The Conversation

Trump inherits the Guantánamo prison, complete with 4 ‘forever prisoners’

Written by Lisa Hajjar, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

A control tower overlooks the Camp VI detention facility, at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

President Joe Biden’s record of handling the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is decidedly mixed. He succeeded in reducing the detainee population he inherited by more than half, but he compounded...

Red light therapy shows promise for pain relief, inflammation and skin conditions – but other claims might be hyped

Written by Praveen Arany, Associate Professor of Oral Biology, University at Buffalo

A treatment typically lasts from three to 15 minutes.Rich Legg/E+ via Getty Images

Red light therapy is increasingly viewed as a promising treatment for wrinkles, acne, psoriasis, scars and sun-damaged skin, and as a supportive therapy for some kinds of cancer. But does red light therapy live up to the hype that it’s practically a panacea for...

Newly discovered photos of Nazi deportations show Jewish victims as they were last seen alive

Written by Wolf Gruner, Professor of History, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Deportation of Jews in Bielefeld, Germany, on Dec. 13, 1941. Courtesy City Archive Bielefeld, CC BY-SA

The Holocaust was the first mass atrocity to be heavily photographed.

The mass production and distribution of cameras in the 1930s and 1940s enabled Nazi officials and ordinary people to widely document Germany’s persecution of Jews and other...

Reproductive health care faces legal and surveillance challenges post-Roe – new research offers guidance

Written by Nora McDonald, Assistant Professor of Information Technology, George Mason University

Providers play a central role in reproductive health privacy.FG Trade/iStock via Getty Images

Long before Roe v. Wade was overturned, reproductive justice advocates had been sounding the alarm about the increasing number of women subjected to criminal investigation for suspected abortion, stillbirth or miscarriage. These cases were often initiated...

One large Milky Way galaxy or many galaxies? 100 years ago, a young Edwin Hubble settled astronomy’s ‘Great Debate’

Written by Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

The Andromeda galaxy helped Edwin Hubble settle a great debate in astronomy. Stocktrek Images via Getty Images

A hundred years ago, astronomer Edwin Hubble dramatically expanded the size of the known universe. At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 1925, a paper read by one of his colleagues on his behalf reported that the...

US Supreme Court is unabashedly liberal − in its writing style

Written by Jill Barton, Professor and Director of Legal Writing, University of Miami

The current Supreme Court has upended historic precedent on abortion protections and drawn scrutiny for ethics conflicts, while its docket remains packed with high-profile cases set to dominate headlines in the months ahead.

Yet one of its lesser-known departures from the past lies in its approach to punctuation.

Justice Neil Gorsuch boldly departed...

Seizure of Sally Mann’s photographs in Texas revives old debates about obscenity and freedom of expression

Written by Amy Werbel, Professor of the History of Art, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)

Photographer Sally Mann poses with her dog in 2004.Michael Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Four photographs by celebrated artist Sally Mann were recently removed from the walls of an exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth at the behest of local Republican officials, who claimed they constituted child pornography. The Fort...

Microgravity in space may cause cancer − but on Earth, mimicking weightlessness could help researchers develop treatments

Written by Sai Deepika Reddy Yaram, Ph.D. Student in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, West Virginia University

Cancer cells are more hardy in the low-gravity conditions of space.koto_feja/iStock via Getty Images Plus

As space travel gains traction and astronauts spend increasing amounts of time in space, studying its effects on health has become increasingly critical.

Is space travel truly safe? Far from it – research has shown that the effects of...

The technology that runs Congress lags so far behind the modern world that its flag-tracking system just caught up to 2017-era Pizza Hut

Written by Lorelei Kelly, Research Lead, Modernizing Congress, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University

Tracking one of these items to your door has been possible since 2017 – tracking the other is all new.FTiare/iStock / Getty Images Plus

On a typical day, you can’t turn on the news without hearing someone say that Congress is broken. The implication is that this dereliction explains why the institution is inert and unresponsive to the...

President Trump promises to make government efficient − and he’ll run into the same roadblocks as Presidents Taft, Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush, among others

Written by Jennifer Selin, Associate Professor of Law, Arizona State University

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

As President Donald Trump issued a slew of executive orders and directives on his first day of his second administration, he explained his actions by saying, “It’s all about common sense.”

For over a...