NewsPronto

 
Times Advertising


.

The Conversation

How California’s war on smog and its ambitious car pollution rules made everyone’s air cleaner

  • Written by Ann E. Carlson, Professor of Environmental Law, University of California, Los Angeles
imageBefore catalytic converters, starting a gas-powered vehicle could choke the surrounding area with smog.Bettmann via Getty Images

Cars on the road today are 99% cleaner than they were in 1970. Air quality in the United States is much, much better as a result. In Los Angeles, where I live, lead levels in the air were 50 times higher in the 1970s than...

Read more: How California’s war on smog and its ambitious car pollution rules made everyone’s air cleaner

How polling failures, gambling legalization and political gridlock paved the way for the explosive rise of prediction markets

  • Written by Parker Bach, PhD Student in Media and Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
imageAt their best, prediction markets aggregate collective intelligence to weigh the likelihood of future events.Fairfax Media/Getty Images

Though prediction markets have been legal in the U.S. for less than 18 months, they can’t stop making news and making money.

On prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket, users can stake real money on...

Read more: How polling failures, gambling legalization and political gridlock paved the way for the explosive...

From youth bulges to graying societies: The demographic dynamics that are upending the world

  • Written by John Rennie Short, Professor Emeritus of Public Policy, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
imagePopulation trends are driving change.Alexander Spatari/Getty Images

Government-shaking protests in Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal and Sri Lanka – to name a few – have all in recent years been linked to what demographers call a “youth bulge.” Meanwhile, the economic slowdown in China and ballooning public debtin the United States ar...

Read more: From youth bulges to graying societies: The demographic dynamics that are upending the world

Trump Fed pick Kevin Warsh could shake up the central bank with his ‘family fight’ model

  • Written by Simon Bowmaker, Distinguished Clinical Professor of Economics, New York University
imageKevin Warsh, President Donald Trump's nominee to helm the Fed, is expected to change the way the central bank operates. AP Photo/Alastair Grant

Since President Donald Trump named Kevin Warsh as his choice for Federal Reserve chair on Jan. 30, 2026, financial markets have focused on one question: Is he still the inflation hawk he once was, or is he...

Read more: Trump Fed pick Kevin Warsh could shake up the central bank with his ‘family fight’ model

Ticks are the backyard threat southwestern Pennsylvania homeowners keep ignoring

  • Written by Danielle Tufts, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and Immunology, University of Pittsburgh
imagePennsylvania consistently ranks among the top three states in the country for reported Lyme disease cases each year.Ladislav Kubeš/istock via Getty Images Plus

As spring unfolds, new research highlights an issue for southwestern Pennsylvania residents: Most people know ticks are in their backyard, but few believe they’re actually at...

Read more: Ticks are the backyard threat southwestern Pennsylvania homeowners keep ignoring

Benefits of mindfulness meditation go far beyond relaxation – here’s what it is and how to practice it

  • Written by Yuval Hadash, Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University
imageMindfulness meditation is a process of noticing difficult thoughts and feelings rather than shutting them out.Marco VDM/E+ via Getty Images

Imagine being asked to sit alone in a quiet room for 15 minutes with nothing to do – no phone, no music, no external distraction. In a well-known 2014 study, many participants found that task so...

Read more: Benefits of mindfulness meditation go far beyond relaxation – here’s what it is and how to...

Artemis II’s long countdown – a space historian explains why it has taken over 50 years to return to the Moon

  • Written by Emily A. Margolis, Curator of Contemporary Spaceflight, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution
imageThe Artemis I crew and service modules with the Moon and Earth in the distance on Nov. 28, 2022.NASA

While I was leading a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in January 2026, a visitor posed this insightful question: “Why has it taken so long to return to the Moon?”

After all, NASA had the know-how and technology to send humans...

Read more: Artemis II’s long countdown – a space historian explains why it has taken over 50 years to return...

How sea mines threaten global trade, and how navies detect them

  • Written by John Femiani, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Miami University
imageIranian forces have used small speedboats to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz.Tasnim News Agency, CC BY

U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that Iranian forces have deployed a small number of mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical choke point for global shipping, according to reports. The move gives the Iranians a means, along with...

Read more: How sea mines threaten global trade, and how navies detect them

Decades of hostility between Iran and the US were preceded by a little-remembered century-long friendship

  • Written by Daniel Thomas Potts, Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History, New York University
imageThe ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh marked a turning point in U.S.-Iran relations.AP Photo

The British- and American-backed plot to overthrow Iran’s prime minister in 1953 laid the groundwork for the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and decades of hostility with the U.S. that have now culminated in a war launched on Iran by the U.S. and...

Read more: Decades of hostility between Iran and the US were preceded by a little-remembered century-long...

NASA wants to build a base on the Moon by the 2030s – how and why it plans to build up to a long-term lunar presence

  • Written by Michelle L.D. Hanlon, Professor of Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi
imageNASA's Space Launch System rocket that will take an astronaut crew around the Moon rolls out to the launchpad. Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images

The next U.S. trip to the Moon isn’t about planting a flag. It’s about learning how to live and work there.

