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Gates launches lobbying arm – higher education on agenda

  • Written by Nicholas Tampio, Professor of Political Science, Fordham University
Bill Gates looks to his wife Melinda as they are interviewed in Kirkland, Washington, in February 2019. Elaine Thompson/AP

Bill and Melinda Gates have launched a lobbying group in part to drive their agenda on education.

The move comes as Congress is negotiating a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, the main federal law concerning student...

Read more: Gates launches lobbying arm – higher education on agenda

Thousands of recently discovered photographs document life in Uganda during Idi Amin's reign

  • Written by Derek R. Peterson, Professor of History and African Studies, University of Michigan
Idi Amin at a press conference in Jjaja Marina, Uganda in July 1975.Courtesy of the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, Author provided

In 2015, researchers working in the storeroom at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation forced open the lock on an unremarkable filing cabinet.

Inside were thousands of small wax envelopes, neatly arranged in rows, each...

Read more: Thousands of recently discovered photographs document life in Uganda during Idi Amin's reign

The guts of an Apple iPhone show exactly what Trump gets wrong about trade

  • Written by Jason Dedrick, Professor of Information Studies, Syracuse University
The components of an iPhone add up to a different cost than the phone itself.Poravute Siriphiroon/Shutterstock.com

Crack open an iPhone and you’ll begin to see why President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with China doesn’t make sense.

On paper, imports of the popular smartphone and other goods from China look like a big loss to...

Read more: The guts of an Apple iPhone show exactly what Trump gets wrong about trade

'Unskilled' immigrants help to ease the pain of dying Americans

  • Written by Cati Coe, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University
More older Americans are opting to die at home, often with the emotional support of a home care worker.Alexander Raths/shutterstock.com

President Trump wants the U.S. immigration system to shift away from family-based to skills-based migration.

This move would prioritize bringing in those who are highly educated and skilled, to the exclusion of...

Read more: 'Unskilled' immigrants help to ease the pain of dying Americans

Can parks help cities fight crime?

  • Written by Lincoln Larson, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University
Contact with nature reduces stress and aggression, one reason scholars say urban green space may reduce violence.Shutterstock

The relationship between parks and crime remains the subject of debate.

Some scholars say parks and other urban green spaces prevent violence. When vacant lots and deteriorating urban spaces are transformed into more...

Read more: Can parks help cities fight crime?

Detecting deepfakes by looking closely reveals a way to protect against them

  • Written by Siwei Lyu, Professor of Computer Science; Director, Computer Vision and Machine Learning Lab, University at Albany, State University of New York
Are any of these faces real?meyer_solutions/Shutterstock.com

Deepfake videos are hard for untrained eyes to detect because they can be quite realistic. Whether used as personal weapons of revenge, to manipulate financial markets or to destabilize international relations, videos depicting people doing and saying things they never did or said are a...

Read more: Detecting deepfakes by looking closely reveals a way to protect against them

Accelerating exoplanet discovery using chemical signatures of stars

  • Written by Natalie Hinkel, Planetary Astrophysicist, Senior Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and Co-Investigator for the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), Arizona State University
Planets form from a disc of dust orbiting a star.Mopic/Shutterstock.com

Stars are born when huge clouds of dust and gas collapse in on themselves and ignite. These clouds are made up of raw elements, like oxygen and titanium, and each cloud has a unique composition that imprints on the star. And within the stellar afterbirth – from the...

Read more: Accelerating exoplanet discovery using chemical signatures of stars

Facebook's Libra may be quite attractive in developing countries

  • Written by Nir Kshetri, Professor of Management, University of North Carolina – Greensboro
A customer and vendor exchange electronic money through a mobile phone in Uganda.Ndiwulira/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency has taken a lot of criticism from Western government officials and media commentators – but it’s not meant for them. A major target market for the Libra is users in developing...

