UMBC is a leading public research university known for innovative teaching, relevant research across disciplines, and a supportive community that empowers and inspires inquisitive minds. UMBC serves 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students, and combines the learning opportunities of a liberal arts college with the creative intensity of a leading research university. At the same time, UMBC is one of the country’s most inclusive education communities. UMBC also contributes to Maryland through strong government and industry partnerships that advance K–16 education, entrepreneurship, workforce training, and technology commercialization.
From designing vaccine supply chains to improving PPE to rebuilding trust, systematically bringing engineering knowhow to public health problems could make a huge difference.
Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
A new over-the-counter COVID-19 test has been authorized by the FDA. Though it can be used to test people with and without symptoms, moderate cost and limited production mean it isn’t a game-changer.
Mercedes Burns, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm, might be more common than you realized.
The slave revolt in Berbice, modern-day Guyana, was unusual for its length and near success. So why are so few of the revolt’s documents in the Caribbean nation’s archives?
Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Tens of thousands of people have defied bans on gatherings to protest abortion restrictions. A scholar of democracy says the policy push during a pandemic has echoes elsewhere.
The number of students studying in the United States from other countries has continued to fall during the Trump presidency. An expert explains what that means for US students and the US economy.
Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing across the US. Testing has ramped up over the past few months, but increasing hospitalizations, deaths and test-positivity rates show that the virus is out of control.
Brian Grodsky, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Each side in the bloody Nagorno-Karabakh conflict accuses the other of war crimes. Such allegations attract foreign attention and possibly intervention, but rarely lead to a peaceful solution.
Richard Forno, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
A ransomware attack on election-related government computers in a Georgia county raises the specter of more disruptions for Election Day voting and vote tabulation.
The Earth is losing plants and animals at rates not seen in millions of years. Ecologists explain how protecting habitat on working lands – farms, forests and ranches – can help conserve species.
An effort by the Trump administration to put stricter limits on students and scholars from certain countries may cost a lot and accomplish little, an international education expert argues.
With Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, Trump has fulfilled his pledge to replace the late justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with a woman. But female judges don’t all decide alike any more than male judges do.
Two Lumbee scholars who have mined local archives in search of tribal history raise the profound question: Who has the rights to memories and artifacts of their people’s past?
If families embrace reading as fun and routine and teachers work more closely than before with the families of their students, it’s possible that remote learning won’t be a huge obstacle to literacy.
Last week, much of the Midwest and eastern US experienced hazy skies and red sunsets. The cause was smoke transported from the Western US by the jet stream and spread as far as Boston and even Europe.
Zoë McLaren, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
The new BinaxNOW antigen test is quick, easy, accurate and cheap. It could solve the US testing problem, but the emergency use authorization only allows people with COVID-19 symptoms to get tested.