Covid-19
11 articles-
The “Lab Leak”: It’s Not Enough to Say Accidents Happen
So far no one has come up with any clear account of how a coronavirus escaped biosafety level 4 barriers. Photograph by MihasLi / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Disasters evoke a search for who to blame. Mishandled disasters make that search vital for anyone whose actions […] -
COVID Experts: We’re Putting Out Campfires but the Forest Fire Rages
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . After I got my second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a wave of euphoria infused me along with the modified messenger RNA. Many friends describe the same feeling. This is the end of the pandemic for me. Life returns to normal. But then […] -
Vaccines Are the Safest Medical Procedure We Have. Make Your Wager Wisely
All drugs and treatments have side effects, but vaccines in general have the fewest.Illustration by eamesBot / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . In the late 1650’s, the French polymath and renowned scientist Blaise Pascal, having undergone a religious experience that transformed him into something of a zealot, […] -
It Pays to Be a Space Case
Kieran Fox, a neuroscientist, says some of his colleagues see him as an “alien” because of all the time he takes off to let his mind wander.Photo Illustration by Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . It’s a feeling we all know well—you’re at a work […] -
Thank You for the 7 PM Clapping, But Camaraderie Is Needed More Than Ever
Handwashing, mask-wearing and physical distancing are the easy part. The true challenge is to face the pain and suffering that exists all around us and know that doing so will not break us.Illustration by Blinx / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . COVID has reached peak unsexiness. The […]
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How Pseudoscientists Get Away With It
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The relentless and often unpredictable coronavirus has, among its many quirky terrors, dredged up once again the issue that will not die, science versus pseudoscience. The scientists, experts who would be the first to admit they are not infallible, are now in […]
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The Case for Rapid At-Home COVID Testing for Everyone
The time it takes to ship COVID test samples to central labs and back is a burden—people risk infection as they wait days, sometimes weeks, for results.Photograph by MIA Studio / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . Imagine that every morning your child and her classmates take a […]
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How the Pandemic Has Tested Behavioral Science
In the interplay between behavioral science and policy, puffs of smoke abound.Photo illustration by metamorworks / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . In March the United Kingdom curiously declined to impose significant social distancing measures in response to the global pandemic. The government was taking advice from several […]
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Steven Pinker on the Tribal Roots of Defying Social Distancing
Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . The images are everywhere: People crowded face-to-face in swimming pools, shoulder-to-shoulder in indoor bars, cheering without masks at a rally held by President Trump, who often downplays the global pandemic. Now, as many public health experts predicted, waves of new COVID-19 infections […]
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Let Game Theory Tell You When It’s Time to Go Shopping
During a pandemic, when you want to avoid crowds, math shows the way.
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Be Wary of a Model That Shows a Decline in COVID-19 Deaths
We have no idea what will happen if, for example, New York runs out of ventilators or if people are sent away from hospitals too soon and infect many others.Illustration by eamesBot / Shutterstock Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Log in or Join now . On April 15, 2020, 2,271 people in the United […]