong candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination was a dramatic shift never seen before in the modern history of Democratic presidential primaries.
Kelsey Ellis, University of Tennessee; Alisa Hass, Middle Tennessee State University
In the Southeast US, tornadoes strike at night more often than in other regions. This poses special challenges for getting early warnings to the public.
A group known as The Satanic Temple was started with the political goal of advocating for the value of church-state separation. This group is now challenging the traditional definition of religion.
Public criticism of the Chinese government's handling of coronavirus shows that the Chinese people can overcome both strict censorship and a gaping class divide when they get angry enough.
Archaeologists have long argued over when and how people first domesticated horses. A decade ago, new techniques appeared to have provided answers – but further discoveries change the story again.