This week, Science published two editorials that mention the new science appointments made by U.S. President Biden. The team consists of presidential science adviser and nominee for director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Eric Lander, OSTP deputy director for science and society Alondra Nelson, and co-chairs of the President… Read More

This week, Alan Leshner [former chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the publisher of Science)] wrote an editorial on the urgent need to rethink mental health support for students at U.S. universities. His call to get the whole institution involved in supporting the whole student reflects re… Read More

In its latest attempt to confuse the public about the science of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the Trump administration has added Dr. Scott Atlas to the team advising the president.  Although Atlas may be capable of neurological imaging, he’s not an expert in infectious diseases or public health—and it shows.  He’s spreading scientif… Read More

On 14 July 1960, Jane Goodall arrived in what is now Tanzania’s Gombe National Park to study chimpanzee behavior. What she learned there would change our ideas about science and alter forever the way we think about and study nonhuman primates. I interviewed Dr. Goodall for an editorial we published today that reflects on the… Read More

Today, Science published a study by Britton et al. that incorporates population heterogeneity into modeling the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)—that is, it accounts for the fact that members of a population may have differential exposure and susceptibility to infection. In this model, the authors vary the ex… Read More

In the wake of the most recent murders of Black people in the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS, the publisher of Science) is supporting #ShutDownSTEM tomorrow, 10 June. The effort seeks to set aside time for white and non-Black people of color in science and academia to devote time… Read More

In the time of a pandemic, societies adopt practices that necessitate the least human contact. To curtail the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), people have transitioned to social distancing and replaced gestures of greeting and parting for an alternative acknowledgment. In the early days of the pandemic, people were waving, bowing, foo… Read More

Understanding the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) requires understanding nonlinear growth. Whereas linear growth is intuitive, nonlinear growth is not. People’s predictions for nonlinear patterns tend to be closer to linear projections, assuming that future growth will be similar to that of the past. For a pandemic, this can lead to… Read More

When we launched this Editor’s Blog, I imagined it would be a place for commentary from around the world of science, not just from me. Today, we begin posting pieces from outstanding researchers on very important points in the world of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One guest blog is from Jeffrey Zacks and Steven Franconeri. Read More

On 27 March, President Trump said, in describing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), “This whatever they want to call it. You can call it a germ, you can call it a flu, you can call it a virus. You know, you can call it many different names. I’m not sure anybody even knows what it is.”… Read More