When graphs are a matter of life and death

When graphs are a matter of life and death

Hannah Fry writes: In “A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication” (Harvard), Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer, a psychologist and a statistician, argue that visual thinking, by revealing what would otherwise remain invisible, has had a profound effect on the way we approach problems. The book begins with what might be the first statistical graph in history, devised by the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren in the sixteen-twenties. This was well into the Age of Discovery, and Europeans…

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Attorney General Garland confronts long-building crisis over leak inquiries and journalism

Attorney General Garland confronts long-building crisis over leak inquiries and journalism

Charlie Savage writes: Government leak hunters have been ratcheting up pressure on the ability of journalists to do their jobs for a generation — a push fueled by changing technology and fraught national-security issues that arose after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, those tensions have reached an inflection point. Recent disclosures about aggressive steps that the Justice Department secretly took under President Donald J. Trump while hunting for the confidential sources of reporters — at The New York Times,…

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Out-of-touch media elites are ignoring working-class Biden voters

Out-of-touch media elites are ignoring working-class Biden voters

Eric Levitz writes: In the primary’s early days, the media treated him like an afterthought. At cocktail parties in Martha’s Vineyard and happy hours in the East Village, economic and cultural elites agreed that the candidate was more of a has-been — or a punch line — than a serious contender for the presidency. After all, he had the ineloquent uncouthness of a pretender and the political record of a traitor; myriad activist groups within the party firmament distrusted his…

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Manchin thinks the filibuster fosters bipartisanship. Here’s why it doesn’t

Manchin thinks the filibuster fosters bipartisanship. Here’s why it doesn’t

Norman Ornstein writes: Eliminate the filibuster? Both Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) emphatically say no. Both say the filibuster is key to making bipartisanship possible, and bipartisanship is the linchpin to a functioning Senate and democracy. “The idea of the filibuster was created by those who came before us in the United States Senate to create comity and to encourage senators to find bipartisanship and work together,” Sinema told reporters early this month. Manchin, writing in…

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Amazon struggles to value its employees as much as its customers

Amazon struggles to value its employees as much as its customers

The New York Times reports: Last September, Ann Castillo saw an email from Amazon that made no sense. Her husband had worked for the company for five years, most recently at the supersize warehouse on Staten Island that served as the retailer’s critical pipeline to New York City. Now it wanted him back on the night shift. “We notified your manager and H.R. about your return to work on Oct. 1, 2020,” the message said. Ms. Castillo was incredulous. While…

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Could a nasal spray of designer antibodies help to beat Covid?

Could a nasal spray of designer antibodies help to beat Covid?

Dr. Francis Collins writes: There are now several monoclonal antibodies, identical copies of a therapeutic antibody produced in large numbers, that are authorized for the treatment of COVID-19. But in the ongoing effort to beat this terrible pandemic, there’s plenty of room for continued improvements in treating infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With this in mind, I’m pleased to share progress in the development of a specially engineered therapeutic antibody that could be delivered through a nasal…

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African great apes to suffer massive range loss in next 30 years

African great apes to suffer massive range loss in next 30 years

Science Daily reports: A new study published in the journal Diversity and Distributions predicts massive range declines of Africa’s great apes — gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos — due to the impacts of climate change, land-use changes and human population growth. For their analysis, the authors compiled information on African ape occurrence held in the IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. database, a repository that includes a remarkable amount of information on population status, threats and conservation for several hundred sites, collected over 20…

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Aliens, science, and speculation in the wake of ʻOumuamua

Aliens, science, and speculation in the wake of ʻOumuamua

Matthew Bothwell writes: There’s an iconic moment, filmed in the shadow of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, that many people who visit this giant telescope try to duplicate. A young astronomer sits cross-legged on the bonnet of her car, the towering line of radio dishes vanishing into the distance behind her. With her laptop in front of her, she’s listening intently to a giant pair of headphones, held upside down so that the strap hangs below her chin….

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Delta variant of the coronvirus is on the rise across the U.S. Here’s why experts are concerned

Delta variant of the coronvirus is on the rise across the U.S. Here’s why experts are concerned

CNN reports: The Delta variant is on its way to becoming the dominant strain of coronavirus in the US, raising concerns that outbreaks could hit unvaccinated people this fall. And a new study shows the Delta variant is associated with almost double the risk of hospitalization compared to the Alpha variant. The Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant, which is “stickier” and more contagious than the original strain of novel coronavirus, became the dominant strain in the US this spring. But health experts…

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Outgoing UN aid chief slams G7 for failing on vaccine plan

Outgoing UN aid chief slams G7 for failing on vaccine plan

Reuters reports: Outgoing U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock slammed the Group of Seven wealthy nations on Monday for failing to come up with a plan to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, describing the G7 pledge to provide 1 billion doses over the next year as a “small step.” “These sporadic, small-scale, charitable handouts from rich countries to poor countries is not a serious plan and it will not bring the pandemic to an end,” Lowcock, who steps down on Friday,…

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The implications of the lab-leak hypothesis

The implications of the lab-leak hypothesis

David Wallace-Wells writes: Nothing has changed but the narrative. A majority of Americans now believe that the coronavirus emerged from a lab, not nature, and in recent weeks a new openness to the lab-leak theory has taken over “nearly all mainstream media,” as my colleague Jonathan Chait put it. But the material case for the hypothesis remains essentially unchanged from the version advanced by Nicholson Baker, in this magazine, in January — indeed more or less unchanged from the version…

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Virologist, Shi Zhengli, at center of a pandemic storm, speaks out

Virologist, Shi Zhengli, at center of a pandemic storm, speaks out

The New York Times reports: To a growing chorus of American politicians and scientists, she is the key to whether the world will ever learn if the virus behind the devastating Covid-19 pandemic escaped from a Chinese lab. To the Chinese government and public, she is a hero of the country’s success in curbing the epidemic and a victim of malicious conspiracy theories. Shi Zhengli, a top Chinese virologist, is once again at the center of clashing narratives about her…

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Reports of severe Covid or death after vaccination are rare, but not unexpected

Reports of severe Covid or death after vaccination are rare, but not unexpected

The New York Times reports: Over the last few months, a steady drumbeat of headlines has highlighted the astounding real-world effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines, especially the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The vaccines, study after study has shown, are more than 90 percent effective at preventing the worst outcomes, including hospitalization and death. But alongside this good news have been rare reports of severe Covid in people who had been fully vaccinated. On June 3, for instance,…

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2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is even worse

2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is even worse

The Washington Post reports: The shootings have come at a relentless pace. Gun violence this year has cut through celebrations and funerals, places of work and houses of worship. It has taken lives at a grocery store and in a fast-food drive-through lane. And most of all, it has unfolded on city streets and in family homes, away from the cameras and far from the national spotlight. By almost every measure, 2021 has already been a terrible year for gun…

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Tumult disrupts Israeli parliament as Netanyahu era ends

Tumult disrupts Israeli parliament as Netanyahu era ends

The New York Times reports: Heckling and mayhem in the Knesset, an intimate parliamentary chamber transformed by anger, marked the end of Benjamin Netanyahu’s divisive 12-year rule over Israel and the start of Naftali Bennett’s term as prime minister. Mr. Bennett, a hard-right politician whose decision to join an eight-party coalition including left-wing parties has enraged Mr. Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party, struggled for 43 minutes to make himself heard as his opponents hurled abuse and held up posters saying, “Shame…

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