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Pope Francis encouraged Christian-Muslim dialogue and helped break down stereotypes

  • Written by Craig Considine, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Rice University
imageTributes being paid to Pope Francis at the Sacred Heart Cathedral Church in Lahore, Pakistan, on April 22, 2025.AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary

Pope Francis’ pontificate marked a distinct shift in the Catholic Church’s engagement with the Muslim world. While his predecessors fostered dialogue and tolerance, Francis sought more active engagement...

Read more: Pope Francis encouraged Christian-Muslim dialogue and helped break down stereotypes

Worsening allergies aren’t your imagination − windy days create the perfect pollen storm

  • Written by Christine Cairns Fortuin, Assistant Professor of Forestry, Mississippi State University
imageWindy days can mean more pollen and more sneezing.mladenbalinovac/E+ via Getty Images

Evolution has fostered many reproductive strategies across the spectrum of life. From dandelions to giraffes, nature finds a way.

One of those ways creates quite a bit of suffering for humans: pollen, the infamous male gametophyte of the plant kingdom.

In the...

Read more: Worsening allergies aren’t your imagination − windy days create the perfect pollen storm

National security advisers manage decision-making as advocates or honest brokers

  • Written by Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of Practice in International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
imageMike Waltz speaks with reporters in the press room at the White House on Feb. 20, 2025.AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The removal of Mike Waltz as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser – formally the assistant to the president for national security affairs – raises the question of just what that position entails and also what...

Read more: National security advisers manage decision-making as advocates or honest brokers

A pope of the Americas: What Francis meant to 2 continents

  • Written by Neomi De Anda, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Dayton
imageA portrait of Pope Francis is projected onto a water fountain in Lima, Peru, on April 21, 2025.AP Photo/Martin Mejia

Most stories about Pope Francis mention that he made history as the first pontiff from Latin America. In fact, Francis was the first pope in centuries to be born outside Europe. But what impact did that actually have on the Catholic...

Read more: A pope of the Americas: What Francis meant to 2 continents

In Yemen, Trump risks falling into an ‘airpower trap’ that has drawn past US presidents into costly wars

  • Written by Charles Walldorf, Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Wake Forest University
imageA Yemeni soldier inspects the damage reportedly caused by U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, on April 27, 2025.AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman

In the first 100 days of his second term, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown a willingness to lean on airpower when his administration decides that military force is necessary abroad.

So far, the second Trump...

Read more: In Yemen, Trump risks falling into an ‘airpower trap’ that has drawn past US presidents into...

Teachers and librarians are among those least likely to die by suicide − public health researchers offer insights on what this means for other professions

  • Written by Jordan Batchelor, Research Analyst at the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, Arizona State University
imageOne reason teachers have a low suicide rate may be that they find meaning in their jobs.Digital Vision/Getty Images

Where you work affects your risk of dying by suicide. For example, loggers, musicians and workers in the oil and gas industries have much higher rates of suicide than the rest of the population.

But on the flip side, some professions...

Read more: Teachers and librarians are among those least likely to die by suicide − public health researchers...

Hurricane forecasts are more accurate than ever – NOAA funding cuts could change that, with a busy storm season coming

  • Written by Chris Vagasky, Meteorologist and Research Program Manager, University of Wisconsin-Madison
imageRadar shows a NOAA Hurricane Hunter flying through Tropical Storm Idalia during a mission in 2023.Nick Underwood/NOAA

The National Hurricane Center’s forecasts in 2024 were its most accurate on record, from its one-day forecasts, as tropical cyclones neared the coast, to its forecasts five days into the future, when storms were only beginning...

Read more: Hurricane forecasts are more accurate than ever – NOAA funding cuts could change that, with a busy...

How was the Earth built?

  • Written by Alexander E. Gates, Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, Rutgers University - Newark
imageThe Earth formed in a ring of debris around the Sun, like the one around Vega, a bright star, in this artist's conception.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

How was the Earth built? – Noah, age 5, Florida

It...

Read more: How was the Earth built?

Philly’s forgotten history as a hub of anarchism with a thriving radical Yiddish press

  • Written by Geoffrey Baym, Professor of Media Studies and Production, Temple University
imageThe first edition of Bread and Freedom came out on Nov. 11, 1906.From the collection of the National Library of Israel, courtesy of Broyt un Frayheyt (Bread and Freedom)

On a late summer day in 1906, a small group of newly arrived Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia took a streetcar across town to Fairmount Park. Several miles from the cramped row...

Read more: Philly’s forgotten history as a hub of anarchism with a thriving radical Yiddish press

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation case is more about individual rights than the Trump administration’s foreign policy

  • Written by Chimene Keitner, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis
imageU.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, right, meets with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 17, 2025. Photo by Sen. Van Hollen's office via Getty Images

Trump administration officials have repeatedly claimed that judges who order the administration to take action to bring deported Venezuelans back from the El Salvador prison where...

