A recent discussion hosted by the National Academies examined the extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent as the climate changes, and how the nation can better prepare for them.

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.

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

Some of NASA’s robotic missions to Mars could be subject to less stringent bioburden requirements, which are designed to prevent the unintentional transport of Earth-based microbes, without interfering with searches for indigenous life on the planet.

In advance of the National Academy of Medicine’s annual meeting on Oct. 17-18, NAM President Victor Dzau sat down to talk about the compounding crises of COVID-19, climate change, and systemic racism — and how health and medicine can help respond to these threats.

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.

A multidisciplinary committee representing 11 nations will plan the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, to be held in London March 7-9, 2022. The NAS and NAM join other international partners in organizing the summit, which will build upon previous events held in Washington, D.C. and Hong Kong.

Projects that bring engineering expertise to bear on the questions addressed by evolutionary medicine promise major advances. In a new NAE Perspective, Randolph M. Nesse discusses how applications of evolutionary biology to medicine are giving rise to new opportunities for engineering to enhance understanding of disease.

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.

Eleven years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Gulf Research Program’s Offshore Situation Room event examined how to make sure another offshore oil spill doesn’t happen — and how we can be better prepared if it does.

Seasonal influenza and the next influenza pandemic could emerge at any time. Four new reports examine lessons learned from COVID-19 that can improve preparedness for an influenza pandemic, including vaccine R&D, supply chain resilience, and non-vaccine public health measures.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should make changes to its integrated risk information system (IRIS) assessments handbook to ensure it provides clear operational instructions for those conducting assessments, and transparency regarding the assessment process, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

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.

On May 20, 2021, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a virtual convening of public health and communications practitioners to examine the challenges, opportunities, and lessons they saw while executing effective communications and community engagement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Industry leaders, policymakers, administrators, and researchers will gather in person from Jan. 9 to 13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., for the 101st annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).

A new National Academies consultation outlines strategies that decision-makers could use to address long-standing challenges and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in the early child care and education sector.

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.

In a new NAE Perspective, Venkatesh Narayanamurti reflects on the need for more effective R&D funding, especially in technoscientific research, a key engine of innovation.

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.

When the Taliban captured Kabul last year, a group of scientists and engineers with ties to the National Academies were desperately seeking a way out of Afghanistan. During a recent webinar, Vaughan Turekian recounted the effort to get these scientists and their families to safety.

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 COVID-19 pandemic and more frequent wildfires have highlighted the need for respiratory protection for the public and all types of workers, including essential and gig economy workers. A new report recommends frameworks to ensure both groups receive timely access to appropriate respiratory protective devices and guidance on their effective use.

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 Creative Mind” has spent the last decade bringing heightened visibility to the contributions and stories of trailblazing African Americans in science, engineering, and medicine — such as mathematical engineer Christine Darden, astronaut Mae Jemison, zoologist Shirley Malcom, and many others.

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.

A recent report — and the subject of an upcoming symposium — examines what’s driving the underrepresentation of women of color in tech education and careers, and how universities and tech companies can help remedy it.

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.

A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns the increasingly numerous and widespread impacts of climate change may soon overcome our ability to adapt, unless action is taken to reduce emissions.

The National Academies’ Committee on Human Rights issued a statement expressing concern at reports of indiscriminate military attacks in Ukraine that have included health facilities, and supported global calls to respect and protect access to health care in Ukraine, and in all conflict setting

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.

In 1998, the National Cancer Institute undertook a review of available knowledge about cigars. A new National Academies consensus study report provides a comprehensive update to the 1998 report. Steven Teutsch, the chair of the committee that wrote the report, shared some of the report’s key findings and research recommendations to move the field forward.

The emergence of biological physics as a field has had an impact on artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, the global response to COVID-19, and more. A new report outlines research directions and recommends ways federal agencies and universities can help strengthen the field’s future.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress — which produces the “Nation’s Report Card” and other critical education data — should make changes to understand and reduce its costs and open the door to innovation.

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.

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.

To provide high-quality care for all nursing home residents, the U.S. must strengthen the nursing home workforce, improve emergency preparedness, and increase the transparency and accountability of nursing homes’ finances and operations, among other actions.

Human control over technology was a concern thousands of years ago when early humans sought to ensure safe use of fire. Later, control over horse-drawn wagons and eventually steam engines led to debates about how to make the most of their benefits while limiting dangers. Now questions of control are central in the design of AI-infused technologies, for which some advocates envision full machine autonomy while others promote human autonomy.

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.

The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education today released three new individually authored publications to serve as resources for higher education institutions as they work to prevent sexual harassment and mitigate the damage it causes.

This description of practice summarizes the development and implementation of a policy by the University of Wisconsin (UW) System to prevent “passing the harasser,” a term that denotes a known harasser transitioning from one institution to another without (1) the new employer’s knowledge of previous violations of sexual harassment policy or ongoing investigations of such violations, and/or (2) facing disciplinary action.

The description of practice below summarizes the development and implementation of a policy by the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to prevent “passing the harasser,” a term that denotes a known harasser transitioning from one institution to another without (1) the new employer’s knowledge of previous violations of sexual harassment policy or ongoing investigations of such violations, and/or (2) facing disciplinary action.

This perspective paper addresses the recommendations of a 2018 report by the National Academies on sexual harassment by exploring how a procedural justice framework could help guide improvements and revisions to policies, processes, and practices within higher education institutions with the potential to mitigate the negative experiences and outcomes of those affected by sexual harassment.

A new report examines how the U.S. Department of Defense can increase the capacity of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority institutions to conduct defense and national security research.