The Conversation

Parents can soon use QR codes to reveal heavy metal content in baby food

Written by C. Michael White, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy Practice, University of Connecticut

It's impossible to eliminate heavy metals from baby food entirely, but testing can help consumers make informed decisions.Jeff Greenberg via Getty Images

Parents across the U.S. should soon be able to determine how much lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury are in the food they feed their babies, thanks to a California law, the first of its kind, that...

‘Emilia Pérez’ was nominated for 13 Oscars. Why do so many people hate it?

Written by Alejandra Marquez Guajardo, Assistant Professor of Spanish, Michigan State University

Going by recent media coverage, you wouldn't be remiss for assuming it had been nominated for a slew of Golden Raspberries.Netflix

French director Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” first made waves among critics at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024, when it won multiple awards. It went on to receive 10 Golden Globe...

‘For You’: What to know about news on TikTok

Written by Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, Associate Professor of Communication Technology, University of Connecticut

People work inside the TikTok building in Culver City, Calif., in March 2024.AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Last time you scrolled the “For You” page on TikTok, did you get a video about current events? Politics? Breaking news?

If you’re one of the 63% of teens or 33% of adults in the U.S. who uses TikTok, you probably have. But where...

Enzymes are the engines of life − machine learning tools could help scientists design new ones to tackle disease and climate change

Written by Sam Pellock, Postdoctoral Scholar in Biochemistry, University of Washington

Enzymes have complicated molecular structures that are hard to replicate.Design Cells/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Enzymes are molecular machines that carry out the chemical reactions that sustain all life, an ability that has captured the attention of scientists like me.

Consider muscle movement. Your body releases a molecule called acetylcholine...

60 years of progress in expanding rights is being rolled back by Trump − a pattern that’s all too familiar in US history

Written by Philip Klinkner, James S. Sherman Professor of Government, Hamilton College

There's a long history in the U.S. of denying the rights, liberties and benefits of democracy to some Americans.rob dobi/Getty Images

For many Americans, Donald Trump’s head-spinning array of executive orders in the early days of his second term look like an unprecedented effort to roll back democracy and the rights and liberties of American...

From Jewish summer camp to gospel to Chabad, Bob Dylan’s faith doesn’t fit in a box − but he’s long had a connection to Israel

Written by Shalom Goldman, Professor of Religion, Middlebury

Bob Dylan gives his first concert in Israel in 1987 in Tel Aviv, playing with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.AP Photo/Anat Givon

James Mangold’s film “A Complete Unknown,” nominated for eight Oscars, captures the elusive, enigmatic quality of Bob Dylan in the early 1960s: the years he emerged as a major musical and cultural...

Can the president really kill off the penny – and should he?

Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Associate Professor Questrom School of Business, Boston University

In the middle of Super Bowl LIX, President Donald Trump posted on social media that he was getting rid of the penny. Since the lowly penny in 2024 cost about 3.7 cents to make – meaning the government loses money on every coin – the announcement might seem practical at first glance. But does the president have the power to kill off the...

Syria’s mass graves: Accounting for the dead and disappeared is crucial for the nation to heal

Written by Stefan Schmitt, Project Lead for International Technical Forensic Services Global Forensic Justice Center, Florida International University

Shortly after the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria in December 2024, reports emerged of mass graves being uncovered in liberated areas.

Grim as such discoveries are, they should come as little surprise. The scale of the regime’s torture and killings in its detention facilities became evident years earlier, when in January 2014 a forensic...

Trump and Maduro refresh a complex relationship governed by self-interest and tainted by Venezuela election fraud

Written by Paul Webster Hare, Master Lecturer and Interim Director of Latin American Studies, Boston University

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with Richard Grenell, President Donald Trump's special envoy, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 31, 2025. Venezuela's presidential press office, via AP

In 2019, President Donald Trump recognized then-Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the country’s interim leader over Nicolás Maduro, who...

Inflation is heating up again, putting pressure on Trump to cool it on tariffs

Written by Jason Reed, Associate Teaching Professor of Finance, University of Notre Dame

Inflation is building again; but the housing industry may find it harder to do so as a result of Trump tariffs. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Inflation figures released on Feb. 12, 2025, will come as a disappointment to Americans who hoped President Donald Trump would be true to his word on bringing down prices “on Day One.” It will also put...