Masks Protect Schoolkids from COVID despite What Antiscience Politicians Claim

Trouble viewing? View in your browser. View all Scientific American publications.

    

September 16, 2021

Public Health Masks Protect Schoolkids from COVID despite What Antiscience Politicians Claim Florida governor Ron DeSantis and politicians in Texas say research does not support mask mandates. Many studies show they are wrong By Marla Broadfoot

Particle Physics Weird Muons May Point to New Particles and Forces of Nature A mismatch between theory and experiment could explain big physics mysteries By Marcela Carena

Space Exploration SpaceX's Starship Could Rocket-Boost Research in Space The platform could aid climate science, space junk cleanup and planetary exploration By Maddie Bender

Privacy New Encryption Technique Better Protects Photographs in the Cloud Users can display images as usual, but neither attackers nor tech platforms can see them By Harini Barath

Climate Change Australian Bush Fires Belched Out Immense Quantity of Carbon The 2019–20 wildfires generated 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide—but a lot of that might have been mopped up by phytoplankton in the ocean By Smriti Mallapaty,Nature magazine

Space Exploration SpaceX Launches Four Civilians into Orbit on Historic Inspiration4 Flight The crew will spend the next few days in space before returning to Earth in the fully autonomous Dragon module By Amy Thompson,SPACE.com

Water Democrats Seek 'Historic' Changes to U.S. Flood Program Proposed legislation includes funding to redo badly out-of-date flood risk maps By Thomas Frank,E&E News

Nutrition If Algae Has Not Found Its Way Onto Your Plate Yet, It Probably Will Soon A new video series from Scientific American and Spektrum der Wissenschaft gives you a serving of science. In this episode, we take a look at edible seaweed. By Spektrum,Scientific American Staff

Public Health A New Nurse Struggles to Save Patients in a New COVID Surge Cases peaked, then fell, then rose again. "It is so much worse this time" By Kathryn Ivey

Ethics Stop Torturing Animals in the Name of Science Four centuries after Descartes declared them to be mere machines that didn't feel fear or pain, we're still acting as though we don't know better By Hope Ferdowsian

Animals Extreme Birding Competition Is a Cutthroat Test of Skill, Strategy and Endurance A team of birders races to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours By Kate Wong

FROM THE STORE The Math of Everything Galileo said that mathematics is the language of nature. This eBook examines math across disciplines, exploring how math is the backbone connecting the physical, social and economic worlds. From practical questions about the significance of p values and using math to fight gerrymandering to the top theoretical problems in the field, this collection looks at what math reveals about our universe.

ADVERTISEMENT

FROM THE ARCHIVE Masks Are a Must-Have to Go Back to School during the Delta Variant Surge Face coverings are essential to protecting children, keeping schools open and slowing the highly contagious coronavirus variant, experts say By Emily Willingham | August 2021

QUOTE OF THE DAY "When we look at cases that have masking in place--so masking students, staff, everyone that's within that K–12 setting--we see rates of within-school spread as low as one percent." Ibukun Kalu, medical director of pediatric infection prevention at Duke University

LATEST ISSUES

Questions?   Comments?

Download the Scientific American App

To view this email as a web page, go here. You received this email because you opted-in to receive email from Scientific American. To ensure delivery please add news@email.scientificamerican.com to your address book. Unsubscribe     Manage Email Preferences     Privacy Policy     Contact Us