In a few weeks, Americans around the country will start receiving
letters from the U.S. Census Bureau, inviting them to participate in the
national survey that only occurs once every decade.
It will be months before the official counts come
out, but the results of the 2020 census have already been hotly contested in
federal lawsuits. “The results of the census shift political power and money,”
explains University of Michigan demographer Ren Farley. Today, Farley takes readers back to the census from 100 years ago. The 1920 census sparked such bitter fights that Congress ended up ignoring its results altogether. It’s a fascinating story from history – with a few troubling parallels to present day.
The Interior Department is narrowing protection for migratory birds to cover only deliberate harm such as hunting, but not threats like development or pollution that kill millions of birds yearly.
Frederick Cohan, Wesleyan University; Kathleen Sagarin, Wesleyan University; Kelly Mei, Wesleyan University
Some of the world's worst diseases have come from animals. Bats, cows, camels and horses have all contributed. Now, scientists are working to know which animal introduced the new coronavirus.
Jonathan M. Gerber, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Cancer mortality has dropped in the US, due largely to lower smoking rates, as well as early detection and better treatments. These advances often do not extend to people in developing nations.
The Pentagon has spent more than $800 billion on military operations in Iraq. But that doesn't include money needed to care for veterans, rebuild the country or pay interest on war debt.
Different ideologies and agendas among Kurdish political groups means they don't push a single narrative about the Kurdish homeland. Diaspora groups are trying to change that.
Matthew Bailes, Swinburne University of Technology; Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan, Max Planck Institute
One of Einstein's weirder predictions is that massive, spinning objects exert a drag on space-time itself. Now an orbiting pair of unusual stars has revealed this effect in action.