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Pandemic

As the highly contagious Delta variant surges through the country, experts are expected to recommend that Americans get a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

U.S. Will Soon Recommend Covid-19 Booster Shot 8 Months After 2nd Dose for Most Americans

The decision comes after mounting evidence that coronavirus vaccine efficacy wanes over time

Those eligible for boosters include some organ transplant recipients, those with certain cancers, and others with similarly compromised immune systems.

FDA and CDC Authorize Covid-19 Booster Shot for Some Immunocompromised People

Certain transplant recipients, cancer patients and others can soon get a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine

The Covid pandemic prompted universities to rethink the value of standardized tests for admissions.

Has the Pandemic Put an End to the SAT and ACT?

Many colleges and universities stopped requiring the tests during Covid, and it is unclear if they will return to testing in the future

Scholars used a newly developed technique to test skeletons' teeth for the presence of Yersinia pestis, the pathogen responsible for the plague.

Cool Finds

Why Weren’t These Black Death Victims Buried in Mass Graves?

New research suggests some Europeans who died of the bubonic plague were individually interred with care

In work and in personal life, virtual communication kept us in touch during Covid — but oh, those endless Zoom meets! There’s psychological and sensory science behind why they wear us down, and much promise to be realized once we iron out the wrinkles.

How the Pandemic Has Revealed the Promise and Perils of Life Lived Online

For good and for bad, Covid has propelled us even faster into immersive communication technologies

A postcard of Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, New York, from 1914

Five of America’s Most Invincible Hotels

From Miami to San Francisco, these luxury establishments survived their share of crises before the Covid-19 pandemic

As a virtual intern with the National Museum of American History, Samara Angel, works on coordinating a meeting for her professional learning projects in Experience Design.

Smithsonian Voices

Could Remote Internships Become a Best Practice?

Remote access might be key to accelerating meaningful increases in diversity, inclusion, accessibility and equity.

Minute Molecular, the company developing the device, has high hopes for it as an efficient and accurate means of testing people at schools, workplaces and sports stadiums.

Innovation for Good: Game Changers

This Compact PCR Test for Covid-19 Could Give Accurate Results in 15 Minutes

The speed and ease of the DASH testing platform would be a boon for screening efforts

Iztuzu Beach in Turkey was closed during part of the pandemic. Around the world, lockdowns to combat Covid-19 forced people to stay home and halt activities—with mixed results for ecosystems and the living things within them.

Covid-19

The Positive and Negative Impacts of Covid on Nature

The absence of humans in some places led animals to increase, while the cancellation of conservation work in other places harmed species

Booker T. Whatley was a horticulturist and agricultural professor at Tuskegee University in Alabama.

You Can Thank Black Horticulturist Booker T. Whatley for Your CSA

Long written out of the narrative, the Tuskegee University professor first introduced the concept in the 1960s as a solution for struggling Black farmers

Roosevelt Patterson greets his grandmother, Hester Ford, during her 111th birthday party. Ford was either 115 or 116 when she died on Saturday, April 17, 2021.

Hester Ford, the U.S.’ Oldest Living Person, Dies at 115—or 116

Born in 1904 or 1905, the supercentenarian lived through two World Wars, the civil rights movement and two major pandemics

The boba shortage is expected to affect the entire bubble tea industry in the U.S., especially businesses on the West coast.

West Coast Bubble Tea Shops Brace for Boba Shortage as Cargo Ships Jam Los Angeles Ports

The popular sweet drink might not be available in some locations for awhile due to shipping delays

After receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, many patients experience side effects, like arm soreness, headache and fever.

Covid-19

Experts Answer Eight Key Questions About Covid-19 Vaccine Reactions

Medical professionals weigh in on why some individuals have different responses to the shots and offer advice on what to expect

Zipline has started to deliver Covid-19 vaccines in Ghana.

Covid-19

Drones Are Delivering Covid-19 Vaccines to Underserved Communities

The company Zipline is using the technology to provide medical resources to rural areas in markets around the world

AstraZeneca's vaccine is approved for use in over 20 countries.

Why U.S. Approval of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine Is Taking So Long

An unprecedented public exchange with a data review board is the latest of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine’s hurdles

The genetic lineage of the plague that hit London in 1348 gave Green a data point to track the disease back to its origin.

Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?

Scholar Monica Green combined the science of genetics with the study of old texts to reach a new hypothesis about the plague

A vaccine passport would be a digital or paper document showing that the bearer had received a Covid-19 vaccination or, in some cases, has antibodies to the virus or recently tested negative.

Five Things to Know About Vaccine Passports

As travelers venture out, countries and states are experimenting with forms of documentation that show proof of Covid-19 vaccination

In makeshift home laboratories, a team of scientists discovered that cotton flannel is the optimal fabric, and their latest study says that the moisture from our breath makes the mask more effective.

How to Build a Better Homemade Face Mask, According to Science

When Covid-19 hit, Smithsonian researchers set up makeshift home laboratories to conduct groundbreaking studies on mask fabric materials

Although this sign was used in Connecticut, similar quarantine signs were used across the United States.

Smithsonian Voices

How Failed Quarantines Led to 20th-Century Measles Outbreaks

In 1904, measles epidemics were spiraling across the state of Connecticut

Jennifer Doudna, a Nobel Prize recipient for her work on the gene-editing tool CRISPR, and the "life sciences revolution" are the dual subjects of Walter Isaacson's latest biography.

How Scientist Jennifer Doudna Is Leading the Next Technological Revolution

A new book from Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson offers an incisive portrait of the gene editing field that is changing modern medicine

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