264 articles from MONDAY 15.6.2020

What’s a coronavirus superspreader?

As we learn more about how the coronavirus spreads between people, there’s more evidence to suggest that most infections are transmitted by a select few individuals we call “superspreaders.” Here’s what a superspreader is, the role these people play in transmitting the virus, and what we’re trying to do about it.   What is a superspreader? The word is a generic term for...

Scientists introduce rating system to assess quality of evidence for policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for robust scientific evidence to support policy decisions, such as around the effectiveness of various social distancing measures and the safety of drug therapies. Yet this need arises at a time of growing misinformation and poorly vetted facts repeated by influential sources. To address this gap, a group of scientists led by Kai Ruggeri, a...

Taking a landslide's temperature to avert catastrophe

Engineers have developed a comprehensive model of deep-seated landslides and demonstrated that it can accurately recreate the dynamics of historic and current landslides occurring under varying conditions. The model points to the temperature of a thin layer of clay at the base of the landslide as critical to the potential for sudden cataclysmic failure. The approach is currently monitoring a...