The big idea When some people become infected with the coronavirus, they only develop mild or undetectable cases of COVID-19. Others suffer severe symptoms, fighting…
Statistics is a useful tool for understanding the patterns in the world around us. But our intuition often lets us down when it comes to…
Ivermectin Is Being Tested as a Possible Treatment for COVID-19, But That’s No Reason to Buy It Researchers testing the head lice drug Ivermectin as…
1. Is herd immunity a good strategy? Herd immunity is not part of the Australian strategy for controlling the outbreak. On social media there are…
The big idea: It’s the enduring media image of infectious disease outbreaks, including the current coronavirus outbreak from Wuhan, China: people in public spaces with…
A recent announcement by a Chinese health official suggested the new coronavirus might spread more easily than we thought, via an “airborne route.” The virus…
The recent global spread of a deadly coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, has led world leaders to invoke an ancient tradition to control the spread…
The Conversation Editor’s note: The new coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, continues to spread in China, and cases are being diagnosed in many other countries, including the U.S….
Winter is upon us and so is the risk of vitamin D deficiency and infections. Vitamin D, which is made in our skin following sunlight…
Life is pretty easy to recognize. It moves, it grows, it eats, it excretes, it reproduces. Simple. In biology, researchers often use the acronym “MRSGREN”…
Although it may not be obvious, there’s a close link between manufacturing technology and innovation. Elon Musk often talks of the “machines that build the…
Hangovers happen as your body tries to protect itself from alcohol’s toxic effects Debaucherous evening last night? You’re probably dealing with veisalgia right now. More…
A team of scientists in Hungary recently published a paper that hints at the existence of a previously unknown subatomic particle. The team first reported…
Do supermassive black holes have friends? The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes…
What is the deadliest weapon of the 20th century? Perhaps you think first of the atomic bomb, estimated to have killed as many as 200,000…
Google announced this fall to much fanfare that it had demonstrated “quantum supremacy” – that is, it performed a specific quantum computation far faster than…
Carbon dioxide makes up 0.04% of the world’s atmosphere. Not 0.4% or 4%, but 0.04%! How can it be so important in global warming if…
What does the term crocodylian bring to mind? A big reptile with a chomping jaw? Crocodylians are the 27 species of crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and…
