Since the start of the pandemic, 2.5 million women have departed from the job market. A new rapid expert consultation says direct financial support, greater access to male-dominated jobs, and investing in child care can encourage women to return to the post-COVID workforce.

The pandemic reshaped a range of human rituals, from handshakes to happy hours to weddings. In a recent Science & Entertainment Exchange webinar, psychologist Cristine Legare discussed why rituals matter and how COVID-19 revamped them.

To explore the complex interactions between the natural world and society and enhance our understanding of Earth’s systems, the National Science Foundation should create a next-generation Earth systems science initiative.

This Guidance Document is a product of the National Academies’ Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, which presents information and identifies guidance based on existing research literature.

The Gulf Research Program has launched its first undergraduate education initiative, the Gulf Scholars Program. The five-year, $12.7 million pilot program will prepare undergraduates to address the Gulf of Mexico’s most pressing environmental, health, resilience, and infrastructure challenges.

State policymakers should prioritize science and engineering education from preschool through fifth grade, and ensure it is taught comprehensively, frequently, and consistently.

When communicating with parents about getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19, emphasize the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, encourage them to talk with their family doctor, and leverage parents’ social networks.

Safe, effective antimicrobial medicines are essential to modern medical procedures and pandemic preparedness. A new National Academies report recommends a range of policy, regulatory, and financial actions to tackle antimicrobial resistance, spanning human, animal, and environmental health.

National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt discusses science and solutions to climate change ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), which begins Oct. 31, 2021.

Despite legal protections for health care workers in combat zones, attacks on them are a continuing problem. From 2016 to 2020 there were more than 4,000 violent incidents against health care workers and facilities. A recent webinar explored what’s driving the violence and steps that should be taken to stop it.

In many university departments, graduate students may be wholly dependent on their advisers for funding and academic support — a difference in power that raises the risk of sexual harassment. At a recent summit of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, speakers explored how to diffuse those power differences.

In 2019 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, a landmark consensus study report that analyzes various policy solutions to help address child poverty in the United States.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine makes recommendations for how federal agencies can improve the transparency and reproducibility of federal statistics — such as education, labor, health, income, and justice statistics.

During Nobel Week 2021, ceremonial presentations of Nobel Prize medals and diplomas to 2021 laureates who are based in the United States will take place at the National Academy of Sciences.

The United States should create a national strategy by end of 2022 to reduce its outsized and increasing contribution to plastic waste in the world’s oceans.

A range of organizations across the tech ecosystem — tech companies, colleges and universities, professional societies, and government agencies — should take steps to improve the representation of women of color in tech fields and careers.

The U.S. Coast Guard should issue a range of new guidelines and requirements to ensure the safety of passengers and crew on DUKWs or “duck boats”— those familiar amphibious vehicles often used for touring the streets and waters of many cities.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg addressed attendees of the Transportation Research Board’s 101st Annual Meeting, where he highlighted the importance of evidence-based science, along with economic strength, clean energy, road traffic safety, and infrastructure.

Equitable cancer care starts with prevention and reaching people well before they become patients. Panelists at a recent workshop discussed how cancer centers can weave health equity into everything they do, from creating jobs to helping survivors manage treatment side effects.

Following a national search, Carlotta M. Arthur will join the National Academies as the new executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education on Feb. 14.

Six scientists have been selected for the Offshore Energy Safety track of the Early-Career Research Fellowship (ECRF), announced the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The National Academies are partnering with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to administer a new funding opportunity that aims to recognize and further the leadership and scientific accomplishments of excellent biomedical researchers who — through outreach, mentoring, and teaching — have a record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in their fields.

As the omicron variant of the coronavirus sweeps through the U.S. and other parts of the world — and with the possibility of emerging new variants looming — building confidence in vaccines has become even more important. How can knowledge from the social sciences inform effective communication around vaccines?

To maintain U.S. global leadership and meet societal challenges — including generating medical advances, furthering the energy transition, and making food and water safer and more sustainable — new investments, collaborations, and educational practices in the chemical engineering field are needed.

The world faces enormous challenges of unprecedented complexity—problems that intertwine in a dizzyingly interconnected, interdependent, and changing landscape. Few of them—especially those dealing with energy, environment, and social structures—admit clean solutions with clear endpoints.

The new Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communication aim to recognize and develop excellence in science communication by research scientists and by early career, local, and freelance science journalists. The program will provide winners with cash awards as well as training and resources to further expand their communications skills.

