united kingdom united states sections home arts culture economy business education environment energy health medicine politics society science technology election 2016 search services newsletter read on play newsstand information who we are our charter our team partners and funders contributing institutions contact us privacy policy terms and conditions corrections edition united states africa australia france global united kingdom become an author sign up as a reader sign in get newsletter search academic rigor journalistic flair arts culture economy business education environment energy health medicine politics society science technology election 2016 follow topics nobel prize 2016 affordable care act economic inequality opioid epidemic psychology climate change policing in america driverless cars analysis columnists nobel prizes a portrait of indian poet and musician rabindranath tagore . cherishsantosh wikimedia commons no bob dylan isn t the first lyricist to win the nobel alex lubet university of minnesota in 1913 an indian literary giant named rabindranath tagore was the first non white person to win the literature prize . he wrote over 2 000 songs and like dylan s they still resonate today . more analysis and comment how much did samsung s phone sales depend on it looking like an iphone comparison smartphone youtube do you buy a smartphone for its curves do you buy a car for its cup holders timothy holbrook emory university design patents cover how products look but how much does appearance contribute to profits what we can learn from trump s 916 million loss david hasen university of colorado a 1995 tax return shows a net operating loss so large that it raises concerns about whether it was reported properly and if trump has been honest about his taxes . the jewish vote may swing key undecided counties study says daniel parmer brandeis university and david manchester brandeis university new data from researchers at brandeis university suggest that the jewish vote is important in key ohio pennsylvania and florida counties . one step toward making criminal justice less biased shima baughman university of utah ; christopher robertson university of arizona and sunita sah cornell university criminal justice experts suggest one way to change the system to eliminate racial bias . we could prevent millions of cancer deaths each year with knowledge we already have david hunter harvard university developing brand new treatments and cures isn t the only way to achieve a major reduction in cancer deaths worldwide . dems and the gop are miles apart on yet another issue public lands john freemuth boise state university and mackenzie case boise state university debates over federal lands from the malheur refuge takeover to fossil fuel leases on public land are back in the news . how do the two parties line up on public land policy what hurricane matthew s path through haiti and the us tells us about global inequality greg bankoff university of hull natural disasters remain disproportionately a hazard for the world s poor . straight girls do kiss on campus but what about those who don t go to college jamie budnick university of michigan most studies on straight girls kissing focus on dorm rooms and dance floors . but one sociologist looks at the development of sexual friendships among women previously ignored like single moms . is it time for a new model to fund science research in higher education brian herman university of minnesota and claudia neuhauser university of minnesota with federal support for on campus r & d dwindling as a percentage of gdp keeping basic research afloat is a challenge . schools and researchers are left to try to fill in the funding gaps . fixing us elections pippa norris harvard university republicans want voter id laws . democrats want more access to the ballot . why do we have to choose latino voters respond to outreach not insults lisa garcia bedolla university of california berkeley is xenophobic rhetoric enough to get latinos to turn out in large numbers an expert on latino politics explains . should i grade skip my gifted child jonathan wai duke university ; ann lupkowski shoplik university of iowa and susan assouline university of iowa about two out of seven children are likely bored in their classrooms as they aren t learning much that is new . should these children skip grades what s the evidence on grade skipping weather forecasters can t manipulate hurricane warnings here s why david titley pennsylvania state university conservative commentators accused government officials last week of hyping risks from hurricane matthew . a meteorologist explains why this is impossible in the internet era . reading writing and mental health care why schools need added services ann digirolamo georgia state university and deana farmer georgia state university a small minority of children with mental health issues is getting the help they need . school based mental health is essential to keep students engaged . donald trump is taking a page from reconstruction era white supremacists donald nieman binghamton university state university of new york trump s calls to keep illegitimate voters from casting ballots go back 140 years to a time when white voters were enraged by the end of slavery . donald trump and the dangerous rhetoric of portraying people as objects jennifer mercieca texas a & m university an expert in political rhetoric singles out trump s repeated use of reification the tendency to treat people as things and the role it s played in his tortured response to the leaked tape . love it or hate it obamacare has expanded coverage for millions jim marton georgia state university and charles courtemanche georgia state university the affordable care act increased the number of insured people but skeptics have suggested the increase could be due to higher employment rates . that s not the case a detailed study suggests . do we swear too much michael adams indiana university bloomington with the taboo on swearing loosening over the past few decades will profanity lose its effectiveness in spoken language where the parties stand