The Conversation

New dietary guidelines prioritize ‘real food’ – but low-income pregnant women can’t easily obtain it

Written by Bethany Barone Gibbs, Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, West Virginia University

Most pregnant women in the U.S. aren't meeting dietary recommendations, especially in rural communities. ArtistGNDphotography/Getty Images

The federal government’s message in its new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in January 2026, couldn’t be simpler: “Eat real food.”

But for pregnant women in rural America, that...

3 generations of Black Philadelphia students report persistent anti-Black attitudes in schools

Written by Leana Cabral, Researcher at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Over 70 years after Brown v. Board of Education, public schools in the U.S. remain deeply segregated.AP Photo/Phil Long

John Washington, now in his 50s, attended a public elementary and middle school in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia and then went to a large magnet high school, a type of public school that has a selective admission...

Warming winters are disrupting the hidden world of fungi – the result can shift mountain grasslands to scrub

Written by Stephanie Kivlin, Associate Professor of Ecology, University of Tennessee

Warmer winters in normally snowy places can interfere with the important activities of microbes in the soil.Seogi/500px via Getty Images

When you look out across a snowy winter landscape, it might seem like nature is fast asleep. Yet, under the surface, tiny organisms are hard at work, consuming the previous year’s dead plant material and...

White men file workplace discrimination claims but are less likely to face inequity than other groups

Written by Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Employment Equity, UMass Amherst

In March 2025 the EEOC characterized DEI programs as potentially discriminatory against white men.Wong Yu Liang/Getty Images

In December 2025, Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, invited white men to file more sex- and race-based discrimination complaints against their employers.

“Are you a white male...

Atrocities take place in democratic nations as well as autocratic ones – our database has logged them all

Written by David Cingranelli, Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Human Rights Institute, Binghamton University, State University of New York

Thousands of people were killed by Iranian security forces in days of protests in January 2026. Meanwhile, in the same month, the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis shone a light on the use of fatal force by American law enforcement — a phenomenon that in 2025 saw the deaths of more than 1,300 people in the U.S., according to data...

How do people know their interests? The shortest player in the NBA shows how self-belief matters more than biology

Written by Greg Edwards, Adjunct Lecturer of English and Technical Communications, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Muggsy Bogues didn't let his height get in the way of his mastery of the game.Focus on Sport/Getty Images

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 do people know their interests? For example, one person likes art and the other...

How a largely forgotten Supreme Court case can help prevent an executive branch takeover of federal elections

Written by Derek T. Muller, Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame

Georgia General Election 2020 ballots are loaded by the FBI onto trucks at the Fulton County Election hub on Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga.AP Photo/Mike Stewart

The recent FBI search of the Fulton County, Georgia, elections facility and the seizure of election-related materials pursuant to a warrant has attracted concern for what it might mean fo...

Do special election results spell doom for Republicans in 2026?

Written by Charlie Hunt, Associate Professor of Political Science, Boise State University

Hoping to preserve his narrow majority, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson campaigned alongside Matt Van Epps, who narrowly won a December 2025 special election in a strongly Republican district in Tennessee.AP Photo/John Amis

On Feb. 7, 2026, Chasity Verret Martinez won a special election to fill a vacant seat in the Louisiana House. That’s an...

The intensity and perfectionism that drive Olympic athletes also put them at high risk for eating disorders

Written by Emily Hemendinger, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Several Olympic figure skaters have spoken publicly of their eating disorders in recent years. aire images/Moment via Getty Images

Olympians – athletes at the top of their sport and in prime health – are idolized and often viewed as superhuman. These athletes spend their lives focusing on building physical strength through rigorous...

3D scanning and shape analysis help archaeologists connect objects across space and time to recover their lost histories

Written by Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo, Postdoctoral Fellow in Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles

The 3D scan of a mask fragment matches up with the scan of a different well-preserved mask.Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo

Today the world of Egyptology faces a silent crisis – not of looting, although that plays a part, but of disconnection. Walk into any major museum, from Copenhagen to California, and you see glass cases filled with what could be...