Source: THE CONVERSATION

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Future

Lockdown Neuroscience: Your Brain Must Return To Social Life

Maybe you’re not quite feeling ready to get back out there
Maybe you’re not quite feeling ready to get back out there Yasmina H/Unsplash

With COVID-19 vaccines working and restrictions lifting across the country, it’s finally time for those now vaccinated who’ve been hunkered down at home to ditch the sweatpants and reemerge from their Netflix caves. But your brain may not be so eager to dive back into your former social life. Social distancing measures proved essential for slowing COVID-19’s spread worldwide – preventing upward of an estimated 500 million cases. But, while necessary, 15 months away from each other has taken a toll on people’s mental health. So how can people be so lonely yet so nervous about refilling their social calendars? […]

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LGBTQ Plus Society

Transgender Athletes: The Fairness V. Inclusion Debate

Fallon Fox, a transgender fighter in mixed martial arts, trains at her local gym.
Fallon Fox, a transgender fighter in mixed martial arts, trains at her local gym. Photo: Sally Ryan/zReportage.com/ZUMA

In a majority of U.S. states, bills aiming to restrict who can compete in women’s sports at public institutions have either been signed into law or are working their way through state legislatures. Caught up in this political point-scoring are real people – both trans athletes who want to participate in competitive sports and those competing against them. As a professor of ethics and public policy, I spend much of my time thinking about the role of the law in protecting the rights of individuals, especially when the rights of some people appear to conflict with the rights of others. […]

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Future

Why It’s So Hard To Know The Origins Of The COVID-19 Outbreak

The Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2
The Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 NIAID/Creative Commons

Every time there is a major disease outbreak, one of the first questions scientists and the public ask is: “Where did this come from?” In order to predict and prevent future pandemics like COVID-19, researchers need to find the origin of the viruses that cause them. This is not a trivial task. The origin of HIV was not clear until 20 years after it spread around the world. Scientists still don’t know the origin of Ebola, even though it has caused periodic epidemics since the 1970s. As an expert in viral ecology, I am often asked how scientists trace the […]

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In The News

Black Artists And Writers Give Another Voice To Appalachia

Teacher T.R. Delaney, photographed in Hancock County, Tennessee (1939)
Teacher T.R. Delaney, photographed in Hancock County, Tennessee (1939) — Photo: Instagram account @black_in_appalachia

Known as Afrilachia, the African-American culture that spawned in the rural areas around West Virginia and Kentucky is finally seeing the light of day.

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Geopolitics

Nothing To See Here, How Arab Monarchies Hold On To Power

Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Bin Salman peaking at a meeting in Moscow, May 2017.
Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Bin Salman peaking at a meeting in Moscow, May 2017. Druzhinin Alexei/TASS/ZUMA

When the Jordanian royal family gathered on April 11 to celebrate 100 years since the kingdom’s foundation, it was a picture of dynastic unity. Alongside King Abdullah was his half-brother, the former crown prince Hamzah bin al-Hussein, who had only days ago been placed under house arrest, following what was reported in the world’s press as a “coup attempt“. The king gave interviews assuring the outside world that all was well and that the former heir to the Jordanian throne had offered him his loyalty. In no other area of the world do royal families dominate politics as much as […]

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Geopolitics

QAnon Now, The Conspiracy Movement Adapts To Post-Trump Era

At a Proud Boys rally in Raleigh on March 20
At a Proud Boys rally in Raleigh on March 20 Anthony Crider

A nationwise tour of how the alternative reality continues to thrive in local chapters.

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Geopolitics Ideas

Northern Ireland: Born Of Strife, Erupting Again In Violence

Police using water cannons on protesters in Belfast
Police using water cannons on protesters in Belfast Liam Mcburney/PA Wire via ZUMA Press

After a century-long history of political strife, Brexit risks undoing the hard-earned two decades of reconciliation.

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In The News

History Lessons For COVID: The Fatal Price Of Impatience

San Francisco during the Spanish Flu
San Francisco during the Spanish Flu Hamilton Henry Dobbin

A century ago, during the Spanish flu pandemic, Americans were eager let down their guard and get on with normal life. The consequences were enormous.

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Future Geopolitics

Specimen Preservation Can Prevent Next Zoonotic Pandemic

The Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History
The Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda at the American Museum of Natural History Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/ZUMA

Imagine yourself as the first naturalist to stand in a place where little recorded scientific knowledge exists, like Alfred Russel Wallace in the Malay Archipelago or Alexander von Humboldt in the Americas in the early 1800s. The notes you record will expand humanity’s scientific knowledge of the natural world, and the specimens of plants and animals you collect are destined to be used for centuries to describe past and present biodiversity and make new discoveries in biomedicine and beyond. Now, imagine if those specimens were never collected. That’s what it’s like if samples from the field are not archived. Natural […]

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Future

Artificial Intelligence Could Steal Our Jobs — And Our Souls

Is Artificial intelligence altering humanity?
Is Artificial intelligence altering humanity? Arne Dedert/dpa via ZUMA Press

Technological progressions have always changed how we behave. But AI has much more far-reaching potential to change the very meaning of what it is to be a human.

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

The Tech Divide Is Shutting Minorities Off From Vaccines

The average monthly cost of internet access, about US$70, can be out of reach for some
The average monthly cost of internet access, about US$70, can be out of reach for some Christopher Evens/ZUMA Wire

Racial and ethnic minority communities that lack internet access have been left behind in the race to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The average monthly cost of internet access, about US$70, can be out of reach for those who can barely afford groceries. Reporters and scholars have written about the effects of lack of internet access in rural areas in the U.S. and developing countries, but they have paid less attention to the harm of lack of internet access in racial and ethnic minority communities in major cities. We are researchers who study health disparities. We are concerned that even when […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas

The Fragility Of American Democracy Is Nothing New

In front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6
In front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 John Nacion/NurPhoto/ZUMA

For many people, the lesson from the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 – and more broadly from the experience of the last four years – is that American democracy has become newly and dangerously fragile. That conclusion is overstated. In fact, American democracy has always been fragile. And it might be more precise to diagnose the United States as a fragile union rather than a fragile democracy. As President Joe Biden said in his inaugural address, national unity is “that most elusive of things.” Certainly, faith in American democracy has been battered over the last year. […]

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas Trump And The World

On ‘The Trump Question’ – The Burden For Biden’s Presidency

Trump, never quite out of the picture
Trump, never quite out of the picture Charles Deluvio

The assault on the Capitol wasn’t an attempted coup, per se. But the ramifications of how to hold Trump responsible are fundamental for the future of the American democracy.

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Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

After Trump, U.S. Faces Risk Of Slipping Into ‘Hybrid’ Regime

Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2020
Trump at the Army-Navy football game in December 2020 White House/ZUMA Wire/ZUMAPRESS.com

From Venezuela to Belarus, there are countries that have elements of democracy but fall well short of acceptable standards of freedom and transparency. Will the U.S. end up there too?

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Eyes on the U.S. Ideas Trump And The World U.S. Election 2020 - Views From Abroad

The Months That Will Turn Joe Into President Biden

A hard task ahead, despite Biden's experience as senator and vice-president
A hard task ahead, despite Biden's experience as senator and vice-president Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons

For all his experience in government, Biden is entering unfamiliar territory. Trump, barking at the president-elect’s heels and challenging his legitimacy, will try to make the transition harder still.

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