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What declining vaccination rates mean for families in Allegheny County – where 1 in 3 kindergarten classrooms lack herd immunity for measles

  • Written by Kar-Hai Chu, Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh
imageUnvaccinated individuals face 140 times higher risk of contracting measles.Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

As the risk of measles remains an ongoing concern, herd immunity in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is already slipping. According to data obtained via The Washington Post in January 2026, 1 in 3 Allegheny County...

Read more: What declining vaccination rates mean for families in Allegheny County – where 1 in 3 kindergarten...

Health care sticker shock has become the norm, but talking to your doctor about costs can help you rein it in

  • Written by Helen Colby, Assistant Professor of Marketing, Indiana University
imageA doctor at the National Cancer Institute talks with a patient.National Cancer Institute on Unsplash, CC BY

As health care costs rise, patients aren’t just shouldering higher bills. They’re bearing more and more responsibility for getting information.

Americans are facing a health care affordability crunch on multiple fronts. In 2025,...

Read more: Health care sticker shock has become the norm, but talking to your doctor about costs can help you...

After ceasefire, negotiating a lasting deal with Iran would require overcoming regional rivalries and strategic incoherence

  • Written by Ioana Emy Matesan, Associate Professor of Government, Wesleyan University
imageA man walks in the rubble of a damaged Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran, following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes. Shadati/Xinhua via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s rapid and dramatic turn from threatening to kill “an entire civilization” in Iran on the morning of April 7, 2026, to announcing a two-week ceasefire...

Read more: After ceasefire, negotiating a lasting deal with Iran would require overcoming regional rivalries...

80 years later, scholarship is breaking silence on women’s suffering and strength at Treblinka – including their role in its uprising

  • Written by Chad S.A. Gibbs, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston
imageA commemorative ceremony in 2013 marks the 70th anniversary of the revolt in the Treblinka death camp.Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Adek Stein – a Holocaust survivor from Bialystok, Poland – looked anxiously about the room, struggling with the question he’d just been asked. As his eyes searched his small audience, it...

Read more: 80 years later, scholarship is breaking silence on women’s suffering and strength at Treblinka –...

It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too)

  • Written by Christina Grozinger, Professor of Entomology, Penn State
imageThis wild ground bee, _Andrena nothoscordi_, is typically found in the U.S. Midwest and Southeast and loves false garlic flowers.Sam Droege/USGS Bee Lab via Flickr

North America’s bee populations are in trouble, but don’t blame the honey bees. While some people argue that an overabundance of managed honey bees – those raised to...

Read more: It’s OK to love all the bees (the honey bees, too)

We collected data on how 779 Michigan school districts are regulating student cellphones − here are the trends

  • Written by Justin Heinze, Associate Professor of Health Behavior & Health Equity, University of Michigan
imageA student uses the unlocking mechanism as he leaves school for the day.Keith Srakocic/AP Photo

What is the best way to handle cellphones in schools?

That’s a question Michigan educators are grappling with this spring after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a ban on smartphone use in Michigan schools.

The law goes into effect in the school...

Read more: We collected data on how 779 Michigan school districts are regulating student cellphones − here...

AI can design and run thousands of lab experiments without human hands. Humanity isn’t ready for the new risks this brings to biology

  • Written by Stephen D. Turner, Associate Professor of Data Science, University of Virginia
imageRobotic cloud laboratories powered by AI can carry out experiments remotely and cut costs.J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Artificial intelligence is rapidly learning to autonomously design and run biological experiments, but the systems intended to govern those capabilities are struggling to keep pace.

AI company OpenAI and biotech company...

Read more: AI can design and run thousands of lab experiments without human hands. Humanity isn’t ready for...

Psilocybin mushrooms are going mainstream, but scientific research and regulation lag behind

  • Written by Hollis Karoly, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
imagePsilocybin mushrooms contain numerous chemical compounds that researchers have not yet studied.Smitt/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Amid a renaissance in the science of psychedelics, public interest in psilocybin – or magic mushrooms, as they’ve long been known – is surging.

One study found that rates of psilocybin use increased 44%...

Read more: Psilocybin mushrooms are going mainstream, but scientific research and regulation lag behind

What a Chinese crackdown on corruption meant for Beijing’s high-end restaurant market

  • Written by Rui Du, Assistant Professor of Economics, Oklahoma State University
imageHigh-end restaurants in Beijing saw a drop-off in customers after a corruption crackdown.ullstein bild/Getty Images

Corruption crackdowns are bad for businesses that thrive on their proximity to political power centers. In fact, they can change the physical layout of an entire industry.

That is what my colleagues and I found when we looked at the...