Read more: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation case is more about individual rights than the Trump...

More Articles ...

  1. What is the biggest gaffe, blooper or blunder that a recent president has made? It may depend on what your definition of ‘is’ is
  2. The Women’s Health Initiative has shaped women’s health for over 30 years, but its future is uncertain
  3. Trump and many GOP lawmakers want to end all funding for NPR and PBS − unraveling a US public media system that took a century to build
  4. How millions of people can watch the same video at the same time – a computer scientist explains the technology behind streaming
  5. A Michigan research professor explains how NIH funding works − and what it means to suddenly lose a grant
  6. A law seeks to protect children from sex offenders − 20 years later, the jury is still out
  7. When presidents try to make peace: What Trump could learn from Teddy Roosevelt, Carter, Clinton and his own first term
  8. Children in military families face unique psychological challenges, and the barriers to getting help add to the strain
  9. Despite Supreme Court setback, children’s lawsuits against climate change continue
  10. Whether GDP swings up or down, there are limits to what it says about the economy and your place in it
  11. Some ‘Star Wars’ stories have already become reality
  12. Fleeting fireflies illuminate Colorado summer nights − and researchers are watching
  13. What makes people flourish? A new survey of more than 200,000 people across 22 countries looks for global patterns and local differences
  14. Deporting international students risks making the US a less attractive destination, putting its economic engine at risk
  15. As heated tobacco products reenter the US market, evidence on their safety remains sparse – new study
  16. What causes RFK Jr.’s strained and shaky voice? A neurologist explains this little-known disorder
  17. Is a faith-based charter school a threat to religious freedom, or a necessity to uphold it? The weighty decision lies with the Supreme Court
  18. Guns in America: A liberal gun-owning sociologist offers 5 observations to understand America’s culture of firearms
  19. Terrorists weigh risks to their reputation when deciding which crises to exploit − new research
  20. The woman who turned the Met Gala into the biggest party of the year
  21. Pandas and politics − from World War II to the Cold War, zoos have always been ideological
  22. The legal limits of Trump’s crackdown on sanctuary cities like Philadelphia
  23. Trump seeks to reshape how schools discipline students
  24. In the $250B influencer industry, being a hater can be the only way to rein in bad behavior
  25. From the Chinese Exclusion Act to pro-Palestinian activists: The evolution of politically motivated deportations
  26. AI is giving a boost to efforts to monitor health via radar
  27. Forensics tool ‘reanimates’ the ‘brains’ of AIs that fail in order to understand what went wrong
  28. What is a downburst? These winds can be as destructive as tornadoes − we recreate them to test building designs
  29. How rising wages for construction workers are shifting the foundations of the housing market
  30. Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways
  31. How a reading group helped young German students defy the Nazis and find their faith
  32. ‘Agreeing to disagree’ is hurting your relationships – here’s what to do instead
  33. Young bats learn to be discriminating when listening for their next meal
  34. RFK Jr. said many autistic people will never write a poem − even though there’s a rich history of neurodivergent poets and writers
  35. Whooping cough is making a comeback, but the vaccine provides powerful protection
  36. No whistleblower is an island – why networks of allies are key to exposing corruption
  37. From cats and dogs to penguins and llamas, treating animals with acupuncture has become mainstream in veterinary medicine
  38. The ‘sacramental shame’ many LGBTQ+ conservative Christians wrestle with – and how they find healing
  39. Almost Zion: Remembering a short-lived Jewish state in New York
  40. Spider-Man’s lessons for us all on the responsibility to use our power, great or small, to do good
  41. Disinformation and other forms of ‘sharp power’ now sit alongside the ‘hard power’ of tanks and ‘soft power’ of ideas in policy handbook
  42. Florida panthers and black bears need a literal path for survival – here’s how the Florida Wildlife Corridor provides it in one of the fastest-growing US states
  43. How Trump promotes a radical, unscientific theory about sex and gender in the name of opposing ‘gender ideology extremism’
  44. Trump’s first 100 days show him dictating the terms of press coverage − following Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán’s playbook for media control
  45. 50 years later, Vietnam’s environment still bears the scars of war – and signals a dark future for Gaza and Ukraine
  46. Trump administration’s attempt to nix the labor rights of thousands of federal workers on ‘national security’ grounds furthers the GOP’s long-held anti-union agenda
  47. Bureaucrats get a bad rap, but they deserve more credit − a sociologist of work explains why
  48. Italy’s Meloni is positioning herself as bridge between EU and Trump – but will it work?
  49. Pope Francis filled the College of Cardinals with a diverse group of men – and they’ll be picking his successor
  50. Granular systems, such as sandpiles or rockslides, are all around you − new research will help scientists describe how they work