During her time at Northeastern, Delia Mocanu developed a passion for network science. Now at Facebook, she finds herself working on one of the largest data experiments in history — the News Feed.

Even before the vast majority of states were loosening the measures intended to keep people physically distant and slow the spread of the coronavirus, people were starting to travel further and see each other more, according to research from Northeastern’s Network Science Institute.

Researchers at Northeastern mapped the way proteins within human cells behave after the cells are hijacked by the virus to identify drugs that might be able to fight it. The team is now working with other experimental researchers to begin testing those drugs.

After days of closures and requests—or orders—to stay home, many people caught in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic are wondering if these efforts will be enough. Network scientist Alessandro Vespignani says the answer depends on the ways that local, regional, and federal governments use the time.

The network science institutes of Northeastern and Indiana University are leading a project to build international collaborations to explore multilayer networks and build a global community of network scientists.

Researchers at Northeastern have found that one of the basic assumptions used in disease modeling simply isn’t realistic. Now they’re looking at how epidemics travel through various layers of a population in order to find a better way to track a disease.

When comparing chefs to scientists, most people associate the former with being “creative” and the latter with being “rigorous.” But Samuel Scarpino doesn’t buy it. He’s a scientist with a passion for cooking, and he sees parallels between the two occupations.