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How the human neck became a locus of power, beauty and frailty

  • Written by Kent Dunlap, Professor of Biology, Trinity College
imageJack Lemmon kisses Lee Remick's neck in a scene from the 1962 film 'Days Of Wine And Roses.'Warner Brothers/Getty Images

I broke its neck.

When making a vase at the potter’s wheel, I torqued its slippery neck clear off the pot as I tried to thin it into a graceful curve.

I find vases gratifying to make and their shapes especially pleasing to...

Read more: How the human neck became a locus of power, beauty and frailty

Russia’s shrinking world: The war in Ukraine and Moscow’s global reach

  • Written by Ronald H. Linden, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

Russia President Vladimir Putin sent a guarded message of congratulations to Donald Trump on inauguration day, but then held a long direct call with his “dear friend,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

From Putin’s perspective, this makes sense. Russia gets billions of dollars from energy sales to China and technology from Beijing, but...

Read more: Russia’s shrinking world: The war in Ukraine and Moscow’s global reach

5 premium online research tools all Philly students can use for free

  • Written by Joyce Valenza, Associate Teaching Professor of Library and Information Science, Rutgers University
imageThe School District of Philadelphia has 250 district and alternative schools – but only a few have libraries with certified librarians.Lisa5201/E+ Collection via Getty Images

Years ago, as a high school librarian in suburban Philadelphia, I hosted a group of honors students from a high school just across the nearby city border. With the...

Read more: 5 premium online research tools all Philly students can use for free

Gut-wrenching love: What a fresh look at the ‘Good Samaritan’ story says for ethics today

  • Written by Meghan Sullivan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
imageA mural outside St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Silao, Mexico, quotes the Good Samaritan story: 'Go and do likewise.'Enrique López-Tamayo Biosca/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

The Bible story of the Good Samaritan is more than a mainstay of Sunday school courses. “Good samaritan” is the catch-all way to describe a do-gooder...

Read more: Gut-wrenching love: What a fresh look at the ‘Good Samaritan’ story says for ethics today

US sovereign wealth fund: A feasible idea to invest strategically, or a giant opportunity for waste?

  • Written by Patrick J. Schena, Professor of Practice and International Business, Tufts University
imageU.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund on Feb. 3, 2025Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Could the United States soon be joining the likes of Norway, Kuwait and Mongolia in having a national reserve to invest on projects of strategic interest? If President Donald Trump gets his way, then perhaps so.

O...

Read more: US sovereign wealth fund: A feasible idea to invest strategically, or a giant opportunity for waste?

Efficiency − or empire? How Elon Musk’s hostile takeover could end government as we know it

  • Written by Allison Stanger, Distinguished Endowed Professor, Middlebury
imageElon Musk, right, has moved to take the reins of the U.S. government.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Elon Musk’s role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE, is on the surface a dramatic effort to overhaul the inefficiencies of federal bureaucracy. But beneath the rhetoric of cost-cutting and regulatory...

Read more: Efficiency − or empire? How Elon Musk’s hostile takeover could end government as we know it

Seed oils are toxic, says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – but it’s not so simple

  • Written by Mary J. Scourboutakos, Adjunct Lecturer in Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
imageSeed oils have become a mainstay of the American diet. d3sign/Moment via Getty Images

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is expected to clear the final hurdles in his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, and a host of health influencers have proclaimed that widely used cooking oils such as canola oil and soybean oil are toxic.

T-...

Read more: Seed oils are toxic, says Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – but it’s not so simple

Map wars in the Middle East: How cartographers charted and helped shape a regional conflict

  • Written by Christine Leuenberger, Senior Lecturer, Cornell University
imageA lot has changed since the publication of this 1750 map of Palestine.Ken Welsh/Design Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Image

Maps are ubiquitous – on phones, in-flight and car displays, and in textbooks the world over. While some maps delineate and name territories and boundaries, others show different voting blocs in elections, and GPS...

Read more: Map wars in the Middle East: How cartographers charted and helped shape a regional conflict

Why does Trump want to abolish the Education Department? An anthropologist who studies MAGA explains 4 reasons

  • Written by Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University - Newark
imageA pedestrian walks past the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building on Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. Pete Kiehart for The Washington Post via Getty Images

“And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education.”

President Donald Trump made this promise in a Sept....

Read more: Why does Trump want to abolish the Education Department? An anthropologist who studies MAGA...

