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The Conversation

US government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices

  • Written by Anne Toomey McKenna, Affiliated Faculty Member, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Penn State
imageThe U.S. government is using AI to speed analysis of government and commercial data about you.Anton Petrus/Moment via Getty Images

On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors’ Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car’s sensors, cameras and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you’re...

Read more: US government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and...

Umbilical cord blood may hold clues for a child’s risk of developing Type 1 diabetes

  • Written by Angelica P. Ahrens, Assistant Research Scientist in Data Science and Microbiology, University of Florida
imageSome people with Type 1 diabetes wear continuous glucose monitors to manage their condition.Svetlana Repnitskaya/Moment via Getty Images

Your early life may quietly set the stage for developing Type 1 diabetes, an increasingly common, lifelong condition that can significantly affect daily life.

Our team’s research, published in the journal...

Read more: Umbilical cord blood may hold clues for a child’s risk of developing Type 1 diabetes

Despite all the likes, literallys and dropped g’s, English isn’t decaying before our eyes

  • Written by Valerie M. Fridland, Professor of Linguistics, University of Nevada, Reno
imageFear not: There isn't anything that needs saving.LisaStrachan/iStock via Getty Images

As a linguistics professor, I’m often asked why English is decaying before our eyes, whether it’s “like” being used promiscuously, t’s being dropped deleteriously or “literally” being deployed nonliterally.

While these...

Read more: Despite all the likes, literallys and dropped g’s, English isn’t decaying before our eyes

Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat

  • Written by Gregor Henze, Professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder
imageA data center is planned to occupy a vacant commercial building in Monterey Park, Calif., near homes and businesses and not far from downtown Los Angeles.Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Many consumers – and state policymakers and even utility companies – are worried about the possibility of large numbers of data...

Read more: Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by...

NATO’s internal cohesion is being threatened (again) – but in pushing for support on Iran, Trump may risk eroding US influence on the alliance

  • Written by Michael A. Allen, Professor of Political Science, Boise State University
imageNATO Secretary General Mark Rutte finds his alliance between Iran and a hard place. AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

Soon after the Israeli-U.S. war in Iran began on Feb. 28, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump called upon NATO allies to help support the effort. The response of European leaders was at first mixed. Some, like the United Kingdom, offering...

Read more: NATO’s internal cohesion is being threatened (again) – but in pushing for support on Iran, Trump...

Placebo effect can work as well as real medicine – but your body may need permission to use it

  • Written by Phil Starks, Associate Professor of Biology, Tufts University
imageFrom empty pills to homeopathy to sham surgery, placebos have powerful effects on the body.Irina Marwan/Moment via Getty Images

The first time the placebo effect really got under my skin was when I read that roughly one-third of people with irritable bowel syndrome improve on placebo treatments alone. Usually this statistic is presented as a...

Read more: Placebo effect can work as well as real medicine – but your body may need permission to use it

Don’t just plant trees, plant forests to restore biodiversity for the future

  • Written by John Parker, Senior Scientist in Community Ecology, Smithsonian Institution
imageA long-running experiment is testing tree mixes to develop the healthiest forests.Mickey Pullen/Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Around the world, people plan to plant more than 1 trillion trees this decade in an ambitious effort to slow climate change and reduce biodiversity loss. But if the past is prologue, many of those planted trees wo...

Read more: Don’t just plant trees, plant forests to restore biodiversity for the future

We designed the turf for soccer’s biggest World Cup ever – here’s how we created the same playing experience across 3 countries

  • Written by John N. Trey Rogers, Professor of Turfgrass Research, Michigan State University
imageWorld Cup pitches take a beating.AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

With 104 matches in 16 stadiums across Canada, the United States and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be soccer’s biggest event ever.

It’s our job as turfgrassresearchershired by FIFA, the game’s governing body, to make sure those pitches feel the same for players and...

Read more: We designed the turf for soccer’s biggest World Cup ever – here’s how we created the same playing...

Intimate partner homicide has clear warning signs – and is often preventable, research shows

  • Written by Kathryn Spearman, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Penn State
imageTaking away access to firearms is one of the few effective interventions for reducing intimate partner homicide.Nastco/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax was an accomplished dentist and a loving mom to two teenage children. On April 16, 2026, she was killed by her estranged husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who...

Read more: Intimate partner homicide has clear warning signs – and is often preventable, research shows

Is the science that we do today truth, likely to be a lie, or is it undetermined?

  • Written by Greg Eghigian, Professor of History, Penn State
imageScience is what scientists do – it's an activity and a process, not a single thing. Solskin/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

Is the science that we do today truth, likely to be a lie, or is...

Read more: Is the science that we do today truth, likely to be a lie, or is it undetermined?

More Articles ...

