Texas A&M is the state’s oldest public university and largest university, and one of the largest in the nation: a research-intensive, land-grant institution with more than 69,300 students, including nearly 15,000 in graduate or professional school. Students choose from more than 130 undergraduate and 272 graduate degree programs in 16 colleges and schools, and participate in more than 1,100 student-run organizations and activities (including the Big Event, the largest one-day, student-run service project in the United States).
Texas A&M ranks in the top 20 nationally in research expenditures, with more than $922 million in FY2018 (National Science Foundation), and is a member of the Association of American Universities. Texas A&M ranks at or near the top among universities nationally in the areas of academic excellence, value, and affordability; on-time student graduation rates (both overall and for minorities); student engagement and happiness; and students who graduate with less college-related debt and become the nation’s highest-earning graduates. Texas A&M also has more graduates serving as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies than any other university.
Providing text-message tips to parents on how to make their children stronger readers can make a difference, but only if parents don’t get too many or too few text messages, researchers find.
Electronic medical records could be shared between health systems, allowing doctors to share information and possibly improve care.
Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com
What if you never had to pick up a medical record or image from one doctor to take to another? That capability already exists, but it’s not being well-utilized. Here’s a look at why.
Your nose knows what’s on the way.
Lucy Chian/Unsplash
A weather expert explains where petrichor – that pleasant, earthy scent that accompanies a storm’s first raindrops – comes from.
Homes surrounded by water from the flooded Brazos River in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Freeport, Texas, Sept. 1, 2017.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
Many people board up their houses and stay in place during disasters – but often they aren’t prepared to go without water, power or transportation for days or weeks afterward.
After the Manafort and Cohen news dropped, many wondered how Trump would respond. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce.
Nick Lehr/The Conversation via Reuters and AP Photo
Human trafficking victims can be hidden in plain sight, as one hospital found. That can lead health professionals and the public to miss clues to their plight. But education can change that.
A poster from a world summit in Hong Kong on preparing for worldwide pandemics in June 2010. Despite efforts to develop plans, none is yet in place.
Vincent Yu/AP Photo
It’s not a matter of if, but when, the next deadly pandemic will strike. Will the world be ready?
After the Civil War, Texas’s sugar cane plantations were still farmed by unpaid black laborers – prisoners forced to work for free in a system called ‘convict leasing.’
An African-American burial ground uncovered at a construction site in Texas has ignited debate on how to protect black history as suburban sprawl overtakes rural areas once farmed by enslaved workers.
Anti-opioid protest at the Harvard Art Museums, which the Sackler family has supported with charitable gifts.
Jon Shaffer
After scandals or sea changes make the association with certain names too awkward, universities, museums and other nonprofits usually distance themselves. But not always.
Un niño que sufrió una cortada con papel.
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Todos hemos sufrido una cortada con papel por lo menos una vez en la vida. ¿Alguna vez se ha preguntado por qué duelen tanto estas lesiones menores? Un médico de familia explica las razones.
A boy with a paper cut.
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Ouch! Who hasn’t felt the effects of a paper cut and then cursed the gods or themselves for the injury? But have you ever wondered why they hurt so much? A professor of family medicine explains why.
The culture war isn’t just playing out on the streets. It’s also a struggle over the dominant understanding of certain words.
AP Photo/John Minchillo
Aristotle coined the term “enthymeme” to refer to arguments, words and ideas that are broadly accepted among the people of a nation. So what happens when enthymemes start to disappear?
Just like teenagers, robot drivers need lots of practice.
iurii/Shutterstock.com
Autonomous cars need to learn how to drive just like people do: with real-world practice on public roads. It’s key to safety, and to public confidence in the new technologies.
Vaccinations have saved countless lives and untold suffering, even though many adults still believe vaccines are bad for their children.
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Vaccines have long been considered safe, but many people still believe they are not. A new study shows that people who think they know more than medical experts are more likely to believe that vaccine are not safe.
People ages 50-64 begin to develop chronic conditions for which they need coverage. Doing away with insurance for pre-existing conditions puts this group at risk.
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Stripping away preexisting conditions coverage would have far-reaching effects, but 50- to 64-year-olds are most vulnerable. Ignoring medical issues at that age could mean sicker oldsters later on.
Afternoon traffic into Nairobi’s CBD.
@AmartheArkitekt/Instagram
Hospitals have been designed throughout the years to be functional. But for patients, that often means cold and scary. Two experts share findings that more pleasing environments could be good for patients.
Hurricane Harvey approaching the Texas Gulf Coast in August 2017.
NOAA/Handout via Reuters
Large-scale emergencies can be a strain, even in one of the world’s richest countries. Population growth, income inequality and fragile supply chains may make the problem worse.
Immigration proceedings look a lot like criminal trials, with immigrants often brought in handcuffed.
Reuters/Reade Levinson
The attorney general can decide immigration cases because immigration courts are part of the DOJ, not the judiciary. This congested system has 345,000 open cases. Most will likely end in deportation.
The U.S. has the highest daily opioid use rate in the world.
Kimberly Boyles/shutterstock
Most countries need to find a happy balance between the American attitude that all pain needs to be cured – and the ethos in other countries that pain is to be endured.