on environmental regulation six essential reads jennifer weeks the conversation do environmental regulations help or hurt the economy democrats and republicans sharply disagree . six of our experts consider whether we have too much or too little regulation . getting to yes in colombia what it would take to reintegrate the farc kimberly theidon tufts university and roxanne krystalli tufts university scholars share their research with former combatants in colombia after a majority of colombians voted against a peace deal . can understanding reintegration help peace negotiations move forward explainer what is contract theory and why it deserved a nobel prize after our universe s cosmic dawn what happened to all its original hydrogen columbus day black legend meets white city more analysis and comment nobel prizes galileo demonstrates a telescope to the doge of venice . giuseppe bertini before nobels gifts to and from rich patrons were early science s currency vera keller university of oregon people have always known science would advance faster with various incentives and rewards . as modern experimental science took off these took the form of gifts and favors to and from wealthy elites . why contract theory won hart and holmstr m the nobel economics prize arnab bhattacharjee heriot watt university and joseph byrne heriot watt university two us based professors who improved our understanding of how contract theory works have won the 2016 award . nobel prize winning autophagy research laid groundwork for potential parkinson s treatment physicists explore exotic states of matter inspired by nobel winning research the nobel prize for physics goes to topology and mathematicians applaud from muscles to motors 2016 chemistry nobel goes to creators of the world s tiniest machines odd states of matter how three british theorists scooped the 2016 nobel prize for physics yoshinori ohsumi a deserving winner of the nobel prize for physiology or medicine more cybersecurity is everything on the up and up here rick wilking reuters how vulnerable to hacking is the us election cyber infrastructure richard forno university of maryland baltimore county with the dnc email leak and trump calling on russia to hack clinton s emails concern about foreign meddling in the 2016 presidential election process is rising . is e voting the next cyber battleground election legitimacy at risk even without a november cyberattack herbert lin stanford university it s true that sophisticated hackers may be able to tilt the presidential election . but the more likely threat to democracy comes from sore losers who sow doubt about voting integrity . russia s aggressive power is resurgent online and off can the power grid survive a cyberattack cybersecurity s weakest link humans fighting malevolent ai artificial intelligence meet cybersecurity after the nsa hack cybersecurity in an even more vulnerable world more zika virus a vial of the zika virus investigational dna vaccine from the nih . nih image gallery flickr why a zika vaccine is a long way off robert bednarczyk emory university the long vaccine development process is focused on ensuring production of the safest and most effective vaccine for use . us response to zika fragmented and uneven scott l. greer university of michigan politics not epidemiology or medicine drives government responses to disease . politicians are the ultimate decision makers in public health and they must respond to political forces . zika virus only a few small outbreaks likely to occur in the continental us natalie exner dean university of florida ; alessandro vespignani northeastern university ; elizabeth halloran university of washington and ira longini university of florida a computer model suggests that while more cases of zika can be expected in the continental u.s. outbreaks will probably be small and are not projected to spread . in zika echoes of us rubella outbreak of 1964 65 to fight zika let s genetically modify mosquitoes the old fashioned way global warming to expose more people to zika spreading mosquito aedes aegypti how satellites can help control the spread of diseases such as zika three ways synthetic biology could annihilate zika and other mosquito borne diseases zika and abortion will the virus prompt latin america to rethink abortion and birth control more us presidential election columnists why do museums and other historic places ban photography it all boils down to money jay l. zagorsky the peace prize has been perhaps the most controversial of all the nobels richard gunderman kevin knudson math may not have its own nobel prize but advances in other disciplines depend on it . andrew j. hoffman trump s anti environment road could create an even more severe backlash . more columnists research and expert database find experts with knowledge in popular food water transport health and energy . editors picks the guided missile destroyer uss barry deploys to sea from naval station norfolk ahead of hurricane sandy in 2012 . u.s. navy flickr a military view on climate change it s eroding our national security and we should prepare for it david titley pennsylvania state university politicians are still debating whether climate change is real but military planners call it a serious threat . a retired rear admiral explains how climate change affects u.s. national security . experiment design affects the quality of the results . iaea seibersdorf historical images why isn t science better look at career incentives paul smaldino university of california merced embracing more rigorous scientific methods would mean getting science right more often than we currently do . but the way we value and reward scientists makes this a challenge . some say coddled kids need to be taught how to persevere through setbacks and disappointments . flower via www.shutterstock.com what s behind america s insistence on instilling grit in kids paige gray fort lewis college one of the newest trends in education is teaching students how to develop grit . but what s even meant by grit and what if grit means something different for everyone the feds say they can secretly read