Is the Military Prepared to Handle Covid-19 Within Its Ranks?
The United States military has a long history of leading in infectious disease research, but its medical personnel have recently been directed to focus on combat injuries. Now, as Covid-19 sweeps...
View ArticleDrug-Drug Interactions Could Imperil Covid-19 Treatment
Some of the most commonly prescribed medications — including heart-related medications, antifungals, antibacterials, antidepressants, contraceptives, neuroleptics, and sedatives — can have strong and...
View ArticleThe Undark Interview: A Conversation With Paolo Giordano
The author of “How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness, and Community in Times of Global Crises” explains how disease spreads through populations and discusses the cultural effects of the Covid-19...
View ArticleMillions Face Hunger Amid Continued Lockdowns and Job Loss
As the Covid-19 death toll topped 75,000 in the U.S. this week, and the number of active unemployment claims rose to 33.5 million, many Americans are experiencing food insecurity. Across the globe,...
View ArticleTo Stay Afloat in the Pandemic, Doctors’ Offices Turn to GoFundMe
Losing South Slope Pediatrics, my daughter’s pediatrician’s office, wouldn’t just be a problem for my family’s health. It would give me the same ineffable sensation as when I see a favorite local...
View ArticleThe Undark Interview: John Ioannidis Responds to His Critics
Undark published a story about the controversy late last month. Ioannidis did not respond to multiple requests for comment before publication. But, less than an hour after the story went up, he sent me...
View ArticleMeat Packing Plants and More: Your Covid-19 Questions, Answered
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread, Undark readers have been sending us numerous and often insightful questions, comments, and observations on the subject. We’ve asked the Pulitzer...
View ArticleTests to Detect Coronavirus on Surfaces Show Mixed Results
While scientists may be focused on how and where the virus has spread, businesses want to know whether their spaces are safe on a daily basis. That basic question has no easy answer, because testing...
View ArticleFearing Covid-19, Heart Attack And Stroke Patients Delay Care
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically shrunk the number of patients showing up at hospitals with serious cardiovascular emergencies. Now, doctors worry a new wave of patients is coming — people who...
View ArticleWhat Health Professionals Can Learn From Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder
At a moment when Covid-19 threatens to exacerbate health disparities in the U.S., Arbery’s killing, and the seeming unwillingness of authorities to hold his killers accountable, reminds us that not all...
View ArticleCovid-19 Hits Conservation Efforts
Conservation efforts have long had to contend with occasional booms and busts in the industry. But unlike any other event before it, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses of the...
View ArticleThe Coronavirus Is Mutating. That’s Not Necessarily Good or Bad.
Seemingly every new mutation in the novel coronavirus is spun as a sign that the virus is either adapting to become more dangerous or on the verge of dying off. The fact is, most commonly encountered...
View ArticleBook Review: A Fresh Look at the Strange Marvels of Bird Behavior
In “The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think,” science journalist Jennifer Ackerman walks readers through the most extreme, surprising, and thought-provoking examples...
View ArticlePublic Discord Grows Amid Lockdowns and Mixed Virus Messages
Most experts warn that lifting coronavirus lockdown orders too soon could lead to a resurgence of cases unless there is a robust program to test, trace, and isolate infected people. But there are...
View ArticleTo Prevent Pandemics, Bridging the Human and Animal Health Divide
An estimated 75 percent of newly appearing infectious diseases are zoonotic, or capable of passing from non-human animals to people. The key to stopping the next pandemic could rest with veterinarians,...
View ArticleLooking More Deeply Into the Past to Gauge the Planet’s Future
As biodiversity declines, each new generation of scientists has begun to generally accept the new normal as the natural state of things — a phenomenon called “shifting baseline syndrome.” To counteract...
View ArticleDespite Covid-19, Gun Violence Continues to Strain Hospitals
In metropolitan trauma units around the nation, the number of patients seeking care for gunshot wounds or stabbings appears to be holding steady, despite widespread orders to shelter at home to contain...
View ArticleThe Wild Shrub at the Root of the Afghan Meth Epidemic
Exploiting ideal agricultural conditions, a lack of a central government, and insecure trucking routes, open-air markets and day laborers are now dedicated to supplying surging demand for the ephedra...
View ArticleTechnology and the Missing Celebrity Dissident
The pro-democracy dissident as a global celebrity was a defining invention of the late 20th century. But today, critics of authoritarian governments are easily identified and suppressed on internet...
View ArticleBook Review: Why Science Denialism Persists
In “Galileo: And the Science Deniers” and “Natural: How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science,” Mario Livio and Alan Levinovitz, respectively, explore the...
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