Almost 110,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, but there are significant inequities in who gets access to the waiting list and an eventual transplant. A new report recommends several policy changes to create a more fair, equitable, and patient-focused system for organ allocation.

Rapid advances in small satellite technology and associated launch and production capabilities have transformed the space industry. A new report recommends ways the government can partner with commercial entities to enhance national missions and make transformative science advancements.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. has experienced shortages of masks, medical gowns, ventilators, and drugs, but demand surges and supply constraints for medical products predate the current public health crisis. A new report recommends measures to improve supply reliability for medical products, during both emergencies and normal times.

Overall cigar consumption has increased since the 1990s, but there is limited research on “premium” cigars. A new report examines the short- and long-term health effects of premium cigars, who is using them and how often, and marketing practices and consumer perceptions.

Lauren Alexander Augustine, executive director of the National Academies’ Gulf Research Program, discussed community resilience strategies before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis at a March 9 hearing.

The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced the award of $22 million to support three consortia that will undertake the third phase of the Understanding Gulf Ocean Systems (UGOS) program.

Vaccination mandates and requirements can be effective in increasing COVID-19 vaccination rates, but their success depends on being targeted and on building trust, says a new rapid expert consultation, which also outlines considerations for using incentives to promote booster uptake.

With a $1 million donation, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation joins a growing number of individuals and institutions that are supporting an NAS effort to help displaced Ukrainian researchers relocate, continue their work, and stay connected to the international scientific community.

Many scientists and researchers are among the millions of Ukrainians who have fled their country since the Russian invasion. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has launched a new initiative to help these researchers and their families resettle in Poland.

Neil Pedersen, executive director of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, announced he will retire in the early fall of 2022. The National Academies will launch a nationwide search for Pedersen’s successor.

The Institute of Education Sciences should make changes to research activities at the National Center for Education Research and National Center for Special Education Research to meet new priorities in education, including improving equity and the usefulness of research.

The National Center for Education Statistics should make strategic changes to meet new education data needs by investing in a culture of innovation, new types of data, and expanded data access services, says the final report in a series written for the Institute of Education Sciences.

A new decadal survey presents a comprehensive plan for the fields of planetary science and astrobiology, identifying priority missions, planetary defense efforts, strategic technology and infrastructure investments, and ways to support the profession.

With a $500,000 donation, the American Chemical Society has joined the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in an effort to help researchers who are being forced to flee Ukraine because of Russia’s invasion.

To modernize the consumer price index — the most widely used measure of inflation in the U.S. — the Bureau of Labor Statistics should accelerate its use of new sources of data and develop price indexes based on different income levels, says a new report.

Automated research workflows — which integrate computation, laboratory automation, and tools from artificial intelligence — have the potential to increase the speed of research activities and accelerate scientific discovery. A new report recommends ways to advance their development.

The Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine was an active contributor at the first in-person Gulf of Mexico Conference (GoMCon) held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from April 25-28. The four-day conference gathered more than 800 researchers, resource managers, and interested stakeholders, and highlighted the intersection of scientific research and the management of human and natural systems in the Gulf of Mexico region.

The Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine today announced grant awards totaling $8.6 million for 11 new projects supporting health equity and community resilience.

To meet its diversity and inclusion goals for competed mission leadership, NASA should invest in STEM career pathways, partner with historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, and expand training and mentorship opportunities, among other actions.

The National Academy of Medicine has selected 11 professionals for the 2022 class of the NAM Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence program, which supports the scholars in a one-year, part-time experience to advance their diagnostic skills, reduce diagnostic errors that lead to patient harm, and accelerate their career development as national leaders in this field.

Science academies from the G-7 nations issued statements urging their governments to take action on four global challenges — developing antiviral drugs to prepare for future pandemics, speeding progress on decarbonization, protecting the oceans and sea ice, and implementing a One Health approach to zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Polish Academy of Sciences brought together leaders from the National Academy of Sciences Ukraine and several other national academies for a meeting in Warsaw to identify concrete actions the international science community can take to support Ukrainian researchers and science capabilities.

Five scientists have been selected for the Human Health and Community Resilience track of the Early-Career Research Fellowship (ECRF), the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced today.

The leaders of the national science academies of the United States, Ukraine, Poland, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, and ALLEA have developed an action plan for the international science community to build a strong science, innovation, research, and training system in Ukraine.