Though slavery is still invoked in the United States of America, it is ironically because it was relatively rare compared to the rest of the continent. Only 4 percent of African slaves brought by Europeans and other Africans were brought to what is now the U.S, and importation was banned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1808. The remaining 96 percent went to Latin America and there is no benefit to invoking slavery when so many have not only slaves as ancestors, but also the colonizers who brought them.

Bringing in a huge population of slaves left behind a science story, and that story is filled out a little by three individuals found within a mass burial site from the 16th century at San José de los Naturales Royal Hospital in Mexico City.

Collective layoffs of large groups of workers have been common during the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020.

A new paper might inform possible impacts because it analyzed 556 collective layoffs announced between December 2018 and November 2019 across different industries that involved more than 250,000 employees. They wanted to see what collective layoff decisions had on the firms that initiated them.

The termination of employment, particularly of large numbers of people, typically evokes negative connotations. While the effect on individuals is obvious they found that layoff announcements have negative effects on companies.

If you are an artist, you will need a much different bionic arm than a soldier and a new waypoint on the road to interchangeable bionics has been developed. 

In July 2019, the Clinical Laboratory for Bionic Limb Reconstruction at MedUni Vienna's Department of Surgery implanted sensors in three male patients following nerve transfers, to transmit biosignals for wireless control of bionic prostheses. 

The 5th century Mözs-Icsei dülő cemetery near Szekszárd in the area known as Pannonia dates back to the late Roman period. 

Remains reveal the demographic makeup during the beginnings of Europe's Migration Period, when the Huns invaded Central Europe and the Romans retreated from modern-day Western Hungary as the empire collapsed in the face of barbarian hordes.

When it comes to COVID-19 deaths, the elderly and those with certain pre-existing conditions are at greater risk, just like they are in any disease that can cause respiratory distress.

Yet demographers are beginning to break down those numbers to highlight disparities in outcomes. A new paper finds that even though men and women are equally likely to contract the virus, men are significantly more likely to suffer severe effects and die. 

What might explain it? Co-morbidities are certainly a factor, though deaths in people of color are higher than in Caucasian-Americans and co-morbidities are dismissed in those because it sounds too much like laying blame.

A new paper claims that treatment with the antiviral drug remdesivir does not speed recovery from COVID-19 versus placebo in hospitalized patients who are critically ill.

But this needs to be interpreted with caution. The Lancet rushed to publish these results but they are from just 237 adults from 10 hospitals in Wuhan, and China has fooled the world before. The study was funded by the government's Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Emergency Project of COVID-19, it was not independent.

Early on in this year's coronavirus pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, experts began to explore whether the pool testing approach used in blood banking could be adapted to increase testing capacity in coronavirus diagnostics and protect those with a high mortality risk from the coronavirus. This would protect those at greater risk from asymptomatic individuals, including the medical and care staff that look after them.

Viral infections are challenging because people can be contagious before developing symptoms. Studies have said individuals can spread the coronavirus two days before the onset of clinical symptoms and viral load is at its highest almost a day before any symptoms become apparent. 

You may have heard of the Freshman 15; the weight gain some college students experience their first year, when they have unlimited dining at the university cafeteria. Coronavirus may leave behind a new pandemic when people emerge from their homes and discover their work clothes are tighter.

The developed world was already undergoing an obesity crisis thanks to affordable food. Agricultural science, which used to struggle with environmental doomsday narratives that farmers were too incompetent, now have to defend against New York Times and Guardian editorials claiming farming is too successful. Because for the first time in the history of the world, the poorest people can afford to get fat.

If we want to get a snapshot about what the ancient ways really meant for food, we need look no further than the Amazon, where despite living in the most biodiverse place on Earth, people go hungry.

The reason is simple; they don't harness nature, they exist at the whim of it. 

Ribeirinhos live alongside rivers in Brazil's Amazonian floodplain forests but struggle to catch enough fish to eat and can go hungry. The reason is nature. The Purus River undergoes one of the largest annual variations in water levels on the planet. When it floods, large areas of forest become submerged. River fish populations disperse making them much harder to catch. They can't feed themselves even with a sparse rural population

If you can afford a combination of cotton with natural silk or chiffon, those provide the best protection from coronavirus if you are not one of those people hoarding N95 masks.

But, really, unless you are a healthcare worker, the kind of covering makes little difference. Even if you do spend the money for silk, you are unlikely to have a homemade mask fit well enough it is superior to a bandana. And if you are someone who touches your face often, they are all less effective. Your eyes are not covered. Critics are not wrong for wondering if homemade masks are more than placebo, since aerosols can easily slip through gaps in many cloth fibers.