Politics
Research on Gun Violence Has Been Thwarted: It’s Now More Urgent Than Ever
We need to make firearms safer, and to do that, we need more robust research funding
Opinion279 articles archived since 1845
Mental Health
When Things Feel Unreal, Is That a Delusion or an Insight?
The psychiatric syndrome called derealization raises profound moral and philosophical questions
Public Health
Pediatric Gun Deaths Are a Massive Problem in the U.S.
Thoughts and prayers do not stop bullets. We must do better for our children
Reproduction
Pregnancy Is Far More Dangerous Than Abortion
Restricting access to and prohibiting abortion in the U.S. will only increase maternal mortality in the nation that already ranks shockingly low in maternal health
Medicine
Antifatness in the Surgical Setting
Weight bias compounds health problems, and surgeons need to recognize and stop it
Health Care
Gun Violence Is an Epidemic; Health Systems Must Step Up
There are tools that hospitals can use to reduce the number of firearm injuries that come through the doors. We are piloting one such project
Neuroscience
How the Brain Tells Apart Important and Unimportant Sensations
Several recent studies point to a small, long-overlooked structure in the brain stem as a crucial gatekeeper for the body’s signals
Policy
Space Won’t Be Safe until the U.S. and China Can Cooperate
The two countries must put aside their mistrust in order to establish rules for the peaceful use of outer space
Psychology
Facial Expressions Do Not Reveal Emotions
The emotion AI industry, courts and child educators are unknowingly relying on a misunderstanding of Darwin’s ideas
Epidemiology
New Cases of Childhood Diabetes Rose during the Pandemic
It isn’t clear why, but researchers are investigating a possible COVID link
Space Exploration
Spy Satellites Confirmed Our Discovery of the First Meteor from beyond the Solar System
A high-speed fireball that struck Earth in 2014 looked to be interstellar in origin, but verifying this extraordinary claim required extraordinary cooperation from secretive defense programs...
Mental Health
We Need Better Diagnostic Tests for Autism in Women
Diagnostic criteria are developed using white boys and men, failing to serve many neurodivergent girls and women
Diversity
Anti-Trans Laws Will Have a Chilling Effect on Medicine
I am a future psychiatrist hoping to care for transgender people. But I fear these laws will make it difficult to do so
Astronomy
Cosmic Collisions Yield Clues about Exoplanet Formation
Low levels of bombardment reveal that the TRAPPIST-1 system probably grew quickly
Education
To Keep Students in STEM fields, Let’s Weed Out the Weed-Out Math Classes
Reimagining calculus has changed several schools’ success rates. Here’s how
Quantum Physics
Does Quantum Mechanics Rule Out Free Will?
Superdeterminism, a radical quantum hypothesis, says our “choices” are illusory
Public Health
When Is It Safe to Have Sex after COVID?
How to limit your risk of transmitting or getting infected with SARS-CoV-2
Evolution
The Devastating Loss of Grandparents among One Million COVID Dead
Grandparents are a majority of the pandemic’s death toll
Computing
The Metaverse Is Coming: We May Already Be in It
As in the world of The Matrix, we may not be able to tell what’s real and what’s not
Quantum Physics
Does Quantum Mechanics Reveal That Life Is But a Dream?
A radical quantum hypothesis casts doubt on objective reality
