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The tell-tale clue to how meteorites were made, at the birth of the solar system

  • Written by William Herbst, Professor of Astronomy, Wesleyan University
Geminid meteors shower downward on a December night in a remote part of Virginia. Genevieve de Messieres/Shutterstock.com

April 26, 1803 was an unusual day in the small town of L’Aigle in Normandy, France – it rained rocks.

Over 3,000 of them fell out of the sky. Fortunately no one was injured. The French Academy of Sciences investigated...

Read more: The tell-tale clue to how meteorites were made, at the birth of the solar system

No, Americans shouldn't fear traveling abroad

  • Written by Jay L. Zagorsky, Senior lecturer, Boston University
Just another American abroad.AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

As summer travel season begins, friends and relatives have asked me if it’s safe to travel outside the U.S.

I understand their fears. The news is filled with scary stories, like a tourist bus being bombed near Egypt’s pyramids, people being knifed at a bus stop in Japan and continuing...

Read more: No, Americans shouldn't fear traveling abroad

Women have been the heart of the Christian right for decades

  • Written by Emily Suzanne Johnson, Assistant Professor of History, Ball State University
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signing a bill that virtually outlaws abortion in the state.Hal Yeager/Alabama Governor's Office via AP

Alabama’s new abortion restrictions were signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey. But more has been said recently about the fact that the bill was passed by 25 white men in the state Senate. Media reports have pointed to how...

Read more: Women have been the heart of the Christian right for decades

The debate over what ails philanthropy heats up

  • Written by David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Michael Bloomberg, Robert F. Smith and MacKenzie Bezos are among the big givers making headlines.AP Photo/Elise Amendola; Reuters/Lucy Nicholson; AP Photo/Dennis Van Tine

The Binghamton University students taking a philanthropy class I’ve been teaching for years have made more than US$150,000 in grants to local charities since 2009. Because...

Read more: The debate over what ails philanthropy heats up

My students see giving money away as a good thing but they're getting leery of billionaire donors

  • Written by David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Michael Bloomberg, Robert F. Smith and MacKenzie Bezos are among the big givers making headlines.AP Photo/Elise Amendola; Reuters/Lucy Nicholson; AP Photo/Dennis Van Tine

The Binghamton University students taking a philanthropy class I’ve been teaching for years have made more than US$150,000 in grants to local charities since 2009. Because...

Read more: My students see giving money away as a good thing but they're getting leery of billionaire donors

As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home

  • Written by Kate O'Neill, Associate Professor, Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley
Plastic waste from Australia in Port Klang, Malaysia. Malaysia says it will send back some 3,300 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

Less than two years after China banned most imports of scrap material from abroad, many of its neighbors are following suit. On May...

Read more: As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home

Spider glue's sticky secret revealed by new genetic research

  • Written by Sarah Stellwagen, Postdoctoral Researcher in Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Spider glue is actually a specialized silk protein.Sarah Stellwagen, CC BY-ND

What do all of the over 45,000 described spider species on Earth have in common? Each makes at least one type of silk. And there are an awful lot of types out there.

An individual orb weaving spider – the kind that spins the classic two-dimensional aerial spiral webs...

Read more: Spider glue's sticky secret revealed by new genetic research

Antibiotic resistance is not new – it existed long before people used drugs to kill bacteria

  • Written by Ivan Erill, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Antibiotic resistance can spread between microbes within hours.Lightspring/Shutterstock.com

Imagine a world where your odds of surviving minor surgery were one to three. A world in which a visit to the dentist could spell disaster. This is the world into which your great-grandmother was born. And if humanity loses the fight against antibiotic...

Read more: Antibiotic resistance is not new – it existed long before people used drugs to kill bacteria

Brazilian universities fear Bolsonaro plan to eliminate humanities and slash public education budgets

  • Written by Renato Francisco dos Santos Paula, Professor, Universidade Federal de Goias

Tens of thousands of students and professors protested nationwide on May 30 against a Jair Bolsonaro administration proposal to slash Brazil’s public education budget and starve university humanities departments of resources.

It was the second mass demonstration in two weeks against the education policies of Brazil’s divisive new...

