As the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe in 2020, musicians around the world were desperate for the answers to two pressing questions: Can playing musical instruments transmit COVID-19? And if so, what can be done? Now, halfway through 2021, the first official research results are in—and it’s good news: The show can go on. Published...
When an excise tax hike was levied on cigarettes, New York City taxi drivers who smoked were one and a half times more likely to cheat their customers by overcharging the fare than those who didn’t smoke. That finding comes from forthcoming research in Accounting, Organizations, and Society. In the first-known study to document that sin...
Setting a price just below a round number ($39.99 instead of $40) may lead consumers into thinking a product is less expensive than it really is – but it can sometimes backfire on sellers, a new study shows. Researchers found that this “just-below” pricing makes consumers less likely to upgrade to a more expensive version...
A new study published in the journal Nature estimates that 103 million Americans, or 31 percent of the U.S. population, had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 by the end of 2020. Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health researchers modeled the spread of the coronavirus, finding that fewer than one-quarter of infections (22%) were accounted for in cases...
Study assessed health outcomes at six and 12 months for 1,276 COVID-19 patients who had been discharged from a hospital in Wuhan (China) between January and May 2020. Though most symptoms had resolved by 12 months, around one half of survivors still experienced at least one ongoing symptom (most commonly fatigue or muscle weakness), and...
The presence of mercury in the world’s oceans has ramifications for human health and wildlife, especially in coastal areas where the majority of fishing takes place. But while models evaluating sources of mercury in the oceans have focused on mercury deposited directly from the atmosphere, a new study led by Peter Raymond, professor of ecosystem...
Climate change is no longer a distant worry, discussed solely among scientists and environmentalists. Climate change is happening now, and it’s hurting millions of people and costing billions of dollars annually. But the Earth is an astoundingly complex system, and tracing a line from greenhouse gas emissions through natural disasters and all the way to...
A survey of mostly African American adults living in and around one of Georgia’s largest cities found that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was greatest among those age 18 to 29, investigators say. “Age is the main driver,” says Dr. Justin Xavier Moore, epidemiologist at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, with those 18- to 29-year-olds surveyed having 21-fold...
Over the last 50 years, income inequality between households increased significantly, but not because people changed who they marry. According to new research led by University of Wisconsin–Madison professor of sociology Christine Schwartz, the tendency of people to marry those with similar jobs has not changed much. But the changing availability of spouses with particular jobs...
Cities are hubs of human activity, supercharging the exchange of ideas and interactions. Scaling theory has established that, as cities grow larger, they tend to produce more of pretty much everything from pollution and crime to patents and wealth. On average, people in larger cities are better off economically. But a new study published in the Journal of...
