Jennifer E. Arnold, a professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill psychology and neuroscience department, explains how the use of “they” as a singular pronoun has been around since the Middle Ages. Newsweek

Jason Roberts, professor in the UNC-Chapel Hill political science department, discusses the importance for political campaigns to win North Carolina in the upcoming election. AP

American women are giving birth at record-low rates. … “People are making rather reasoned decisions about whether or not to have a child at all,” said Karen Benjamin Guzzo, a sociologist and director of the Carolina Population Center at the … Read more

A new study finds that ‘sunny day flooding,’ which occurs during high tides, increases the levels of fecal bacteria in coastal waters. While the elevated bacteria levels in the coastal waters tend to dissipate quickly, the findings suggest policymakers and … Read more

Today, drug overdoses kill more than 100,000 people annually in this country, with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, touted as the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 18 to 45. Those figures led Elvie Shane to come … Read more

Researchers have created a coastal evolution model to analyze how coastal management activities on barrier islands, meant to adapt to sea-level rise, can disrupt natural processes that are keeping the barrier islands above water. Replenishing beaches and clearing over-washed roads … Read more

Microscopic tardigrades have fascinated scientists for their incredible toughness since they were first discovered back in 1773. They can sense when it’s time to go dormant and enter a tun state under harsh conditions. Tardigrades can even withstand dangerous levels … Read more

Satellites have revealed the depth of the extremely rare Death Valley lake that emerged following a rainy winter. Water level data collected by NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) allowed researchers to reach their findings. “This is a really … Read more

Jefferson Currie steps outside his home in Moore County, and the stench of chicken waste lingers in the air. He takes a sip of his morning coffee and grimaces. The coffee tastes like the beans have been roasted with rancid … Read more

The mysteries of how tardigrades survive some of the most extreme environments imaginable have potentially been solved. … “What we saw surprised us,” Bob Goldstein, a tardigrade researcher and biologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said … Read more