News

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, German scientists and surveyors crossed choppy waters and braved dangerous conditions on ships called the Gazelle, Valdivia and Planet. These arduous expeditions, one of which circumnavigated the globe, yielded several discoveries—including the first documented vampire squid—at a time when little was known about life in the deep sea. 

The University of Maryland has received a $1.75 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to continue development of open-source technology to expand digital access to manuscripts and books from the premodern Islamicate world in Arabic, Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts have taken a disproportionate toll on American mothers who were pregnant or just gave birth. Maternal mortality (i.e., deaths during pregnancy or in the early postpartum period) increased by 18% in 2020, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, exceeding the ~16% increase in overall US mortality in 2020.