The absurdity of Trump’s RNC speech, in one photo
President Donald Trump’s speech on Thursday — and the events surrounding the Republican National Convention in general — at times came off as a celebration: a series of rhetorical monuments to a president who, based on what he and his…
“Extinction breeds extinctions”: How losing one species can wipe out many more
Earth is now in the middle of a mass extinction, the sixth one in the planet’s history, according to scientists. And now a new study reports that species are going extinct hundreds or thousands of times faster than the expected…
The WHO has new guidelines on face masks to fight Covid-19
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday announced changes to its guidelines on who should wear a mask during the Covid-19 pandemic and where they should wear it. The new guidance recommends that the general public wear cloth masks made…
Trump’s EPA balks at a chance to save black lives
Decades of research paint a clear picture: The No. 1 environmental health risk in the US is soot. Also known as particulate pollution, it is made up of extremely small particles spewed into the air by power generation, industrial processes,…
Why a second round of Covid-19 lockdowns might not be as effective
Several states are now seeing a surge in new Covid-19 coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. And the states with more alarming outbreaks — Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, and Tennessee — generally saw few cases early in…
6 feet away isn’t enough. Covid-19 risk involves other dimensions, too.
When states had strict stay-at-home orders and lockdowns in place, many decisions about the risk of getting the coronavirus were simple. People didn’t have to think about whether dining in a restaurant is safe if the restaurant was closed. Now,…
A living rain: How one planetary scientist imagines life on Venus
The search for life in our solar system got a lot more exciting this week. On Monday, a team of scientists announced its members had detected phosphine gas in the caustic, hot atmosphere of Venus. So what? The gas —…
CDC reverses guidelines, telling people to get tested for Covid-19 even without symptoms
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reversed changes to its Covid-19 testing guidelines, once again recommending that people without symptoms get tested for the coronavirus if they have come into close contact with someone known to…
No, the Regeneron drug Trump received is not a Covid-19 “cure”
A day after the Food and Drug Administration announced tougher measures for a coronavirus vaccine approval, dashing President Trump’s hope of getting a vaccine out before the election, the president put out a video on Twitter suggesting he had changed…
98,000 new Covid-19 cases. And the worst may be yet to come.
The United States has reached a new terrible milestone in the Covid-19 pandemic. This past week, the country saw, on average, about 79,000 new cases per day — the highest on record in a pandemic full of atrocious records. On…