Science

New Study Finds Expanded Jobless Benefits Don't Reduce Employment

4:10pm July 31, 2020

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Dana Scott, a doctoral candidate in economics at Yale University, about her study that looked at whether expanded jobless benefits reduced incentives to look for work.

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Director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, holds a model of the coronavirus. This is the sixth vaccine candidate to join Operation Warp Speed's portfolio, and the largest vaccine deal to date.

U.S. Reaches $2.1 Billion Deal With Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline For COVID-19 Vaccine Push

1:41pm July 31, 2020

by Sydney Lupkin

This is the sixth vaccine candidate to join Operation Warp Speed's portfolio, and the largest vaccine deal to date.

A scientist is pictured working during a visit by Britain's Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (unseen), to Oxford Vaccine Group's laboratory facility at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, west of London on June 24, 2020, on his visit to learn more about th

Vaccine Candidate Delivers Protection In A Single Shot (In Monkeys)

10:28pm July 30, 2020

by Joe Palca

Studies involving COVID-19 vaccine candidates in monkeys show promise of an effective vaccine, but it will take large-scale human trials to know for sure if they work.

Lillian Kay Petersen, 17, from Los Alamos, N.M., won first place in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science and math competition for high school seniors. The pandemic meant a virtual Zoom ceremony rather than what's usually a black-tie gala ce

High School Senior's Tool To End Food Insecurity Wins National Competition

7:26pm July 30, 2020

by Reena Advani

Lillian Kay Petersen, 17, has won the Regeneron Science Talent Search, a top science and math competition for high school seniors. Her winning project: a tool to predict crop harvests.

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On the left is an unmodified hatchling of a longfin inshore squid (Doryteuthis pealeii). The one on the right was injected with CRISPR-Cas9 targeting a pigmentation gene before the first cell division. It has very few pigmented cells and lighter eyes.

The First Gene-Altered Squid Has Thrilled Biologists

4:33pm July 30, 2020

by Nell Greenfieldboyce

Scientists have modified the genes of a squid, and genetically-altered octopuses could be coming soon.

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Air pollution is a persistent problem in California's Central Valley. A new study finds that the places that were most polluted nearly 40 years ago generally remain the most polluted today.

Science

Air Quality Disparities Persist Despite Overall Gains

2:14pm July 30, 2020

by Rebecca Hersher

A new study finds that the U.S. places with the most polluted air in the 1980s remain the most polluted today. Poor people and people of color are more likely to live in places with dirty air.

Sheep graze in front of southern England's Stonehenge in April. Scientists say they've determined some of the structure's sandstone megaliths came from 15 miles away.

Researchers Solve A Question About Stonehenge Megaliths' Origin

6:56pm July 29, 2020

by Alana Wise

Scientists found that the outer stones of the prehistoric structure originated about 15 miles away from where the structure stands.

Blood plasma — the yellowish, cell-free portion that remains after red and white blood cells have been filtered out by a machine and returned to the plasma donor — is rich with antibodies. Plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients might prove useful in

Harvested Antibodies Now Being Tested As A Prevention Tool Against COVID-19

8:03am July 29, 2020

by Richard Harris

Scientists are now checking to see if purified blood serum from people who have recovered from COVID-19 might be more than a useful treatment. Perhaps it's a way to prevent disease in someone else.

"People are not very good with large numbers," says Elke Weber, a professor of psychology at Princeton University. "We don't discriminate between 150,000 or 300,000 or 3 million."

Why We Grow Numb To Staggering Statistics — And What We Can Do About It

5:46pm July 28, 2020

by Ailsa Chang

The growing coronavirus death toll doesn't provoke the same type of emotional response that a plane crash might. It's a coping mechanism and how our neurons are wired, says psychologist Elke Weber.

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People wait in line outside a testing site in Florida. The state has seen unprecedented surges in coronavirus cases in recent weeks.

Pandemic Is Overwhelming U.S. Public Health Capacity In Many States. What Now?

3:03pm July 28, 2020

by Rob Stein

With the coronavirus spreading out of control in many parts of the U.S., some experts say the strategy of testing and tracing can't contain the pandemic until lockdowns bring case numbers down.

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