September 17, 2025 4 min read U.S. Vaccine Guidance Is in Chaos, Fired CDC Director Tells Senators Former CDC chief Susan Monarez testified that Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., had demanded she rubber-stamp recommendations from his remade vaccine panel By Dan Vergano edited by Lauren J. Young Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images… Continue reading U.S. Vaccine Guidance Is in Chaos, Fired CDC Director Tells Senators
Ukrainian Aspirations for U.S. Defense Ties
As Ukraine has become more important to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank, it may aspire to a long-term defense relationship with the United States more akin to those with some other key middle powers, such as Poland or South Korea. Like them, Ukraine may seek a U.S. relationship beyond training and the supply of… Continue reading Ukrainian Aspirations for U.S. Defense Ties
Researchers Discover the Optimal Way To Optimize
In 1939, upon arriving late to his statistics course at the University of California, Berkeley, George Dantzig — a first-year graduate student — copied two problems off the blackboard, thinking they were a homework assignment. He found the homework “harder to do than usual,” he would later recount, and apologized to the professor for taking… Continue reading Researchers Discover the Optimal Way To Optimize
NASA’s Artemis II Mission Is Crucial as Doubts Build That America Can Beat China Back to the Moon
For the first time in half a century, America stands on the threshold of sending astronauts back to the Moon. Slated for launch no earlier than February 2026, Artemis II will not land on the lunar surface, but it will carry four astronauts on a flyby of Earth’s only natural satellite. The ten day mission… Continue reading NASA’s Artemis II Mission Is Crucial as Doubts Build That America Can Beat China Back to the Moon
Chimpanzee Consumption of Boozy Fruit May Illuminate Roots of Humanity’s Love of Alcohol
September 17, 2025 3 min read Chimpanzee Consumption of Boozy Fruit May Illuminate Roots of Humanity’s Love of Alcohol Wild chimps ingest the equivalent of multiple alcoholic beverages a day By Kate Wong edited by Jeanna Bryner A chimpanzee eats fruit in the rainforest of Kibale National Park in Uganda. When chimpanzees eat ripe figs… Continue reading Chimpanzee Consumption of Boozy Fruit May Illuminate Roots of Humanity’s Love of Alcohol
Five Questions: Heather Schwartz on Connecting Schools, Jobs, and Infrastructure for Stronger Communities
If you’ve ever wondered how the places we live, learn, and work are all connected, Heather Schwartz has some answers. As vice president and director of the RAND Education, Employment, and Infrastructure (EEI) division, Schwartz heads a wide-ranging team of experts tackling real-world challenges—from classrooms and careers to housing affordability to a fair justice system… Continue reading Five Questions: Heather Schwartz on Connecting Schools, Jobs, and Infrastructure for Stronger Communities
A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness
If there’s one law of physics that seems easy to grasp, it’s the second law of thermodynamics: Heat flows spontaneously from hotter bodies to colder ones. But now, gently and almost casually, Alexssandre de Oliveira Jr. has just shown me I didn’t truly understand it at all. Take this hot cup of coffee and this… Continue reading A Thermometer for Measuring Quantumness
Defending Against Mass Shooters
The latest spate of mass shootings across America understandingly raises safety concerns, but there are some effective and efficient measures that can be taken to defend against such attacks. New attention has been focused on the issue by recent shootings, including attacks on a Michigan Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Dallas Immigration… Continue reading Defending Against Mass Shooters
What State-by-State Rules Mean for Your COVID Shot
Confusion over vaccine recommendations in the U.S. has hit a boiling point as the responsibility for handling them has spilled onto individual states. Regulators at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration have long provided trusted national guidance on who should get certain vaccines and when. But now reports… Continue reading What State-by-State Rules Mean for Your COVID Shot
Cruise Missiles Are the Present and Future of Warfare
There are two competing narratives about the future of warfare. For nearly the past two years, drones and artillery have been hailed as the way forward. The June 2025 Iran-Israel war revived the view that stealth warplanes are the future. These are two fundamentally different views, however, neither truly unseats the consistently outperforming and cost… Continue reading Cruise Missiles Are the Present and Future of Warfare