Coronavirus

Do patents invent innovation?

They're a common index of technological creativity, but research finds they can impede rather than encourage it

Photo shows a section of a long queue of people waiting for help with unemployment insurance claims outside of an office. Some people are sitting in folding chairs.

Why jobless payments serve the public good

Amid political debate over benefits during the pandemic, a researcher explains why unemployment insurance and other government measures are crucial for the economy and employees to survive troubled times

Society

Taxes, taxes — past, present and future

Here’s how the inevitable came to be, and where it may be headed

A photo collage of black-and-white pictures of different families interspersed with population charts, census data books and maps.

Society

The story of families, wrested from big data

Records tell the story of the decline of the patriarchy, the rise and fall of marrying young, and pandemic fallout; digitizing the data could reveal even richer tales

Illustration shows the view from inside the mouth.

Living World

Getting the microbe story, straight from the mouth

A trio of researchers has mapped the living things that make the tongue, gums and palate home

Conceptual illustration shows the bursting of the housing market bubble in 2007 that preceded the financial crisis of 2008. Houses are shown floating in bubbles, with lightning hitting and bursting one bubble, one house falling through the air and another house already fallen on the ground.

Society

A “subprime” crisis in housing? Think again.

Economist Antoinette Schoar and colleagues found that middle-class homebuyers had more to do with 2008’s real estate crash than the less-wealthy consumers usually blamed for it.

Illustration shows an abstract version of a world map with business people walking to and fro.

Society

How the pandemic could globalize the economy even more — not less

Closed borders, trade conflicts and supply-chain problems raise the specter of nations turning inward and disconnecting from one another. But Princeton’s Harold James thinks Covid-19 may well push us all closer.

A museum drawer filled with chipmunk skins. The rodents’ skulls are stored separately in small vials.

Living World

Mining museums’ genomic treasures

The world’s natural history collections hold billions of biological specimens, many of which still contain DNA. Scientists exploring these genetic repositories are gaining new, historical perspectives on how animals evolve.

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Coronavirus

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