NASA has just reset its Artemis program, marking a clear strategic shift: Space...

Read more: NASA wants to build a base on the Moon by the 2030s – how and why it plans to build up to a...

More Articles ...

  1. Basic income’s appeal today is similar to its roots in 18th-century England – it’s a way to compensate people for a common good taken for private gain
  2. Are multiverses real? An astrophysicist explains why it depends on how you define ‘real’
  3. Panicking scientists, canceled experiments – federal funding cuts turned my work as a research dean into crisis management
  4. Sex test used in IOC’s new transgender ban more likely to exclude from Olympics intersex women who were assigned female at birth
  5. Shiite grief over attacks on Iran’s sacred cities has deep historical roots
  6. We analyzed Philly street scenes and identified signs of gentrification using machine learning trained on longtime residents’ observations
  7. Trump’s ‘God Squad’ pits energy vs. endangered species, but it’s a false choice – protecting wildlife can be good for business
  8. COVID-19 variant BA.3.2 is spreading quickly across US – a doctor explains what you need to know
  9. Ultralightweight sonar plus AI lets tiny drones navigate like bats
  10. What Americans can learn from other civil activism movements against authoritarian regimes
  11. War on Iran during nuclear negotiations undermines the US’s ability to talk peace around the world − and the effects won’t end when Trump leaves office
  12. From ‘Project Hail Mary’ to Artemis II, spaceflight captures audiences when it centers on people because human space travel is hazardous
  13. New study measures titanium in Apollo rock to uncover Moon’s early chemistry
  14. How a diplomatic snub evokes the complicated US-Brazil relationship in the second Trump era
  15. American politicians talk about persecuted Christians abroad – but here’s what happens when those Christians migrate to the US
  16. Why do some people treat the Magic Kingdom and Disney adults like cultural abominations?
  17. Birutė Galdikas: The last of the ‘angels’ in primatology’s most extraordinary chapter
  18. Birutė Galdikas: The last of ‘Leakey’s Angels’ in primatology’s most extraordinary chapter
  19. War in the Middle East made the case for renewables – what’s happening in each country tells a harder story
  20. Cameras have quietly appeared in thousands of US cities – now, their integration with AI is sounding alarms
  21. Two verdicts in two days: How American courts are rewriting the rules for Big Tech and children
  22. I went to CPAC and found Trump supporters unhappy about Iran, Epstein files and the economy, even while the fans at the MAGA conference celebrate his immigration policies
  23. Mosquitoes carrying malaria are evolving more quickly than insecticides can kill them – researchers pinpoint how
  24. Millions are protesting – but boycotts might be key to changing government policies
  25. The long shadow of Paul Ehrlich’s ‘Population Bomb’ is evident in anti-immigration efforts today
  26. Why do basketball players miss shots they’ve made a thousand times before? Neuroscience has an answer
  27. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take an astronaut crew around the Moon – a space policy expert describes the long road to launch
  28. Vagus nerve stimulation shows promise as a way to counter Alzheimer’s disease- and age-related memory loss
  29. College students are writing with AI – but a pilot study finds they’re not simply letting it write for them
  30. Scientists may be overestimating the amount of microplastics in the environment – and the culprit is lab gloves
  31. Supreme Court’s tariff decision still leaves a ‘mess’ for companies trying to grab refunds
  32. Soaring gas prices and disrupted supply chains will ripple out to increase costs in every store and sector of the economy
  33. 2026’s historic snow drought brings worries about water, wildfires and the future in the West
  34. What the historic snow drought means for water, wildfires and the future of the West
  35. On Passover, some Sephardic Jews revisit not only the story of their ancestors, but also their Ladino language
  36. Teens are driving the demand for online abortion pills via telehealth – new research
  37. New federal student loan limits affect social work graduate students, with impacts for survivors of domestic violence in Colorado and elsewhere
  38. Food aid doesn’t make people loafers – research shows government benefits help low-income people find jobs
  39. A connection to nature fuels well-being worldwide, according to a study of 38,000 people
  40. Anthrax-causing bacteria have dwelled in soil for centuries – cycling through people, animals and earth
  41. Pittsburgh’s post-steel economy is a success – and a warning for other cities
  42. If using ChatGPT is cheating, what about ghostwriting? The old debate behind a new panic
  43. How far can Iran’s ballistic missiles reach? A defense expert explains how the missiles work, and what Iran can and can’t hit
  44. Growing up during Sri Lanka’s civil war taught me that getting along with people across divides is a virtue we can learn
  45. What an ancient devotional text means for the women of Nepal
  46. Drones paired with AI could help search-and-rescue teams find missing persons faster
  47. 60 years of fiber optics: How a carrier of light you can’t see underlies much of the modern world
  48. ‘Vas Madness’ shows the power of messaging on men’s contraceptive decisions
  49. Irrational decision or helpful evolutionary adaptation? A philosopher on the rationality wars behind ‘nudge’ policy
  50. How the National Security Council typically functions to plan and fully assess risks when presidents consider going to war