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Policy, shmolicy: Election Day weather and football victories could decide the election

  • Written by Mark Robert Rank, Professor of Social Welfare, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
imageBad weather, including rain or snow, tends to suppress voter turnout.Gregory Adams/Moment/Getty Images

The current presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is shaping up to be an extremely tight contest. Any number of last-minute factors might earn votes for one candidate or the other. Late-breaking economic news, international...

Read more: Policy, shmolicy: Election Day weather and football victories could decide the election

I documented dozens of shrines to people who’ve died in North Philly − here’s what they tell us about memory, grief and trauma

  • Written by Gordon Coonfield, Associate Professor of Communication, Villanova University
imageA memorial to "Bough" in Kensington in North Philly. Gordon Coonfield/Kensington Remembers, CC BY-NC-ND

I was walking through the Kensington neighborhood in North Philadelphia when I noticed a shrine made from scraps of lumber and old furniture. Empty liquor bottles were arranged inside. A menagerie of stuffed animals, their fur matted by rain and...

Read more: I documented dozens of shrines to people who’ve died in North Philly − here’s what they tell us...

Americans love nature but don’t feel empowered to protect it, new research shows

  • Written by Jessica Eise, Assistant Professor, Indiana University
imagePeople enjoy spending time in nature but don't always feel they have the ability to protect it.John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Image

Climate change has been in the news for more than 40 years. It’s typically covered as a scientific or political issue. However, social scientists like me have found that feelings and values are what drive...

Read more: Americans love nature but don’t feel empowered to protect it, new research shows

Job supervisors with disabilities can boost productivity, new research shows

  • Written by Dustin Cole, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, Auburn University
imageIt can be easier to discuss your disability when your boss has one too.Westend61/Getty Images

Some large companies, such asWalgreens, Wells Fargo and Proctor & Gamble, are successfully integrating people with disabilities into their labor forces.

But other employers are not doing as good a job. That means they’re losing out on what the...

Read more: Job supervisors with disabilities can boost productivity, new research shows

When Paralympic athletes fake the extent of their disability

  • Written by Jaime Schultz, Professor of Kinesiology, Penn State

More than 4,000 athletes with physical, vision and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports during the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

Within those 22 sports, there will be 549 medal events. That number seems high because several sports include multiple “sport classes,” which are used to even the playing field for athletes...

Read more: When Paralympic athletes fake the extent of their disability

What is an Atlantic Niña? How La Niña’s smaller cousin could affect hurricane season

  • Written by Annalisa Bracco, Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Georgia Institute of Technology
imageCooling streaks indicate the potential for two Niña's at once – Pacific and Atlantic, a rare event.NOAA Coral Reef Watch

The North Atlantic Ocean has been running a fever for months, with surface temperatures at or near record highs. But cooling along the equator in both the Atlantic and eastern Pacific may finally be starting to bring...

Read more: What is an Atlantic Niña? How La Niña’s smaller cousin could affect hurricane season

How a survey of over 2,000 women in the 1920s changed the way Americans thought about female sexuality

  • Written by Anya Jabour, Regents Professor of History, University of Montana
imageIn the 1920s, many women became more comfortable in their skin. But the facts of life remained in short supply.George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress

American women still have fewer orgasms than men, according to new research that suggests that decades after the sexual revolution, the “orgasm gap” is still very much in...

Read more: How a survey of over 2,000 women in the 1920s changed the way Americans thought about female...

Why people stay after local economies collapse − a story of home among the ghosts of shuttered steel mills

  • Written by Amanda McMillan Lequieu, Assistant Professor of Environmental Sociology, Drexel University
imageSteelworkers line up for their paychecks at U.S. Steel's South Works in Chicago in 1959. Bettman Collection via Getty Images

It was midday on a Saturday, and Simonetta led me from the open front door of her home in southeast Chicago to her sitting room and settled next to her husband, Christopher, on the couch.

In the 1980s, Christopher had worked...

Read more: Why people stay after local economies collapse − a story of home among the ghosts of shuttered...

Each Jewish couple’s story starts long before the wedding − and so does the celebration of their life together

  • Written by Shulamit Reinharz, Professor of Sociology, Emerita, Brandeis University
imageA Jewish wedding canopy, or 'chuppah,' made in the 1860s, from the Jewish Museum's collection.Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Anita Diamant, the prolific writer and Jewish feminist activist, begins her book “The Jewish Wedding Now” with a simple statement: “According to Jewish law, the requirements for a kosher...

Read more: Each Jewish couple’s story starts long before the wedding − and so does the celebration of their...

An unseen problem with the Electoral College – it tells bad guys where to target their efforts

  • Written by Barry C. Burden, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Elections Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
imageA person holds an electoral certificate from the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Over the past four years, Congress and state governments have worked hard to prevent the aftermath of the 2024 election from descending into the chaos and threats to democracy that occurred around the 2020 U.S. presidential...

