WEIRD FACTS

 

Meet the woman who gave the world antiviral drugs

Fifty years ago, few scientists believed a drug could fight viruses with low side effects. Then Gertrude Elion showed the doubters “what I could do on my own.” Born in 1918 in Manhattan, Gertrude Elion developed the drug acyclovir, a potent inhibitor of …

The right to vote is not in the Constitution

Voters in Nashville, Tennessee, faced long lines in March 2020. AP Photo/Mark Humphrey – Author Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell 2020 Aug 26 – If you’re looking for the right to vote, you won’t find it in …

Why Alaska Is Home to America’s Easternmost Point

Breaking down a geographical technicality. Semisopochnoi Island, top right, is the easternmost point of the United States. Photo from Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon (NASA Earth Observatory) using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey, via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain. …