The Conversation

Don’t write off the Putin-Trump summit just yet – its outcome might confound critics

Written by Peter Rutland, Professor of Government, Wesleyan University

The Alaska summit is the first time the two leaders have met face-to-face since 2019.AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, Mark Schiefelbein, File

Like many such confabs before it, the Aug. 15, 2025, Alaska red carpet rollout for Russian President Vladimir Putin is classic Donald Trump: A show of diplomacy as pageantry that seemingly came out of...

4 out of 5 US troops surveyed understand the duty to disobey illegal orders

Written by Charli Carpenter, Professor of political science, UMass Amherst

National Guard members arrive at the Guard’s headquarters at D.C. Armory on Aug. 12, 2025 in Washington. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

With his Aug. 11, 2025, announcement that he was sending the National Guard – along with federal law enforcement – into Washington, D.C. to fight crime, President Donald Trump edged U.S. troops...

How poisoned data can trick AI − and how to stop it

Written by M. Hadi Amini, Associate Professor of Computing and Information Sciences, Florida International University

Data poisoning can make an AI system dangerous to use, potentially posing threats such as chemically poisoning a food or water supply. ArtemisDiana/iStock via Getty Images

Imagine a busy train station. Cameras monitor everything, from how clean the platforms are to whether a docking bay is empty or occupied. These cameras feed into an AI system...

Spiderweb silks and architectures reveal millions of years of evolutionary ingenuity

Written by Ella Kellner, Ph.D. Student in Biological Sciences, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

An orchard orb weaver spider rests in the center of her web.Daniela Duncan/Moment via Getty Images

Have you ever walked face-first into a spiderweb while on a hike? Or swept away cobwebs in your garage?

You may recognize the orb web as the classic Halloween decoration or cobwebs as close neighbors with your dust bunnies. These are just two among the...

Grief feels unbearable, disorienting and chaotic – a grief researcher and widow shares evidence-based ways to face the early days of loss

Written by Liza Barros-Lane, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Houston-Downtown

Grief brings a person's world to a halt.Valentina Shilkina/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The July 4 floods in Kerr County, Texas, sent shockwaves across the country. Now that most of the victims’ burials are over, the weight of grief is just beginning for loved ones left behind. It’s the daily devastation of an upended world where...

AI is making reading books feel obsolete – and students have a lot to lose

Written by Naomi S. Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics, American University

Workarounds to reading a book cover-to-cover have existed for decades, but generative AI takes it to new heights.dem10/E+ via Getty Images

A perfect storm is brewing for reading.

AI arrived as both kids and adults were already spending less time reading books than they did in the not-so-distant past.

As a linguist, I study how technology influences...

Labor Day and May Day emerged from the movement for a shorter workday in industrial America

Written by Jeffrey Sklansky, Professor of History, University of Illinois Chicago

It took more than a century for Chicago's Haymarket Square to get this memorial to the historic labor strife that occurred there. Jeffrey Sklansky

Most of the world observes International Workers’ Day on May 1 or the first Monday in May each year, but not the United States and Canada. Instead, Americans and Canadians have celebrated Labor Day...

The new NextGen Acela trains promise faster travel and more seats – but arrive as US rail faces an uncertain future

Written by David Alff, Associate Professor of English, University at Buffalo

The new Acela trains are scheduled to start running on the Northeast Corridor soon. Courtesy of Amtrak

When former President Joe Biden unveiled his US$1.9 trillion infrastructure plan in 2021, he found the perfect place to go public: Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station rail yard.

Over the din of crackling wires and grumbling engines, the...

4 laws that could stymie the Trump EPA’s plan to rescind the endangerment finding that underpins US climate policies

Written by H. Christopher Frey, Glenn E. Futrell Distinguished University Professor of Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University

U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, left, takes a selfie with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, center, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in front of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline.AP Photo/Jenny Kane

The Trump administration’s plan to unravel many of the nation’s climate policies hinges on rescinding what’s known as the endangerment...

The dark history of forced starvation as a weapon of war against Indigenous peoples

Written by Rosalyn R. LaPier, Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Yazan Abu Ful, a 2-year-old malnourished child, sitting in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on July 23, 2025. AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi

There is increasing evidence that “widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease” are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths“ in Gaza, a group of United Nations and aid organizations have...