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2025’s words of the year reflect a year of digital disillusionment

  • Written by Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Feinstone Interdisciplinary Research Professor​, University of Memphis
imageMany of the year's winners reference the lack of meaning and certainty in our online interactions.Mininyx Doodle/iStock via Getty Images

Which terms best represent 2025?

Every year, editors for publications ranging from the Oxford English Dictionary to the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English select a “word of the year.”

Sometimes...

Read more: 2025’s words of the year reflect a year of digital disillusionment

Buying a gift for a loved one with cancer? Here’s why you should skip the fuzzy socks and give them meals or help with laundry instead

  • Written by Ellen T. Meiser, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Hawaii at Hilo
imageFuzzy socks are a popular gift for people with a serious illness such as cancer.pepifoto/iStock via Getty Images Plus

The season of gifting is in full swing – a time when people scour the internet and shops of all kinds for items that appropriately symbolize their relationships with their loved ones.

Gift givers hope that their gift will...

Read more: Buying a gift for a loved one with cancer? Here’s why you should skip the fuzzy socks and give...

Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next frontier

  • Written by Michelle Lynn Kahn, Associate Professor of History, University of Richmond
imageNeo-Nazis, like these in Orlando, Fla., organize on social media today but were early adopters of precursors to the internet in the 1980s.Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

How can society police the global spread of online far-right extremism while still protecting free speech? That’s a question policymakers and watchdog organizations confronted...

Read more: Far-right extremists have been organizing online since before the internet – and AI is their next...

‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans

  • Written by Matthew Blanton, PhD Candidate, Sociology and Demography, The University of Texas at Austin
imageA woman takes part in a Christ of May procession in Santiago, Chile, parading a relic from a destroyed church's crucifix through the city. AP Photo/Esteban Felix

In a region known for its tumultuous change, one idea remained remarkably consistent for centuries: Latin America is Catholic.

The region’s 500-year transformation into a Catholic...

Read more: ‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans

Hope and hardship have driven Syrian refugee returns – but many head back to destroyed homes, land disputes

  • Written by Sandra Joireman, Weinstein Chair of International Studies, Professor of Political Science, University of Richmond
imageDisplaced Syrian families form a return convoy to their destroyed village.Moawia Atrash/picture alliance via Getty Images

Close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned to their home country over the past year.

That extraordinary figure represents nearly one-quarter of all Syrians who fled fighting during the 13-year civil war to...

Read more: Hope and hardship have driven Syrian refugee returns – but many head back to destroyed homes, land...

Pete Hegseth could be investigated for illegal orders by 5 different bodies – but none are likely to lead to charges

  • Written by Joshua Kastenberg, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico
imageDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on December 2, 2025. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

News reports about a U.S. military attack on a boat in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs have raised critical questions about the military...

Read more: Pete Hegseth could be investigated for illegal orders by 5 different bodies – but none are likely...

Measuring Colorado’s mountains one hike at a time

  • Written by Eric Gilbertson, Associate Teaching Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Seattle University
imageUsing lightweight tools, Eric Gilbertson hikes the world's tallest mountains to measure their heights. Elijah Gendron

In the middle of a chilly October night in 2025, my two friends and I suited up at the Cottonwood Creek trailhead and started a trek into the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Colorado. It was a little below freezing as we got moving at...

Read more: Measuring Colorado’s mountains one hike at a time

Tired of the same old Christmas songs? So were these countercultural carolers

  • Written by Florian Walch, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, West Virginia University
imageWhat happens when the grinding sounds of metal music collide with the innocence of Christmas?Alexander Koerner/Getty Images

With Mariah Careyand Wham! saturating airwaves with their holiday tunes, it’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.

But if all you want for Christmas is a reprieve from stereotypical Christmas music, you’re not...

Read more: Tired of the same old Christmas songs? So were these countercultural carolers

Meditating on the connectedness of life could help reunite a divided country – here’s how ‘interbeing’ works

  • Written by Jeremy David Engels, Liberal Arts Endowed Professor of Communication, Penn State
imageMeditation can make us more aware of the miracle of existence of everything in this world.Anna Sunderland Engels

The late Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh often emphasized the interconnectedness of everything in this world. He explained how meditation can change our perceptions about the things we encounter in our daily lives by revealing this...

Read more: Meditating on the connectedness of life could help reunite a divided country – here’s how...

Down-ranking polarizing content lowers emotional temperature on social media – new research

  • Written by Tiziano Piccardi, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University
imageSocial media posts that stoke division don't have to top your feed.Gama5/iStock via Getty Images

Reducing the visibility of polarizing content in social media feeds can measurably lower partisan animosity. To come up with this finding, my colleagues and I developed a method that let us alter the ranking of people’s feeds, previously something...

