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The COVID-19 pandemic and killing of George Floyd along with other recent deaths of Black people at the hands of police have laid bare stark structural and systemic racial inequities and their impacts on the health and well-being of individuals and communities. While these events have brought health and health care disparities into sharp focus for the media and public, they are not new. These longstanding and persistent health disparities are symptoms of broader social and economic challenges that are rooted in structural and systemic barriers across sectors - including housing, education, employment, and the justice system - as well as underlying racism and discrimination. Amid this difficult time for our nation, the increased recognition and understanding of disparities could provide a catalyst for the challenging work required to address them.

A brief opinion piece by an educator discussing the challenges of the virtual learning period that was abruptly brought on by COVID. He also has suggestions of changes to be made to fast-track students back into the in-person learning experience, full knowing that not all students progressed as they should have during this period.

"According to the 2019 Women in STEM Decadal Plan, prepared by the Australian Academy of Science (AAS) and the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, every organisation in Australia is increasingly reliant on STEM skills to thrive, whether they operate in government, academia, industry, or the education sector. "All these stakeholders face a common challenge: the need to tackle the significant under-representation of women in the STEM workforce, because we can ill afford to under-utilise all of the nation's available talent. To achieve this requires removing barriers to participation at every point of the STEM pipeline. We must create an environment where girls and women can readily engage in STEM education and then use those skills to progress through their careers to senior levels," the AAS report states. In many ways, the corrosion industry reflects this general state of affairs, being reliant on researchers - investigating both the process of corrosion and ways to control it - and practitioners managing its application."

"Teacher shortages and difficulties filling job openings have been reported in Tennessee, New Jersey, and South Dakota, which saw one school district begin the year with 120 teacher vacancies. In Texas, Houston, Waco, and a number of other districts saw hundreds of teaching vacancies unfilled at the start of the year."

Starlink has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in India called Starlink Satellite Communications Private, with a a "stretch goal" to deploy 200,000 Starlink user terminals in more than 160,000 rural districts in India by December 2022. Starlink is also in talks with two telecommunications companies in the Philippines, where it also wants to launch its satellite service. This project would result in Internet availability to more people - Starlink wants to introduce its internet to schools in and near to the capital city of New Delhi.

One-in-ten eligible voters in the 2020 electorate was part of a new generation of Americans - Generation Z. Members of Gen Z are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation, and they are on track to be the most well-educated generation yet. But when it comes to their views on key social and policy issues, they look very much like Millennials.

Engineers Demographic changing:women and racial and ethnic minorities increasingly have been choosing a wider range of degrees and occupations.Political representation needed. The number of women in S&E occupations or with S&E degrees has doubled over the past two decade. In 2017, women constituted 29% of workers in S&E occupations-up from 23% in 1993-relative to over half (52%) of the college-educated workforce overall. Among S&E degree holders, women represented 40% of employed individuals-up from 34% in 1993-with a highest degree in S&E Women make up over 34% of all scientists (engineers excluded), although representation varies across the broad fields. Women account for approximately 48% and 59% of life scientists and social scientists, respectively, and nearly 30% of physical scientists and computer and mathematical scientists (Figure 3-19; Table S3-12). Notably, while 59% of social scientists are female, occupations within social sciences varied widely: women accounted for 21% of economists and 69% of psychologists. About 16% of engineers are women, ranging from about 7% of mechanical engineers to 25% of chemical engineers (Figure 3-19; Table S3-12).

The Corrosion Engineering Laboratory is a multiuser facility that serves NASA Centers, various DoD and Government Agencies, private companies, and educational institutions. The KSC Beachside Atmospheric Exposure Test Site is unique within the government, making it a valuable resource that is available to customers outside NASA. Kennedy Space Center's launch facilities are located within 1000 feet of the Atlantic Ocean. Salt from the ocean combined with the heavy lift launch vehicles' acidic rocket exhaust make corrosion protection a high priority. For these reasons, KSC maintains state-of-the-art corrosion protection capabilities. Our Atmospheric Corrosion Test Site has been documented as having higher atmospheric corrosion rates than other known test sites in the United States.