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As a former federal judge, I’m concerned by a year of challenges to the US justice system

  • Written by John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College
imageThe Trump administration in 2025 has blown up many legal norms and rules in pursuit of its goals.Gearstd/iStock Getty Images Plus

The public has been hearing from a lot of federal judges over the past year, much more than normal. That’s because many of them are concerned about the Trump administration’s commitment to the rule of law.

Dick...

Read more: As a former federal judge, I’m concerned by a year of challenges to the US justice system

Songbirds swap colorful plumage genes across species lines among their evolutionary neighbors

  • Written by David Toews, Associate Professor of Biology, Penn State
imageSome bird species on neighboring tips of the evolutionary tree can interbreed, with interesting genomic results.Kaleb Anderson

People typically think about evolution as a linear process where, within a species, the classic adage of “survival of the fittest” is constantly at play. New DNA mutations arise and get passed from parents to...

Read more: Songbirds swap colorful plumage genes across species lines among their evolutionary neighbors

The Ivies can weather the Trump administration’s research cuts – it’s the nation’s public universities that have the most to lose

  • Written by Todd L. Pittinsky, Professor of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
imageUCLA students and researchers protest the Trump administration's funding cuts for research, health and higher education in April 2025.Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Most of the media coverage of the federal government’s recent cuts in federal research money for universities has focused on its effects on a handful of elite Ivy League...

Read more: The Ivies can weather the Trump administration’s research cuts – it’s the nation’s public...

Polytechnic universities focus on practical, career-oriented skills, offering an alternative to traditional universities

  • Written by Kelly Droege, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Stout
imageUnlike traditional research universities and private liberal arts colleges, polytechnic universities tend to offer apprenticeships and microcredentials, all geared toward giving students practical skills they can use in the workforce. iStock/Getty Images Plus

For decades, a four-year college degree was widely seen as the standard path to getting...

Read more: Polytechnic universities focus on practical, career-oriented skills, offering an alternative to...

AI-generated political videos are more about memes and money than persuading and deceiving

  • Written by Lisa Fazio, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University
imagePoliticians are posting AI-generated videos of themselves and their opponents.Screenshots by The Conversation

Zohran Mamdani as a creepy trick-or-treater, Gavin Newsom body-slamming Donald Trump and Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero. This is not the setup to an elaborate joke. Instead, these are all examples of recent AI-generated political videos. New...

Read more: AI-generated political videos are more about memes and money than persuading and deceiving

AI’s errors may be impossible to eliminate – what that means for its use in health care

  • Written by Carlos Gershenson, Professor of Innovation, Binghamton University, State University of New York
imageFederal legislation introduced in early 2025 proposed allowing AI to prescribe medication. Wladimir Bulgar/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

In the past decade, AI’s success has led to uncurbed enthusiasm and bold claims – even though users frequently experience errors that AI makes. An AI-powered digital assistant can...

Read more: AI’s errors may be impossible to eliminate – what that means for its use in health care

How one Florida program reduced preterm births – and how it could serve as a model for other communities

  • Written by Loveline Chizobam Phillips, Ph.D. Candidate, George Mason University
imagePreterm birth is the second-leading cause of infant deaths.Pressmaster/iStock via Getty Images Plus

One in 10 babies in the U.S. – nearly 374,000 infants – were born preterm in 2023, meaning before 37 weeks of pregnancy. More than 15% were very preterm, meaning they were born before 32 weeks. A full-term pregnancy lasts 40 weeks.

Florida&...

Read more: How one Florida program reduced preterm births – and how it could serve as a model for other...

Even with Trump’s support, coal power remains expensive – and dangerous

  • Written by Hannah Wiseman, Professor of Law, Penn State
imagePresident Donald Trump has aligned himself with the coal industry, including at this meeting in April 2025.Andrew Thomas/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

As projections of U.S. electricity demand rise sharply, President Donald Trump is looking to coal – historically a dominant force in the U.S. energy economy – as a key part of...

Read more: Even with Trump’s support, coal power remains expensive – and dangerous

The dystopian Pottersville in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is starting to feel less like fiction

  • Written by Nora Gilbert, Professor of Literary and Film Studies, University of North Texas
imageTo many Americans, George Bailey’s dystopian nightmare is disquietingly familiar.Paramount

Along with millions of others, I’ll soon be taking 2 hours and 10 minutes out of my busy holiday schedule to sit down and watch a movie I’ve seen countless times before: Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which...

Read more: The dystopian Pottersville in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is starting to feel less like fiction

Tariffs 101: What they are, who pays them, and why they matter now

  • Written by Kent Jones, Professor Emeritus, Economics, Babson College

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently reviewing a case to determine whether President Donald Trump’s global tariffs are legal.

