Book Review: The Woman Who Helped Modernize Forensic Science
In “18 Tiny Deaths,” Bruce Goldfarb chronicles the life and struggles of Frances Glessner Lee, a pioneer in expanding the medical examiner system and advancing the field of forensic investigation....
View ArticlePandemic Hotspots Continue to Shift Away from Urban Centers
The trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic is continuing to shift away from major urban clusters in Europe and North America. As cases and hospitalizations subside in the northeastern U.S. and other...
View ArticleAmid a Pandemic, Transit Authorities Turn to Technology
To address uneven ridership and other issues during the Covid-19 pandemic, some cities — including Los Angeles, Lincoln, Nebraska, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Berlin, and Palma de Mallorca, Spain...
View ArticlePolice Use of High-Tech Surveillance Amplifies Bias and Overreach
Recent history and research warn that technology cannot address the deeper issues of race, power, and privacy that lie at the heart of modern-day policing. But as protesters nationwide call for changes...
View ArticleIn the Uncertainties of Lyme Testing, Lessons for Covid-19
Some experts see a bright spot in the coronavirus testing debacle: It has helped educate the public on the uncertainties of diagnostic testing. But patients and doctors in the trenches of Lyme disease...
View ArticleMedical School Taught Me How to Talk to Conspiracy Theorists
As a newly minted M.D. who will be taking care of patients at a safety-net hospital, I am pained by the conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. But I know that we must respond to the...
View ArticleAmid Deadly Virus, Advocates Push for Nursing Home Alternatives
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is especially lethal to older people, and it has spread quickly in the close quarters of many nursing homes, where at least 32,000 residents have died. The...
View ArticleThe Undark Interview: A Conversation with Brianna Remster
A criminologist and sociologist explains how quantitative studies can uncover inequalities in criminal justice experiences between races, including police violence, incarceration, and mental health....
View ArticleAmid Continued Covid-19 Risks, States Move Forward on Reopening
Covid-19 cases swelled in many states this week, as the national death toll reached 118,000. But local spikes in new cases and hospitalizations, several months into a global pandemic that has...
View ArticleAfghan Doctors Cultivate a Grim Specialty: War Wounds in Babies
An attack on a maternity ward marked a new chapter in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, with insurgent groups increasingly targeting women and children. Local surgeons are determined to help the...
View ArticleCoronavirus Coverage and the Silencing of Female Expertise
Writing for prominent outlets, journalists have mostly sought out male voices to explain, interpret, and otherwise makes sense of the viral pandemic. This has prompted some female researchers to worry...
View ArticleTiming of Arizona’s Reopening Reflects Sharp Increase in Covid-19
Arizona never saw a consistent downward trend in Covid-19 cases, but the state began easing restrictions in early May. Now an explosion of new cases has hospitals warning of an ICU bed shortage and...
View ArticleScreening Older Doctors: Good Sense, or Discrimination?
Hospitals across the country are requiring physicians of a certain age — typically 70 years old — to undergo specialized screenings in order to continue practicing medicine. Proponents say this will...
View ArticleHow the Bernese Took a Stand for Their Bears
For 500 years, the city of Bern, Switzerland, has kept live bears on display — for much of that time in a drab, undersized concrete pit that served as one of the city’s top tourist attractions. The...
View ArticleBook Review: A Chemist’s Skeptical Look at Nutritional Wisdom
In “Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and On Us,” chemist George Zaidan takes a contrarian look at what we really know about what’s good and bad for us. From processed foods to...
View ArticleEurope Seeks Travel Ban as U.S. Covid-19 Cases Rise
As Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations surged in parts of the United States this week, reporting indicated that the European Union may seek to ban most travel from the U.S. when it reopens its borders...
View ArticleIgnored by Doctors, Transgender People Turn to DIY Treatments
Without formal medical care, the DIY transition may be downright dangerous. Some experts are suggesting different approaches, such as making it easier for primary care physicians to assess trans...
View ArticleThe Connections Between Race, Pollution, and Covid-19
When the pandemic hit, Black Americans were already living with more air pollution, leading to higher rates of respiratory and heart disease that can make a Covid-19 infection worse. Now, the Trump...
View ArticleBringing Andrology — and Male Infertility — Out of the Shadows
Despite a decades-long decline in average sperm counts, men aren’t getting the fertility care they need, while women are overtreated. As recently as 2017, only three countries recognized the treatment...
View ArticleIn the Future, Lab Mice Will Live in Computer Chips, Not Cages
As Covid-19 shuttered laboratories across the U.S., many researchers were forced to euthanize the animals they study. As a rodent surgeon in an animal research lab that faced this dilemma, I’ve become...
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