Read more: Facebook's Libra may be quite attractive in developing countries

Accelerating exoplanet discovery using chemical fingerprints of stars

  • Written by Natalie Hinkel, Planetary Astrophysicist, Senior Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute and Co-Investigator for the Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS), Arizona State University
Planets form from a disc of dust orbiting a star.Mopic/Shutterstock.com

Stars are born when huge clouds of dust and gas collapse in on themselves and ignite. These clouds are made up of raw elements, like oxygen and titanium, and each cloud has a unique composition that imprints on the star. And within the stellar afterbirth – from the...

Read more: Accelerating exoplanet discovery using chemical fingerprints of stars

Biodiversity helps coral reefs thrive – and could be part of strategies to save them

  • Written by Cody Clements, Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology
A healthy coral reef at Swains island, American Samoa.NOAA/NMFS/PIFSC/CRED, Oceanography Team., CC BY

Coral reefs are home to so many species that they often are called “the rainforests of the seas.” Today they face a daunting range of threats, including ocean warming and acidification, overfishing and pollution. Worldwide, more than...

Read more: Biodiversity helps coral reefs thrive – and could be part of strategies to save them

More Articles ...

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  2. Health care price transparency: Fool's gold, or real money in your pocket?
  3. Amazon, Google and Facebook warrant antitrust scrutiny for many reasons – not just because they're large
  4. We probed Santorini's volcano with sound to learn what's going on beneath the surface
  5. Not all Americans have a fair path to a good death – racial disparities are real
  6. Identifying a fake picture online is harder than you might think
  7. The civil rights activist so close to Martin Luther King Jr. she was thought of as his 'other wife'
  8. US poverty statistics ignore millions of struggling Americans
  9. Corporate boards are supposed to oversee companies but often turn a blind eye
  10. For many NBA players, finding a better high school was critical to success
  11. Risk of shooting war with Iran grows after decades of economic warfare by the US
  12. Bacteria live on our eyeballs -- and understanding their role could help treat common eye diseases
  13. Corruption triumphs in Guatemala's presidential election
  14. Is cutting Central American aid going to help stop the flow of migrants?
  15. 7 ways to build your child's vocabulary
  16. Israel could strike first as tensions with Iran flare
  17. Maryland 'Peace Cross' ruling: The Supreme Court rules that a cross stands for more than Christianity
  18. Why Federal Reserve independence matters
  19. Is burning trash a good way to handle it? Waste incineration in 5 charts
  20. Supplements for brain health show no benefit – a neurologist explains a new study
  21. Math explains why the Democrats may have trouble picking a candidate
  22. Why do people faint?
  23. So, what really is jihad?
  24. How the New York media covered the Stonewall riots
  25. Women are rising in the conservation movement, but still face #MeToo challenges
  26. Time to cook is a luxury many families don't have
  27. Facebook claims Libra offers economic empowerment to billions – an economist is skeptical
  28. With cryptocurrency launch, Facebook sets its path toward becoming an independent nation
  29. Nuclear weapons and Iran's uranium enrichment program: 4 questions answered
  30. American giving lost some ground in 2018 amid tax changes and stock market losses
  31. Sleep training for your kids: Why and how it works
  32. Detaining refugee children at military bases may sound un-American, but it's been done before
  33. The Supreme Court's Virginia uranium ruling hints at the limits of federal power
  34. Mass protests protect Hong Kong's legal autonomy from China – for now
  35. Thousands of asylum seekers left waiting at the US-Mexico border
  36. What does the dust in your home mean for your health?
  37. Most US drug arrests involve a gram or less
  38. No African American has won statewide office in Mississippi in 129 years – here's why
  39. The Trebek effect: The benefits of well wishes
  40. Fathers need to care for themselves as well as their kids – but often don't
  41. Divorced dads often dissed by schools
  42. When America had an open prison – the story of Kenyon Scudder and his 'prison without walls'
  43. Americans don't agree on whether the poor should chip in or do work in exchange for aid
  44. How an aid gusher helped and hurt Liberia
  45. Elder abuse increasing, without increased awareness
  46. Maryland has created a truth commission on lynchings – can it deliver?
  47. Seaweed and sea slugs rely on toxic bacteria to defend against predators
  48. Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA test
  49. European elections suggest US shouldn't be complacent in 2020
  50. Consumer genetic testing customers stretch their DNA data further with third-party interpretation websites