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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

Trump administration’s lawsuits against Harvard and UCLA have roots in a decades-old fight over civil rights law

  • Written by Ryan Creps, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University at Buffalo
imageProtesters gather outside a Boston courthouse in July 2025 to rally against the Trump administration's freezing of contracts and grants to Harvard University. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

The Department of Justice announced in March 2026 that it is suing Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

The lawsuits allege that both...

Read more: Trump administration’s lawsuits against Harvard and UCLA have roots in a decades-old fight over...

Pope Leo XIV’s Africa journey: How each stop reflects his message of peace

  • Written by Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
imagePope Leo XIV uses hyssop sprigs to sprinkle holy water during Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on April 5, 2026. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

Pope Leo XIV will begin his journey to four African countries – Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea – on April 13, 2026.

Africa represents the fastest-growing part...

Read more: Pope Leo XIV’s Africa journey: How each stop reflects his message of peace

The good life requires two things, self-knowledge and friends – you can’t have one without the other

  • Written by Ross Channing Reed, Lecturer in Philosophy, Missouri University of Science and Technology
imageFriends can see and know you in ways that you yourself never can.Stephen Simpson/Stone via Getty Images

Friends can help us with all kinds of things in life. How could I forget moving that piano for friends in Chicago? Fortunately, none of us ended up in the ER.

One of the most important things friends do, though, might seem surprising: They help us...

Read more: The good life requires two things, self-knowledge and friends – you can’t have one without the other

Israeli threats to occupy or annex south Lebanon dust off a decades-old playbook

  • Written by Mireille Rebeiz, Chair of Middle East Studies, Dickinson College
imageA man checks his phone on a beach as smoke rises from Israeli artillery fire on Qlaileh village, near the city of Tyre in south Lebanon. AP Photo/Hussein Malla

A chorus of hawkish Israeli politicians is urging the country’s military to intensify its weekslong ground and air campaign against Hezbollah and pave the way for a more permanent...

Read more: Israeli threats to occupy or annex south Lebanon dust off a decades-old playbook

Presidential words can turn the unthinkable into the thinkable − for better or for worse

  • Written by Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin, Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs, Boise State University
imagePresident Donald Trump's rhetoric has grown increasingly violent.wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Among the most disorienting things about President Donald Trump’s public language is how easily it can feel numbing and shocking in the same moment. He says something outrageous, the country recoils, and then the recoil itself begins to...

Read more: Presidential words can turn the unthinkable into the thinkable − for better or for worse

More Articles ...

  1. Philadelphia’s 40-year history of protecting undocumented immigrants began with churches hiding refugees from El Salvador
  2. Mutual aid and self-sufficiency are key to life near USSR’s contaminated nuclear test zone in Kazakhstan
  3. City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world
  4. Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future
  5. From a vaccine mascot to business leadership, lessons for the US from Brazil’s public health system in building public trust and keeping it
  6. Why Americans are buying $22 smoothies despite feeling terrible about the economy
  7. When a president is unfit for office, here’s what the Constitution says can happen
  8. Why the Persian Gulf has more oil and gas than anywhere else on Earth
  9. ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! Speedy Gonzales set to make his triumphant return to the silver screen
  10. Hosting the NFL draft is less about weekend beer sales and more about long-term brand value
  11. Israel’s death penalty law has little to do with criminal justice and everything to do with ethno-nationalism
  12. 1776’s Declaration of Independence inspired Washington’s troops to fight against the odds – and also helped bring in powerful allies
  13. US refugee policy for white South Africans is part of a century-long effort to keep some English-speaking nations white
  14. AI is reengineering drug discovery by speeding up testing and scanning petabytes of data for connections between diseases
  15. Massive eye drop recall reflects ongoing issues with manufacturing and FDA inspection
  16. We teach at a Florida university that agreed to cooperate with ICE – and we worry that it is making our students feel less safe
  17. How does spider venom damage human cells? Researchers uncover the killer mechanism of recluse spider toxin
  18. Hormuz closure threatens the global food supply – why grocery price hikes are coming
  19. Philadelphia’s founding years were rife with conspiracy fears about ‘godless’ Freemasons and the Illuminati
  20. What is CREC and how does it shape Pete Hegseth’s religious rhetoric?
  21. What I learned from analyzing 789 ‘Shark Tank’ pitches: Narcissists get funding if they’re not arrogant or defensive
  22. About 80% of breast cancer biopsies turn out benign – new imaging tool promises clearer diagnoses and fewer biopsies
  23. Teenagers and younger kids are learning coded predator phrases like ‘MAP’ online, long before their parents have even heard of it
  24. What gig workers and employees who get tips need to know about the new no-tax-on-tips tax break
  25. Lebanon’s political elites are using displacement and humanitarian crisis to delay elections again
  26. US and Iran: A brief history of how decades of mistrust and bad blood led to open warfare
  27. What a US attorney general actually does – a law professor spells it out
  28. Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth – our study tracked the impact in 700 kids
  29. The two lives of Chuck Norris
  30. Supreme Court ruling on Colorado conversion therapy case is not a clear win for conservatives
  31. Why the manosphere has an antisemitism problem
  32. Why Americans give: New research finds 5 distinct profiles for generosity
  33. The costume maker who convinced Hersheypark to embrace candy mascots and ‘chocolatize’ their old-timey theme park
  34. Pam Bondi’s extreme political loyalty to Trump wasn’t enough to save her job
  35. Iran’s president appeals to Americans − but does his office still hold any real power?
  36. The nonprofit status of NCAA athletic departments is starting to raise questions
  37. Kratom poisonings surged 1,200% over the past decade, and regulators are struggling to keep up with the dangers
  38. 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
  39. For adults with ADHD – or even those with just some symptoms – using smart strategies to start and complete tasks can make all the difference
  40. MLB doubles down on gambling with new Polymarket deal
  41. How Iranian hackers pose a threat to US critical infrastructure
  42. Getting $750 a month didn’t end homelessness – but our study shows it still improved the lives of homeless people
  43. Irresponsible parental gun ownership could become a factor in custody disputes
  44. Better urban design could help save Florida’s threatened Big Cypress fox squirrel
  45. Bypass the Strait of Hormuz with nuclear explosives? The US studied that in Panama and Colombia in the 1960s
  46. AI’s fluency in other languages hides a Western worldview that can mislead users − a scholar of Indonesian society explains
  47. 75 years after she led a student strike that helped end school segregation, Barbara Rose Johns now stands in the US Capitol where Robert E. Lee once did
  48. Trump risks falling in to the ‘asymmetric resolve’ trap in Iran − just as presidents before him did elsewhere
  49. Why Iran targeted Amazon data centers and what that does – and doesn’t – change about warfare
  50. The Department of Justice is suing states for sensitive voter data − an election law scholar explains why federal efforts are facing resistance