Read more: An unseen problem with the Electoral College – it tells bad guys where to target their efforts

More Articles ...

  1. In a new era of campus upheaval, the 1970 Kent State shootings show the danger of deploying troops to crush legal protests
  2. Ancient viral genomes preserved in glaciers reveal the history of Earth’s climate – and how viruses adapt to climate change
  3. How US military planning has shifted away from fighting terrorism to readying for tensions and conflict with China and Russia
  4. What is mental imagery? Brain researchers explain the pictures in your mind and why they’re useful
  5. A third of the world’s population lacks internet connectivity − airborne communications stations could change that
  6. All politicians change their minds – and have been flip-flopping on positions for hundreds of years
  7. From Kursk to Kursk: Putin’s attempt to project an image as Russia’s ‘protector’ has been punctured throughout his 25 years in power
  8. Urban wildfires disrupt streams and their tiny inhabitants − losing these insects is a warning of bigger water problems
  9. In domestic violence cases, police are more likely to make arrests when pets are abused, too
  10. People with physical and mobility disabilities need to work out, but there are a lot of obstacles in their way
  11. South Sudan’s long-delayed election will be a landmark moment − but economic decline and political strife put vote at risk
  12. Kamala’s kicks, Tim’s lids, and the red ties that bind Trump and Vance – what’s behind the fashion choices of each candidate
  13. ‘Coconut farmers for Harris,’ influencers and vertical signs – Smithsonian curators’ encounters at the Democratic National Convention
  14. Polaris Dawn mission to Earth’s orbit will test SpaceX’s capabilities for a commercial space program
  15. 4 ways Wissahickon Valley Park makes Philly more resilient against climate change
  16. The Polaris Dawn mission to Earth’s orbit will test SpaceX’s capabilities for a commercial space program
  17. No, the world isn’t heading toward a new Cold War – it’s closer to the grinding world order collapse of the 1930s
  18. How organized labor shames its traitors − the story of the ‘scab’
  19. US is unlikely to stop giving military aid to Israel − because it benefits from it
  20. What links aging and disease? A growing body of research says it’s a faulty metabolism
  21. Gift card scams generate billions for fraudsters and industry as regulators fail to protect consumers − and how one 83-year-old fell into the ‘fear bubble’
  22. Why gift cards fall into a gap in the 2-tier banking regulation system − and a brief history of why that gap exists
  23. From thoughts to words: How AI deciphers neural signals to help a man with ALS speak
  24. ‘Time poverty’ can keep college students from graduating − especially if they have jobs or children to care for
  25. Italian teenager Carlo Acutis’ upcoming canonization reflects the Vatican’s desire to appeal to a new generation of Catholics
  26. Can a political party get any attention when its rival holds a national convention? Yes, but it’s not easy
  27. How debt and taxes conspired to rob Nairobi’s slum-dwelling youth of the promise of a better life
  28. Treating Nord Stream blasts as a whodunit misses the point – and plays into Russia’s plan to distract and divide
  29. Want to fight gender inequality? A review of data from 118 counties shows that development aid works
  30. Want to fight gender inequality? A review of data from 118 countries shows that development aid works
  31. As human population grows, people and wildlife will share more living spaces around the world
  32. Thwaites Glacier won’t collapse like dominoes as feared, study finds, but that doesn’t mean the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is stable
  33. Rural voters don’t necessarily love Walz, despite the camo hat and small-town upbringing
  34. Squid have tiny teeth in their suckers − scientists could use their unique properties to make self-healing materials
  35. Space missions are getting more complex − lessons from Amazon and FedEx can inform satellite and spacecraft management in orbit
  36. China leans into using AI − even as the US leads in developing it
  37. America’s Iran policy is a failure − piecemeal deterrence and sanctions can go only so far
  38. Democratic Party’s embrace of organized labor in 2024 elections has long roots that had started to wither
  39. Los Angeles is in a 4-year sprint to deliver a car-free 2028 Olympics
  40. Politicians step up attacks on the teaching of scientific theories in US schools
  41. Do Charli XCX’s and Kid Rock’s endorsements make a difference? 19% of young people admit they might
  42. AI pioneers want bots to replace human teachers – here’s why that’s unlikely
  43. Blood sugar fluctuations after eating play an important role in anxiety and depression
  44. The mystic and the mathematician: What the towering 20th-century thinkers Simone and André Weil can teach today’s math educators
  45. Readers prefer to click on a clear, simple headline − like this one
  46. 75 years ago, the KKK and anti-communists teamed up to violently stop a folk concert in NY
  47. Does Democratic VP candidate Walz swear too damn much?
  48. Sharks are taking a bite out of anglers’ catch in the Gulf of Mexico, but culling isn’t likely to help
  49. Biden administration’s negotiated price cuts for 10 common prescription drugs likely to save Medicare billions, beginning in 2026
  50. Why don’t more politicians retire? A medical anthropologist explains how the US could benefit from a mandatory retirement age