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Chernobyl at 40: Secret Stasi files reveal extent of Soviet misinformation campaign over nuclear disaster

  • Written by Lauren Cassidy, Lecturer German and Russian Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New York
imageA German security guard checks for radiation after the Chernobyl accident in April 1986.Patrick Piel/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

On April 26, 1986, Soviet engineers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were conducting a safety test. Doomed by a fatal design flaw and pushed to the limit by human negligence, reactor 4 exploded amid an attempted...

Read more: Chernobyl at 40: Secret Stasi files reveal extent of Soviet misinformation campaign over nuclear...

What a Muslim folk trickster can teach us about the danger of holding a single worldview

  • Written by Perin Gürel, Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Notre Dame
imageA man wearing a Nasreddin Hoja costume poses with children during Eid al-Fitr at Sunnyside Gardens Park in New York.Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu via Getty Images

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told CNN in January 2026 that “we live in a world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by...

Read more: What a Muslim folk trickster can teach us about the danger of holding a single worldview

Rotavirus cases in children are rising – but a highly effective vaccine has slashed hospitalizations from the virus by 80% in 2 decades

  • Written by Annette Regan, Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles
imageOne of rotavirus infection's main symptoms is diarrhea, which can lead to severe dehydration that needs to be treated in the hospital.hxyume/E+ via Getty Images

Rotavirus is a highly contagious virus that spreads easily and can make babies and young children very sick. This year, doctors have been seeing more cases earlier in the season than usual.

D...

Read more: Rotavirus cases in children are rising – but a highly effective vaccine has slashed...

Is Trump heading to a Pyrrhic victory in Iran?

  • Written by Andrew Latham, Professor of Political Science, Macalester College
imagePresident Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing the White House on April 16, 2026.Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

President Donald Trump has claimed victory in the war in Iran even before the conflict is over. But despite killing the country’s leader and seriously degrading its military, there is an argument being made that...

Read more: Is Trump heading to a Pyrrhic victory in Iran?

High school yearbooks focus on the fun students had, obscuring the pain people also experienced

  • Written by Michael A Messner, Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
imageThe Salinas High School (Calif.) girls volleyball team from 1924, as seen in the school's yearbook, 'El Gabilan.'Michael A. Messner, CC BY

High school students will soon take part in a more than 160-year-old tradition in American education: receiving yearbooks at the end of the school year.

In an era of high-speed ephemeral images and social media,...

Read more: High school yearbooks focus on the fun students had, obscuring the pain people also experienced

HEPA air purifiers may boost brain power in adults over 40 – new research

  • Written by Nicholas Pellegrino, Research Associate in Public Health Sciences, University of Connecticut
imageAir pollution can negatively affect the brain.Jomkwan/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Using an in-home HEPA purifier for one month spurs a small but significant improvement in brain function in adults age 40 and older. That’s the result of a new study we co-authored in the journal Scientific Reports.

HEPA purifiers – HEPA stands for high...

Read more: HEPA air purifiers may boost brain power in adults over 40 – new research

Why Trump can’t just decree changes to voting by mail – a former federal judge explains how the president’s executive order is ‘a solution looking for a problem’

  • Written by John E. Jones III, President, Dickinson College
imageMail-in ballots in their envelopes await processing at the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder's mail-in ballot processing center in Pomona, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2020.Robyn Beck / AFP via Getty Images

John Jones knows about voter suppression. Currently the president of Dickinson College, Jones – nominated in 2002 by President George W. Bush...

Read more: Why Trump can’t just decree changes to voting by mail – a former federal judge explains how the...

How personal finance advice is getting political, thanks to ‘finfluencers’

  • Written by Maximilian Brichta, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Virginia
imageYoung people increasingly get their financial advice from social media -- and it's taking a political turn.Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Once seen as often dry and sometimes intimidating, personal finance advice is a far cry from what it was in your grandparents’ day.

It’s not just the array of new online tools, from banking...

Read more: How personal finance advice is getting political, thanks to ‘finfluencers’

It’s a sing-off! Myth-busting about birds and sex when it comes to defending the nest

  • Written by Benjamin Freeman, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology
imageDon't mess with my territory. Male northern parulas sing and get physically aggressive when intruders invade their space.Pranav Gokhale

Each spring, birds across America are in full voice. Cardinals chatter, sparrows sing and warblers warble. Birdsong lifts the human spirit – “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” after...

Read more: It’s a sing-off! Myth-busting about birds and sex when it comes to defending the nest

Why the US military is stuck using $1 million missiles against Iran’s $20,000 drones

  • Written by Aaron Brynildson, Law Instructor, University of Mississippi
imageA drone is seen during a suspected drone strike targeting an oil warehouse near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, on April 1, 2026. Gailan Haji/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

It may sound hard to believe, but the almost trillion-dollar U.S. military is struggling to fight cheap drones in its war with Iran.

