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Duke professor Herman Pontzer has spent his career counting calories. Not because he’s watching his waistline, exactly. But because, as he sees it, “in the economics of life, calories are the currency.” Every minute, everything the body does — growing, moving, fighting infection, even just existing — “all of it takes energy,” Pontzer says. In his new book, “Burn,” the evolutionary anthropologist recounts the 10-plus years he and his colleagues have spent measuring the metabolisms of people ranging from ultra-athletes to office workers, as well as those of our closest animal relatives, and some of the surprising insights the research has revealed along the way.

Edited by Jennifer Lansford, Research Professors at the Sanford School of Public Policy,  Andrew Rothenberg, Research Scientist at the Duke’s Center for Child and Family Policy and Marc Bornstein, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Parenting Across Cultures From Childhood to Adolescence advances understanding of how parenting from childhood to adolescence changes or remains the same in a variety of sociodemographic, psychological, and cultural contexts, providing a truly global understanding of parenting across cultures.

The American Rescue plan, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan that President Joe Biden is expected to sign this week, would temporarily raise the child tax credit and could permanently modify how the U.S. responds to child poverty. Duke University professor Lisa A. Gennetian is an expert on policies affecting child poverty. 

Manoj Mohanan, Associate Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy,  and his research team have estimated the number of people infected with COVID-19 in Karnataka, India. He was recently quoted in The New Yorker’s February 2021 review, “ Why does the Pandemic Seem to be Hitting Some Courtiers Harder than others? Manoj also appeared in an NBC segment ,March 9, 2021, “COVID Infection Rate Plummets in India as Experts Struggle to Find an Explanation.”  

The “American Dream,” coined in 1931 by writer James Truslow Adams, inspires children from all walks of life. To some, this signifies upward mobility—the idea that through hard work, one can go on to earn more money than one’s parents. However, America has failed to live up to these aspirations for many children—over the past 50 years, children’s chances of earning more than their parents have declined from 90 percent to 50 percent. Upon closer look, a map of upward mobility trends across the U.S. shows that this dream also depends heavily on where one grew up—low-income children from the Midwest experience significantly greater upward mobility than those from the Southeast. Thus, the question is: How can we increase economic opportunity for children from neighborhoods with low upward mobility? The Duke Center for Child and Family Policy in collaboration with the Duke University Population Research Institute hosted Dr. Raj Chetty, William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University, to share research findings from his work with colleagues at Opportunity Insights, using big data to address this issue. The February 24 event was part of the Sulzberger Distinguished Lecture Series, made possible through an endowment from the Arthur Sulzberger Family.

A trio of recent studies highlight the need to incorporate behavioral and social science alongside the study of biological mechanisms in order to slow aging. The three papers, published in concert in Ageing Research Reviews, emphasized how behavioral and social factors are intrinsic to aging. This means they are causal drivers of biological aging. In fact, the influence of behavioral and social factors on how fast people age are large and meaningful. However, geroscience—the study of how to slow biological aging to extend healthspan and longevity—has traditionally not incorporated behavioral or social science research. These papers are by three pioneers in aging research and members of the National Academy of Medicine who study different aspects of the intersection of biology and social factors in shaping healthy aging through the lifespan.

A new pair of studies from a Duke research team’s long-term work in New Zealand make the case that mental health struggles in early life can lead to poorer physical health and advanced aging in adulthood. But because mental health problems peak early in life and can be identified, the researchers say that more investment in prompt mental health care could be used to prevent later diseases and lower societal healthcare costs.

Low- and middle-income countries contain the majority of confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). India has the second-highest number of reported cases, but most seroprevalence estimates come from cities. Cities, with denser population, are more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. However, millions of city workers  have fled to rural India where lockdown is less stringent.   The study team, under the leadership of Manoj Mohanan, Assoicate Professor in Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, working in partnership with national and local government authorities,  assessed SARS-CoV-2 prevalence among volunteers from population-representative households in urban and rural areas of the state of Karnataka (population, 67.5 million).

Harsher immigration law enforcement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement leads to decreased use of prenatal care for immigrant mothers and declines in birth weight, according to new Duke University research. In the study, published in PLoS ONE, researchers examine the effects of the federal 287(g) immigration program after it was introduced in North Carolina in 2006. Under 287(g) programs, which are still in effect, local law officers are deputized to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, with authority to question individuals about immigration status, detain them, and if necessary, begin deportation proceedings.

The NIA supported Research Network on Animal Models to Understand Social Dimensions of Aging , under the leadership of  Jenny Tung, Duke University, Alessandro Bartolomucci,  University of Minnesota, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, UNC,  recently awarded its  inaugural round of 2020-2021 pilot projects.  The goal of the Pilot Program is to support projects  focused on animal models or comparative studies relevant for understanding the social determinants of health and aging, and to generate key preliminary data future NIH grant applications, publications, and other scientific products.