How AI can help in the creative design process

  • Written by Tilanka Chandrasekera, Professor of Interior Design, Oklahoma State University
imageA student works on a design in a fashion merchandising lab.Fashion Merchandising Labs at Oklahoma State University, CC BY-ND

Generative artificial intelligence tools can help design students by making hard tasks easier, cutting down on stress, and allowing the students more time to explore innovative ideas, according to new research I published...

Read more: How AI can help in the creative design process

More Articles ...

  1. Why Americans need well-informed national security decisions – not politicized intelligence analysis
  2. The illusion of equal opportunity for minority NFL coaches
  3. California wildfires force students to think about the connections between STEM and society
  4. Is DOGE a cybersecurity threat? A security expert explains the dangers of violating protocols and regulations that protect government computer systems
  5. Kendrick Lamar’s big Super Bowl moment
  6. Anti-LGBTQ+ policies harm the health of not only LGBTQ+ people, but all Americans
  7. How populist leaders like Trump use ‘common sense’ as an ideological weapon to undermine facts
  8. AI datasets have human values blind spots − new research
  9. US dodged a bird flu pandemic in 1957 thanks to eggs and dumb luck – with a new strain spreading fast, will Americans get lucky again?
  10. Trump’s offshore wind energy freeze: What states lose if the executive order remains in place
  11. What Los Angeles-area schools can learn from other districts devastated by natural disasters
  12. 5 Super Bowl commercials that deserve places in the advertising hall of shame
  13. The Eagles and Chiefs have already made Philadelphia and Kansas City economic winners
  14. Religious freedom is routinely curbed in Central Asia – but you won’t often see it making international news
  15. Palestinians have long resisted resettlement – Trump’s plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza won’t change that
  16. After he reached the Super Bowl, Colin Kaepernick’s racial justice protests helped expose US views toward sports activism
  17. This Valentine’s Day, try loving-kindness meditation
  18. Friendship, a covenant, romance – no matter what you call it, David’s love for Jonathan is one of the Bible’s most beautiful
  19. Lightning strikes link weather on Earth and weather in space
  20. Why Trump’s rage defies historical and literary comparisons, according to a classics expert
  21. Trump’s administration seems chaotic, but he’s drawing directly from Project 2025 playbook
  22. Reverence for the sacred waters of the Ganga and belief in its power to wash away sins bring millions to India’s Maha Kumbh festival
  23. Water is the other US-Mexico border crisis, and the supply crunch is getting worse
  24. As Trump tries to slash US foreign aid, here are 3 common myths many Americans mistakenly believe about it
  25. Trump’s opening tariff salvo will hurt US consumers − following through on Canada, Mexico threats will increase the price pain
  26. Trump’s tariff gambit: As allies prepare to strike back, a costly trade war looms
  27. Who are immigrants to the US, where do they come from and where do they live?
  28. What the ‘moral distress’ of doctors tells us about eroding trust in health care
  29. Some viruses prefer mosquitoes to humans, but people get sick anyway − a virologist and entomologist explain why
  30. Smart brands rein in ad spending when a rival faces a setback − here’s why
  31. Hunger rises as food aid falls – and those living under autocratic systems bear the brunt
  32. Why are rubies red and emeralds green? Their colors come from the same metal in their atomic structure
  33. I’m a sports psychologist and diehard Eagles fan – here’s the behavioral science behind a Super Bowl LIX win
  34. I’m a sports psychologist and diehard Eagles fan - here’s the behavioral science behind a Super Bowl LIX win
  35. Musk’s inauguration salute is not the only apparent fascist signal from Trump’s administration
  36. President Trump may think he is President Jackson reincarnated − but there are lessons in Old Hickory’s resistance to sycophants
  37. 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future
  38. 3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care
  39. Trump’s Project 2025 agenda caps decades-long resistance to 20th century progressive reform
  40. Trump’s tariff threats fit a growing global phenomenon: hardball migration diplomacy
  41. Drought can hit almost anywhere: How 5 cities that nearly ran dry got water use under control
  42. Fossil shark teeth are abundant and can date the past in a unique way
  43. Rare portraits reveal the humanity of the slaves who revolted on the Amistad
  44. Your environment affects how well your medications work − identifying exactly how could make medicine better
  45. Where does black fall on the color spectrum? A color scientist explains
  46. The Black librarian who rewrote the rules of power, gender and passing as white
  47. Bogus scientific papers are enriching fraudsters and slowing lifesaving medical research
  48. Property and sovereignty in space − as countries and companies take to the stars, they could run into disputes
  49. Can a charter school be religious? The Supreme Court decision about St. Isidore, a Catholic school in Oklahoma, could redraw lines around church and state in education
  50. AI gives nonprogrammers a boost in writing computer code