Iran has built a...

Read more: Why the US military is stuck using $1 million missiles against Iran’s $20,000 drones

More Articles ...

  1. Research at Chernobyl and Fukushima shows how radioactive materials move in the environment
  2. Hurricanes devastated Florida’s East Coast – then seagrass made an unexpected comeback
  3. Attending multiple places of worship is the norm for many Americans
  4. Agricultural work is dangerous – but good communication can save lives in Colorado
  5. Signs of economic instability emerge in Oakland County, one of Michigan’s wealthiest
  6. US government ramps up mass surveillance with help of AI tech, data brokers – and your apps and devices
  7. Umbilical cord blood may hold clues for a child’s risk of developing Type 1 diabetes
  8. Despite all the likes, literallys and dropped g’s, English isn’t decaying before our eyes
  9. Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat
  10. NATO’s internal cohesion is being threatened (again) – but in pushing for support on Iran, Trump may risk eroding US influence on the alliance
  11. Placebo effect can work as well as real medicine – but your body may need permission to use it
  12. Don’t just plant trees, plant forests to restore biodiversity for the future
  13. We designed the turf for soccer’s biggest World Cup ever – here’s how we created the same playing experience across 3 countries
  14. Intimate partner homicide has clear warning signs – and is often preventable, research shows
  15. Is the science that we do today truth, likely to be a lie, or is it undetermined?
  16. It’s a myth that baby boys are less social than girls – a new look at decades of research shows all babies are born to connect
  17. Most people do not realize when a personal message they receive was written by AI, study finds
  18. Schools are supposed to limit using restraint and seclusion to discipline kids – but parents I spoke with say the practice is wildly misused
  19. ICE’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement was tried once before – by Arizona’s notorious sheriff Joe Arpaio in the early 2000s
  20. 1914 Ludlow Massacre took lives of 25 miners and family members during bitter strike for fair wages and conditions
  21. When oil prices spike, where does the money go?
  22. Hampshire College’s demise is yet another blow to creative, outside-the-box options in higher education
  23. Why the future of marijuana legalization remains hazy despite high public support
  24. Trump sidelined Congress’ authority over war on Iran – and lawmakers allowed it, extending a 75-year trend
  25. Trump’s coercive tactics in Latin America evoke era of gunboat diplomacy – and the rise of anti-imperialism it helped spur
  26. I’ve fired one of America’s most powerful lasers – here’s what a shot day looks like
  27. About half of young Americans can’t name a single Holocaust site, repeating a pattern of ignorance seen in postwar Germany
  28. Ancient teeth reveal clues to the environment humans’ early ancestors evolved in millions of years ago
  29. How Islamophobic rhetoric leaves an impact on the mental health of Muslim Americans
  30. ‘Right to race’ laws and the battle over America’s local racetracks
  31. Cannabis sales and use are high in Michigan – but federal law means research lags behind
  32. Christian satellite TV has broadcast evangelical faith – and end-times prophecies – into Iran for decades
  33. Seeing women govern encourages support for women in politics – with no apparent backlash among men
  34. Students expect their university will mishandle sexual misconduct, if they ever report it
  35. One-way attack drones: Low-cost, high-tech weapons ‘democratize’ precision warfare
  36. Health information delivered as a video game can bridge the communication gap between patients and providers
  37. Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas not only recorded an anthem for the civil rights era – they fought for fair pay and proudly called themselves divas
  38. As renaissance fairs become big business, can they retain their counterculture roots?
  39. Washington DC’s 240 million-gallon sewage spill is a symptom of nationwide trouble
  40. How Trump’s repeated efforts to fire Federal Reserve Chair Powell harm the economy – and make battling inflation harder
  41. Iran’s military forces combine state-of-the-art drones and hackers with out-of-date conventional weapons
  42. Trump’s clash with the pope reenacts a 1,000-year-old question: What happens when sacred and secular power collide?
  43. Salty drinking water could be increasing your blood pressure – people living in coastal areas are most at risk
  44. Why women in groups face a ‘collaboration penalty’ that solo female stars like Taylor Swift and Coco Gauff escape
  45. Ads for GLP-1 drugs are flooding the internet – here’s how to know if it’s safe to buy them online
  46. Your local fishing hole is getting browner, changing which fish species thrive and which ones struggle
  47. Why Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon prayer services challenge traditional notions of separation of church and state – but might be blessed by the Roberts Supreme Court
  48. Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel-writing machines’
  49. Strait of Hormuz: Why the US and Iran are sailing in very different legal waters
  50. The Islamabad talks were doomed to failure – and Hormuz blockade has thrown another obstacle to any Iran-US deal