The Conversation

Unprecedented cuts to the National Science Foundation endanger research that improves economic growth, national security and your life

Written by Paul Bierman, Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, University of Vermont

The National Science Foundation funds America's next great innovations, including space-related research.Heritage Space/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using funding from the U.S. National Science...

What Pope Leo XIV’s coat of arms and motto reveal about his dedication to the ideals of St. Augustine − an art historian explains

Written by Virginia Raguin, Distinguished Professor of Humanities Emerita, College of the Holy Cross

A 17th-century stained glass image of St. Augustine.Artist Tobias Müller, 1622. Michel M. Raguin, with the permission of the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton NJ, U.S.

Pope Leo XIV has announced his motto and coat of arms – a long-held tradition for those in the ranks of bishops, cardinals and popes. The choice of symbols and...

Hurricane disaster planning with aging parents should start now, before the storm: 5 tips

Written by Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, Clinical Assistant Professor of Education, Health and Behavior Studies, University of North Dakota

When I lived in Florida, I had a neighbor named Ms. Carmen. She was in her late 70s, fiercely independent and lived alone with her two dogs and one cat, which were her closest companions.

Each hurricane season, she would anxiously ask if I would check on her when the winds began to pick up. She once told me: I’m more afraid of being forgotten...

Congress began losing power decades ago − and now it’s giving away what remains to Trump

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

Where did Congress go?Julia Nikhinson/Bloomberg Creative via Getty Images

Republicans in Congress have been making behind-the-scenes efforts to pass major domestic legislation via the federal budget process. They include potential cuts to Medicaid and extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts.

But even though it’s Congress’ job to pass a budget...

Algebra is more than alphabet soup – it’s the language of algorithms and relationships

Written by Courtney Gibbons, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Hamilton College

Algebra often involves manipulating numbers or other objects using operations like addition and multiplication.Flavio Coelho/Moment via Getty Images

You scrambled up a Rubik’s cube, and now you want to put it back in order. What sequence of moves should you make?

Surprise: You can answer this question with modern algebra.

Most folks who have...

US safety net helps protect children from abuse and neglect, and some of those programs are threatened by proposed budget cuts

Written by Todd Herrenkohl, Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan

Safety net programs protect children in many ways.Energy/E+ via Getty Images

President Donald Trump and Republicans in the House of Representatives have put forward budget proposals that would slash spending by hundreds of millions of dollars over the next decade on several programs that support low-income U.S. families with children.

If those cuts...

Pope Francis drew inspiration from Latin American church and its martyrs – leaving a legacy for Pope Leo

Written by Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo, Associate Professor of Catholic and Latin American Studies, School of Divinity, Wake Forest University

A mural of Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero decorates a wall in Panchimalco, El Salvador, May 21, 2015. AP Photo/Salvador Melendez

Pope Leo XIV’s election marks a historic moment: the first pope from an English-speaking country, and the first from the United States. Even more significant than these “firsts,” I believe, is a...

Challenges to high-performance computing threaten US innovation

Written by Jack Dongarra, Emeritus Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee

Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Frontier supercomputer is one of the world's fastest.Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, CC BY

High-performance computing, or HPC for short, might sound like something only scientists use in secret labs, but it’s actually one of the most important technologies in the world today. From predicting the weather...

Pacific voyagers’ remarkable environmental knowledge allowed for long-distance navigation without Western technology

Written by Richard (Rick) Feinberg, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Kent State University

An outrigger canoe would typically have several paddlers and one navigator.AP Photo/David Goldman

Wet and shivering, I rose from the outrigger of a Polynesian voyaging canoe. We’d been at sea all afternoon and most of the night. I’d hoped to get a little rest, but rain, wind and an absence of flat space made sleep impossible. My...

Pope Leo XIV’s link to Haiti is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration

Written by Chelsea Stieber, Associate Professor of French Studies, Tulane University

Pope Leo XIV appears before thousands of journalists on May 12, 2025, in Vatican City.Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

Early coverage of Pope Leo XIV has explored the first American pontiff’s Chicago upbringing, as well as the many years he spent in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop.

Genealogist Jari Honora broke the...