Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S.

February 27, 2020

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S.

View all Scientific American publications.

February 27, 2020

Dear Reader,

I'm the neuroscience editor at Scientific American, switching in for Sunya Bhutta.

It's no surprise that the coronavirus continues to occupy the global attention span. But what can an individual or a family do about it? In an essay, Zeynep Tufekci, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science, describes how people should prepare to alter their daily routines to "flatten the curve" of COVID-19—in other words, how to slow the upward trend line of new cases of the disease.

Gary Stix, Senior Editor, Mind & Brain
@gstix1

Public Health

Preparing for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S.

Getting ready for the possibility of major disruptions is not only smart; it's also our civic duty

By Zeynep Tufekci

Wellness

Advancing Efforts in Disease Interception

Ben Wiegand, global head of the World Without Disease Accelerator at Janssen, the Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, talks about efforts to prevent a disease or to identify it in its earliest stages for more effective treatments.

By Steve Mirsky | 21:50

Environment

Delivery from Local Store Is Greenest Shopping Method--Most of the Time

Researchers also calculated the carbon footprints for online and in-person shopping

By Sophie Bushwick

Natural Disasters

Studies Sound Alarm on "Badly Out-of-Date" FEMA Flood Maps

The billions of dollars needed to update the maps would be offset by the flood damage avoided, experts say

By Thomas Frank,E&E News

Policy & Ethics

The Farewell: On Cultural Differences in Death and Narrative Control

A poignant film asks viewers to consider challenging questions of medicine and morality

By Yoshiko Iwai

EARTH

That Giant Sucking Sound Doesn't Exist

Originally published in February 1857

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