The Conversation

AI search answers are the fast food of your information diet – convenient and tasty, but no substitute for good nutrition

Written by Chirag Shah, Professor of Information Science, University of Washington

Fast and yummy is often less than healthy.Zinkevych/iStock via Getty Images

If you have used Google lately and been lucky – or unlucky – enough to encounter an answer to your query rather than a bunch of links, you have been subjected to something called AI Overviews. This is a new core feature that Google has been rolling out, a move...

Scientists call the region of space influenced by the Sun the heliosphere – but without an interstellar probe, they don’t know much about its shape

Written by Sarah A. Spitzer, Research Fellow in Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, University of Michigan

An artist's depiction of the heliosphere, the Sun's region of influence in space. Little is known of the actual shape of the heliosphere. NASA

The Sun warms the Earth, making it habitable for people and animals. But that’s not all it does, and it affects a much larger area of space. The heliosphere, the area of space influenced by the Sun, is...

Scientists and Indigenous leaders team up to conserve seals and an ancestral way of life at Yakutat, Alaska

Written by Aron L. Crowell, Arctic Archaeologist, Smithsonian Institution

Ancestral seal hunting happened at the edge of the Sít Tlein (Hubbard) glacier.Emily Kearney-Williams © Smithsonian Institution

Five hundred years ago, in a mountain-rimmed ocean fjord in southeast Alaska, Tlingit hunters armed with bone-tipped harpoons eased their canoes through chunks of floating ice, stalking seals near Sít...

Records of Pompeii’s survivors have been found – and archaeologists are starting to understand how they rebuilt their lives

Written by Steven L. Tuck, Professor of Classics, Miami University

In popular culture, the eruption is usually depicted as an apocalyptic event.Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

On Aug. 24, in A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted, shooting over 3 cubic miles of debris up to 20 miles (32.1 kilometers) in the air. As the ash and rock fell to Earth, it buried the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Ac...

New database features 250 AI tools that can enhance social science research

Written by Megan Stubbs-Richardson, Assistant Research Professor at the Social Science Research Center, Mississippi State University

Literature reviews and identifying themes in large datasets become easier with these AI tools.kali9/E+ via Getty Images

AI – or artificial intelligence – is often used as a way to summarize data and improve writing. But AI tools also represent a powerful and efficient way to analyze large amounts of text to search for patterns. In...

Beyond Seinfeld’s ‘Unfrosted’ – lessons from Michigan’s serial cereal entrepreneurs

Written by Laurel Ofstein, Faculty Director, Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Michigan State University

Jerry Seinfeld promotes his Netflix film 'Unfrosted,' which tells the story behind the launch of Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. Frederic J. Brown/via Getty Images

The recent release of “Unfrosted,” which was directed by Jerry Seinfeld, had an underwhelming debut on Netflix and has even been declared “one of the decade’s worst movies.&r...

Menopause treatments can help with hot flashes and other symptoms – but many people aren’t aware of the latest advances

Written by Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

Actor Halle Berry, standing in front of U.S. senators, proclaims that she's in menopause.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Menopause used to be a taboo topic in many quarters. Now, it’s frequently in the news.

In March 2024, the White House announced an initiative to “Galvanize New Research on Women’s Midlife...

5 reasons Supreme Court ethics questions are more common now than in the past

Written by Charles Gardner Geyh, Distinguished Professor and John F. Kimberling Professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University

In recent years, all nine sitting justices on the U.S.Supreme Court have been the subject of reports calling their ethics into question.

Is this an old problem? Something new? Political gamesmanship? Something more serious?

As a legal scholar who has studied judicial history, politics and ethics, my answer to each of these questions is “yes.”

O...

Laws meant to keep different races apart still influence dating patterns, decades after being invalidated

Written by Solangel Maldonado, Professor of Law, Seton Hall University

People dating online are most likely to like and reach out to people who are white, regardless of their own race. miakievy/Getty Images

If you are single and looking for a romantic partner, chances are that you have used a dating app. But the likelihood that others will like, or even see, your profile may depend on your race.

Studies have found...

Only 1.8% of US doctors were Black in 1906 – and the legacy of inequality in medical education has not yet been erased

Written by Benjamin Chrisinger, Assistant Professor, Community Health, Tufts University

Black students at Meharry Medical College, in 1915.Heritage Art/Getty Images

Fueled by the Supreme Court’s June 2023 ruling that bans affirmative action in higher education, conservative lawmakers across the country have advanced their own state bans on diversity initiatives, especially those that might make students feel shame or guilt for...