  1. It’s a myth that baby boys are less social than girls – a new look at decades of research shows all babies are born to connect
  2. Most people do not realize when a personal message they receive was written by AI, study finds
  3. Schools are supposed to limit using restraint and seclusion to discipline kids – but parents I spoke with say the practice is wildly misused
  4. ICE’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement was tried once before – by Arizona’s notorious sheriff Joe Arpaio in the early 2000s
  5. 1914 Ludlow Massacre took lives of 25 miners and family members during bitter strike for fair wages and conditions
  6. When oil prices spike, where does the money go?
  7. Hampshire College’s demise is yet another blow to creative, outside-the-box options in higher education
  8. Why the future of marijuana legalization remains hazy despite high public support
  9. Trump sidelined Congress’ authority over war on Iran – and lawmakers allowed it, extending a 75-year trend
  10. Trump’s coercive tactics in Latin America evoke era of gunboat diplomacy – and the rise of anti-imperialism it helped spur
  11. I’ve fired one of America’s most powerful lasers – here’s what a shot day looks like
  12. About half of young Americans can’t name a single Holocaust site, repeating a pattern of ignorance seen in postwar Germany
  13. Ancient teeth reveal clues to the environment humans’ early ancestors evolved in millions of years ago
  14. How Islamophobic rhetoric leaves an impact on the mental health of Muslim Americans
  15. ‘Right to race’ laws and the battle over America’s local racetracks
  16. Cannabis sales and use are high in Michigan – but federal law means research lags behind
  17. Christian satellite TV has broadcast evangelical faith – and end-times prophecies – into Iran for decades
  18. Seeing women govern encourages support for women in politics – with no apparent backlash among men
  19. Students expect their university will mishandle sexual misconduct, if they ever report it
  20. One-way attack drones: Low-cost, high-tech weapons ‘democratize’ precision warfare
  21. Health information delivered as a video game can bridge the communication gap between patients and providers
  22. Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas not only recorded an anthem for the civil rights era – they fought for fair pay and proudly called themselves divas
  23. As renaissance fairs become big business, can they retain their counterculture roots?
  24. Washington DC’s 240 million-gallon sewage spill is a symptom of nationwide trouble
  25. How Trump’s repeated efforts to fire Federal Reserve Chair Powell harm the economy – and make battling inflation harder
  26. Iran’s military forces combine state-of-the-art drones and hackers with out-of-date conventional weapons
  27. Trump’s clash with the pope reenacts a 1,000-year-old question: What happens when sacred and secular power collide?
  28. Salty drinking water could be increasing your blood pressure – people living in coastal areas are most at risk
  29. Why women in groups face a ‘collaboration penalty’ that solo female stars like Taylor Swift and Coco Gauff escape
  30. Ads for GLP-1 drugs are flooding the internet – here’s how to know if it’s safe to buy them online
  31. Your local fishing hole is getting browner, changing which fish species thrive and which ones struggle
  32. Why Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon prayer services challenge traditional notions of separation of church and state – but might be blessed by the Roberts Supreme Court
  33. Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel-writing machines’
  34. Strait of Hormuz: Why the US and Iran are sailing in very different legal waters
  35. The Islamabad talks were doomed to failure – and Hormuz blockade has thrown another obstacle to any Iran-US deal
  36. AI companions can give constant support – but distort ideas about what a relationship really is
  37. Antibiotics can trigger bacteria to release bubbles of inflammation tinder, making it harder to treat infection
  38. How debate about gender identity could undermine global efforts to protect victims of violence
  39. A justice department opinion arguing the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional could revert the nation to a time when presidents freely burned their papers
  40. What if Texas’ destructive Tax Day flood had centered on inner Houston instead? It’s why cities should plan for the improbable
  41. New federal figures reveal 1 in 3 US households struggle to pay energy bills, but the reality is likely even worse
  42. Using atomic nuclei could allow scientists to read time more precisely than ever – what this research could mean for future clocks
  43. What if Texas’ destructive Tax Day storm had centered on inner Houston instead? It’s why cities should plan for the improbable
  44. Industries most exposed to AI are not only seeing productivity gains but jobs and wage growth too
  45. Why rural hospitals in Pennsylvania and across the country are closing in increasing numbers – 5 myths about rural health care
  46. Trump’s exchange with Pope Leo reflects deep-rooted tensions between the Vatican and the United States: 4 essential reads
  47. How a new mapping tool helps Florida planners protect wildlife corridors as the state grows
  48. Cannabis legalization spurs innovation, but not always in ways that benefit patients or public health
  49. AIs have ‘personalities’ – here’s how they affect you more deeply than you may realize
  50. Artemis II crew brought a human eye and storytelling vision to the photos they took on their mission