Read more: Brazilian universities fear Bolsonaro plan to eliminate humanities and slash public education...

Will children in your state get the support they need? It depends on the 2020 census

  • Written by Heather L. Hanna, Assistant Research Professor and Research Fellow at Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University
The U.S. Census struggles to accurately count the number of children under 5.Syda Productions/shutterstock.com

The first three years of a child’s life are the most crucial for brain development. In fact, children raised in poverty have less brain tissue compared to their counterparts.

The U.S. has educational and social programs that can help...

Read more: Will children in your state get the support they need? It depends on the 2020 census

More Articles ...

  1. Trump's Mexico tariffs don't make sense, but Americans will pay a steep price anyway if they go into effect
  2. Hackers seek ransoms from Baltimore and communities across the US
  3. How 'America's Got Talent' contestant Kodi Lee shattered stereotypes about disability
  4. Cheaper versions of the most expensive drugs may be coming, but monopolies will likely remain
  5. Climate change is driving rapid shifts between high and low water levels on the Great Lakes
  6. Violence climbs in Colombia as president chips away at landmark peace deal with FARC guerrillas
  7. The racist roots of American policing: From slave patrols to traffic stops
  8. The war on women coaches
  9. What is Eid and how do Muslims celebrate it? 6 questions answered
  10. Angkor Wat archaeological digs yield new clues to its civilization's decline
  11. Big tech surveillance could damage democracy
  12. Is Robert Mueller an antique? The role of the facts in a post-truth era
  13. Getting poorer while working harder: The 'cliff effect'
  14. D-Day succeeded thanks to an ingenious design called the Mulberry Harbours
  15. Pilots sleeping in the cockpit could improve airline safety
  16. Hate crimes associated with both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism have a long history in America's past
  17. The economic cost of devastating hurricanes and other extreme weather events is even worse than we thought
  18. To tackle climate change, immigration and threats to democracy, Europe's fractious new Parliament will have to work together
  19. Environmental reporting can help protect citizens in emerging democracies
  20. Howard Stern talks childhood trauma, and a trauma psychiatrist talks about its lasting effects
  21. Pancreatic cancer specialist explains challenges of the disease and treatment advances
  22. The question you should never ask women – period
  23. MacKenzie Bezos's $17 billion pledge tops a growing list of women giving big
  24. J. Edgar Hoover’s revenge: Information the FBI once hoped could destroy Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been declassified
  25. I'm an MLK scholar – and I'll never be able to view King in the same light
  26. How soybeans became China's most powerful weapon in Trump's trade war
  27. Fighting malaria with fungi: biologists engineer a fungus to be deadlier to mosquitoes
  28. Naked mole rat genes could hold the secret to pain relief without opioids
  29. Ancient DNA is revealing the origins of livestock herding in Africa
  30. Who are the 1 in 4 American women who choose abortion?
  31. Why thousands are getting hit with unexpected medical bills
  32. Sharing profits and ownership with workers not only make them happier, it benefits the bottom line too
  33. I was an expert witness against a teacher who taught students to question the Holocaust
  34. Why fewer and fewer Americans are getting divorced
  35. Journalist killings, arrests and assaults climb worldwide as authoritarianism spreads
  36. The case against voting for charisma
  37. Israel's political stalemate reveals the power of ultra-Orthodox Jews
  38. What Israel's new election reveals about the struggle over Jewishness
  39. The US drinking water supply is mostly safe, but that's not good enough
  40. A radical idea to get a high-renewable electric grid: Build way more solar and wind than needed
  41. This year the flu came in two waves – here’s why
  42. We're in a golden age of black horror films
  43. Congressional action on Yemen may be the first salvo against presidential war powers
  44. Gene-edited babies don't grow in test tubes -- mothers' roles shouldn't be erased
  45. Gene-edited babies don't grow in test tubes — mothers' roles shouldn't be erased
  46. Gene-edited babies don't grow in test tubes – mothers' roles shouldn't be erased
  47. More Americans are suing over gerrymandered state maps – but the Supreme Court is not likely to step in
  48. 6 ways to protect your mental health from social media's dangers
  49. How to teach and parent better in the age of big data
  50. CBD: The next weapon in the war against opioid addiction?