Read more: What a Chinese crackdown on corruption meant for Beijing’s high-end restaurant market

Standards-based grading offers a different model of assessing student learning in the classroom

  • Written by Jerrid Kruse, Professor of Science Education, Drake University
imageInstead of focusing on student behaviors, standards-based grading assesses if students are actually learning what's being taught.Valerii Apetroaiei/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Some school districts, including ones in Maine, New Mexico, Iowa and Oregon, are shifting to standards-based grading, where students are graded on the skills and concepts...

Read more: Standards-based grading offers a different model of assessing student learning in the classroom

More Articles ...

  1. Trump administration’s lawsuits against Harvard and UCLA have roots in a decades-old fight over civil rights law
  2. Pope Leo XIV’s Africa journey: How each stop reflects his message of peace
  3. The good life requires two things, self-knowledge and friends – you can’t have one without the other
  4. Israeli threats to occupy or annex south Lebanon dust off a decades-old playbook
  5. Presidential words can turn the unthinkable into the thinkable − for better or for worse
  6. Philadelphia’s 40-year history of protecting undocumented immigrants began with churches hiding refugees from El Salvador
  7. Mutual aid and self-sufficiency are key to life near USSR’s contaminated nuclear test zone in Kazakhstan
  8. City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world
  9. Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future
  10. From a vaccine mascot to business leadership, lessons for the US from Brazil’s public health system in building public trust and keeping it
  11. Why Americans are buying $22 smoothies despite feeling terrible about the economy
  12. When a president is unfit for office, here’s what the Constitution says can happen
  13. Why the Persian Gulf has more oil and gas than anywhere else on Earth
  14. ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! Speedy Gonzales set to make his triumphant return to the silver screen
  15. Hosting the NFL draft is less about weekend beer sales and more about long-term brand value
  16. Israel’s death penalty law has little to do with criminal justice and everything to do with ethno-nationalism
  17. 1776’s Declaration of Independence inspired Washington’s troops to fight against the odds – and also helped bring in powerful allies
  18. US refugee policy for white South Africans is part of a century-long effort to keep some English-speaking nations white
  19. AI is reengineering drug discovery by speeding up testing and scanning petabytes of data for connections between diseases
  20. Massive eye drop recall reflects ongoing issues with manufacturing and FDA inspection
  21. We teach at a Florida university that agreed to cooperate with ICE – and we worry that it is making our students feel less safe
  22. How does spider venom damage human cells? Researchers uncover the killer mechanism of recluse spider toxin
  23. Hormuz closure threatens the global food supply – why grocery price hikes are coming
  24. Philadelphia’s founding years were rife with conspiracy fears about ‘godless’ Freemasons and the Illuminati
  25. What is CREC and how does it shape Pete Hegseth’s religious rhetoric?
  26. What I learned from analyzing 789 ‘Shark Tank’ pitches: Narcissists get funding if they’re not arrogant or defensive
  27. About 80% of breast cancer biopsies turn out benign – new imaging tool promises clearer diagnoses and fewer biopsies
  28. Teenagers and younger kids are learning coded predator phrases like ‘MAP’ online, long before their parents have even heard of it
  29. What gig workers and employees who get tips need to know about the new no-tax-on-tips tax break
  30. Lebanon’s political elites are using displacement and humanitarian crisis to delay elections again
  31. US and Iran: A brief history of how decades of mistrust and bad blood led to open warfare
  32. What a US attorney general actually does – a law professor spells it out
  33. Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth – our study tracked the impact in 700 kids
  34. The two lives of Chuck Norris
  35. Supreme Court ruling on Colorado conversion therapy case is not a clear win for conservatives
  36. Why the manosphere has an antisemitism problem
  37. Why Americans give: New research finds 5 distinct profiles for generosity
  38. The costume maker who convinced Hersheypark to embrace candy mascots and ‘chocolatize’ their old-timey theme park
  39. Pam Bondi’s extreme political loyalty to Trump wasn’t enough to save her job
  40. Iran’s president appeals to Americans − but does his office still hold any real power?
  41. The nonprofit status of NCAA athletic departments is starting to raise questions
  42. Kratom poisonings surged 1,200% over the past decade, and regulators are struggling to keep up with the dangers
  43. SpaceX and OpenAI IPOs are unlikely to bring skyrocketing returns that Amazon and Apple did, as companies go public later in life and early investors cash out
  44. For adults with ADHD – or even those with just some symptoms – using smart strategies to start and complete tasks can make all the difference
  45. MLB doubles down on gambling with new Polymarket deal
  46. How Iranian hackers pose a threat to US critical infrastructure
  47. Getting $750 a month didn’t end homelessness – but our study shows it still improved the lives of homeless people
  48. Irresponsible parental gun ownership could become a factor in custody disputes
  49. Better urban design could help save Florida’s threatened Big Cypress fox squirrel
  50. Bypass the Strait of Hormuz with nuclear explosives? The US studied that in Panama and Colombia in the 1960s