Map Reveals Hidden U.S. Hotspots of Coronavirus Infection

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April 02, 2020

Dear Reader,

While social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, do you feel starved for human contact? According to a new study, our need to connect is apparently as fundamental as our need to eat. The findings show both loneliness and hunger share signals deep in a part of the brain that controls basic impulses for reward and motivation.

In the United States, most attention on the spread of COVID-19 is focused on New York and other large cities. But state-level data may be hiding hotspots in less populous areas like parts of Georgia and Mississippi. Check out our lead story to view new maps that reveal some surprising patterns in infection rates at the county level after adjusting for population size. Today's news also includes details on NASA's next solar mission and an update on the status of this year's United Nations climate summit.

Important information for our print subscribers

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement
@sunyaaa

Public Health

Map Reveals Hidden U.S. Hotspots of Coronavirus Infection

By adjusting for population, researchers have identified rural areas in several states that could be disproportionally affected by COVID-19

By Tanya Lewis

Engineering

High-Tech Ghost Ships Will Set Sail sans Sailors

Maritime technology groups are building robotic vessels to cross the oceans

By Eric Tegler

Behavior & Society

The Loneliness of the "Social Distancer" Triggers Brain Cravings Akin to Hunger

A study on isolation's neural underpinnings implies many may feel literally "starved" for contact amid the COVID-19 pandemic

By Lydia Denworth

Space

NASA's Next Solar Mission Will Use Six Spacecraft to Make One Giant Telescope

Launching no earlier than July 2023, the SunRISE mission will study the origins of solar storms

By Meghan Bartels,SPACE.com

Climate

U.N. Postpones Global Climate Summit Over Pandemic Concerns

Countries were expected to ramp up their emissions reductions goals at the November meeting, now delayed until 2021

By Jean Chemnick,E&E News

Behavior & Society

Polling Shows Signs of Public Trust in Institutions amid the Pandemic

The ongoing effort to fight COVID-19 wins broad support, even across partisan divides

By Cary Funk
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QUOTE OF THE DAY

"There are a lot of areas in the South where the population is a lot smaller, but the proportion of people who have [COVID-19] is a lot greater. So that can cause potential challenges, because even though there are less people who have the virus, there are also correspondingly fewer hospital beds, [intensive care units] or ventilators."

Marynia Kolak, Assistant Director of Health Informatics, University of Chicago's Center for Spatial Data Science

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