Read more: Down-ranking polarizing content lowers emotional temperature on social media – new research

More Articles ...

  1. Most normal matter in the universe isn’t found in planets, stars or galaxies – an astronomer explains where it’s distributed
  2. Facing myriad global pressures, Iran intensifies outreach to African partners for critical needs
  3. People who talk with their hands seem more clear and persuasive – new research
  4. Declaration of Independence’s promises ring out today as loudly as they did for Lincoln, FDR and through 249 years of US history
  5. Everything everywhere all at once: How Zohran Mamdani campaigned both online and with a ground game
  6. The housing crisis is forcing Americans to choose between affordability and safety
  7. FDA claims on COVID-19 vaccine safety are unsupported by reliable data – and could severely hinder vaccine access
  8. The marketing genius of Spotify Wrapped
  9. Lasting peace in Ukraine may hinge on independent monitors – yet Trump’s 28-point plan barely mentions them
  10. A hard year for federal workers offers a real-time lesson in resilience
  11. Why one 16th-century theologian’s advice for a bitterly divided nation holds true today
  12. What are small modular reactors, a new type of nuclear power plant sought to feed AI’s energy demand?
  13. Google’s proposed data center in orbit will face issues with space debris in an already crowded orbit
  14. Yes, the government can track your location – but usually not by spying on you directly
  15. Federal funding cuts are only one problem facing America’s colleges and universities
  16. Labeling dissent as terrorism: New US domestic terrorism priorities raise constitutional alarms
  17. Empathy and reasoning aren’t rivals – new research shows they work together to drive people to help more
  18. Flat Earth, spirits and conspiracy theories – experience can shape even extraordinary beliefs
  19. Planning life after high school isn’t easy – 4 tips to help students and families navigate the process
  20. Why do family companies even exist? They know how to ‘win without fighting’
  21. Larry Summers’ sexism is jeopardizing his power and privilege, but the entire economics profession hinders progress for women
  22. Sugar starts corroding your teeth within seconds – here’s how to protect your pearly whites from decay
  23. Google plans to power a new data center with fossil fuels, yet release almost no emissions – here’s how its carbon capture tech works
  24. High-speed rail moves millions throughout the world every day – but in the US, high cost and low use make its future bumpy
  25. Ranked choice voting outperforms the winner-take-all system used to elect nearly every US politician
  26. Why protecting Colorado children from dying of domestic violence is such a hard problem
  27. We are hardwired to sing − and it’s good for us, too
  28. Winter storms blanket the East, while the U.S. West is wondering: Where’s the snow?
  29. Winter storms blanket the East, while the US West is wondering: Where’s the snow?
  30. Stalin’s postwar terror targeted Soviet Jews – in the name of ‘anti-cosmopolitanism’
  31. Rural high school students are more likely than city kids to get their diplomas, but they remain less likely to go to college
  32. Texas cities have some of the highest preterm birth rates in the US, highlighting maternal health crisis nationwide
  33. New York’s wealthy warn of a tax exodus after Mamdani’s win – but the data says otherwise
  34. Why do people get headaches and migraines? A child neurologist explains the science of head pain and how to treat it
  35. When the world’s largest battery power plant caught fire, toxic metals rained down – wetlands captured the fallout
  36. Speaker Johnson’s choice to lead by following the president goes against 200 years of House speakers building up the office’s power
  37. Iran’s president calls for moving its drought-stricken capital amid a worsening water crisis – how Tehran got into water bankruptcy
  38. Guinea-Bissau’s military takeover highlights the nation’s sorry history of coups and a deepening crisis across the region
  39. Drones, physics and rats: Studies show how the people of Rapa Nui made and moved the giant statues – and what caused the island’s deforestation
  40. As US hunger rises, Trump administration’s ‘efficiency’ goals cause massive food waste
  41. A year on, the Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire looks increasingly fragile − could a return to cyclical violence come next?
  42. How does Narcan work? Mapping how it reverses opioid overdose can provide a molecular blueprint for more effective drugs
  43. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence – and that affects what scientific journals choose to publish
  44. George Plimpton’s 1966 nonfiction classic ‘Paper Lion’ revealed the bruising truths of Detroit Lions training camp
  45. Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly revives Cold War persecution of Americans with supposedly disloyal views
  46. A database could help revive the Arapaho language before its last speakers are gone
  47. How food assistance programs can feed families and nourish their dignity
  48. What makes a true Santa is inside – and comes with the red suit
  49. ‘Without prejudice’: What this 2-word legalese means for the dismissed charges against James Comey and Letitia James
  50. From concrete to community: How synthetic data can make urban digital twins more humane