Until recently, tariffs rarely made headlines. Yet today, they play a major role in U.S. economic policy, affecting the prices of everything from groceriesto autosto holiday gifts, as well as the outlook for...

Read more: Tariffs 101: What they are, who pays them, and why they matter now

More Articles ...

  1. Time banks could ease the burden of elder care and promote connection
  2. Hanukkah celebrates both an ancient military victory and a miracle of light – modern Jews can pick from either tradition
  3. ‘Are you married?’ Why doctors ask invasive questions during treatment
  4. From FIFA to the LA Clippers, carbon offset scandals are exposing the gap between sports teams’ green promises and reality
  5. 2026’s abortion battles will be fought more in courthouses and FDA offices than at the voting booth
  6. Trump administration’s immigrant detention policy broadly rejected by federal judges
  7. Doulas play essential roles in reproductive health care – and more states are beginning to recognize it
  8. From early cars to generative AI, new technologies create demand for specialized materials
  9. Germany’s plan to deport Syrian refugees echoes 1980s effort to repatriate Turkish guest workers
  10. New industry standards and tech advances make pre-owned electronics a viable holiday gift option
  11. Exposure to neighborhood violence leads some Denver teens to use tobacco and alcohol earlier, new study shows
  12. Newly discovered link between traumatic brain injury in children and epigenetic changes could help personalize treatment for recovering kids
  13. US oil industry doesn’t see profit in Trump’s ‘pro-petroleum’ moves
  14. Sabrina Carpenter’s and Chappell Roan’s sexy pop hits have roots in the bedroom ballads of Teddy Pendergrass and Philly soul
  15. 6 myths about rural America: How conventional wisdom gets it wrong
  16. Young, undocumented immigrants are finding it increasingly hard to attend college as South Carolina and other states restrict in-state tuition or ban them altogether
  17. Outside the West, the Kundalini tradition presents a model of the ‘divine feminine’ beyond binary gender
  18. Pope Leo XIV’s visits to Turkey and Lebanon were about religious diplomacy
  19. How crime in Brazil drags down the economy and heaps economic pain on the nation’s poor
  20. You care about fairness at work – so why do you feel like a fake?
  21. Lower-cost space missions like NASA’s ESCAPADE are starting to deliver exciting science – but at a price in risk and trade‑offs
  22. PFAS in pregnant women’s drinking water puts their babies at higher risk, study finds
  23. Health insurance premiums rose nearly 3x the rate of worker earnings over the past 25 years
  24. Merry Jewish Christmas: How Chinese food and the movies became a time-honored tradition for American Jews
  25. Are sanctuary policing policies no more than a public relations facade?
  26. How keeping down borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans is built into the Fed’s ‘dual mandate’
  27. Netflix-Warner deal would drive streaming market further down the road of ‘Big 3’ domination
  28. What 38 million obituaries reveal about how Americans define a ‘life well lived’
  29. Florida’s new reporting system is shining a light on human trafficking in the Sunshine State
  30. What does it mean to be a new national park? Ocmulgee Mounds in Georgia may soon find out
  31. The law meets its limits – what ‘Nuremberg’ reveals about guilt, evil and the quest for global justice
  32. Why can’t I wiggle my toes one at a time, like my fingers?
  33. Putting pig organs in people is OK in the US, but growing human organs in pigs is not – why is that?
  34. From evil to upheaval and beyond: How the ‘axis’ metaphor shaped modern geopolitics
  35. Supreme Court’s decision on birthright citizenship will depend on its interpretation of one key phrase
  36. Vaccine committee votes to scrap universal hepatitis B shots for newborns despite outcry from children’s health experts
  37. 3 states are challenging precedent against posting the Ten Commandments in public schools – cases that could land back at the Supreme Court
  38. A culinary educator and local dining expert breaks down Michelin’s debut Philly list − and gives zero stars to the inspectors
  39. Girls and boys solve math problems differently – with similar short-term results but different long-term outcomes
  40. 2025’s words of the year reflect a year of digital disillusionment
  41. Buying a gift for a loved one with cancer? Here’s why you should skip the fuzzy socks and give them meals or help with laundry instead
  42. Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next frontier
  43. ‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans
  44. Hope and hardship have driven Syrian refugee returns – but many head back to destroyed homes, land disputes
  45. Pete Hegseth could be investigated for illegal orders by 5 different bodies – but none are likely to lead to charges
  46. Measuring Colorado’s mountains one hike at a time
  47. Tired of the same old Christmas songs? So were these countercultural carolers
  48. Meditating on the connectedness of life could help reunite a divided country – here’s how ‘interbeing’ works
  49. Down-ranking polarizing content lowers emotional temperature on social media – new research
  50. Most normal matter in the universe isn’t found in planets, stars or galaxies – an astronomer explains where it’s distributed